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Chpater Vi Prescriptivism and The Equality of Languages Learners Outcomes

The document discusses prescriptive versus descriptive approaches to language. It examines common prescriptive rules about grammar and their origins in attempts to make English conform to Latin. However, these rules do not align with how English naturally functions as a Germanic language that relies on word order rather than inflections. The document argues that language is an instinct that all children intuitively learn, similarly to other natural behaviors in animals.

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Julius Macaballug
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356 views7 pages

Chpater Vi Prescriptivism and The Equality of Languages Learners Outcomes

The document discusses prescriptive versus descriptive approaches to language. It examines common prescriptive rules about grammar and their origins in attempts to make English conform to Latin. However, these rules do not align with how English naturally functions as a Germanic language that relies on word order rather than inflections. The document argues that language is an instinct that all children intuitively learn, similarly to other natural behaviors in animals.

Uploaded by

Julius Macaballug
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CHPATER VI

PRESCRIPTIVISM AND THE EQUALITY OF LANGUAGES

LEARNERS OUTCOMES:

a. The usage of who and whom.


b. How the split infinitive is treated.
c. What is recommended between you and me or you and I.
d. The comparison of adjectives with –er/–est or more/most.
e. What personal pronoun should be used to denote the common gender.
f. How prepositions at the end of sentences are treated.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Why study whether people are descriptive or prescriptive? My interest in linguistic


attitudes has its roots in the different linguistic areas I have lived in during my
lifetime. Discovering that people react differently to different varieties of speech, I
began to dwell on why these attitudes existed and where they came from and later
during my teaching education, what these attitudes might lead to in a learning
situation. Attitudes towards linguistic issues are often discussed in terms of
descriptive as opposed to prescriptive approaches. How are these attitudes dealt
with in reality? What are teachers' attitudes? And how are linguistic choices dealt
with in dictionaries, grammars and textbooks commonly used in schools?

Language And Prescriptive Grammar

A different way to think about language.

What is Language?

 Language is a very special code that humans use to communicate thoughts


between individuals—
o Speech
o Sign
Talking about the Water

 Talking about language is like talking to the fish about the water:
 It is so ubiquitous that most of the time we don’t even know that there is
something to talk about.

It Takes a Smart Person…

 …to ask why the apple falls down and not up.
 If we just accept the things that seem
obvious, we never get to science.

News Flash!
 Dolphins don’t swim properly!
 Pandas hold bamboo in wrong paw!
 Monkey’s cries in state of chaos!
 Bird’s nests incorrectly constructed!
 Songs of humpback whale known to contain several errors!

Say What?

 How can something that animals do naturally have “errors?”


 What does it mean to say that an instinctual behavior is “in a state of
chaos?”
 How can there be a “wrong” way if there is no “right” way?
 Who made up these rules, anyway?

Examples of Prescriptive Grammar

 Pick your favorite rule!


o Don’t use a double negative.
 “I didn’t go nowhere.”
o Don’t end a sentence in a preposition.
o “Who did you give the candy bar to?”
o Don’t split infinitives.
o “…to boldly go where no one has gone before.”

Where did These Rules Come From?

 People thought Latin was the most elegant, logical, well-structured


language.
 They tried to make English behave like Latin.

Rules for Latin don’t Work Well for English.

 English and Latin are very different kinds of languages.


 Latin is a language that relies on case endings (inflections).
o Latin has case ending, not prepositions.
o You can’t split infinitive in Latin because they are a single word.
 English is a language that relies on word order to express roles that words
play.
Language is an Instinct

 Scientists think about language the same way that they think about:
o Bats using echolocation.
o Spiders building webs.
o Geese using stars to navigate.
o Salmon returning to spawning beds.
o Songs of the humpback whale.

Echolocation

 Not invented (by humans) until WWII.


 Involves very specialized equipment.
 Does a very specific job.
 Locates food (bugs) that is flying around.
What does a Theory of Language Look
Like?

 Descriptive Grammar.
 It’s not what you learned in school.
 Let’s call that prescriptive grammar.

Research on Language

 Think about language as if we were


aliens from another planet.
 What would we notice about this
interesting behavior?

When Scientists Study How Language


Works…

 They find:
o Everyone knows her own
language perfectly and speaks
it fluently.
o The knowledge of language is
not accessible.
o What you know about your
language is largely
unconscious.

Research on Language

 Language appears to be unique to the


human species.
 Babies are specially “tuned” to learn
language.
All Children Learn Language

 Just like:
o All birds learn to fly.
o All spiders learn to spin webs.
o All fish learn to swim.
 All children learn to talk.

Language Timetable

 There is a “critical period” for language.


 If children don’t learn language by puberty, evidence shows that they never
will.

Research on Language

 Special parts of the brain are involved.


 Stroke affects particular part of brain.
 Patient loses ability to use language.
 Intelligence is usually unaffected.

Speech (or Sign) is Primary

 Speech (or Sign) is the primary channel that carries language.


 Writing is derived from speech.
 Writing is encoded speech.
 Speech is crucial.

Other Animals don’t Seem to

 Have Language
o How do other animals
communicate?
o No system close to human
language in complexity.
o Fixed set of communications
that usually concern social.
We’ve Tried Teaching it to Apes

 Animals have been raised with human children.


 They have been taught to use signs.
 Despite much effort, apes aren’t able to acquire human

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