Tuesday, February 7, 2012 ― Flurpamka: An Italic Puzzle

Flur­pam­ka, noun

def­i­n­i­tion: the coin­ing and use of a self-ref­er­en­tial noun, with arbi­trar­i­ly cho­sen syl­la­bles, with­out regard to ety­mol­o­gy or usage.

exam­ple used in a sentence:

Flur­pam­ka, used in a sen­tence, is an exam­ple of flur­pam­ka” is an exam­ple of flur­pam­ka used in a sentence.

A puz­zle

Con­sid­er this alter­na­tive sentence:

Flur­pam­ka, used in a sen­tence, is an exam­ple of flur­pam­ka” is an exam­ple of flur­pam­ka used in a sentence.

The writ­ing of the sen­tences dif­fers only in the use/not use of ital­ics for one word. The two sen­tences, how­ev­er, have sig­nif­i­cant­ly dif­fer­ent meanings.

Can you iden­ti­fy and describe the dif­fer­ence between the two sen­tences, giv­en the nor­mal con­ven­tions for the use of ital­ics in writ­ten English?

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