 Discuss prescriptive and descriptive approach in relation to language use.

 Write about acceptable forms of language for a language learner.

 Why does a language change/evolve over ti me?

 How can language change/evolve via its users?

In order to discuss the prescriptive and descriptive approach in linguistics regarding language use, we
must first explain these concepts. The descriptive approach is to describe the grammar in the minds
of speakers of that language. Speaking people determine how accurately their linguistic capacity or
potential is modeled, and how accurately grammar and language are described. Descriptive grammar
is such a method. The prescriptive approach, on the other hand, aims to explain the features seen in
languages within the framework of a rule and deals with these language-specific features. Every
language has grammatical structures and rules specific to that language.  Prescriptive linguistics is
exactly that. Translation scientists; they do theoretical and descriptive studies. When we say
evolution of language, it is possible that we are talking about more than one concept. Chomsky, who
is perhaps the only name that comes to mind when it comes to linguistics, thinks that the ability to
acquire language is innate in human software. According to Chomsky, despite such a complex
structure, the only tool that enables the human brain to learn language in a short time is the existence
of -universal grammar-. In my opinion, the development of language is a consequence of the
proposition that "language is a living being". We can consider the development of the language
through its users as follows, language is individual as well as social. The individual aspect of
language varies from person to person, depending on the individual's various characteristics, cultural
status, ability to think, psyche and mental state. For this reason, the language of two siblings who
grew up in the same family, came from the same culture, had the same education and even studied in
the same class, is more or less different from each other especially in terms of the use of vocabulary.
Social factors are also an important cause of variation in language. Social groups use language in
their own unique way, somewhere, they can create a language specific to their social environment,
which distinguishes them from others. Social status can also be an example of linguistic diversity.
While a teacher can address his student as my son/daughter, a student can address his/her teacher not
as mom/dad but as my teacher. Other language features that indicate social status can be identified.
For example, in workplaces with a hierarchical structure, the occupational hierarchy is also indicated
by the language used. Gender discrimination is also a reason for variation. Under the heading of
language and gender, a study conducted in North America revealed that women use a less determined
speaking style than men. It was stated that the underlying reason for this might be that women were
brought up to need approval or that they adopted a not too assertive speaking style in order to
facilitate their maintenance of family ties. Some of these variations, which are of interest to
linguistics, can be determined more easily than others. Non-linguistic factors such as
occupation, social status, age, gender play a decisive role as we have seen here.

Hilal Vildan Bilici

Best regards.