The Jupiter Stick Insects Questions

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Hello everyone. I would like to find out how I could answer the following question based on the subject referenced above. My questions are as follows:

1. What is the difference between an accidental gap in a language and an ungrammatical sentence? What I do not understand is the use of the phrase "accidental gap" in the question above.

2. Which property of language is illustrated by the impossibility of The lioness hurt himself?

The Link to the Jupiter Stick Insects story is http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415420228/resources/sample.asp

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Anonymous1. What is the difference between an accidental gap in a language and an ungrammatical sentence? What I do not understand is the use of the phrase "accidental gap" in the question above.

An "accidental gap" in the context of the article is a sentence that is not found in the set of all sentences uttered by the foreigners, yet it is perfectly grammatical.

For example:
Ten peanuts were eaten by five elephants.

Maybe no one ever said such a sentence.
Why? There are three possible reasons:

1 ) It is missing by accident. No one ever happened to say it, because there was no reason to say it. (accidental gap)
2 ) Maybe it is illogical, such as:
Five elephants were eaten by ten peanuts.

3 ) Maybe it is ungrammatical, such as:
Ten peanuts were eaten five elephants.

Anonymous2. Which property of language is illustrated by the impossibility of The lioness hurt himself?

The concept of gender in languages.

Anonymous · Answer

I'm also doing the same text, need assistance on how to tackle the questions, are they one word answer or i need to give analytical answers

AlpheccaStars · Answer

AnonymousI'm also doing the same text, need assistance on how to tackle the questions,

What questions are you talking about?

The Jupiter Stick Insects Questions

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