from a review...

[Shalom Lappin]

Hi Ivan,
    I am surprised at you. How could you raise such a question? If, as the
reviewer instructs us, we are now to follow Chomsky in discarding grammaticality
judgements as empirical constraints on theories of grammar, then clearly the
considered positons of those in proper positions of authority should be sufficient
grounds for distinguishing true from false theories. Isn't this the way in which
proper scientific inquiry works? Regards.
                                            Shalom

"Ivan A. Sag" wrote:

> FYI.
>
> This is from Mario Montalbetti's (LINGUIST List) review
> of Zagona (2002) The Syntax of Spanish:
>
> [...]
>
> A word to pre-empt inevitable attacks. It is very likely that the native
> speaker of Spanish will object to some grammaticality judgments.  This is only
> natural, given the ample dialectal diversity in Spanish. To get stuck here
> would be a pity. First, because as Chomsky (1995) has pointed out in his
> (in)famous fn7 on p203, there is no grammaticality. And second, because it
> would be yet another unfortunate case of not seeing the woods because of the
> trees. In any case, I expect judgment differences throughout the book to be
> minimal.
>
> [...]
>
> Dang! So how do I evaluate it?...
>
> -Ivan