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:
“In times like ours, where the growing complexity of life leaves us barely the time to read the newspapers, where the map of Europe has endured profound rearrangements and is perhaps on the brink of enduring yet others, where so many threatening and new problems appear everywhere, you will admit it may be demanded of a writer that he be more than a fine wit who makes us forget in idle and byzantine discussions on the merits of pure form ...”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)