Prescriptivism and descriptivism

In a nutshell

Debates about which way to speak is the "correct" form have existed for as long as language has been studied. Lots of the history of Linguistics as a discipline, and the history of the English language, has been dominated by prescriptivist ways of thinking. However, the descriptivist approach, where no value judgements are cast, is now the dominant approach in modern-day Linguistics.

Prescriptivism

The prescriptivist approach to language is based on the idea that certain language varieties have a higher value than others. It demands that one standard of language always be enforced, and prescribes rules, such as to avoid the passive voice or not to split infinitives. Prescriptivists have been around for as long as language has been studied, and they assert that there is only one correct way to use the language.

Descriptivism

The descriptivist approach, as the name suggests, invites a study of language that is merely descriptive. Language is described by the way it is, not by the way it ought to be. If a form is used that deviates from the standard, descriptivists seek to explain why a form that deviates from the norm is seen. Modern day linguistics encourages this approach and this brings the discipline in line with the natural sciences – for example, In Chemistry, we don't state that "acids are better than alkalis" – sure, we can describe their properties and evaluate which is better at a particular task – but the study remains observational, rather than an exercise in casting value judgements.

Language change and the two approaches

In the English language, a prescriptivist approach to language has been employed since before the invention of the printing press. If you have ever heard an older person scald the younger generation for their use of language, just know that this claim of "language deterioration" has existed since at least the Grammarians of the 17th and 18th centuries, who compared English and German forms to the "perfect" forms of Sanskrit.

In modern-day Linguistics, where a descriptivist approach is employed, different areas of change are studied through synchronic (the study of language change at a particular point in time), or diachronic (the study of language change over time) approaches. The areas of change factor into different subfields of linguistics, e.g., Sociolinguistics, the study of the effect of society on language, or Historical Linguistics, the study of language change over time. Below are the broad areas of change a descriptivist might be interested in describing and explaining:

Areas of change

Lexicon	Words entering and leaving the language; semantic shifts.
Phonology	Sound changes in the language.
Grammar	Syntactic changes.
Graphology and typography	How writing and the printed word changes.
Discourse structure	The organisation of texts.

For the purposes of the kind of linguistics you are studying at A-Level, descriptivism is a much more useful approach to take, and you should avoid casting a prescriptivist attitude over the texts you analyse.

Commentary

Below is a transcript excerpt from a radio interview.

Example

YB: So, tell me about it.
BS: Wha_t, dis… dis song here?
YB: Yeah, the new one.
BS: It’s kinda like an eclectic, electric, eccentric, kinda ting.
YB: Ah, okay.
BS: D’ya understand what I’m sayin’?
YB: No…
BS: You don’t get it?
YB: No.
BS: You clearly didn’t listen when you was in English class, did you?
YB: Laughs
BS: ‘Cos I’m talking about words dat like you should’ve understanded.
YB: Okay, okay…

Capital XTRA Breakfast Show with Yinka Bokinni and guest Michael Dapaah in character as “Big Shaq”

Key

= phonology

= grammar

Analysis

prescriptivist analysis	Descriptivist analysis
The speaker drops his Ts because he's lazy.	The speaker shows T-glottalisation, a feature common in many UK English dialects, where phonemic /t/ is realised as a glottal stop /ʔ/.
The speaker pronounces "this" and "thing" incorrectly as "dis" and "ting".	The speaker shows Th-stopping, where dental fricatives /θ ð/ are realised as plosives /t d/. This is a feature common to Multicultural London English.
The speaker says "you was", whereas the proper, grammatically correct way to speak is to say "you were".	The speaker shows regularisation of the verb "to be".
The speaker says "understanded", but we all know it should be "understood".	The speaker shows regularisation of past tenses, where irregular Germanic-derived ablaut forms become regular, affixed past-tense forms.

Note how the prescriptivist analysis makes constant value judgements, telling us how we "should" speak and valuing one prestige standard over another. The descriptivist approach instead opts to describe language how it is really used, with some comparison to the standard forms, but no value judgements cast.

References

YouTube. (2018, May 21). Big Shaq on dating & 'man don't dance' going viral | capital Xtra. YouTube. Retrieved December 16, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjkZ18qy0Mw&t=86s&ab_channel=CapitalXTRA