prescriptivism vs descriptivism Flashcards
OCCUPATION
what is standard english?
the formal English that is widely accepted as “correct” and is often used in formal situations (in an exam, job interviews, talking to a headteacher).
what are the two debates around standard english?
prescriptivism and descriptivism
what does prescriptivism mean?
Prescriptivism means to “prescribe” rules to language, it is the attitude that language should have a strict set of rules that should be preserved and fixed.
what does john honey say about prescriptivism?
he believes that to achieve equality all children should be taught Standard English and use it in every communicative situation.
what does descriptivism mean?
descriptivism means to just describe language as we see it, with no moral judgement attached and to accept that language is always changing.
what does david crystal say about descriptivism?
as a descriptivist, he says that people need to place more importance on how English is actually being written and spoken rather than trying to identify a correct way.
why would prescriptivists go against using jargon in occupational situations?
for example when a doctor only uses medical jargon to a patient (such as ‘kardia’ for heart, ‘hypotension’ for low blood pressure, ‘gaster’ for stomach, ‘hepar’ for liver), that is not standard English.
how does jargon impact the patient?
this would ruin the patient’s understanding of their health issue and whether they’d have to go into surgery, this is why using standard English would arguably be more ethical for the patients.
therefore, what does the descriptivist approach do?
therefore, the descriptivist approach accounts for the ways language will evolve in different communities and situations.
