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{{Unreferenced|date=December 2009}}
{{Orphan|date=February 2009}}
A '''meaningless statement''' is a statement which posits nothing of substance which can be agreed or disagreed with. In the context of [[logical fallacy|logical fallacies]], the inclusion of a meaningless statement in the premises of the argument will undermine the validity of the argument since the premise can neither be confirmed nor falsified.

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* A grammatically correct sentence may be meaningless if it ascribes properties to particulars which admit of no such class of properties. For instance, in the famous sentence "[[Colorless green ideas sleep furiously]]
,", the property of green color is ascribed to ideas, which do not have color.
* An ungrammatical sentence admits of no meaning. For instance, the string of words "deities Olympus Greek reside The. upon" forms no sentence, and cannot be said to have meaning as such.
* Adherents to various forms of [[positivism]] regard a statement as meaningless if it cannot be verified or falsified. For instance, [[Thomism|Thomists]] make statements about undetectable ''essences'' of things, which by definition can never be sensed or perceived; positivists regard such statements as without meaning.
* Sometimes grammatical tinkering is used in order to cover attributes with stigma. "No, Richard isn't a criminal, he only commits illegitimate acts". (By definition a criminal is someone who commits illegitimate acts).

Examples:

* "An orange is an apple which has many idiosyncratic features such as color, texture, taste, internal structure and chemical composition."
* "I am wearing clothes made of totally unobservable fibers."
* In conversation:
:'''Arthur''': Global warming may cause problems with ocean currents if fresh water from Greenland mixes with salt water in the Atlantic ocean.
:'''Steven''': I don't know, I heard of a lake that's half freshwater and half saltwater.

==See also==
* [[Non sequitur (logic)]]
* [[Nonsense]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meaningless Statement}}
[[Category:Logical fallacies]]
[[Category:Statements]]

[[lt:Bereikšmis teiginys]]