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Nonsense word

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A nonsense word, unlike a sememe, may have no definition. Nonsense words can be classified depending on their orthographic and phonetic similarity with (meaningful) words.[1] If it can be pronounced according to a language's phonotactics, it is a logatome/pseudoword.[2] Nonsense words are used in literature for poetic or humorous effect. Proper names of real or fictional entities are sometimes nonsense words.

The ability to infer the (hypothetical) meaning of a nonsense word from context is used to test for brain damage.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ Raymond M. Klein; Patricia A. McMullen (1999). Converging Methods for Understanding Reading and Dyslexia. MIT Press. pp. 67–68. ISBN 978-0-262-11247-5 [Amazon-US | Amazon-UK].
  2. ^ Natalie Wilson Rathvon (2004). Early Reading Assessment: A Practitioner's Handbook. Guilford Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-57230-984-5 [Amazon-US | Amazon-UK].
  3. ^ Muriel Deutsch Lezak (2004). Neuropsychological Assessment 4e. Oxford University Press. p. 596. ISBN 978-0-19-511121-7 [Amazon-US | Amazon-UK].