Ezat Amirbakzadeh Kalati

MA TESOL 2013
eak23@bath.edu
sweety.5864@gmail.com

United Kingdom
UNIVERSITY OF BATH
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Bio statement:
1. BA TEFL, ranked 1st. Azad University of Mashhad, Foreign Language
Department. IRAN
2. MA TESOL, University of Bath, Department of Education. United
Kingdom

"Prescriptive and Descriptive Approaches in English Language: A Review"

Language Awareness

Contents
-Introduction
- Background
- Prescriptive and Descriptive Approaches
- Critical thinking
- Reform in English Grammar
- Conclusion and Implications

Language Awareness
Introduction:
People acquire their mother tongue through being exposed to it, in addition,
without learning grammar they are able to produce meaningful correct sentences.
However, when they need to analyze the language, they have to learn the grammar.
In recent years, learning grammar is an essential part of language learning.
Although people could read, write and speak English with no specific knowledge
of grammar until the end of the sixteenth century when the first grammar appeared
(Greenbaum and Nelson, 2002), they were aware of the importance of the grammar
knowledge . There are different types of grammar in the English language. Among
the grammars, prescriptive and descriptive ones are more distinguished, therefore, I
will discuss their background and approaches, criticize and evaluate their
usefulness and consider their contribution towards English language teachers and
teaching.

Background:
The existence of printed grammar started in 1619 and it has continued to the recent
time. Prescriptive grammar began to exist in the second half of the eighteenth
century. Prescriptivism was at its height in the nineteenth century and this period
was described as Prescriptive Stage (Gruyter, 2008). Grammarians elicited the
prescriptive grammar from English and Latin languages, and they declared that the
English language was rich in syntax but poor in morphology while the Latin
language was exactly the opposite; therefore, the roles of both languages were
crucial in inventing this type of grammar (Michael, 1970 cited in Gruyter, 2008).
In fact, prescriptive grammar was under the influence of the Latin language
(Gruyter, 2008). They focused on the correctness and purism of the usage in order
to reach a successful standardization of the grammar and it has continued to the
present time (Mittins, et al 1970; Ilson, 1985 cited in Gruyter, 2008).

Prescriptive grammar became gradually worldwide; moreover, the eighteen century

was an extremely important period in the history of English grammar books and
publications. As time went on, people were motivated in having higher education
and they needed to learn English perfectly about academic writing and
communicating. At that time, they noticed their difficulties in communication so
the need for the codification of the language was felt and linguistic guidance was
required (Gruyter, 2008).
In fact, there has been a dichotomy and conflict between grammarians or
prescriptivists and linguists or descriptivists since the eighteenth century.
Furthermore, they criticize each other’s hypotheses. Grammarians state that they
are experts on language usage while linguists claim that they are experts on the use
of language. However, they should understand experts share their knowledge to
achieve their ultimate goals (Haskell, 1984; MacDonald, 1995 cited in Gruyter,
2008).

Prescriptive and Descriptive Approaches:

There are two significantly different approaches to English grammar. One of them
considers language as a set of rules that must be learned and practiced in order to
use the language correctly. In this school no mistake is acceptable and it has severe
look at language (DeCapua, 2008). According to this approach, language is what
you should use and prescribed structures are just acceptable. Furthermore, it gives
advice about what is right and what is wrong in particular instances (Sanders,
2012). Notice the use of pronouns “ I “ and “ me “ in sentences 1 and 2:
1. Mary and me had breakfast.
In this sentence speaker’s use of “ me “ is incorrect, because it is object pronoun
and subject pronoun must be used instead, so sentence 2 is correct (DeCapua,
2008):
2. Mary and I had breakfast.
This is a prescriptive school of grammar which looks at language socially
acceptable. Prescriptivists are always telling people what they should say rather
than what people actually say (Sanders, 2012). They also prescribe what to use
what not to use. These are some examples of prescriptive rules:
You must not mention yourself first (Fitikides, 1977).

For instance:
Do not say: Only I and my daughter are present.

Say: Only my daughter and I are present.

You must not end a sentence with a preposition.

For example:
3. Who did you dance with?
Sentence 3 according to prescriptive grammar is wrong because it ends with a
preposition, therefore it should be (Yule, 2010):
4. With whom did you dance?

On the other hand, descriptive grammar looks at language as a set of patterns. This
is a kind of language people actually use in real life, in addition, it describes how a
language is actually spoken and written rather than how it should be.
 "B.C." © 1986 Creators Syndicate and John L. Hart

One may say, “I seen ’im” instead of “I saw him”, and it is still understandable
(Richards, J.C., and Schmidt, R., 2010). Changes in most languages are fairly
common so English changes lexically and grammatically. When about 50% of
speakers use the language in a special way, the event can be described through
descriptive grammar and new rule will be created. When using they/them/their, it
means he/she, him/her, and his/her, because descriptive grammar does not want to
mention the gender (Chambers, 2010). For example:
An individual can update their profile with their name and address.

Critical thinking:
In the eighteenth century, English prescriptive grammar had been criticized by
some modern scholars because it conveyed a mixture of the seventeenth century
English and the writer’s personal interpretation of the language. They just imposed
the rules and when they felt a new rule was necessary, they invented it. However,
in descriptive grammar people have an effect on the creation of a new pattern.
“Prescriptive linguistics claim to find faults in language and
tries to fix them, whereas DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS, as its
name suggests, tries to ‘describe’ language as it really is. Of
course, there’s nothing wrong with trying to fix problems, and
descriptive linguists have always been driven in part by a desire
to solve practical problems.”
( Hudson, R., 2010:103 )

Reform in English Grammar:

As English is changing, prescriptive grammar moves towards descriptive grammar.
Prescriptivism believes ‘never split an infinitive,’ because in the Latin language the
infinitive is a single word and the equivalent of infinitive in English language is ‘to
+ verb’ so they must always stay together. This is a clear case with prescriptive
grammarians that use Latin grammar to impose rules of Latin on English which is
not acceptable by native speakers. Nevertheless, native speakers split it not only in
speaking but also in writing.
‘To boldly go where no man has gone before.’
(Star Trek, 1966)
It proves the ignorance of prescriptive grammar in public (Sanders, 2012). Feel
free to boldly split infinitives that no man has split before.

Conclusion and Implications:

Prescriptive and descriptive grammars are in fact complementary. They both have
their own particular sphere in language study. Moreover, descriptive grammar is
the basis of prescriptive grammar. The latter is crucial to ultimate success in
language teaching and learning (Robins, 1971). Both prescriptive and descriptive
grammar are necessary to be learned, although it depends on the learner’s goal. If
the language is going to be learned for academic purpose, prescriptive grammar is
appropriate. However, if it is for an informal situation, descriptive grammar is
perfectly acceptable. Actually, both of them are two sides of a road. Frankly
speaking, Considering language teaching and learning, when learners want to learn
a language according to prescriptive grammar, they may stop or face difficulties in
learning. However, through a descriptive approach that is more flexible and accepts
language changes and paradigms, language could be taught at an early age in an
enjoyable way.

References:
Chambers, N. (2010). Descriptive English Grammar vs Prescriptive English
Grammar [online] available at http://www.englishspark.com
DeCapua, A. (2008). Grammar for Teachers: A Guide to American English for
Native and Non-Native Speakers. New York: Springer.
Fitikides, T.J. (1977). Common Mistakes in English. Essex: Longman.
Greenbaum, S., and Nelson, G. (2002). An Introduction to English Grammar.
Great Britain: Library of Congress.
Gruyter, M. (2008). Grammars, Grammarians and Grammar Writing in
Eighteenth-Century England. Berlin: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Hudson, R. (2010). An Introduction to Word Grammar. United Kingdom:
Cambridge University Press.
Richard, J.C., and Schmidt, R. (2010). Longman Dictionary of
Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. Great Britain: Pearson.
Robins, R.H. (1971). Ancient and Mediaeval Grammatical Theory in Europe with
Particular Reference to Modern Linguistic Doctrine. United Kingdom: Bell.
Sanders, J. (2012). Lecture on Syntax. University of Bath (Moodle).
Star trek, (1966). [online] available at: http://www.startrek.com
Yule, J. (2010). The Study of Language. New York: Cambridge University Press.