Thursday, August 26, 2010

Novel Statements

One of the most amazing aspects of our linguistic faculties (and I don't mean Spanish professors) is our ability to create and understand entirely novel statements. It is one thing to be conditioned to respond to certain stimuli in linguistic ways. Someone hands you something, you say "Thank you." someone says "Thank you" to you, you say "You're welcome." But it is something else entirely to utter and comprehend sentences that have never been said before.

Teaching is interesting in this way, because if you speak enough, try to come up with enough new and useful metaphors, you will find yourself saying something every once in a while that you are sure has never been said before in the entire history of language, a completely new sentence.

And that's today's challenge. Come up with a sentence that you think has never been spoken or written. My offering:

I like my drill sergeants like I like my tofu, extra firm.
Others?