Nonsense
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2008-06-29T20:54:46Z
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{{selfref|For the usage of "nonsense" in Wikipedia, see [[Wikipedia:Patent nonsense]].}}
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'''Nonsense''' is a verbal communication or [[written text]] that appears to be a [[human language]] or other [[symbolic system]], that does not in fact carry any identifiable meaning.
== Distinguishing sense from nonsense ==
While [[Emily Dickinson]] wrote that:
:''Much madness is divinest Sense''
::''To the discerning Eye…''
The problem lies in the discernment. Distinguishing meaningful utterances from nonsense is not a trivial task. Confronted with a lengthy text in an unknown [[writing system|script]], how does one determine whether those characters in fact contained a meaningful text, or were simply set using the equivalent of printer’s pi or a ''[[lorem ipsum]]''-style text?
The problem is important in [[cryptography]] and other [[intelligence agency|intelligence]] fields, where it is important to distinguish [[Signal (information theory)|signal]] from [[signal noise|noise]]. [[Cryptanalysis|Cryptanalysts]] have devised [[algorithm]]s for this purpose, to determine whether a given text is in fact nonsense or not. These algorithms typically analyze the presence of [[repetition]]s and [[redundancy (language)|redundancy]] in a text; in meaningful texts, certain frequently used words—for example, ''the'', ''is'', and ''and'' in a text in the [[English language]]—will occur over and over again. A [[random]] scattering of letters, punctuation marks, and spaces will not exhibit these regularities. [[Zipf's law|Zipf’s Law]] attempts to state this analysis in the language of mathematics. By contrast, cryptographers typically seek to make their [[cipher]] texts resemble random distributions, to avoid telltale repetitions and patterns that may give an opening for cryptanalysis.
== Teaching machines to talk nonsense ==
It is far harder for cryptographers to deal with the presence or absence of meaning in a text in which the level of redundancy and repetition is ''higher'' than found in natural languages: for example, in the mysterious text of the [[Voynich manuscript]]. Some have attempted to create text that in fact carries no meaning, but still complies with the regularities predicted by [[Zipf's law|Zipf’s Law]]{{Fact|date=June 2008}}. The [[Markov chain]] technique is one such method. This has occasionally been put into the service of [[surrealism|surrealistic]] [[surreal humor|jokes]]{{Fact|date=June 2008}}.
The Markov chain technique is one method that has been used to generate texts by algorithm and [[random]]izing techniques that seem meaningful. Another could be called the ''[[Mad Libs]]'' method: it involves the creation of templates for various sentence structures, and filling in the blanks with [[noun phrase]]s or [[verb phrase]]s; these phrase generation procedures can be looped to add [[recursion]] and give the output the appearance of greater complexity and sophistication. '''[[Racter]]''' was a computer program that generated nonsense texts by this method; however, '''Racter'''’s book, ''The Policeman’s Beard is Half Constructed'', proved to have been the product of heavy human editing of the output of the program.
== Literary nonsense ==
{{main|Literary nonsense}}
The phrase “[[Colorless green ideas sleep furiously]]” was coined by [[Noam Chomsky]] as an example of nonsense. The individual words make sense, and are arranged according to proper [[grammar|grammatical rules]], yet the result is still nonsense. The inspiration for this attempt at creating verbal nonsense came from the idea of [[contradiction]] and irrelevant or immaterial characteristics (an idea cannot have a dimension of [[color]], green or otherwise), both of which would be sure to make a phrase meaningless. The phrase “the square root of Tuesday” operates on the latter principle. This principle is behind the inscrutability of the ''[[koan]]'' “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” One hand would presumably require another hand to complete the definition of clapping.
Still, the human will to find meaning is strong; ''green ideas'' might be ideas associated with a [[Green party]] in politics, and ''colorless green ideas'' criticizes some of them as uninspiring. For some, the human impulse to find meaning in what is actually random or nonsensical is what makes people find [[luck]] in [[coincidence]], believe in [[omen]]s and [[divination]], or engage in conversation with a computer (see [[ELIZA effect]]).
The dreamlike language of [[James Joyce]]’s “novel” ''[[Finnegans Wake]]'' sheds light on nonsense in a similar way; full of [[portmanteau]] words, it ''appears'' to be pregnant with multiple layers of meaning, but in many passages it is difficult to say whether any one person’s interpretation of a text is the “intended” or “correct” one. There may in fact be no such interpretation.
“[[Jabberwocky]]” is a [[poem]] (of [[nonsense verse]]) found in ''[[Through the Looking-Glass|Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There]]'' (1871) by [[Lewis Carroll]]. It is generally considered to be one of the greatest nonsense poems written in the English language. The word “jabberwocky” is also occasionally used as a synonym of nonsense.
=== Nonsense verse ===
[[Nonsense verse]] is the verse form of [[literary nonsense]], a genre that can manifest in many other ways. Nonsense verse represents a long tradition; its best known exponent is [[Edward Lear]], author of ''The Owl and the Pussycat'' and hundreds of [[limerick (poetry)|limericks]].
Nonsense verse comes from a tradition older than Lear; the [[nursery rhyme]] ''[[Hey Diddle Diddle]]'' is also a sort of nonsense verse. There are also some things which ''appear'' to nonsense verse, but actually are not, such as the popular 1940s song “[[Mairzy Doats]].”
Lines of nonsense frequently figure in the [[refrain]]s of [[folksong]]s. Nonsense [[riddle]]s and [[knock-knock joke]]s are seen often. [[Lewis Carroll]], seeking a nonsense riddle, once posed the question ''How is a [[Common Raven|raven]] like a writing desk?'' But someone answered him, ''Because [[Edgar Allan Poe|Poe]] wrote on both.'' However, there are different answers ([[e.g.]] both have inky [[quill]]s). Another of Carroll's well known nonsensical works is [[Jabberwocky]], where words appear to have meaning in their context, but are in fact [[gibberish]].
==Examples==
Nonsense is found in multiple places as humor, though it is often considered childish. At other times a nonsensical statement can seem to weave a web of intricate philosophy.
Examples of nonsense can include:
"Though falsely true, an unverifiable statement may be conceived.",
"A sharp, blunt thought may be used to sew.", and
"Assuming that an ox is brown, what is the capital of Rhode Island?"
==References==
* [[David Kahn|Kahn, David]], ''The Codebreakers'' (Scribner, 1996) ISBN 0-684-83130-9
== See also ==
*[[Bullshit]]
*[[Wit]]
*[[Humor]]
*[[Gibberish]]
*[[Mojibake]] — Random nonsense characters generated by foreign text
*[[Gobbledygook]]
*[[Logorrhoea#Logorrhoea as a description of rhetoric|Logorrhoea]] — an excessively wordy style of abstract prose lacking concrete meaning, ''i.e.'' nonsense
*[[Tall tale]]
*[[Fiction]]
*[[Language game]]
*[[Vacuous truth]]
*[[Discordianism]] — nonsense as Salvation, page 00074 of [[Principia Discordia]]
*[[Dada]] — nonsense as art
*[[Asemic writing]]
*[[Surrealism]]
*[[Sokal Affair]]
*[[Schizophasia]]
== External links ==
*[http://www.asemic.net Asemic Magazine] Is an Australian magazine devoted to nonverbal nonsense.
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