Meaning of unattestability | Babel Free

Definitions

The property of being unattestable.

rare, uncountable

Examples

“The unattestability of an alternative pronunciation [[…]] for disburse might at first sight be ascribed to the presence of /b/ rather than /g/ or /d/ after /s/.”

“Thus the gradation of the direct⟳ object provides an explanation for the unattestability of [ +derived / -specific ] direct⟳ objects in the language.”

“Moreover, there is no reason⟳ for excluding them from L other than their size-determined and creature-dependent unattestability which would not equally justify⟳ excluding any sentence at all from L.[…]Thus no linguist can ignore⟳ transfinite sentences on the grounds of their unattestability without equally ignoring almost all finite sentences.”

CEFR level