Prescriptive and Descriptive Linguistics

Question 1

Prescriptive linguistics

Answer 1

how to speak or write properly

Question 2

Descriptive linguistics

Answer 2

describe how people actually do speak and write, without making value judgments or trying to establish normative rules

Question 3

“Correctness”

Answer 3

1. Established criteria of educated written language
   - full sentences, third person singular, no double negatives
2. Issues on which educated people differ (and which may be different in written and spoken forms, or in different registers of writing and speech)
   - Who vs whom
3. Changes in the spoken language that some people resist
   - Me and him v him and I
4. Pure inventions of self-appointed grammarians with little or no basis in actual usage
   - dangling prepositions

Question 4

Range of attitudes about “correctness” among the world’s languages

Answer 4

unconstrained vernacular evolution vs. maximal standardization and codification

1. Pidgins and creoles (Haitian, Jamaican)
2. Unwritten languages – or languages where writing is hardly ever used – whose form is set by spoken interaction only (Tanzanian Chagga)
3. Written languages with no academies – for instance (English)
4. Languages with academies (French, Spanish)
5. Languages codified to preserve an archaic form, for instance (Latin)

Question 5

First linguist

Answer 5

Panini (Indian grammarian 6th century) - preservation of Sumerian as religious language with 4000 rules

Question 6

Goals of early grammarians

Answer 6

1. codify the principles of languages, so as to show the system beneath “the apparent chaos of usage”
2. settle disputes over usage
3. “improve” the language by pointing out common errors

Question 7

What was the Prescriptive agenda was for?

Answer 7

Arbitrary features of language are used to block social advancement, social gatekeeping

• Ephraim v Gilead (Shibboleth)
• Haitians saying Spanish ‘r’ for parsely

Question 8

Communication disorders

Answer 8

When there is genuine language disorder, linguists will aid in diagnosing and treating a problem

Question 9

Language change is not corruption

Answer 9

It happens, and heavy resistance leads to a split and forms two separate languages, wide range of regional and social varieties, and a more-or-less international formal standard, imposed by consensus and changing gradually over time.

Question 10

Pedant-puncturing

Answer 10

Putting importance on the “wrongness” of singular their when in reality it is a totally acceptable use of language

Question 11

Quantifiers

Answer 11

“every”, “many”, etc. Difficult to ascribe an actual quantity to

Question 12

Malapropisms and eggcorns

Answer 12

“muscle” meaning little mouse in Latin