Descriptive Linguistics

AbstractWhen people who are not linguists consult a grammar book, it is usually because they want to find out the correct way of expressing something. This is the kind of information many grammars provide. Such grammars are referred to asnormativeorprescriptive, or sometimesteaching grammars, as this kind of grammar is often used in education. The underlying assumption which such grammars are based on is that rules can be established for the correct usage of a language. Descriptive linguistics rejects this notion of correctness: instead of prescribing how somethingought tobe said, it aims to systematically describe a language as fully and objectively as possible. Accordingly, descriptive grammars can be said to provide systematic descriptions of how the various components of language can be combined into sentences and other units of discourse. In sum, the ultimate object of descriptive linguistics is to describe in a non‐judgmental fashion how language is structured.