The Language Mavens (1994), written by Steven Pinker, talks about what kind of rules and grammars should people follow or use in speaking one language. According to some language mavens, people should use “prescriptive” rules because “the rules people learn in school is called ‘prescriptive’ rules, prescribing how one ought to talk” (p. 1). This means that we should use prescriptive rules simply because we suppose to speak a language in that way. However, other scientists like Steven Pinker, think we should use the “descriptive” rules. According to Steven Pinker (1994), descriptive rules “describing how people do talk” (p.1). After reading the article, I agree with Steven’s point that we should use “descriptive” rules, because we cannot build the “prescriptive” rules without other fundamental rules. Also, what is “correct English”? Who tells us so? Even some so called “correct English” have grammar mistakes.
To begin with, “prescriptive” rules cannot be construct without some fundamental grammar rules to build and start a sentence. For example, in the article, “No one, not even a valley girl, has to be told not to say ‘apples the eat boy’...” (p.2). This is because when people constructing a sentence, some rules are automatically be ignored as common sense. Therefore, if someone, such as a little baby or foreigner, does not know those so called “common sense”, …show more content…
For example, according to grammar rules, “the indirect object of ‘give’ must have objective case” (p.5). But no one would say “give I a chance”. Instead of “object” “I”, people will use pron “me” as “give me a chance”. Moreover, according to Prof. R. Hickey, one more example is that “Everyone returned to their seats.” However, everyone means every one, singular subject which may not serve as the antecedent of a plural pronoun like them. Therefore, it should be “Everyone returned to his seat” which is wrong in the
To begin with, “prescriptive” rules cannot be construct without some fundamental grammar rules to build and start a sentence. For example, in the article, “No one, not even a valley girl, has to be told not to say ‘apples the eat boy’...” (p.2). This is because when people constructing a sentence, some rules are automatically be ignored as common sense. Therefore, if someone, such as a little baby or foreigner, does not know those so called “common sense”, …show more content…
For example, according to grammar rules, “the indirect object of ‘give’ must have objective case” (p.5). But no one would say “give I a chance”. Instead of “object” “I”, people will use pron “me” as “give me a chance”. Moreover, according to Prof. R. Hickey, one more example is that “Everyone returned to their seats.” However, everyone means every one, singular subject which may not serve as the antecedent of a plural pronoun like them. Therefore, it should be “Everyone returned to his seat” which is wrong in the