ABOUT BOOK

Sampson (this issue) argues for a concept of “realistic grammatical description” in which the distinction between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences is irrelevant. In this article I also argue for a concept of “realistic grammatical description” but one in which a binary distinction between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences is maintained. In distinguishing between the grammatical and ungrammatical, this kind of grammar differs from that proposed by Sampson, but it does share the important property that invented sentences have no role to play, either as positive or negative evidence