Hoa Thai Posted 19 years ago
Vocabulary
prescriptivist vs. permissivist
Hello,
The following passage contains so many ideas that I cannot quite understand what the author tries to convey, especially 'prescriptivists' and 'permissivists'. What is the fundamental belief of each group? From what I can gather by reading the passage, I feel that the prescriptivists are rigid, logical, rule-based; while the permissivists are free - having go-with-the-flow attitudes. That is it! (my dictionary does not help expain what the two are!) - Please share with me your insight.
“The best selling 'prescriptivists' of a few years before were rebuked for their bad temper and often jeered at for their bad scholarship. The 'permissivists' insisted that English was what it was and would change as it would.”
Thank you much in advance.
Hoa Thai
The following passage contains so many ideas that I cannot quite understand what the author tries to convey, especially 'prescriptivists' and 'permissivists'. What is the fundamental belief of each group? From what I can gather by reading the passage, I feel that the prescriptivists are rigid, logical, rule-based; while the permissivists are free - having go-with-the-flow attitudes. That is it! (my dictionary does not help expain what the two are!) - Please share with me your insight.
“The best selling 'prescriptivists' of a few years before were rebuked for their bad temper and often jeered at for their bad scholarship. The 'permissivists' insisted that English was what it was and would change as it would.”
Thank you much in advance.
Hoa Thai
Top answer
That's about right. The author uses 'permissivist' instead of the usual 'descriptivist', which suggests to me that s/he does not respect either type very much.
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That's about right. The author uses 'permissivist' instead of the usual 'descriptivist', which suggests to me that s/he does not respect either type very much.
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