"postilion sentence" meaning in English

See postilion sentence in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: postilion sentences [plural]
Etymology: Refers to the phrase "My postillion has been struck by lightning," said to be an example of the unusual terms found in some 19th- and early 20th-century phrasebooks. Head templates: {{en-noun}} postilion sentence (plural postilion sentences)
  1. (linguistics) A phrase that is linguistically correct, but of no realistically practical use. Wikipedia link: My postillion has been struck by lightning Categories (topical): Linguistics
    Sense id: en-postilion_sentence-en-noun-APJyKD-k Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Refers to the phrase \"My postillion has been struck by lightning,\" said to be an example of the unusual terms found in some 19th- and early 20th-century phrasebooks.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "postilion sentences",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "postilion sentence (plural postilion sentences)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
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          "parents": [],
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        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Linguistics",
          "orig": "en:Linguistics",
          "parents": [
            "Language",
            "Social sciences",
            "Communication",
            "Sciences",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1990, Jack Matthews, Memoirs of a Bookman, Ohio University Press, page 115:",
          "text": "As good as the peccadillo sentence is, it is not on a par with the postilion sentence. Nothing is. That sentence is cast in golden moonshine and should never be disturbed.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, David Crystal, “Postilion Sentences”, in Journal of Clinical Speech and Language Studies, volume 5, page 15:",
          "text": "To test whether a candidate sentence is a postilion sentence, all we have to do is try to identify the context(s) in which it would be used. If we have difficulty finding a plausible context, then we have such a sentence.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Margaret M. Leahy, “Therapy Talk: Analyzing Therapeutic Discourse”, in Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in School, volume 35, page 77:",
          "text": "In the practice sentence, C emulates P’s model and provides another model or postilion sentence.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A phrase that is linguistically correct, but of no realistically practical use."
      ],
      "id": "en-postilion_sentence-en-noun-APJyKD-k",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(linguistics) A phrase that is linguistically correct, but of no realistically practical use."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "My postillion has been struck by lightning"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "postilion sentence"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Refers to the phrase \"My postillion has been struck by lightning,\" said to be an example of the unusual terms found in some 19th- and early 20th-century phrasebooks.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "postilion sentences",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "postilion sentence (plural postilion sentences)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
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        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Linguistics"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1990, Jack Matthews, Memoirs of a Bookman, Ohio University Press, page 115:",
          "text": "As good as the peccadillo sentence is, it is not on a par with the postilion sentence. Nothing is. That sentence is cast in golden moonshine and should never be disturbed.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, David Crystal, “Postilion Sentences”, in Journal of Clinical Speech and Language Studies, volume 5, page 15:",
          "text": "To test whether a candidate sentence is a postilion sentence, all we have to do is try to identify the context(s) in which it would be used. If we have difficulty finding a plausible context, then we have such a sentence.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Margaret M. Leahy, “Therapy Talk: Analyzing Therapeutic Discourse”, in Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in School, volume 35, page 77:",
          "text": "In the practice sentence, C emulates P’s model and provides another model or postilion sentence.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A phrase that is linguistically correct, but of no realistically practical use."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "linguistics",
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        ],
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(linguistics) A phrase that is linguistically correct, but of no realistically practical use."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "My postillion has been struck by lightning"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "postilion sentence"
}

Download raw JSONL data for postilion sentence meaning in English (2.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (df33d17 and 4ed51a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.