Entertainment / Literature / Prescriptivist: A grammatical treatise or a lexicon is said to be prescriptivist if it has the goal of fashioning guidelines or 'rules' for grammar, spelling, and word use, as opposed to describing unjudgmentally how a group of people tend to use language. Contrast with descriptivist.
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Entertainment / Literature / Descriptivist: A grammatical treatise or dictionary is said to be descriptivist if it has the goal of describing nonjudgmentally how a group of people tends to use language, rather than the goal of fashioning guidel MORE
Entertainment / Literature / Ascertainment: The Enlightenment's desire for and obsession with standardization and regulation of the English language--i.e., making grammatical rules (often based artificially on Latin grammar or mathematical prin MORE
Entertainment / Literature / Hypercorrection: A grammatical form created when grammarians--on the basis of too little information or incorrect generalization--mistakenly try to correct a nonexistent error. For instance, a prescriptivist grammaria MORE
Entertainment / Literature / Double Negative: Two (or more) negatives used for emphasis, e.g., 'I don't want no candy' as opposed to 'I don't want any candy.' Prescriptivist grammarians recommend avoiding double negatives in formal writing, but h MORE
Entertainment / Literature / Standard English: The more prestigious variety of English described in prescriptivist dictionaries and grammars, taught by instructors, and used for public affairs. Typically the standard version of a language has no r MORE