Prescriptivism and Descriptivism

Prescriptivism and Descriptivism

A prescriptivist is someone who is in favour of prescriptive grammar, they want the English Language to stay the same, with little to no variation of it. Through this they believe that we can communicate better with our peers as we all speak the same language and aren't constantly asking what a certain bit of slang means.

 

A descriptivist is someone who would rather just describe the state of language as it is today rather than try to push it back towards the central standard English. It is best embodies by the Urban Dictionary, as it defines terms and slang that is not standard English and would otherwise not be completely be understood. There main thought is that the state of language isn't completely important as long as the exchange of ideas is still manageable and that people can communicate their ideas and thoughts.

 

Both are very different but also are quite similar, they both demonstrate the importance of language for the communication of ideas, they also realise that there needs to be a central understanding of what the other person is saying to you, to fully comprehend their ideas. However they differ in the fact that prescriptivism emphasises the importance of maintaining standard English whereas descriptivism identifies that dialects are changing but draws upon the fact that it is all the same language and that regardless of what the dialect is, the communication of thoughts and ideas is still manageable and therefore the dialects should not be changed.