Gostak

Gostak

Gostak is a meaningless noun that is used in the phrase "the gostak distims the doshes", an example of how it is possible to derive meaning from the syntax of a sentence even if the referents of the terms are entirely unknown. This can be seen in the following dialogue:

Q: What is the gostak?
A: The gostak is that which distims the doshes.
Q: What's distimming?
A: Distimming is that which the gostak does to the doshes.
Q: Okay, but what are doshes?
A: The doshes are what the gostak distims.

In this case, it is possible to describe the relationships between the terms in the sentence — that the gostak is that which distims the doshes, that distimming is what the gostak does to the doshes, and so on — even though there is no fact of the matter about what a gostak or doshes actually are.

The phrase was coined in 1903 by Andrew Ingraham[1][2] but is best known through its quotation in 1923 by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards in their book The Meaning of Meaning (p. 46). Ogden and Richards refer to Ingraham as an "able but little known writer", and quote his following dialogue:

"Suppose someone to assert: The gostak distims the doshes. You do not know what this means; nor do I. But if we assume that it is English, we know that the doshes are distimmed by the gostak. We know too that one distimmer of doshes is a gostak. If, moreover, the doshes are galloons, we know that some galloons are distimmed by the gostak. And so we may go on, and so we often do go on."

Contents

In science fiction

In Amazing Stories, Dr. Miles Breuer wrote a story, now considered a classic, titled "The Gostak and the Doshes"[3] whose protagonist pops into an alternate world in which the phrase is a political slogan that induces sufficient umbrage throughout the populace to declare justified, righteous war. Other writers have picked up on the reference, notably David Gerrold.

In interactive fiction

The phrase is the namesake of an interactive fiction game called The Gostak, written by Carl Muckenhoupt. Most of the text of the game is in an entirely unknown language (fundamentally English in syntax and grammar, but with much of the vocabulary and even idiomatic constructions changed) which the player must decipher. For example, the game opens with the following text:

"Finally, here you are. At the delcot of tondam, where doshes deave. But the doshery lutt is crenned with glauds.
Glauds! How rorm it would be to pell back to the bewl and distunk them, distunk the whole delcot, let the drokes discren them."

The Gostak won the 2001 XYZZY Awards for Best Use of Medium and Best Individual Puzzle.[4]

In music

"The Gostak Distims the Doshes" is a three movement sonata for prepared piano composed by Hiawatha in 1984. The three movements are: I. Doshes  ; II. Distimming  ; III. The Gostak

The piece is in the collection of the Knight Library of the University of Oregon.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ Ingraham, Andrew. "Swain School Lectures, 1903, pp 121-182". http://ia301332.us.archive.org/2/items/swainschoollectu00ingruoft/swainschoollectu00ingruoft.pdf. Retrieved 2007-10-25. 
  2. ^ Reprint, Kessinger Publishing 2008; ISBN 978-1436511674
  3. ^ http://kasmana.people.cofc.edu/MATHFICT/mfview.php?callnumber=mf690
  4. ^ The Gostak
  5. ^ Music collection, call number: M183.H53 G5 1984

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • gostak — yakışıklı …   Beypazari ağzindan sözcükler

  • Charles Kay Ogden — (* 1. Juni 1889 in Fleetwood, Lancashire; † 21. März 1957 in London) war ein britischer Sprachwissenschaftler und Schriftsteller. Leben Ogden studierte Sprachen in Cambridge. Im Jahre 1912 gründete er eine wöchentliche Zeitschrift The Cambridge… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • List of XYZZY Awards by category — This is a list of XYZZY Awards results, grouped by award rather than year. The XYZZY Awards are the annual awards given by the publication XYZZYnews to works of interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards for film. The… …   Wikipedia

  • Greg Pickersgill — Greg Pickersgill, born in Haverfordwest, Wales in 1951, is an influential British science fiction fan. He lived in London between 1971 and 1992, then returned to Haverfordwest.Greg s lifelong love of science fiction led him into UK fandom where… …   Wikipedia

  • Глокая куздра — «Глокая куздра штеко будланула бокра и курдячит бокрёнка»  искусственная фраза на основе русского языка, в которой все корневые морфемы заменены на бессмысленные сочетания звуков. Несмотря на это, общий смысл фразы понятен: некоторое,… …   Википедия

  • Miles J. Breuer — Miles John Breuer (January 3, 1889 – October 14, 1945) was an American physician and science fiction writer. He was part of the first generation of writers to appear regularly in the pulp science fiction magazines, publishing his first story, The …   Wikipedia

  • Science fiction fandom — or SF fandom is a community of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy literature, and in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization… …   Wikipedia

  • Colorless green ideas sleep furiously — Approximate X Bar representation of Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. See phrase structure rules. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously is a sentence composed by Noam Chomsky in his 1957 Syntactic Structures as an example of a sentence that… …   Wikipedia

  • Science fiction fanzine — A science fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi professional magazine published by members of science fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. They were one of the earliest forms of fanzine, and at one time constituted the primary type… …   Wikipedia

  • Charles Kay Ogden — For the children s book writer, see Charles Ogden (children s writer). Charles Kay Ogden (1889–1957) was an English linguist, philosopher, and writer. Described as a polymath but also an eccentric and outsider,[1][2][3] he took part in many… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”