Logged out
Access All our Essays in an Instant
Swap your work for FREE access, or pay £4.99 for instant access
Outline the difference between a prescriptive and descriptive approach to language.
Member rating: No Rating | Words: | Submitted: Mon Jan 05 2004
Page Preview
On the left is an image preview of every page of this document, and below are the first 150 words with formatting removed:
My task for this essay is to outline the difference between a prescriptive and descriptive approach to language. Grammar is the underlying structure of language and is a socially agreed framework; it is needed as it allows groups of words to be linked together in ways that make sense. If there was no grammar, language would be a meaningless jumble. "Grammar is the sum of the conventions of Standard English". This is written in the prescriptive approach and suggests that rules are essential. Some of the non-standard features include taboo language (swearing), slang, dialect features, spoken features and language seen as rude. In class we did an exercise to show the importance of grammar. We were told to write any word on a piece of paper and pass it on throughout the difference members in the class. The results came out as followed: Metal through...
To see the full version of this document, and 145,348 others
