LESLEY MILROY
resolved by the implementation of perceptual strategies. or by context
(Smith and Wilson. 1979. p. 197). One purpose of this chapter will be to try
and isolate the conditions under which differences in speakers' grammars
may produce misunderstandings in natural settings; that is when the various
comprehension strategies available to a speaker have failed to work and he is
forced to consult his .. linguistic archive .. to assist him in interpreting
utterances.
Since Labov's initial demonstration of the .. limits" of individual grammars.
it has been generally accepted (at least by sociolinguists) that pandialectal
competence, active or passive, is extremely sharply constrained.
However, there is an implicit tendency to assume that it is competence in
non-standard grammars which is limited. It is significant, for example, and
quite characteristic of work in this area, that all the sentences discussed in
TrudgiH's 1981 paper are designed to test knowledge of non-standard
grammars. In an earlier publication, Trudgill expressed the view more
explicitly that non-standard speakers had at least a passive competence in
standard English (Trudgill, 1979) and Trudgill's view does not seem at all
uncommon.