I don’t know who originated the phrase, but Keith Devlin used it in a Science, Technology, and Society lecture to show how a grammatically correct sentence (that a computer could tell was correct) was different from a meaningful sentence (a computer wouldn’t be able to tell). The phrase was:
Mr. Devlin noted that it is in fact so meaningless that each pairing of juxtaposed words within it is nonsense. To me, high-schooler and not-yet-English-major that I was, it did seem to have meaning
At any rate, the idea intrigues me. Complete, grammatically correct sentences where each couple of words is literally nonsensical (not figuratively.) It sounds fun.
My first attempt:
Comments
English major much?
Funny. When you read it, you saw deep inner meaning. When I read it, I thought, “Well, that sentence obviously doesn’t make any sense. I’ll ignore it and move on.”
Reminds me of an old old poem that everyone’s grandfather tells them, in some form or another:
One bright day in the middle of the night
Two dead boys went out to fight
The turned their backs and faced each other
Drew their swords and shot each other
A deaf policeman heard the noise
And came and killed those two dead boys
If you don’t believe this lie is true
Ask the blind man, he saw it too
Rhetorical anvils discourse moistly
I rest my case.
Re: English major much?
Well, actually, I saw the premise that it had no meaning as a challenge, and THEREFORE read in deep inner meaning.
And neither of my grampas ever told me that.
Sincerely,
Lil Miss Contrary
Re: Rhetorical anvils discourse moistly
It has a beat, I can dance to it!
Re: Rhetorical anvils discourse moistly
Amon Tobin is my hero.
Re: Rhetorical anvils discourse moistly
And the son of the sun-disc, or I could be misinterpreting.
Re: Rhetorical anvils discourse moistly
A moist, dripping sound of discoursing anvils that are only concerned with mere style and effect – rhetorical – since, judging by the sound, no red-hot iron is actually forged.
Syntax vs Symantics
That quote is from Noam Chomsky, the guy who pretty much invented modern linguistics. He designed the sentence to illustrate the difference between syntactic and semantic sense. Syntacticly, the sentence is perfect. But it makes no sense symantically.
Re: Syntax vs Symantics
See? I could have looked that up, but isn’t it more fun to tell me? :p