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Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Grammar

This document discusses the difference between prescriptive and descriptive grammar. Prescriptive grammar is based on socially prestigious notions of correctness and seeks to enforce certain forms over others. Descriptive grammar observes how language is actually used by communities without judgment of correctness. The goal of descriptive grammar is simply to describe patterns in language use, not prescribe rules. Teaching grammar descriptively means informing learners how language is spoken, rather than according to prescriptive rules. Linguistic competence refers to a speaker's underlying knowledge and ability to produce language as it is actually used in a community.

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Safwan Sudin
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529 views19 pages

Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Grammar

This document discusses the difference between prescriptive and descriptive grammar. Prescriptive grammar is based on socially prestigious notions of correctness and seeks to enforce certain forms over others. Descriptive grammar observes how language is actually used by communities without judgment of correctness. The goal of descriptive grammar is simply to describe patterns in language use, not prescribe rules. Teaching grammar descriptively means informing learners how language is spoken, rather than according to prescriptive rules. Linguistic competence refers to a speaker's underlying knowledge and ability to produce language as it is actually used in a community.

Uploaded by

Safwan Sudin
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Prescriptive vs.

Descriptive
Attitudes toward grammar

Descriptive VS. Prescriptive grammar: What are rules?


Prescriptive (traditional) approach: Attitudes toward language based on what is held to be correct by socially prestigious elements and by teachers

Prescriptive (traditional) approach


This attitude evinces complete disregard for the way a community actually speaks

Prescriptive grammar
Certain forms of language are seen as more correct than others as a result of the social prestige associated with their users The prescriptive attitude seeks to enforce those

Prescriptive grammar
Examples of common prescriptive rules Do not use aint Do not use a preposition to end a sentence with Pronounce the -ing at the end of words, not -in Do not split infinitives: to boldly go where man has never gone before is wrong, they say

Descriptive VS. Prescriptive grammar


Which of the following participles are correct? Kneel kneeled/knelt Knit knitted/knit Lean leaned/leant Leap leaped/leapt Bid bidden/bade

Which is correct?
Buy Spell Forecast Shave Dive Drag Spell bought/boughten spelled/spelt forecast/forecasted shaved/shaven dove/dived dragged/drug spelled/spelt

Which is correct?
Are people who use other forms stupid? Are they socially undesirable? Why do we think so?

Descriptive VS. Prescriptive grammar


Descriptive approach: Observe principles that describe the way the language is actually spoken

Descriptive approach
The goal of the descriptive approach is a description and knowledge of rules (principles) of how the language is actually spoken

Descriptive grammar

Examples: Many speakers pronounce -in for the (-ing) suffix In oral speech and most written language we say prepositions at the end of sentences Some dialects of English do not pronounce r after vowels In English, qualifying words often appear between the to and the verb in infinitive phrases: to boldly go where man has never gone before

Teaching grammar
Descriptions of a language used for teaching purposes Do not confuse this with Prescriptive grammar isnt teaching for language learners based on how the language is spoken?

Linguistic competence
Linguistic competence: knowledge of our language and ability (capacity) to produce utterances

Goal of study
The goal of our study is descriptive By observing a language as it is actually used We can learn about the knowledge that speakers have of the language

Linguistic competence
This involves our knowledge of how our language works

Linguistic competence
This knowledge can be observed and described, in the form of the speech that results from it Thus descriptive grammar

Communicative competence
The linguist Del Hymes stated that if a child could make any possible sentence in the language, we would think he was insane

Communicative competence
Our communicative competence involves our knowledge of the speech appropriate in each situation and how to do what we use language to do

Descriptive focus
Our course emphasizes a descriptive focus We are interested
in the language that is actually used how speakers use it what they use it to do

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