4 ms·
I’m sorry, but your comment mixes two different types of dictionaries. You talk about “official” meanings which would be a prescriptive dictionary telling you t
by cowsandmilk 2y ago
I’m sorry, but your comment mixes two different types of dictionaries. You talk about “official” meanings which would be a prescriptive dictionary telling you the way you are allowed to use a word. But the dictionaries that include “figuratively” in their definitions are clearly descriptive, presenting all the ways words are commonly used.
You can’t take a descriptive dictionary and then claim it is prescriptive.
- brandly 2y agoBut “official” is defined in descriptive dictionaries to include descriptive dictionaries.
- bee_rider 2y agoThere aren’t prescriptive dictionaries for (American, at least) English.
- dspillett 2y agoThere are no prescriptive dictionaries, at least not correct ones, for living languages. IIRC both the OED and CED list figurative uses for the word, do you know any publications considered more authoritative than those for English? Webster too, for those who prefer simplified English.
- ForTheKidz 2y agoI think French has prescriptive dictionaries (to varying degrees of success)
- dspillett 2y agoThey have Académie Française which intends to control the language to an extent, in recent times focussing a lot on resisting then encroachment of English word and phrases, but IIRC their recommendations don't carry as much weight as many think and are often ignored even by government departments and other official French bodies. The Académie do publish a dictionary every few decades though, there was a new edition recently, so there is a prescriptive dictionary for French even though it carries little weight in reality. French is the only living language to attempt it to this extent, though the existence of one is enough to make my “there are none for living languages” point incorrect. It is difficult to pin a language down until no one really speaks it day-to-day (so it doesn't evolve at the rates commonly used languages do).
- throwaway290 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription#Formal_regulation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription#Formal...
- dspillett 2y agoVery few of those have official force or cover much more than a subset of language properties (i.e. spelling rules), but definitely more than the "none" of my original assertion.
- throwaway290 2y ago"prescriptive" does not mean "have legal force" though...
- cycomanic 2y agoThe Duden is prescriptive for German AFAIK.
- davidcalloway 2y agoIsn't this more of a cultural thing, that Germans seem to agree that it is authoritative and use it as a reference? I'm not sure what would even make a dictionary prescriptive other than an explicit declaration that it is so or, ridiculously, a law declaring the same.
- throwaway290 2y ago> There are no prescriptive dictionaries, at least not correct ones, for living languages. there are no 100% correct descriptive dictionaries. Any prescriptive dictionary is automatically correct.
- dspillett 2y ago> Any prescriptive dictionary is automatically correct. … in the view of their compilers. I could write a prescriptive dictionary far more easily than I could get others to accept it as correct.
- throwaway290 2y agoIf you write a prescriptive dictionary it is correct because you are dictating the norms not describing what is real. Yes you would have to be involved with a regulatory institution first
- computably 2y agoRight, just like every law is automatically just. /s
- throwaway290 2y agoIf it's not just then change the law!
- soulofmischief 2y agoI'm sorry, can you point to such a prescriptive dictionary? People can talk however they please, and dictionaries are tasked with keeping up with the vernacular. The "literally" ship sailed centuries ago. Sorry, but that battle has been lost. Even so-called "prescriptive" dictionaries would be categorically incorrect if they ignore nearly three centuries of common vernacular.