I’m enamored by the descriptivist and prescriptivist divide. But I hadn’t read Eats, Shoots and Leaves, published by Lynne Truss in 2006. (Most recently this conversation.)Īlong this exploration, I was familiar with several of the most-cited grammar classics ( King’s English and Elements of Style among them). I also consumed podcasts, articles and other interviews with experts on the matter. I read a host of pop linguistics books this year, challenging my prescriptivist publishing origins with a small library of descriptivist perspective. Many grammarians follow a more prescriptivist view: if we don’t prescribe, language will falter. Modern linguistics is based largely on a descriptivist view of language, describing common usage.
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