Inner Prescriptivism

[Mark A. Mandel]

Fred Shapiro wrote:
>>>>>
Jesse Sheidlower just referred in a posting to his "inner prescriptivist." I
notice that it is not uncommon for linguists and lexicographers on this list
to criticize pet-peeve linguistic usages, contrary to the usual
descriptivist ideology of linguistic scholars.  I wonder whether there have
ever been any studies done of closet prescriptivism among linguists. (I did
see a study a few years ago revealing that members of the UCLA English
Department, in their own private reading for pleasure, actually preferred
the literature of dead white European males.)
<<<<<

My inner prescriptivist isn't in a closet; he's off in a separate persona,
who's appeared here numerous times:

-- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian,
    Orthoepist, & Philological Busybody
    a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel