Self-study
P1
Grammarians of the prescriptive school take it as part of their task to distinguish correct from incorrect usage in language and thereby to encourage the former. ████ ███████ ████ ██ ██ █████ ████ ████ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ██████████ █ ██████████ ████████ ████████ ████ ███████ ████ █████████ ███
Prescriptivists ·
Distinguish correct from incorrect language use
Prescriptivists want to encourage correct use.
Descriptivists ·
Describe actual usage
Descriptivists just want to describe how language is used. They think prescriptivists will fail to stop “incorrect” use.
Example ·
Supporting Descriptivists
“Data” is used as a singular noun rather than plural. That's one example of usage judged by prescriptivists to be incorrect, but over time has come to be accepted.
P2
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Descriptivists' Objection 1 ·
Scientific objection (language transformation inevitable)
Descriptivists object that language change is governed by laws similar to scientific laws. Prescriptivists can’t change them.
Descriptivists' Objection 2 ·
Egalitarian objection (imposing elite standards on language)
Descriptivists object that prescriptivists are immorally trying to impose their own language practices, which are those of the educated and rich elite.
P3
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Prescriptivists' Counter to 1 ·
Language laws not like science
Prescriptivists counter that laws governing language aren’t like scientific laws. We can influence language usage.
Prescriptivists' Counter to 2 ·
Inclusive aims of prescriptivists
Prescriptivists say that having a “correct” usage is important for free exchange of ideas. The goal of prescriptivists is to include, not exclude.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
12.
The passage most strongly suggests ████ ███████████████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████ ██ ███████████████
a
Descriptivists are motivated ████ ██ █████████ ██████ ██████████████ ████ ██ █ ██████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████████
We are not told the prescriptivists’ view of the descriptivists’ motivation or whether any part of that motivation relates to some kind of dislike or hatred of prescriptivism.
b
Descriptivists adhere to ███ ██████████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███████████████ ███ ███████ █████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████
We have no support for the idea that the prescriptivists think they stick to the scientific method more than the descriptivists do. Nowhere in the passage do we get any indication of the prescriptivists’ belief about their own adherence to the scientific method or a comparison to the descriptivists’ level of adherence.
c
Descriptivists fail to █████████ ███ ████ ██ █████ █████ ███ ████████ ███ █████████ ███████████ ███████
d
Descriptivists are generally ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ █████ ████ █████ █████████ ████████ █████ ████ ████ ██████████ ████
The passage never suggests prescriptivists think descriptivists are unaware regarding anything related to the origins (etymologies) of words. Maybe the descriptivists know all the origins, maybe they don’t – we don’t get the prescriptivists’ view about this.
e
Descriptivists fail to ███████████ ████ █████ █████████ ████████████ █████████ ███████ ██████████████ ██████
The passage never suggests that prescriptivists think that descriptivists’ empirical observations “generally” support prescriptivist views. Although the passage does discuss some empirical observations about language change in the last paragraph, that doesn’t support a claim about what is “generally” true about empirical observations or whether those observations were the descriptivists’ own observations.