Gostak is a meaningless

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...

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 In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency ...

of a sentence even if the

referent A referent () is a person or thing to which a name – a linguistic expression or other symbol – refers. For example, in the sentence ''Mary saw me'', the referent of the word ''Mary'' is the particular person called Mary who is being spoken of ...

s of the terms are entirely unknown. It is an example of a

nonce word A nonce word (also called an occasionalism) is a lexeme created for a single occasion to solve an immediate problem of communication.''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language''. Ed. David Crystal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres ...

. The phrase was coined in 1903 by Andrew Ingraham but is best known through its quotation in 1923 by

C. K. Ogden Charles Kay Ogden (; 1 June 1889 – 20 March 1957) was an English linguist, philosopher, and writer. Described as a polymath but also an eccentric and outsider, he took part in many ventures related to literature, politics, the arts, and phil ...

and

I. A. Richards Ivor Armstrong Richards CH (26 February 1893 – 7 September 1979), known as I. A. Richards, was an English educator, literary critic, poet, and rhetorician. His work contributed to the foundations of the New Criticism, a formalist movement ...

in their book ''

The Meaning of Meaning ''The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism'' (1923) is a book by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards. It is accompanied by two supplementary essays by Bronisław Malinowski and F. G. ...

'', 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:

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

grammatical In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the goal of which is to form ...

and

syntactical In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency ...

relationships between the terms in the sentence—that ''gostak'' is a noun subject, ''distimming'' is a

transitive verb A transitive verb is a verb that accepts one or more objects, for example, 'cleaned' in ''Donald cleaned the window''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects, for example, 'panicked' in ''Donald panicked''. Transitiv ...

, and ''doshes'' is a plural

direct object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...

—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 ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances in ...

'' for March 1930 and now considered a classic, titled "The Gostak and the Doshes" whose protagonist pops into an alternative 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 David Gerrold (born Jerrold David Friedman; January 24, 1944)Reginald, R. (September 12, 2010)''Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, Volume 2'' Borgo Press p. 911. Archived at Google Books. Retrieved June 23, 2013. is an American science fic ...

Interactive fiction

The phrase is the namesake of an

interactive fiction '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the f ...

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 XYZZY Awards for Best Use of Medium and Best Individual Puzzle.

Music

"The Gostak Distims the Doshes" is a three movement sonata for

prepared piano A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sounds temporarily altered by placing bolts, screws, mutes, rubber erasers, and/or other objects on or between the strings. Its invention is usually traced to John Cage's dance music for '' Bacchanale ...

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.

Academic Texts

"Of Gostak & Doshes" is the title of an Artificial-Intelligence-Generated Masters thesis by artist Marcelo Agustin Martinez Caram, exploring the use of Neural Networks to generate semantical text.

References

External links

{{wikisource, The Gostak and the Doshes
Entry for ''The Gostak'' in the IFDB
Semantics