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This article does a very poor job of acknowledging and discussing the distinction between prescriptive and descriptive linguistics. In contrast, David Foster W
by felixhandte 11y ago
This article does a very poor job of acknowledging and discussing the distinction between prescriptive and descriptive linguistics.
In contrast, David Foster Wallace's essay "Authority and American Usage" (pdf: http://wilson.med.harvard.edu/nb204/AuthorityAndAmericanUsage.pdf http://wilson.med.harvard.edu/nb204/AuthorityAndAmericanUsag...) is an excellent, though lengthy, discussion of these issues. I can't recommend it enough to anyone interested in these sorts of things.
- nohat00 11y agoThere is such a thing as linguistic prescription, but there isn't really such a thing as "prescriptive linguistics". There are linguists, who study and describe language, and then there are people who promulgate their opinions about language. Opinion promulgators are not "prescriptive linguists" and what they practice is not "prescriptive linguistics".
- pavedwalden 11y agoIs this a meta-joke about pedants?