Facetious term for the controversy within distributionalism over the status of system and structure in language. The hocuspocus position uses W.F.Twaddell’s definition of the phoneme as a ‘fictitious unit,’ which the linguist distills...

Hocus Pocus is a generic term used by magicians, usually the magic words spoken when bringing about some sort of change. It was once a common term for a magician, juggler or other similar entertainer. (See also abracadabra, another magic word derived...