Prescriptive (Adjective)
Meaning
Pertaining to giving directives or rules; "prescriptive grammar is concerned with norms of or rules for correct usage".
Classification
All adjective clusters.
Examples
- Prescriptive approaches to language instruction emphasize the rules of grammar and vocabulary that learners must follow to produce correct language forms.
- In prescriptive models of grammar, language use is viewed as conforming to an idealized set of norms that govern sentence structure and vocabulary choice.
- Some linguists argue that prescriptive language policies stifle linguistic creativity and reinforce social inequalities by favoring standard dialects over non-standard ones.
- A prescriptive dictionary typically aims to instruct readers on how to use language correctly, rather than simply recording current usage.
- Unlike descriptive linguistics, which focuses on documenting actual language use, prescriptive linguistics is concerned with laying down rules for correct language behavior.