Gostak

Gostak is a meaningless noun that is used in the phrase "the gostak distims the doshes", which is 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.

The phrase was coined in 1903 by Andrew Ingraham[1][2][3] but is best known through its quotation in 1923 by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards in their book The Meaning of Meaning, and has been since referred to in a number of cultural contexts.

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:

"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."

Deriving meaning

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.

Cultural references

The phrase appears in a number of subsequent cultural contexts including:

Science fiction

In Amazing Stories, Dr. Miles Breuer wrote a story, now considered a classic, titled "The Gostak and the Doshes"[4] 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.

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.
But you are the gostak. The gostak distims the doshes. And no glaud will vorl them from you."

The Gostak won the 2001 XYZZY Awards for Best Use of Medium and Best Individual Puzzle.[5]

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.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ingraham, Andrew. "Swain School Lectures, 1903, pp 121-182" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-10-25.
  2. ↑ Reprint, Kessinger Publishing 2008; ISBN 978-1-4365-1167-4
  3. ↑ Wikisource:Avon Fantasy Reader/Issue 10/The Gostak and the Doshes
  4. ↑ "MathFiction: The Gostak and the Doshes (Miles J. Breuer (M.D.))". Kasmana.people.cofc.edu. Retrieved 2013-09-12.
  5. ↑ The Gostak
  6. ↑ Music collection, call number: M183.H53 G5 1984

External links

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