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On what page of Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach (GEB) is the paragraph he quotes which is syntactically correct but almost completely void of any meaning except for a very esoteric group of specialists? Hofstadter used it to illustrate the importance of context in meaning, as well as the difference between syntax and semantics.

virmaior
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Geremia
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    There is another phrase which I learned in linguistics class to illustrate this distinction: "More people have been to Paris than I have". – Niel de Beaudrap Feb 20 '14 at 12:40
  • @NieldeBeaudrap: ☺ Hofstadter's example was paragraph length, though, and I think it might've been just one sentence. I wish I could find it; it's been since about year 2000 since I read *GEB*. thanks for the help – Geremia Feb 20 '14 at 18:15
  • According to this link, there is a section starting on page 630 dealing with Syntax and Semantics : http://www.egodeath.com/geb.htm – nwr Sep 04 '15 at 03:23

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