corpus v. grammar v. intuition

[Terry Barber]

good question,brittany.'when I find out I'll let you know. Love, MOm

BRITTANY M. BARBER wrote:

> Here is another thing I've been wanting to ask:
> A corpus is a body of observations, a collection of linguistic
> specimens.  A grammar is a body of rules and representations
> describing those specimens, an abstract account of patterns manifest
> in the corpus.  Which in your opinion has more authority over
> language?  Do either have more than intuition?  This may be
> confusing.  Here is an example:  The verb 'perform' cannot be used
> with mass-word objects: one can perform a task, but one cannot
> perform labour.  This is known without using a corpus or having
> studied the verb perform.  But it makes sense to us because we are
> native speakers of the English language.  Obviously intuition
> wins.  Right?  Look forward to hearing your take, Brittany