hello everyone welcome thanks for joining me in this video i will be discussing the difference between prescriptivism and descriptivism in the study of language in many ways this is the most important video i have on my channel because it is often the first concept that students learn upon entering an introductory linguistics classroom now let's talk about the more familiar concept here and that is prescriptivism for most of you now prescriptivism is the idea that there are rights and wrongs associated with language use whether in terms of speaking or in writing so think about your own history as a student who maybe took an english class or a foreign language class or a composition or any kind of writing class in those classes you very likely received feedback spoken or written from your instructor that say things like don't split an infinitive don't start a sentence with a conjunction don't end a sentence with a preposition these types of grammatical rules quote unquote that make for proper english so you can actually look at a language class in particular where you may have even been corrected or criticized for pronouncing a certain word or phrase in that language in the instructor's view incorrectly this is again prescriptivism at work now we don't need to just talk about prescriptive attitudes as they exist in the educational system because indeed as human beings we all have attitudes and beliefs about how language should be used whether in terms of speaking or writing this is a perfectly natural thing but it is important to understand that this is not what linguistics is about linguistics is about descriptivism so when linguists say that they are descriptivists what they mean is that they just describe how language is used that there are no rights and wrongs associated with language use there is only what people do with language so whereas a prescriptivist might say something like you should not use a double negative in speaking or in writing and a double negative is something like i ain't seen nothing well a descriptive person like a linguist might say well that's interesting they used a double negative let's see if we can isolate the context in which this construction is most likely to be used or let's see if we can identify which speakers are most likely to use this construction so it's a much more descriptive approach they just want to figure out what's going on rather than prescribe how language should be used so at its core descriptivism acknowledges the right of every language and language variety to exist that all languages and dialects they demonstrate their own uniquenesses and complexities and they all therefore exist on a level playing field again it is perfectly natural for all of us as human beings to harbor these deep held attitudes and beliefs maybe things about language that just rub us the wrong way but it is really important that we put these prejudices aside when we are performing linguistic analysis or just kind of working in the linguistics classroom because in this way we can help ensure a more objective approach to the study of language all right thank you so much for watching this very brief video it is short but it is very important to understand why linguists are descriptive and not prescriptive in the meantime i thank you so much for watching stay safe and be well and i'll see you soon take care