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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8468351.stm

Prescriptivism & Descriptivism

Prescriptivism-

Prescriptivism (or linguistic purism) is the belief that one variety of language, such as RP and SE, is superior to all others and should be promoted. The general take of a prescriptivist is that there are rules that define how language should be used, and that mistakes result from when those rules are broken. Some could say that prescriptivism is characterized by a concern for "good," "proper," or "correct" usage. You might hear this idea of prescriptive linguistics described as normative, which means that the rules are based on normal usage, and they determine the way things (spelling, grammar, etc.) ought to be. Some examples of prescriptive rules are:

• Don’t end a sentence with a preposition
• Don’t split infinitives
• Don’t use the passive voice
• Don’t use the pronoun ‘I’ in object position

Prescriptivist's-

-Shadyah A. N. Cole - wrote an article on the historical development of prescriptivism , which shows how social and economic conditions influenced scholarly and popular attitudes to the English language; and Geoffrey Pullum’s Ideology, Power, and Linguistic Theory, in which the author assesses justifications for prescriptivist claims, and shows that “in grammar the 19th century never really went away”.

-Geoffrey Nunberg- "It may be that my children will use gift and impactas verbs without the slightest compunction (just as I use contact, wondering that anyone ever bothered to object to it). But I can't overcome the feeling that it is wrong for me to use them in that way and that people of my generation who say "We decided to gift them with a desk set" are in some sense guilty of a moral lapse, whether because they are ignorant or because they are weak." Geoffrey Nunberg’s counsel in The Decline of Grammar (1983) still holds: discussion of the problems of grammar and their social importance “should be well informed, it should be nonpartisan, and it should be backed by a measure of courage and tolerance." 

Descriptivism-

Descriptivism is a nonjudgmental approach to language that focuses on how it is actually spoken and written. It is the way language is analysed and it describes how language is spoken. Descriptivism is the belief that description is more significant and important to teach. The idea behind descriptive linguistics is that a language is defined by what people do with it. In other words, you begin by studying and listening to native speakers. Then, when you notice patterns in the ways that they communicate, you can record those patterns as guesses about the principles of a language. If you rarely (or never) observe someone breaking those patterns, then your guess is more likely to be an accurate representation of the language. Those guesses are called hypotheses, and when they are well-supported by evidence, they can be accepted as correctness conditions for a language. For example, a correctness condition about Standard English is the notion of a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) word order. It is very difficult (if not impossible) to observe a native English speaker saying something like, “I an apple ate,” so it is a safe bet that if you hear that, you aren’t hearing Standard English. Of course, it also means that if enough people start using a new construction, then your grammatical model should adapt to accommodate it.  

Descriptivist's-

 -Alexandra D’Arcy- As a sociolinguist, D'Arcy says, "I describe language as actually used and I revel in the differences and variations of language in practice. Despite my proud ancestry, there is no place for prescription in my world."

- Steven Pinker- "Descriptivists, according to this scheme, believe that norms of correctness are arbitrary shibboleths of the ruling class, designed to keep the masses in their place. Language is an organic product of human creativity, and the people should be given the freedom to write however they please."

-Noam Chomsky, a famous linguist, has a descriptivist point of view. He believes that language is innate which fits in to the view that prescriptivism in language is artificial language and descriptivism is natural. However he also sees the other side to the argument that the specifics of standard grammar in Standard English should be learnt as part of an education – “I think sensible prescriptivism ought to be part of an education”. – Noam Chomsky 1991. This view shows a non negative attitude to variations in accent in dialect unlike prescriptivism which is arguably the source of negative attitudes towards accents like that of the ‘stealing’ Scouse or the ‘unintelligible’ Brummy. 

- Merriam-Webster

BBC Voices Poll 2004

Aim-

 To find out how people feel about accents and languages across the British Isles. 

Methodology-

• Around 5010 people took part in the online poll.
• All respondents were were age 15+.
•  They were asked to rank celebrities in order of how pleasant their voices sound.
•  There was a ratio of 49 male: 51 female.
• 25-64s were over represented whereas the age bracket for 15-24 and 65+ were under represented.
• There was a wide geographical spread.
•  Social Class data was not collected within the survey.
•  97% of the whole sample said that English was their first language and 26% of the overall sample said they spoke English as well as another language.
•  It was commissioned by BBC Audience & Consumer Research and conducted by Greenfield Online.
•  Cardiff University advised on the design of some of the questions included in the poll.
•  Fieldwork was conducted between the 17th and 26th November 2004 via an online survey on the Greenfield website.

Findings-

With his Scottish/ Edinburgh accent, Sean Connery’s tone was voted as the most pleasant accent in the UK. High up on the list, there was Pierce Brosnan who was born in the Republic of Ireland, raised in England and has lived in America. In second place was Trevor McDonald, who was originally born in Trinidad. His voice was ranked high up with Moira Stewart and was thought of to be ‘authoritative’ and ‘appealing’. On the other hand, David Beckham, Billy Connolly, Cilla Black and Paul O’Grady were ranked low with the public.  

Analysis –

Respondents showed a preference for accents relatively local to them. For example Scots said they loved Ewan McGregor's Perthshire accent, the English found Hugh Grant's voice attractive. Likewise, people in Wales preferred listening to Welsh actor Richard Burton and newsreader Huw Edwards. Those in Northern Ireland found Terry Wogan's Limerick accent appealing. Northern Irish participants were the only group who found Ian Paisley's voice acceptable - his was voted 'least pleasant' by all other areas of the UK. In Northern Ireland, Janet Street-Porter's Estuary tongue was declared least attractive, and she fared little better among Scottish and Welsh voters.

Conclusion/ Evaluation-

On the whole, I think that the findings are very good as they give a good indication about what accents people prefer and don’t prefer. I also believe that the most important factor to consider in this survey was who answered it. This is because one may have preference to accents which they are familiar with. Therefore I believe that individuals are more likely to pick people from the same area as them. This as a result, makes the survey very biased, unreliable and unvalid. However, on the other hand, some could say that it is reliable because it was commissioned by a well known company (BBC).