Dear Linda:

I have an answer in two points to your question:

1. If the student knows grammar, can he analyze and explain the 
syntactic structure he generated? 

2. What if our knowledge of language structure and function is very 
rudimentary, and while we can use language we cannot explain its 
functions?

And let me make an analogy that I believe applies quite well to our 
discussion: You probably have a car, like most of us, and that car is 
controlled by a computer. Does the fact that you are a good driver,  
mean that you can troubleshoot your car?

Eduard 



On Fri, 17 Mar 2006, Linda Didesidero wrote...

>While I agree with some of what you are saying, Eduard, I believe  
that you 
>have opened a discussion thread that will be quite interesting to  
follow!
> 
>
>You wrote: "The idea that the "native speaker knows more grammar 
than has  
>ever 
>been printed in any grammar books" is PURE NONSENSE"
> 
>And here's a response based on recent discussions:  Informed by  
his/her own 
>grammar, a student can write a sentence such as "Running from the  
neck to the 
>cheek is a patch of white hair" and the grammar experts can debate  
about the 
>grammatical structure of this sentence for days!  In this  case, the 
>student's grammar informs the structure that the grammarians cannot  
agree on.  Who 
>knows more grammar? 
> 
>I think that is what the statement actually means. I don't think it  
has 
>anything to do with Chomsky's LAD or wiring or anything.  
> 
>Looking forward to other responses--
>Linda
>
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