LIN 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Linguistic Discrimination, Culture Of The Southern United States, Split Infinitive
21 Sep 2017
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Document Summary
Descriptive grammar analyzes how speakers use a language, and deducing the rules they are following. Prescriptive grammar is a set of explicit rules for using language that are taught, so that people can use the language in a certain way. Prescriptivists: people who come up with rules for a language and expect all speakers to conform to them. Ex: high school english teachers: don"t use split infinitives, ex: to boldly go where no man has gone before. Prescriptive rules: don"t use double negatives, ex: i can"t get no satisfaction, don"t end a sentence in a preposition, ex: this is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which i will not put. The justification for prescriptive rules is often historically motivated, usually for absurd reasons. Because latin doesn"t/ can"t; the latin language heavily influenced western grammarians. Descriptivists: linguists observe language and describe what they find, without passing judgment. In linguistics, native speakers set the standard for what is good grammar.
