Acceptability

Under acceptability is understood first general acceptability or acceptability, for example, of facts or human expressions such works, procedures or practices.

In linguistics it describes the degree of appropriateness and comprehensibility of an utterance , assessed by a linguistically competent speaker / listener in a certain situation. Specifically, this means that someone accepts a sentence in his mother tongue as “appropriate” if the sentence is used or could be used in his language. The acceptability has no uniform value and can be assessed to different degrees.

Opposite term: grammaticality

This is contrasted with the grammaticality , which is determined by the grammar . Even a grammatically “correct” sentence can be unacceptable, for example if it is too nested in itself to be understood without any problems.

Examples

Examples of sentences that are not acceptable for various reasons:

(1)* Er bin böse.
(2)*  The child the teacher the man knows talked to is there.
(3) Dies ist ein dreiseitiger Kreis.

Sentence 1 is grammatically incorrect and therefore not acceptable. However, utterances that do not follow all grammatical rules may still be acceptable. The reference to grammatically incomplete sentences (in headings, as exclamations) may suffice.

Sentence 2 is syntactically too nested to be perceived as acceptable by all listeners / readers.

Sentence 3 is grammatically and syntactically correct, but semantically unacceptable because it is nonsensical, like Paula swims blue beans . There are also other properties such as stylistic appropriateness in a particular situation. The meaningfulness or meaning of sentences can only be recognized if the words are grasped in their context , this procedure is part of the semantic analysis.

Acceptability as a criterion for textuality

Acceptability is one of the seven textuality criteria established by Robert-Alain de Beaugrande and Wolfgang Ulrich Dressler . It concerns the attitude of the text recipient to the text. According to Beaugrande / Dressler (1981), the acceptability of a text depends on the one hand on the quality of the text, its coherence, comprehensibility and informativity, and on the other hand on the recipient's expectation and ability to understand the text. The acceptability of a text also results from how much knowledge is shared between the text producer and the text recipient.

Web links

Wiktionary: acceptability - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

↑ Kazimierz Polański (ed.): Encyklopedia językoznawstwa ogólnego ( pl ). Ossolineum, Breslau 1999, ISBN 83-04-04445-5 , p. 24.
↑ In linguistics , ungrammatic forms are marked with an asterisk " * " (sometimes also as an asterisk **).
^ Hadumod Bußmann : Lexicon of Linguistics. 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-520-45203-0 , keyword: "Acceptability".
↑ Robert-Alain de Beaugrande, Wolfgang Ulrich Dressler: Introduction to text linguistics. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1981, ISBN 3-484-22028-7 , p. 9.

[1] Kazimierz Polański (ed.): Encyklopedia językoznawstwa ogólnego ( pl ). Ossolineum, Breslau 1999, ISBN 83-04-04445-5 , p. 24.

[2] In linguistics , ungrammatic forms are marked with an asterisk " * " (sometimes also as an asterisk **).

[3] Hadumod Bußmann : Lexicon of Linguistics. 3rd, updated and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-520-45203-0 , keyword: "Acceptability".

[4] Robert-Alain de Beaugrande, Wolfgang Ulrich Dressler: Introduction to text linguistics. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1981, ISBN 3-484-22028-7 , p. 9.