"postilion sentence" meaning in English

{
  "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": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A phrase that is linguistically correct, but of no realistically practical use."
      ],
      "id": "en-postilion_sentence-en-noun-APJyKD-k",
      "links": [
        [
          "linguistics",
          "linguistics"
        ],
        [
          "phrase",
          "phrase"
        ],
        [
          "linguistically",
          "linguistically"
        ],
        [
          "correct",
          "correct"
        ],
        [
          "realistically",
          "realistically"
        ],
        [
          "practical",
          "practical"
        ]
      ],
      "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",
        "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A phrase that is linguistically correct, but of no realistically practical use."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "linguistics",
          "linguistics"
        ],
        [
          "phrase",
          "phrase"
        ],
        [
          "linguistically",
          "linguistically"
        ],
        [
          "correct",
          "correct"
        ],
        [
          "realistically",
          "realistically"
        ],
        [
          "practical",
          "practical"
        ]
      ],
      "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"
}