Snowball¶
snowball · letter · validated
A text in which each word is exactly one letter longer than the word before it.
Provenance¶
- Source: Ausonius, Technopaegnion (4th century); named in Oulipo, La Littérature potentielle (1973)
- Attribution:
reference— attested in a standard reference rather than traced to an origin - Checkability:
self— decidable from the text and its parameters alone - Attested:
codified— formulated as a rule by a tradition rather than declared by an author
Details¶
- Kind: restrictive
- Languages: en, de, fr
- Requires:
tokens - Deterministic: yes
- Also known as: rhopalic
- In other languages: Schneeball (de), Boule de neige (fr)
Prompt hint¶
Write a sentence whose first word has one letter, the next two, the next three, and so on.
Parameters¶
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
start |
— | None |
Length of the first word; inferred if unset. |
step |
integer | 1 |
Letters added per word; negative to shrink. |
Examples¶
borgmann-rhopalic¶
en — this text satisfies the procedure.
I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting
Source: Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation (1965)
ordinary-prose¶
en — this text does not satisfy the procedure.
the words here do not grow
Source: constructed counterexample
wachsende-woerter¶
de — this text satisfies the procedure.
O du der Herr allen Wesens
Source: constructed example
gewoehnliche-prosa¶
de — this text does not satisfy the procedure.
Die Wörter wachsen hier nicht
Source: constructed counterexample
mots-qui-croissent¶
fr — this text satisfies the procedure.
a et ami aime amour malade
Source: constructed example
prose-ordinaire¶
fr — this text does not satisfy the procedure.
les mots ne poussent pas ici
Source: constructed counterexample