postilion sentence

plural postilion sentences

1. human sciencesA phrase that is linguistically correct, but of no realistically practical use.

   In the practice sentence, C emulates P’s model and provides another model or postilion sentence.

   2004, Margaret M. Leahy, “Therapy Talk: Analyzing Therapeutic Discourse”, in Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in School, volume 35, page 77

   2 more examples

   As good as the peccadillo sentence is, it is not on a par with the postilion sentence. Nothing is. That sentence is cast in golden moonshine and should never be disturbed.

   1990, Jack Matthews, Memoirs of a Bookman, Ohio University Press, page 115

   To test whether a candidate sentence is a postilion sentence, all we have to do is try to identify the context(s) in which it would be used. If we have difficulty finding a plausible context, then we have such a sentence.

   1995, David Crystal, “Postilion Sentences”, in Journal of Clinical Speech and Language Studies, volume 5, page 15