3 ms·

>whether society should value descriptive over prescriptive policies on its language is a huge debate among linguists There's no such debate at all, whoever to

by tty 13y ago

>whether society should value descriptive over prescriptive policies on its language is a huge debate among linguists There's no such debate at all, whoever told you that is not a linguist. Linguistics is a science and it is inherently descriptive. It describes what it sees in natural language. It doesn't make judgment as to the worthiness or corectness of something. That's what laymen do, but they cannot reinforce their views through linguistics, only through distortion of linguistics.

lutusp 13y ago
> Linguistics is a science and it is inherently descriptive. One might go so far as to say that, because linguistics is a science, it is therefore descriptive.
- claudius 13y ago
  However, there are linguists working in institutions that do prescribe the proper use of language – e.g. [0] in France and [1] in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. The idea to pass laws to change spelling may appear somewhat strange to others, though… [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Académie_française https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Académie_française [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwischenstaatliche_Kommission_für_deutsche_Rechtschreibung https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwischenstaatliche_Kommission_... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_German_Orthography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_German_Orthography
  - lutusp 13y ago
    > However, there are linguists working in institutions that do prescribe the proper use of language ... That may be, but such behavior contradicts their supposed status as scientists, i.e. dispassionate observers of nature. Imagine a scientist in the Australian outback, yelling at a Platypus, "You're doing it all wrong!" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus > The idea to pass laws to change spelling may appear somewhat strange to others, though ... One might as well try to stop evolution in its tracks.

by tty 13y ago

lutusp 13y ago

> Linguistics is a science and it is inherently descriptive. One might go so far as to say that, because linguistics is a science, it is therefore descriptive.

claudius 13y ago
However, there are linguists working in institutions that do prescribe the proper use of language – e.g. [0] in France and [1] in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. The idea to pass laws to change spelling may appear somewhat strange to others, though… [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Académie_française https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Académie_française [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwischenstaatliche_Kommission_für_deutsche_Rechtschreibung https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwischenstaatliche_Kommission_... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_German_Orthography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_German_Orthography
- lutusp 13y ago
  > However, there are linguists working in institutions that do prescribe the proper use of language ... That may be, but such behavior contradicts their supposed status as scientists, i.e. dispassionate observers of nature. Imagine a scientist in the Australian outback, yelling at a Platypus, "You're doing it all wrong!" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus > The idea to pass laws to change spelling may appear somewhat strange to others, though ... One might as well try to stop evolution in its tracks.