postilion sentence

Refers to the phrase, "My postillion has been struck by lightning," said to be an example of the unusual terms found in some nineteenth and early twentieth century phrasebooks.

postilion sentence (plural postilion sentences)

1. (linguistics) A phrase that is linguistically correct, but of no realistically practical use.
   • 1990 Jack Matthews, Memoirs of a Bookman, Ohio University Press, page 115:

     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.

   • 1995, David Crystal, Journal of Clinical Speech and Language Studies (Vol. 5), page 15, "Postilion Sentences":

     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.

   • 2004, Margaret M. Leahy, Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in School (Vol. 35), page 77, "Therapy Talk: Analyzing Therapeutic Discourse":

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