CONFLICT BETWEEN PRESCRIPTIVE AND DESCRIPTIVE

GRAMMAR

Who gets to decide about the grammar? – Prescriptive grammar or

the descriptive grammar. The usefulness, purposes and the usage
of prescriptive and descriptive grammars have been under a lot of
discussion since the earl y history of writing and literacy. The
conflict still goes on to decide that which approach is right. First
of all, we need to understand what the descriptive and
prescriptive approaches are all about.
Descriptive Grammar: A descriptive grammar is the study of a
language that the speakers use in their daily life, belonging to
different walks of life, including standard and nonstandard
varieties. The descriptive grammar defines the language, structure
and the syntactic rules. A descriptive study of the grammar is
non-judgmental, and it does not determine whether the sentence is
grammatically correct or incorrect.
The descriptive grammar is basically studied by the linguists,
anthropologists, ethnographers, psychologists, or other
researchers who identify how the grammar is actually used in
various contexts. For instance, the sentences like Him and me, we
are neighbours or I don't know nothing simply reveal how the
speakers actually use the language. The cultural and social
variables are also taken into account in the descriptive grammars
that determine how language is produced and understood.
Prescriptive Grammar: The prescriptive grammar identifies
how the language should be used and what grammar rules are to be
followed. The prescriptive grammar infers that whether the
grammatical construction is correct or incorrect. It mainly focuses
on the standard forms of grammar and syntactic constructions.
Among the native speakers, this approach often contains many
ideas, opinions, and judgments about how; the grammar rules
should be used. Thus, for instance, the sentences as in ‘’ Him and
me’’ and ‘’we are neighbours’’ would be taken as ungrammatical
sentences because they violate at least two grammar rules.
The fact cannot be denied that the both prescriptive and
descriptive play an important role in language teaching. The
prescriptive grammar provides learners the essential tools to
anal yse how the language should be used in official academic
writing, reading, and taking tests. It does require the usage of
conventional and correct English grammar rules. But on the other
hand, the descriptive grammar is used while chatting with friends.
Descriptive grammar is also used in casual and interactional
communications.
 We are living in the 21st century and the new generation seems
to follow the descriptive grammar. Because the language is always
changing, evolving, and adapting to the needs of its users. As
long as the needs of language users continue to change , the aspect
of grammar would also get affected. The different dialects have
different grammatical structures, like For example ‘’ I didn't eat
any dinner’’ and ‘’I didn't eat no dinner’’.
Some studies suggest that only 10% of the English speakers use
prescriptive grammar rules in their daily communications and
most of them belong to the “professional class" . On the other
hand, the descriptive grammar rules are utilized by a large
majority of language users.
The word ‘ain’t’ is used frequentl y now - a-days and it has also
been added in the dictionary. Likewise, 'y'all' is frequently used
in the American South and 'yous ' among working-class
northeastern urban residents of the United States, as well as in
the English-speaking world.
English language keeps changing. Neither Shakespeare could
have understood Chaucer ’s work without study, or Chaucer the
Beowulf’s poetry. Whether the change is good or bad is not the
question, descriptivist’s say, for change is something sure to
happen. The job of grammarians is to define language as it exists
in real use. This includes describing the positive and negative
values attached to different ways of speaking. Descriptivist’s
argue that dictionaries and grammar guides should include words
and grammatical structures that the way the people actually use,
without making judgments about whether those are correct or
incorrect. According to them, there is no harm to include the new
grammatical structures or to add the latest popular slangs being
used on the social media. The usage of suc h innovative words
shows how English is actually being used now -a -days in
different parts of the world.
Many of the prescriptive grammar rules are frequentl y destroyed
by the native and non-native speakers of English. That is, if
prescriptive grammar rules are intended for language users from
all walks of life, prescriptions would be less than useful if only a
small minority of language users follow them.
English is a living language that persistently keeps changing
and we must adapt to today’s words, meanings, and grammatical
constructions. If you are a writer and possess a special ability to
run-on the sentences, then you must have the luxury to use them
according to your own choice .Who knows if the innovative
grammatical structures may become the conventional rules in the
future. It is your language, your freedom of expression, and your
opportunity to try to rewrite the rules.
 References
Eli Hinkel .Descriptive versus Prescriptive.

Birner, Bett y, Ed . (1999) . Is English Changing? .

E. Finegan . What Is correct English?: Prescriptivism vs

Descriptivism. The Field of Linguistics, Linguistics Society of

America.

John Prager. Who gets to decide about what proper usage

is?You?Why should I believe You? Foster Web Mar keting content

team.