Prescriptive Grammar Are the Rules Governing How

Prescriptive grammar are the rules governing how one speaks and writes, based on an English standard "norm," or how society in general believes the language of English should be spoken and written (Russel, 2003). Prescriptive rules by nature judge whether the language being used is correct or not. Descriptive Grammar is very different, in that rather than assigning rules regarding the manner in which one should speak and write, it examines how people actually do speak and right and attempts to account for variant grammar usage (Russel, 2003).

Descriptive grammar allows for more variation of the spoken and written word than prescriptive grammar, and takes into consideration a native speakers intuitive ability to comprehend grammatical structure without actually studying the mechanisms behind it. Prescriptive grammar assumes that everyone should or will be following an assigned standard for speaking and writing English. Linguists tend to more closely associate with descriptive language, which does not assume that because people are native English speakers, that they necessarily understand the mechanics of the language.

Instead, using a model of descriptive grammar linguists assume that a speaker has obtained "linguistic competence" (Russel). This means that even though a native speaker has the ability to properly use, pronounce and comprehend the language, they may not necessarily understand or have learned all of the rules regarding the language or the reasons why the language works. A descriptive grammatical user is able to understand when words are not in English, so utilizes internal mechanisms to interpret and comprehend the language.

An example of prescriptive language would include using "i" before "e" except in the case of "c." When a person is learning how to spell, they are typically taught to place the letter "i" before an "e." Also, from a prescriptive language perspective, one may learn that the letter C. makes a hard sound. However, there are many variations of this rule. In the word "scintillating" for example, the c is silent. The name Cecilia assumes a silent C.

From a descriptive grammar perspective, a native speaker would recognize for example that the word "ndugu" or "giasou" are not from the English language. Descriptive grammar allows an individual to pronounce sounds and make meaningful sentences, even without understanding the mechanics of language and grammar. Descriptive grammatical usage also allows the speaker to break up words such as compound words to form multiple meanings.

Again, falling back on the idea of "linguistic competence" descriptive grammar models usage based on an intuitive understanding of the workings of the native language of English. Because the use of corpora in grammatical studies is.