Prescriptivism and Descriptivism

Prescriptivism is based on the view that one variety of language is inherently superior to others and that this more highly valued variety should be imposed on the whole of a particular speech community.

Descriptivism is based on the view that the assignment of a superior status to one variety of language is often arbitrary and is more likely to be the result of socio-economic factors than of intrinsic factors.

Well known Precriptivists
Robert Lowth
Henry Fowler
Lynne Truss


Well known Descriptivists
Joseph Priestly
David Crystal
Samuel Johnson


David Crystals Views on Non-Standard English
"these days, standard English is 5% of the language. And its the written language, largely. In other words, 95% of the English speaking world doesn't speak standard English. they speak forms of non-standard English such as regional dialects, regional accents, pidgins and so on. All dialects are interesting - standard English being one of them. A very important one, the one we use for education, for standard intelligibility, the one most think of as 'correct'. But what about the rest? Those poor students around the world in standard English and then go in to the streets and don't hear it at all. they haven't been taught that the rules change from one part of the world to another, even from part of a country to another."