Prescriptive vs.

Descriptive Grammar:
Don’t Nobody Tell Me How to Talk

There are so many aspects of the English language—written and spoken—that we

tend to apply to our daily lives without even thinking about. While not scientifically
proven, reviews from non-native speakers overwhelmingly lean towards English being
one of the more difficult languages to learn. However, interestingly enough, English is
not considered to be a difficult language for the same reason that we think Japanese,
Finnish, and Mandarin Chinese are challenging. While these languages are considered to
be difficult due to hundreds of characters, varying tones that alter word meaning, and
multiple word forms to be used differently depending on their placement within the word
or sentence, English is a challenge for non-native speakers because of the multitude of
rules used.
One of the first topics we learned about when we began this course was language
as a convention and descriptive versus prescriptive grammar. I found this to be an
interesting topic because prior to this course, I never considered how all of our linguistic
“rules” can be grouped into two distinct categories. There are descriptive rules—those
that do not have to be taught and are naturally known—and prescriptive rules—those that
have to be taught and are actually quite arbitrary. One of the most notable things about
prescriptive grammar rules is the fact that they reflect value judgments that we have
about others. Statements such as, “He goed to the store,” and “I ain’t never seen nobody
like her” are prime examples of sentences that violate prescriptive rules of grammar.
Prescriptive grammar tells us what is acceptable to be said based upon society’s
standards. We’re wildly critical of those that cannot appropriately follow these rules and
often judge them as being lesser than, uneducated, or of a lower social stature. However,
we are still able to understand and correctly interpret the meaning of those who don’t
speak “correctly,” so the importance of these rules is questionable.
As with most things, we follow what we’ve been taught and the way that we see
others behave. During my interview I spoke with my father, who needless to say is not
from the same generation as me and who also exists in a different type of environment on
a daily basis (his being professional, mine being a college campus). One of the topics I
distinctly remember us discussing was African American Vernacular English or AAVE
as a dialect and if it was considered to be improper English. My dad said, “I think they
definitely are incorrect English…” (Wade, 5), then following up with, “I had some very
strict English teachers and professors in school…the King’s English is always what was
pushed on me” (Wade, 6). This particular statement resonated with me because it drives
home the idea that the manner in which the majority speaks or writes is considered to be
the “correct” way. If you actually take the time to go back to early England the way that
most people spoke was not the way that royalty spoke; what we now regard as modern
English, or more realistically, early modern English didn’t even catch on widely until
close to the end of the 16th century. Linguist, Anne Curzan states, “From the fourteenth
century on, English gained social prestige. French had once been the prestige
language…”. As with most things though, as groups of certain social stature began to
adopt English in its more modernized form, others adjusted and did the same. According
to Luke Mastin, “Over time, the rise of nationalism led to the increased use of the native
spoken language rather than Latin, even as the medium of the intellectual
communication.” By describing this specific style of early modern to modern English as
the “medium of the intellectual communication,” early language authorities ensured that
any other style of English—such as AAVE—is automatically discredited and viewed as
unintelligent.
The truly fascinating part about AAVE is the fact that while it may not adhere to
the prescriptive rules of the self entitled “intellectual communication style,” it too follows
a distinct set of grammatical rules, some of which Taylor Jones mentions in his blog. One
of the more notable rules states, “Deletion of verbal copula means that in some contexts,
the word “is/are” can be left out, such as in the phrase, “he workin’” (Jones). The other
important rule Jones mentions is related to negative concords, or instances in which
negation is required to match. “It is stigmatized in English (don’t use double negatives),
but is totally normal in many languages.” This brings us back to my original argument
that prescriptive grammar may not really even be necessary. Language is constantly
changing and evolving, and with this realization in mind, prescriptive grammar seems to
be fighting an uphill battle.
 Bibliography

Curzan, Anne, and Michael Adams. How English Works a Linguistic

Introduction. Third ed., Pearson Education Limited, 2014.

Jones, Taylor. “What Is AAVE?” Language Jones, 19 Sept. 2014,

www.languagejones.com/blog-1/2014/6/8/what-is-aave.

Mastin, Luke. “The History of English-Early Modern English-The Golden Age

of English Literature.” The History of English - Late Modern English (c. 1800 -

Present), 2011, www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_early_modern.html.