The word I would like to propose working with for the lexicon is “tongue”. The word appears a total of 54 times in the text, only five of which we have encountered thus far. At this point the word has been used in reference to the body part itself, even when it is used in a figurative sense, such as when Mulligan exclaims how “a sacred pint alone can unbind the tongue of Dedalus.”  In this instance, which is notably the first occurrence of the word in the novel, the tongue is not only associated with speech, but also with honesty and truth. Tongues next appear in the opening of episode two, after the children are dismissed from class and Stephen hears the “clamour of their boots and tongues” that fills the halls. This usage emphasizes a point made in our discussion on Tuesday about how Joyce will often create dissonance by describing organs/limbs etc. as though they are acting and perceiving independently from the person whose body they are part.

Though I considered various other terms (horn, drawn, awful, waste) I have chosen to nominate “tongue” because of the ways in which it potentially relates to my obsession of native vs. foreign. Tongue can also mean language, one of the primary means through which native and foreign is distinguished generally, and within Ulysses in particular. Though it has not yet been used in this way, it will be later in the text.