Thursday, July 29, 2010
metalinguistically unpossible
Nate Silver uses the amusing term "unpossible" in this post: It's Like Mathematically Unpossible for Republicans to Win the House, or Something. There are a few Urban Dictionary definitions, such as Even more impossible than impossible. Quite possibly the most impossiblest thing in the world. All three of the examples given seem to be pretty meta-linguistic (in the sense that the speakers are likely aware of the semantic contradictions within the word and are intentionally employing the contradictions for effect; call it Seinfeld Semantics).
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