[Corpora-List] Is a complete grammar possible (beyond thecorpus itself)?

[Mike Maxwell]

John F. Sowa wrote:
> I seriously doubt that anyone, even Chomsky, still believes the
> original claim:  A formal grammar generates *all and only* the
> sentences of an NL that native speakers consider acceptable.

For the record, I don't think Chomsky ever did believe that claim.  From 
Aspects (ch 1 sxn 2):

    The notion "acceptable" is not to be confused with
    "grammatical."  Acceptability is a concept that belongs
    to the study of performance, whereas grammaticalness
    belongs to the study of competence...  Grammaticalness
    is only one of many factors that interact to determine
    acceptability.

He goes on to suggest that it is futile to try to characterize 
unacceptability in grammatical terms.

I think he held the same distinction back in Syntactic Structures, but 
it's harder to find it explicitly laid out.  In any case, the question 
of exegeting Chomsky circa 1957 is probably not a useful exercise here...
-- 
	Mike Maxwell
	maxwell at umiacs.umd.edu
	"Theorists...have merely to lock themselves in a room
	with a blackboard and coffee maker to conduct their business."
	--Bruce A. Schumm, Deep Down Things

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