DESCRIPTIVE and PRESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR: Do I-IV (following the directions given for each):

I. Consider the following student definitions of grammar . For each definition, try to determine if it illustrates a basically prescriptive or descriptive attitude. Write a "P" or a "D" beside each.

1. "Grammar is a technical description of a language."

2. "A standard of word order and punctuation."

3. "Unconscious rules that people follow when they speak."

4. "Grammar is the rules of writing correctly."

5. "I see grammar as sort of the ‘government’ of words. It contains rules and regulations that help words get along with each other."

6. "Grammar is the correct usage of the English language."

7. "Grammatical sentences are easier to understand than ungrammatical ones."

8. "Grammar is the structure and content of language. It varies according to language (English, Russian, etc.), regions, individuals, and environments (workplace, home, bar). Includes sounds, punctuation, word choice, word order, etc."

II. Which of the following "rules" were you taught and which do you think you follow? (Put a "T" beside rules you were taught and an "F" beside rules you think you follow most of the time:

1. Don’t end a sentence with a preposition.

2. Don’t split an infinitive.

3. Use "who" for subjective case and "whom" for objective case.

4. Use subjective case after "be" verbs.

5. Don’t use double negatives.

6. Don’t use "ain’t."

7. Words like "everybody" are singular and take singular verbs and singular pronouns.

8. Use the subjunctive for hypothetical situations.

III. People are not equally bothered by violations of different prescriptive rules, and what bothers a person in writing may not bother that same person in speech. Mark the following sentences as OK, "Bothers me somewhat" (S), or "Bothers me a lot"(L), according to how you would react to hearing them spoken. Would your answer be different if the sentence were written?

1. Who is she calling?

2. Someone left their umbrella here.

3. Who did they speak to?

4. She wants to completely refurnish that room.

5. Nobody gets nothing for free..

6. We don’t have time because there’s only five minutes left in the period.

7. That’s me in the photograph.

8. If I was in charge, I would be worried.

9. Kathy and me arrived first.

10. I ain’t interested.

11. He did it by hisself.

12. That man was kind to my sister and I.

13. Between you and I, it won’t matter.

IV. Prescriptive vs. Descriptive Usage Notes in Dictionaries: Which of the following is descriptive and which prescriptive?

A. American Heritage (1969) on ain’t: Ain’t, with a few exceptions, is strongly condemned by the Usage Panel when it occurs in writing or speech that is not deliberately colloquial or that does not employ the contraction to provide humor, shock, or other special effect. . . .Ain’t I is unacceptable in writing other than that which is deliberately colloquial according to 99 per cent of the Panel, and unacceptable in speech to 84 per cent. The example "It ain’t likely" is unacceptable to 99 per cent in both writing and speech. . .

B. American Heritage (1997): The use of ain’t. . . has a long history, but ain’t has by now acquired such a stigma that it is beyond any possibility of rehabilitation. However, it is used by educated speakers, for example, when they want to strike a jocular or popular note. . . . The stigmatization. . .leaves us with no happy alternative for use in first-person questions. The widely used "Aren’t I?" though illogical, was found acceptable . . .by a majority of the Usage Panel in an earlier survey, but in writing there is no acceptable substitute for the admittedly stilted "Am I not?"

C. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate (1997): Although widely disapproved as nonstandard and more common in the habitual speech of the less educated, ain’t in senses 1 and 2 is flourishing in American English. It is used in both speech and writing to catch attention and to gain emphasis. It is used especially in journalistic prose as part of a consistently informal style. This informal ain’t is commonly distinguished from habitual ain’t by its frequent occurrence in fixed constructions and phrases ("say it ain’t so"). . . . In familiar correspondence, it tends to be the mark of warm personal friendship.