Consider which of the following sentences is sensible, and which is less so: 1a. After wading barefoot in the lake, Erik used his shirt to dry his feet. 1b. After wading barefoot in the lake, Erik used his glasses to dry his feet. Sentence la is sensible, whereas sentence lb does not make much sense. But why? Both sentences are grammatical. Both meet obvious semantic constraints (e.g., shirts and glasses are inanimate). Both sentences generate coherent, integrated, well-formed propositions. Finally, the sentences do not differ in the associations among the terms. That is, both "shirt" and "glasses" are associatively unrelated to "dry."
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