Language Change - Prescriptivist v Descriptivist Attitudes

Question 1

Prescriptivist Theorists

Answer 1

Jonathan Swift - wanted to create an academy for the protection of the English language, like the French has done in Academie Francaise

Samuel Johnson - Dictionary, which brought standardisation of English, had 40,000 entries, and he wanted to fix what he saw as a chaotic spelling system, but eventually recognised that language is ever-changing

John Humphreys - ‘we are at risk of dragging our language down to the lowest common denominator’

Lynne Truss - she claimed that we live in world with ‘plummeting standards’

Question 2

Descriptivist Theories

Answer 2

Jean Aitchison - she thought ideas on language were outdated –> ‘a cobweb of ideas that ensnares people as they think about language’ —-> also said language change is a disease

David Crystal - Language is a Tidal flow

Lane Greene - the Golden Age never existed