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{{about|meaningless rhetoric|the literary use|Nonsense verse}}⏎
{{Unreferenced|date=December 2009}}

A '''meaningless statement''' is a statement which posits nothing of substance which can beith which one could agreed or disagreed with. In the context of [[logical fallacy|logical fallaciesargument]]s, the inclusion of a meaningless statement in the premises of the argument will undermine the validity of the argument since theat premise can neither be confirmed nor falsified.

It can be difficult to prove that a statement is meaningless because such statements are often offered in bad faithtrue nor false.

There are many classes of meaningless statement:

* A statement in argumentation may be considered meaningless becauseif it asserts that two categories are disjoint without proposing a waycriterion to distinguish amongbetween them. For instancexample, the claim, "I wouldn't know how [[Ppornography]] is differents from [[erotica]], but not in any particular way I can explain," is a [[distinction without a difference]].
* A purported statement may be meaningless if its terms are undefined, or (more precisely) if it contains unbound variables. For instance, the sentence "All of the fronnicks have three sazzles apiece''X'' have ''Y''" is meaningless ifunless the terms ''fronnickX'' and ''sazzleY'' are undefined (or unbound).
* A grammatically correct sentence may be meaningless if it ascribes properties to particulars which admit of no such class of properties. For instance, inexample, the famous sentence "[[Colorless green ideas sleep furiously]]", the property of green color is ascribed to ideas, which do not have color cannot be taken literally.
* 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.
* 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. "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."offers no information regarding the Greek deities, or their whereabouts.
* [[Lewis Carrol]]'s poem [[Jabberwocky]] is a famous example the [[nonsense verse|nonsensical as literature]].

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

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