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Grex Language Item 99: -=-Adynata-=-Impossibilia-=-Oxymoronics-=-
Entered by spiff on Fri Dec 18 09:26:37 UTC 1998:

adynata/ impossibilia/ oxymorons are sentences having inherent contradictions
or factual impossibilities. the following ones have been plagiarised from
Umberto Eco's /Foucault's Pendulum/. have a look:
        Urban Planning for the Gypsies
        History of Antarctic Agriculture
        Contemporary Sumerian Literature
        Assyrio-Babylonian Philately
        Technology of the Wheel in Pre-Cambrian Civilisations
        Phonetics of the Silent Film
        Crowd Psychology in the Sahara
can of think of more on similar lines?
however, beware, as eco says, of the fact that adynata and oxymorons are not
exactly the same. adynata is a factual impossibility, whereas oxymorons have
contradiction in terms. for example, 'Urban Planning for the Gypsies' is
adynata whereas the corresponding oxymoron would be 'Nomadic Urban Planning'.
add more if you like, and try to classify them as adynata or oxymoron.

5 responses total.

#1 of 5 by spiff on Sat Dec 19 12:39:11 1998:

some standard ones:
    Future History <-- oxymoron
    Back to the Future <-- oxymoron
some modern ones ;-)
    101 Ways to an Honest Relationship /by/ Bill Clinton <-- adynata

#2 of 5 by rcurl on Sat Dec 19 19:05:22 1998:

What's wrong with "Future History"? It is no more an oxymoron than
future presidents. There *will* be history at every time in the future.

#3 of 5 by spiff on Sun Dec 20 08:19:50 1998:

syntactically it's still an oxymoron, although the intended meaning
might be different.

#4 of 5 by rcurl on Sun Dec 20 16:54:41 1998:

"History of the Future" might better qualify, except that depends upon
the meaning of "Future". The future is much discussed in the present,
so a history of that discussion would come under the expression.

#5 of 5 by spiff on Tue Dec 22 06:00:39 1998:

i agree.

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