Prescription and description

In linguistics, prescription is the laying down or prescribing of normative rules for a language. A milder form of prescriptivism makes "recommendations" for good language useage. This is in contrast to the description of a language, which simply describes how that language is used in practice.

Examples of linguistic prescription

For example, a descriptive linguist (descriptivist) working in English would describe the word "ain't" in terms of usage, distribution, and history rather than correctness; while acknowledging it a nonstandard form, the descriptivist would accept the broad principle that as a language evolves it often incorporates such items and thus would not didactically reject the term as never appropriate. A prescriptivist, on the other hand, would rule on whether "ain't" met some criterion of rationality, historical grammatical usage, or conformity to a contemporary standard dialect. Frequently this standard dialect is associated with the upper class (e.g., Great Britain's Received Pronunciation). When a form does not conform — as is the case for "ain't" — the prescriptivist will condemn it as a solecism or barbarism, prescribing that it not be used. In short, the door is absolutely barred to ungrammatical forms.

Related Topics:
Descriptive linguist - English - Ain't - Standard dialect - Upper class - Great Britain - Received Pronunciation - Solecism - Barbarism

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The argumentation of prescriptive and descriptive grammar often runs in diametrically opposite directions. To take an example which was controversial as recently as the mid-20th century, in a discussion about whether it is grammatically correct to say "Bye for now!", a prescriptivist might argue:

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:1. for is a preposition and now is an adverb;

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:2. a preposition must be followed by a noun phrase;

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:3. therefore for cannot be followed by now.

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A descriptivist might argue:

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:1. for is a preposition;

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:2. English speakers do in fact say Bye for now;

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:3. therefore either a preposition can be followed by an adverb or now is not (in this case) an adverb.

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Children in British schools used to be told that the common usage was wrong, for the prescriptivist reasons given. Modern dictionaries agree with the descriptivist and list now as "adverb or noun".

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