10.08.03
sdfsdf
I don’t think that qwertyuiop has made it into the dictionary yet, as it’s one of those very few recognisable strings of characters that has no semantic meaning.
Or does it?
Leaving aside the fact that the string has appeared in at least one book title (Homage to Qwert Yuiop and Other Writings by Anthony Burgess), surely there’s a case to be made that ‘qwertyuiop’ is a form of performative expression; that by writing it, you indicate that you are typing. Thus, ‘qwertyuiop’ means ‘I am now typing’.
I’ve been spotting more and more frequently another of these rare birds I’d also like to add to the dictionary.
‘sdfsdf ‘means, I would argue, ‘I am testing’, or even more specifically, ‘I am now testing what can be seen’. It’s another performative expression because there is no semantic distance between typing this string and doing what it says, in the same way that there is no semantic distance between saying ‘I do’ in your marriage vows and actually performing your marriage vows. Saying is doing.
In a time when saying seems very much unrelated to doing (and, I fear, vice versa) it’s encouraging to feel that there are a few more of these performatives around.
Benjamin Martens said,
March 11, 2004 at 6:49 pm
hello,
This is a very interesting problem, though I think your are approaching in fact two different problems.
- the ” sdfsdf” case (I found you by typing this in Google’s research field as I always do when testing my internet conection btw, for your stats
, related to ” how forms take (acquire) their meanings ? ” (new forms here) or vice-versa
- the ” I do ” case (marriage) also known as the ” I swear ” case (when you swear to say the truth, a hand on the bible. Actually you don’t swear, you say you do).
I think a french linguist has written long ago a book called ” Quand dire, c’est faire “. ( ” When saying is doing (?))
For me, I find the first case much more interesting.
Best regards
aussie said,
June 18, 2005 at 7:59 am
i was testing with sdfsdf how very strange i end up here. Almost scary i gather your point, well said
nofx said,
September 24, 2006 at 11:54 am
i also found this by typing in sdfsdf
;]
crazy
ed b. said,
September 29, 2006 at 2:30 am
Was having technical issues and typed sdfsdf into google to which of two problems it was by checking what could be seen.
Spooky…