Prescriptivism & Descriptivism

What is Prescriptivism?

Prescriptivism is the idea that only one 'variety' or way of speaking is correct. It is a very biased way of looking at language. Prescriptivists would argue that their own dialect (or possibly another) is the correct, and only way, to speak.
The aim of prescriptivism is to establish a 'standard language' that everyone will use. The reasons for this are to teach people what a 'correct language' is, and to perhaps make communications more efficient.

What is Descriptivism?

Descriptivism is the analogy of a certain language, and describing how it is spoken (or was spoken in the past) by a group of people in a single speech community. Like all other sciences, the aim of descriptivism is to observe the current linguistics as they are, without any bias or ideas of how it should be. In some ways, it is the opposite of prescriptivism.

Quote by Edward Finegan of the University of Southern California:

"Descriptivists ask, “What is English? “ …prescriptivists ask, “What should English be like?"

Examples of linguistic theorists that are/were also descriptivist are:

• Jean Aichison
• David Crystal 
• Samuel Johnson (converted to a descriptivist from a prescriptivist)

Examples of linguistic theorists that are/were prescriptivists are:

• Lynee Truss
• Robert Yates
• Jim Kenkel

David Crystal's views on non-standard English:

• non-standard varieties of English have been virtually neglected
• 'perhaps 1% of all the English speakers in the world use standard English'
• double negatives are non-standard - 'I haven't got nothing'
• most people use non-standard English

Lynne Truss' views on non-standard English:

• "It seems to me that, since the English language self-evidently belongs to everyone who speaks it, if people can't express themselves in writing, they have been deprived not just of a life skill but of their birthright. And in an age of fabulous, unprecedentedly fast and convenient means of written communications, it is actually criminal – not funny, not sad, but criminal – that so many people can't string a sentence together."

I believe this paragraph sums up Lynne Truss' views exponentially.

I thought I would include this quote from her book 'Eats, Shoots & Leaves' because it is simply brilliant.

“A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife annual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”