Native-speaker intuition.

I agree 100%.

In linguistics we've studied the fact that being linguistically competent doesn't mean that you are able to analyse linguistic structures . Everyone might make mistakes when using the mother tongue and it's quite natural .

Milky , I do agree on this but I just wanted to share this information .

Yes, I agree, but a native speaker's command of his language is usually superior to that of those who have not lived in total immersion. It is practically impossible to master a language if you are not in constant contact with those who speak it - and mould it unwittingly - all the time.

As far as English is concerned, the major difficulties lie in spelling, pronunciation and idioms

I agree with the second part; "in all its contexts" surely makes it inevitably true.

But I'm not quite sure about the ways in which native-speaker intuition could be unreliable. Do you have any examples in mind, Milky?

MrP

MrPedanticBut I'm not quite sure about the ways in which native-speaker intuition could be unreliable. Do you have any examples in mind, Milky?

MrP

What do you mean by "the ways", MrP? If I get you correctly, the reason behind giving a book to an editor before it publishes is that someone else's intuition, the writer, is not always re

I'm not confident that many copy editors in publishing houses or on newspapers/magazines – British ones, at least – have a particularly conscious knowledge of grammar, unless they happen to specialise in linguistics; if they do have a reference work on their desk, it tends to be Partridge or Fowler, or the Times Style Guide. So perhaps in such cases we're simply exchanging the writer's native spea

Yes, that's a good example. And also McDonald's slogan: I'm loving it! (I suppose it has suggested by a native speaker.)

I don't know about editors in English speaking countries. However, I took an editing course in my own country, it's not always preferance of the editor's taste or intuition over the authors. Sometimes the author's intuition is terrible! Believe me, I cannot enjoy

exactly, native speakers intuition is based on tacit, or unconsciouss knowledge of the way their language works. Speaking a language is not equivalent to being able to explain how that langauge works just as having a heart does not qualify one to perform open heart surgery.

Nicely put, Anonymous!

I agree. A long time ago I took a course in field methods, where we transcribed phrases spoken by the speaker of a mystery language and tried to discover something about his grammar. We would ask questions of the speaker about why he said one thing and not another, but his answers were usually not very helpful. Usually we had to try to interpret his answers using our knowledge of linguistics, or