Ubiquitous prescriptivism

[Ed Finegan]

Don't know who among participants in the 'egregious' discussion were
kidding, who were serious.

It strikes me, though, that we display an 'unevenhandedness' wrt
description and prescription. Dialectology and linguistics more
generally claim a vigorous descriptivism, but when it comes to people's
linguistic judgments we proscribe only some kinds and historically have
been condemnatory. Our textbooks and popular treatments poke fun at
folks who prescribe, in large part, I think, because we see THEIR
prescriptive views as linguistically arbitrary and frequently disdainful
and discriminatory. But here, too, we're inconsistent because when WE
deem particular usages discriminatory, we vigorously prescribe some
usages and proscribe others. I say that's good, but let's put our
politics on the table and not misleadingly invoke science, when religion
  might be closer to the truth.

I'm reminded of current war talk with god invoked on both sides.

Ed Finegan