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advertisers often "break the rules of English" in such ways
as: spelling words incorrectly, coining new words, shifting
them from one class to another, blending two words to form a
new one, making puns and ambiguous statements. This idea
of "breaking the rules of English" leads us into a
discussion which is central to our work: the question of
acceptability x deviation.
The acceptability of a sentence is often defined in
terms of its grammaticality; for example, the sentence
"Many intelligent people still equate happiness with fun" is
acceptable because it is grammatical. However, the fact that
a sentence is grammatical does not mean that it is acceptable
in all contexts. The greeting "How's it going, pal?" is
appropriate in a conversation between friends but not between
people who are just being introduced at a formal dinner,
where the etiquette would call for "How do you do, sir?". The
contrasts between colloquial and formal speech, between
spoken
and written language, between legal, religious, scientific
and other varieties of language help determine the
appropriateness of the utterance.
Linguists have tried to devise techniques for judging
acceptability but, according to STRANG (1968), "though there
are clear-out cases, their is also a considerable area in
which acceptability is not a matter of yes-no, but of moreless."^
In addition to this, STRANG presents part of Angus
Mcintosh's study in Patterns and ranges (McINTOSH &
HALLIDAY, 1966) where he distinguishes, in terms of their
acceptability, three kinds of sentences:"