Abstract
Sampson (1987, 1992, and 1995) argues that there is no grammatical/ungrammatical distinction, based on a study (Sampson, 1987) of the distribution of noun phrases in the Lancaster-Oslo/Bergen (LOB) corpus of British English (Garside et al., 1987). As many phrases occur rarely, it is impossible to make a principled distinction between grammatical and ungrammatical phrases, Sampson claims. This paper examines Sampson's evidence against the grammatical/ungrammatical distinction. It will first be argued that another putative counter-argument to Sampson's claim (Taylor et al., 1989) is incorrect. It will then be shown that Sampson's evidence does not at all bear on the issue of the grammatical/ungrammatical distinction.
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Culy, C. Statistical Distribution and the Grammatical/Ungrammatical Distinction. Grammars 1, 1–13 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009926918246
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009926918246