Thesis Paragraph

Lecture Two
The nature of the rules
- the underlying patterns (rules) of language are not obvious
- we have unconscious knowledge of patterns and rules of our own language

If a linguist identifies a sentence as "grammatical" this means that the sentence conforms to the hypothesized rules of the mental grammar

When a linguist uses the word "Grammar" they mean: mental grammar: is in our (individual) heads - shared by speakers if a language, with some variation,= linguistic competence
- a model of this grammar is called descriptive grammar - just describes what people say and don't say

Variation and Grammatically
Ex: He might could go.
Is this grammatical?
If a native speaker would say/understand this sentence then it is considered correct

Dialects
- there is no one single grammar of English
- it is only possible to model a dialect of English
- any dialect/language that anyone speaks natively is relevant for study
- linguistics analysis shows that no dialect is more logical or systematic that another: all dialects have their own patterns

Mental Grammar
Claim: mental grammar contains a system of rules
- system of rules that is stored in the mind of a speakers that generates the words and sentences of that speakers language

Rules vs. memorizing or storing list of possible sentences < (alternative for saying "rules")
- Overall: sentences are generated using rules and are not stored

Productivity: we can produce/understand potentially infinitely long sentences

Ex: a numbskull is not a numeral rule: an x is not a y
----- + rules = words/sentences

Collecting Data (to build a model) - relying on what speakers say = our data
Data for the linguist:
Judgements vs. natural speech
Date = speakers' judgements about grammatical and ungrammatical forms (sentences)

Competence vs. Performance
When might performance not perfectly mirror competence? They aren't always the same because people make mistakes while speaking, like they