" Gostak", a meaningless noun, occurs in the phrase " the gostak distims the doshes", which exemplifies how it is possible to derive meaning from the syntax of a sentence even if the of the terms are entirely unknown. It is an example of a nonce word.
The phrase, coined in 1903 by Andrew Ingraham
History
Coined in 1903 by Andrew Ingraham, the sentence became more widely 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:
Deriving meaning
This can be seen in the following dialogue:
- Q: What is the gostak?
- A: The gostak is what distims the doshes.
- Q: What's distimming?
- A: Distimming is what 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 grammar and syntax relationships between the terms in the sentence — that gostak is a noun subject, distimming is a transitive verb, and doshes is a plural direct object — even though there is no fact of the matter about what a gostak or distimming or doshes actually are.
Cultural references
The phrase appears in a number of subsequent cultural contexts including:
Science fiction
Miles Breuer wrote a story, published in
Amazing Stories for March 1930
and now considered a classic, titled
"The Gostak and the Doshes" whose protagonist travels to an alternate Earth in which the phrase is a political slogan, one that induces sufficient umbrage throughout the populace to declare justified, righteous war. The protagonist attempts to discern the meaning, but every definition he receives is some rewording of the phrase. Other writers have picked up on the reference, notably
David Gerrold.This is an example.
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, not only to understand the game's text but also to type commands in the same language. For example, the game opens with the following text:
The Gostak won the 2001 for Best Use of Medium and Best Individual Puzzle.
See also
External links
