The document discusses the differences between grammaticality, acceptability, and meaningfulness of utterances and sentences. Grammaticality refers to whether a sentence follows the grammatical rules of a language, while acceptability depends on social and cultural norms. Meaningfulness means a sentence conveys a logical idea or message. Some sentences can be grammatical but meaningless, or ungrammatical yet still convey meaning. Acceptability is determined by what is appropriate or accepted in a particular community or culture. Together, grammaticality, acceptability, and meaningfulness are separate but interconnected properties of language.
2. • An utterance is a complete unit of speech in
spoken language. Note that utterances do
not exist in written language, only their
representations do.
• Some utterances are both grammatical and
meaningful; others are ungrammatical and
meaningless ; and yet others, though fully
grammatical and perhaps also meaningful
are unacceptable
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3. • Grammaticality is a feature by its own and
should not be identified by acceptability and so its
acceptability should not be identified by its
meaningfulness.
• Acceptability , a sentence is accepted in a
particular community and in particular culture. E.g.
It is rude to address a social superior by second
pronoun “ you”.
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4. • Meaningfulness Sentences are
grammatically well-formed. However, they
are either meaningful or meaningless.
Utterances can be ungrammatical , yet , they
are meaningful
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5. • Many utterances are unacceptable for sociocultural reasons.
• The some utterance would questionably have
the same meaning in another language that
would be acceptable in some contexts but not in
others.
• There is another type of acceptability which have
to do with rationality and logical coherence.
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6. The Meaningfulness of Sentences
• what is meant by the meaningfulness of sentences?
• Some examples on the different between sentences
grammatically right and has no meaning
(meaningless) and vice versa .
• Example : I want that he came.
I want him to come.
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7. • Sentences can be grammatically well-formed yet
meaningless.
• E.g.: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
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8. "colourless green ideas sleep furiously“.
The sentence does not make sense because things
logically cannot be colourless and green
simultaneously, ideas cannot sleep and nothing can
sleep furiously.
It is grammatically correct but semantically illformed (meaningless).
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9. • Other sentences can be ungrammatical yet
meaningful.
• For example „I want that he come.‟
• The sentence make sense although it is
grammatically wrong. It has the same meaning as:
"I want him to come".
• The structure of sentences and their meaning are
two distinct things.
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10. • "Make sense" is the rule of semantics.
• The essential point is that, although words
may be grammatically well-formed , they
cannot form a meaningful sentence, or be a
part of a meaningful phrase.
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11. Conclusion
• Summing up this comparison between;
grammaticality, acceptability and meaningfulness, is
that 'utterances' are not usually understood,
they sometimes differs in grammar and meaning, as
in some utterances might be 'ungrammatical' but at
the same time 'meaningful', and sometimes it might
be 'ungrammatical' and 'meaningless'.
• As for acceptability, it means a sentence being
accepted in a particular way (situation) or
community and culture, it sometimes got something
to do with 'Logic'.
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