ADS-L Digest - 7 Jul 2014 to 8 Jul 2014 (#2014-19)

[Elizabeth J. Pyatt]

I would agree that pragmatically this sentence doesn't work because most terrestrial plants can't choose to cultivate themselves. Further "cultivate" is not generally considered an unaccusative verb like "start" or "close" - that is, the verb assumes there is an active agent initiating the cultivation.

But suppose Purslane is an exotic sentient plant that can choose to reproduce itself at will? Then I think the sentence WOULD be considered OK (more or less).

Our pragmatic engine really, really wants to make sense of any sentence, so there definitely cases where sentences first considered "ungrammatical" become OK in the right semantic frame. 

That's why I gave up being a semantician ;)

My two cents

Elizabeth

On Jul 9, 2014, at 12:00 AM, ADS-L automatic digest system <LISTSERV at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> wrote:

> Date:    Tue, 8 Jul 2014 13:54:58 +0800
> From:    W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: Is there anything ungrammatical about this sentence, beyond...
> 
> WG:  <<Is there anything ungrammatical about this sentence>>
> JL:  <<Wrong as can be, regardless of syntax.>>
> RA:  << Nothing syntactically wrong>>
> NC: <<Colorless green Purslane started its cultivation furiously.>>

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Elizabeth J. Pyatt, Ph.D.
Instructional Designer
Teaching and Learning with Technology
Penn State University
ejp10 at psu.edu, (814) 865-0805 or (814) 865-2030 (Main Office)

210 Rider Building  (formerly Rider II)
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