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ϊ{pκ\»wο Ivwpκ\»€xζ 18 pΆ[T
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English Usage and Style No.18 Synopsis
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Ungrammatical but Acceptable Sentences in English
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Usually grammatical English sentences are acceptable and ungrammatical sentences unacceptable. However, this is not always the case. There are English sentences that are ungrammatical but acceptable. Let us take a brief look at what is probably the best-known example in (1).
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Itfs I. |
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Itfs me. |
| Since grammatically not objective but subjective cases are used in complement positions, (1a) is supposed to be acceptable and (1b) unacceptable. As it is, (1b) sounds much better than (1a) to the ears of native English speakers. |
| In this paper we will take five cases: 1) to-infinitives in complement positions, 2) there-constructions, 3) agreement/concord in there-constructions, 4) the idiomatic expression what we call and 5) the matter as an adjective. We will also give cognitive explanations as to why the seemingly ungrammatical sentences in question are accepted by native speakers of English. And we finally conclude that when grammaticality and cognitive acceptability are discrepant, priority is given to the latter and that cognitively accepted sentences are likely to be preferred to their grammatical counterparts. |
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