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The Rise of Prescriptivism |
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The primary source of prescriptive judgments is
descriptive study
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From the earliest attempts at prescription in
classical times, grammarians have observed what is in fact usual
in a prestige variety of a language and based their norms upon
this
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Modern prescription, for example in school
textbooks, draws heavily on the results of descriptive
linguistic analysis
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Because prescription is generally based on
description, it is very rare for a form to be prescribed which
is not already existent in the language
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Prescription also involves conscious choices,
privileging some existing forms over others
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Sometimes they may be based on entirely
subjective judgments about what constitutes good taste
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Sometimes there is a conscious decision to
promote the language of one class or region within a language
community
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Copyrighted material |
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