I agree that descriptivists and prescriptivists each have valid jobs to do and needn't be either merged or opposed to each other. The tricky part, though, is whether and how prescription is informed by description.
Without describing "how people actually speak [or write]," or how the most respected speakers and writers actually speak and write, how will we know what to prescribe? If we assume, a priori and without checking, that we know "the standard to which educated people adhere," don't we risk replicating antiquated or folkloric standards and making ourselves irrelevant? If, hypothetically, writers win pulitzers and critical acclaim while violating presumed conventions, doesn't it seem unlikely that these particular conventions really affect how "educated people...judge the writing of others"?
Brian
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Brad Johnston
Sent: Thu 4/30/2009 11:14 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Making Peace In The Language Wars
Someone wrote:
It is a pleasure to see in action an accomplished linguist such as Jespersen, who understands that the language exists as the product of those who speak it, who observes carefully, and who reports on actual language practices as exemplified by celebrated practitioners. Compare that with our resident fanatic, who considers himself a language dictator and who reports on the practices of our most eminent writers and linguists only so he can pronounce them to be in violation of his peculiar dictates.
~~~~~~~~~
Garner's Modern American Usage, by Bryan A. Garner, c.2003.
Making Peace In The Language Wars -page xxxi-
Prescribers seek to guide the users of a language -- including native speakers -- on how to handle words as effectively as possible. Describers seek to discover the facts of how native speakers actually use their language.
~~~~~~~~~
This speaks to the difference between what linguists do, study how people actually speak, and what grammar teachers should do, instruct students in what is considered "standard" for their era.
Language changes over time but in any given era, e.g., 19th century England or 21st century America, there is a standard to which educated people adhere and by which they judge the writing of others and, to a lesser degree, the speech of others. Such a standard makes the language more precise and makes the transmission of ideas and information more reliable than is typical of the language of the streets.
.brad.30apr09.
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