Perscriptive and Descriptive Language Use
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This research takes the form of an informative essay on the subject of the distinction between prescriptive and descriptive language use. The topic of research was chosen based on Winchester's account of how the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) came into being, in particular the section that describes a view held by many mid-nineteenth-century English lexicographers that all of the dictionaries that had been compiled to that time were products of prescription. Even the great Dr. Johnson, who in the mid-eighteenth century had produced his Dictionary of the English, had not been completely comprehensive. As Winchester puts it, Johnson and others were "guilty" of "selecting words for inclusion on the basis of whether they were good or bad" (104). Indeed, Boswell's biography of Johnson says as much. Boswell describes Johnson's method of writing etymology, definition, and "various significations" of each word, and documenting his source materials. But Johnson can also be said to have "edited" words out of his dictionary:It is remarkable, that he was so attentive in the choice of the passages in which words were authorised that one may read page after page of his Dictionary with improvement and pleasure; an it should not pass unobserved, that he has quoted no authour whose writings had a tendency to hurt sound religion and morality (Boswell 61). What is striking about this passage is that Boswell is not being critical but laudatory when he describes Johnson's method of selective
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nouns and adjectives could take the place of verbs and adverbs. In Elizabethan English you could happy your friend . . . or fall an axe on his neck. A he is used for a man and a she for a woman, along with many usages that would now be regarded as breaking the normal rules of English (McCrum, Cran, and MacNeil 96).
In the modern period there is controversy about the language that is comparable to the plainnesse-inkorn disputes of the Elizabethan period. The current controversy has less to do with which new words are to be accepted into the language than with how such words are used. Basically, the confrontation is between descriptivists and prescriptivists of the language and of grammar. Linguistic descriptivism, as the term implies, "proposes the objective and systematic description of language, in which investigators confine themselves to facts as they can be observed" (Greenbaum 286). Prescriptivism, on the other hand, "sets out rules for what is regarded as correct in language" (286). Greenbaum's description notes that those who debate which approach to language is most satisfactory "often use the label for the other side dismissively" (286).
The OED project was conceptualized in descriptivist rather than pedagogical terms.
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Cran MacNeil, Johnson Boswell, Aitchison McArthur, White House, , Europe Americas, Renaissance Tudor, Elizabethan English, Dictionary OED, Winchester Johnson, cran macneil, mccrum cran, mccrum cran macneil, english language, oed project, tom mcarthur york, english dictionary, oxford companion, nouns adjectives, companion english, aitchison mcarthur, mcarthur york oxford, oxford 1992 286, ed tom mcarthur, greenbaum aitchison,
Approximate Word count = 1213
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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