3 ms·

> 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.