Pescriptivist Vs Descriptivist Flashcards
Metaphors about language change (4)
Broken - needs protecting
Diseased - needs defending
Decaying - being polluted
Scavenger - killing other languages
Pescriptivism
Attitude that language should have strict set of rules
Language should be preserved and fixed
Descriptivism
Language change should be acknowledged and recorded, rather than judged or corrected
List of prescriptivist and prescriptivist ideas
Johnson
Swift
humphrys
Truss
Standardisation
Functional theory
aitchinson
List of descriptivists and descriptivist ideas
Aitchinson
Crystal
Trudgill
Cameron
Features of Oxford English Dictionary
Editors were descriptivists
Aim was to record language not prescribe rules
- but most think of dictionaries as prescriptive rule books
Featured the word Rizz - shortening of charisma. Used on online platforms
Features of David Crystal
Internet has increased rate of language change
Against the idea that only young people use text-speech and that it’s ruining the English language
- uses metaphor of tide to describe how language is always changing and disappearing
Aitchinson features
Came up with 3 metaphors to describe people’s anxieties about language change
- Damp spoon
- Crumbling castle
- Infectious disease
Damp spoon metaphor - Aitchinson
Some think language change is caused by sloppiness or laziness.
Aitchinson argues the only lazy speech is drunk speech because of the poor muscular coordination
Crumbling castle metaphor
Some see English as a beautiful old castle that needs to be preserved.
They consider the English language to have been carefully created until it reached the pinnacle of splendour and is now at risk.
Aitchison argues there was never a golden age when language was used correctly by everyone
Infectious disease metaphor
We catch change from those around us as though inaccurate use of language is contagious
Aitchison argues ppl pick up change because they want to and choose appropriate language use for their context e.g. convergence
Freeborn features (2)
Summarises how regional accents are often judged by people’s attitudes and feelings
Incorrectness view, ugliness view and the impreciseness view
Incorrectness view - Freeborn
Idea that all accents are incorrect/inferior compared to RP/standard English
Freeborn rejects this, arguing that rep only became the standard as it has social prestige
Ugliness view Incorrectness view- freeborn
Idea that some accents dont sound nice - Freeborn says this criticism is linked to stereotypes and negative social connotations
Impreciseness view - freeborn
Some accents described as lazy and sloppy where sounds are omitted or changed
Freeborn says language isn’t lazy (link with Aitchinson damp spoon) and that sound changes and that features such as glottal stops can be logical
