Bruce's example of "ununwinnable" is very interesting because it 
displays a trait that played a part in Chomsky's decision that our 
subconscious knowledge of language (competence) is a different entity 
from our real-time use of language (performance).

"Ununwinnable" is grammatical -- that is, it is permitted by the 
formulae for building English words -- but it is hard to process 
cognitively, that is, to understand by "tracking" all of the suffixes 
and their effect on meaning. People can only tolerate a small number of 
bracketings of identical linguistic forms. I can imagine someone saying 
"that rice is PRE-pre-cooked". With emphasis on the first "pre-", I 
think the word is quite understandable. Add a third prefix, though, and 
it is much more difficult: "that rice is pre-pre-pre-cooked."

The most famous example of this in linguistics is along these lines: 
imagine a wooden fence surrounding a construction site. The builders 
stencil onto that wall the legend:

"post no flyers"

A wiseacre comes along with a spray can and adds:

"post no "post no flyers" flyers"

We can comprehend this, especially if read, and with the quote marks. 
But try this, no quote marks, and listening rather than reading:

post no post no post no flyers flyers flyers

This conforms perfectly to rules for constructing grammatical English 
commands, but cannot be comprehended by English listeners. Even when 
reading it, you have to count with your fingers to figure out what it 
means.

Because our "grammar machine" can build sentences we can't build or  
comprehend in real time, Chomsky concluded that said machine must be 
independent of the system we use to use language. Was he right? Some 
people think this question is settled, but I'm not among them. Brain 
studies are showing language abilities to be much more complex than 
such a simple dichotomy would suggest.

Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Department
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel.: 805.756.2184
Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba

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