ABSTRACT
However, these purely synchronic approaches have failed to account convincingly for some important aspects of language. They have stressed the need to define word classes and to categorise items according to these classes, but they have not come to terms adequately with the fact that it is not always possible to make clear divisions between classes. They have also tended to idealise the situation by ignoring variation - whether in the speech of an individual speaker or between speakers - and borderline cases where speakers are uncertain as to whether an example is or is not part ofthe language. They have concentrated on the clear-cut cases, leaving the 'awkward' cases on one side.
