Prescriptivism and Descriptivism

Prescriptivism

What is prescriptivism?

Prescriptive linguistic views favour one variety or manner of speaking over others, often calling deviations for their view incorrect or improper. Prescriptive linguists are often described as 'normative', meaning their rules are based on normal usage and they determine how language features such as spelling and grammar should be. Examples of prescriptivism rules include:

• Don't end a sentence with a preposition
• Don't split infinitives
• Don't use the passive voice
• Don't use the pronoun "I" in objective position

However, even prescriptivists can disagree amongst themsekves, depending on what manner/variety of speaking they have chosen to champion. Different prescriptivists will follow different sets of rules according to what they believe to be "correct".

Prescriptivists:

• Lynne Truss
• Geoffrey Nunberg
• John Honey

Lynne Truss

Lynne Truss is the author of the non-fiction book 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. She believes that the use of punctuation in the United Kingdom and the United States is becoming more relaxed, and does not appreciate. Her book looks to remind people of the importance of 'correct' grammar usage. 

Truss argues that the deterioration of punctuation standards could be penned down to the Bolshevik printers of St. Petersburg. In historic times these printers demanded to be paid the same rates for punctuation marks as they did for letters, thus encouraging customers to drop those all important commas and colons.

Descriptivism

What is descriptivism?

Descriptivism is the liberal approach to language, descriptive linguists believing that it is how language is used that is important and study its use within a variety of speech communities. It is a scietific study of language that does not try to confine it within rules or 'correctness'.

Descriptivists:

• Jean Aitchison
• David Crystal
• Steven Pinker

Jean Aitchison

Jean Aitchison is a professor of English and Communication and a descriptive linguist. She crafted the theory of the "web of worries", believe that many worries and doubts about change in the English language are built of false information and negative opinions. She believes that language change should be accepted. 

Aitchison also uses three metaphors to describe the views of prescriptivists:

• The 'Damp Spoon' Syndrom - the idea that people are becoming lazy with language
• The 'Crumbling Castle' View - the idea that language was once perfect, and has been deteriorating over time
• The 'Infectious Disease' View - the idea that 'bad language' has been developing through the influence of those who use it

International Parenting: Avoiding Stereotypes With 'Rastamouse'

I chose to look at this article from gadling.com, a travel blog site, when answering the following questions:

How is the language issue represented?
The main reason I decided to focus us on this article is because it comes from the view of a parent, Sean McLachlan, someone who has a first-hand experience on the influence 'Rastamouse' has on its young audience. McLachlan writes in defense of the show, commenting on language and cultural issues brought up by other critics. The article quotes Daily Mail columnist Lindsay Jones who says, "the BBC is leading us down the path of linguist wreck and ruin" in reference to the Jamaican creole used on the show. It is also noted that Jones make a link between Rastamouse being "cool" and therefore unintelligent.

The article goes on to counter this by looking past the non-standard English and making the important point that the show "actually breaks stereotypes". McLachlan admits to subconsciously baring Jamaican stereotypes in mind when watching the show, despite not agreeing with them, but says that "it's a nice change from superheros, who simply kick the bad guy's ass."

How does the author represent himself/herself and others?
The low register of the article allows the audience to believe that the author really is a genuine parent who believes the show is doing good for his "international" son. The tone is chatty, and thus seems more sincere; as opposed to critiquing. Aside from representing his own view very positively however, McLachlan refers to a complaint against the show as "silly". He seems to dismiss the comment, where he should have countered it with point and evidence (despite how silly the comment actually was).

How does the author shape the reader's response (audience positioning)?
McLachlan strays from the typical synthetic personalisation and forcing-opinions-down-your-throat attitude a lot of article authors take. Instead, he takes in to account the varied opinions of the show's critics, saying "some viewers". However, it could be argued that the use of the first person plural pronoun "we" in paragraph eight could be an example of the author grouping society as one; alternatively he could just be referring to the views of himself and his wife, it's not entirely clear.

BBC Voices

Aims

The aim of the poll was to find out how people across the British Isles feel about various accents.  5000 people took part in the poll.  

Methodology

The survey was conducted by Greenfield Online and carried out between the 17^th and 26^th of November. There was a total of 5010 respondents who were all 15+, with a male to female ration of 49:51. However, the 25-64 age bracket was overrepresented, leaving the 15-25 and 64+ underrepresented. The survey also represented respondents across 63 identified areas. No social class data was collected during the survey. 97% of the respondents said English was their first language, 27% saying they spoke another language besides English.   

Findings and Analysis

When asked about celebrity voices, respondents favoured the Edinburgh accent of Sean Connery. Other popular accents where that of newsreaders Trevor McDonald and Moira Stewart. Pierce Brosnan was also quite highly ranked. Ian Paisley’s accent was ranked the “least pleasant” by the majority of respondents, the Northern Irish being the exception. Respondents typically favoured accents that were local to them.  

In response to their own accents, 59% of respondents said they occasionally wished they had a different accent. The most popular choice being a Standard English accent, thought Southern Irish accents were also considered desirable. However, generally the favourite accent seemed to be one “identical to their own”. Respondents in Northern Ireland (95%), Wales (79%) and Scotland (87%) identified as having a stronger accent than those in the eastern and southern regions of England. Over four out of five people admit to changing their accent in certain situations, for example when meeting new people.  

Attitudes towards accents are largely positive, 78% of respondents claiming they enjoy hearing a variety of accents. There seems to be a close link between pleasantness and prestige in regard to accents, Edinburgh rating highly on both accounts. Asian, Liverpool and Birmingham accents were considered both unpleasant and lacking in status. The two main exceptions to the rule would be the London accent, being deemed advantageous career-wise but not favourable to listen to; and the Newcastle accent, which was considered pleasant but not prestigious.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the poll shows that people across the UK most enjoy accents local to their own. Reflecting this, overall Northern Ireland and Scotland preferred and Scottish accent, however Wales and England favoured RP.

Evaluation

Whilst conducted and published by reliable sources, there are many ways in which this survey is flawed. The most immediate problem is the representation of respondents across different age brackets. There might also be bias created by the use of celebrities as accent models, respondents favouring the celebrity and therefore favouring their accent. However, in terms of gender ratio, the survey was very fair. The inclusion of younger generations (15+), despite their underrepresentation, also makes the survey reliable.