ABSTRACT
One who speaks his native language fluently and correctly has acquired over a
period of time that mastery of the language which he now has. During this period
he was exposed, no doubt, to many sentence produced by others and to some
correction of sentences he produced himself. But his mastery of the language does
not consist merely in his being able to reproduce the sentences produced by others
and, in their corrected forms, the sentences earlier produced by himself. It consists
in his being able also to produce indefinitely many new sentences, knowing what
they mean, and in being able to understand indefinitely many new sentences which
are produced to him. It consists also in his being able to distinguish between
sentences of his language which are fully ‘correct’ and literally significant sentences
- however elaborate or stylistically unusual they may be - and sentences which
deviate, in various ways or degrees, from full ‘correctness’ or literal significance;
and perhaps to remark, with more or less explicitness, on how the sentences which
deviate from correctness do so deviate.
