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 Meaning most commonly refers to: * Meaning (linguistics), meaning which is communicated through the use of language * Meaning (philosophy), definition, elements, and types of meaning discussed in philosophy * Meaning (non-linguistic), a general te ...

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. The phrase was coined in 1903 by

Andrew Ingraham Andrew Ingraham (New Bedford, MA, USA, 19 December 1841– Cambridge, MA, USA, 6 August 1905) was Headmaster of Swain School of Design, Swain School before 1903. He is credited with the invention of the Gostak concept. He also edited various prefac ...

but is best known through its quotation in 1923 by C. K. Ogden 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'', 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 variety (linguistics), speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the go ...

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 Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to: Philosophy *''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing **Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective cons ...

, ''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 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.

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 ...

game called ''The Gostak'', written by

Carl Muckenhoupt Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community *Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of tel ...

. 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 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