Combinatorial Complexity
Demonstrations of sentences which are unlikely to have ever been said, although the combinatorial complexity of the linguistic system makes them possible.
- Colorless green ideas sleep furiously (Noam Chomsky) - example that is grammatically correct but based on semantic combinations that are contradictory and therefore would not normally occur.
- Hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers. (Stephen Fry, in A Bit of Fry & Laurie, series 1, episode 2)
Read more about this topic: List Of Linguistic Example Sentences
Famous quotes containing the word complexity:
“The price we pay for the complexity of life is too high. When you think of all the effort you have to put in—telephonic, technological and relational—to alter even the slightest bit of behaviour in this strange world we call social life, you are left pining for the straightforwardness of primitive peoples and their physical work.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)