Prescriptive grammar of English language

Стерлитамак, 2015
Презентация по теоретической грамматике английского языка (АЯ) - 18 слайдов
Prescriptive Grammar: a set of prescribed rules which tells people how to speak/write
18 century
Representatives
The first grammars of English were prescriptive, not descriptive. The most influential grammar of this period was R. Lowth’s
Short Introduction to English Grammar (1762). The aim of this grammar was to teach us to express ourselves with propriety. and to enable us to judge of every phrase and form of construction, whether it be right or not
Latinization of English grammar was also reflected in the system of parts of speech. Patterning after Latin, prescriptivists set up a classification of eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction,and interjection
To sum up, prescriptive grammar could be characterized by the following features:
1) Patterning after Latin in classifying words into word classes and establishing grammatical categories;
2) Reliance on meaning and function in definitions;
3) Approach to correctness: the standards of correctness are logic, which was identified with Latin, and the past.
4) Emphasis on writing rather than speech.