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Point me towards a single modern academic prescriptive linguist with publicly-available writing in english, and I will be grateful and fascinated. Even just a

• zeveb 10y ago
  Geoff Nunberg certainly sounds like he's prescriptive in at least some ways: http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2016/ling001/Nunberg.html http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2016/ling001/Nunberg.... Granted, it's from 1983, but Dr. Nunberg is still alive & writing. My own thought is that the question, 'is linguistics descriptive or prescriptive?' is as wrong as the question, 'is salvation through faith or through works?' Linguistics can both describe language as she is spoke and prescribe the best ways to speak. There's nothing inherent in describing current practise that obligates one to applaud that practise; nor is there anything inherent in prescribing better use that prevents one from recognising that other uses exist. The logical end of stating that all that matters is describing language as it's used, and not bothering to prescribe the best ways to use it, as to both not end up meaning-stand @talk.