I talk a lot of nonsense.

Having two languages in the family, one of which I am not fluent it, a lot of words, phrases and ideas go completely over my head, particularly as I am outnumbered 3:1 by native speakers. I end up spouting half words. But as I like wordplay (have you noticed?), it’s often a shortcut down a narrow path to a linguistically lawless world of free association and, basically nonsense. Over in that Facebook world, I’m in a group composing never-ending limericks, and that taps into my tilting at the edge of syntax and content in the order and form of language norms.

Nonsense doesn’t stay nonsense. Like seeing animal shapes in clouds, faces in inanimate objects – pattern recognition and causal relationship detection – we coax, extract and form meaning from any and every random expression of sound. From the sublime Ivor Cutler to the ridiculous Stanley Unwin, the perimeters of sense are explored and expressed in many ways.

Here’s Stephen Fry’s riff on linguistic uniqueness, now preserved forever on the internet, no doubt accumulating some form of meaning just by being there:

Hold the newsreader’s nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will » Continue Reading.