Linguistic Discourse Inspired By Paprika

[tcepsa]

The blandness of the rice shall be superceded by the charisma of the registrar, but the challenge presented by the paperweight might be too red to matter.

It's not some kind of Zen koan, much as it might resemble one.

It's a perfectly valid English sentence, as far as I can tell. It is also a perfectly nonsensical sentence. (Which brings up the question of whether a sentence must make sense to be considered 'valid'. And that, in turn, brings up the question of whether a sentence can have meaning without making sense--or vice-versa. And that, in its own turn, brings up the question of who decides whether a sentence has meaning or makes sense. And that, I suspect, can lead us to the reason why so many students get poor grades on their papers.)

But going back to the part where that sentence is valid and nonsensical: I wonder whether it would, therefore, be useful as a tool for linguistic analysis, or for at least introducing someone to certain aspects of linguistic analysis. It separates the mechanics (grammar?) from the meaning (semantics?) and makes it easier, I think, to just focus on the mechanics.

And perhaps it could be useful as a koan after all...