Linguistics 1010 Exam 1 Linguists Prescriptive Rules 1 Interested in languages and how they work 2 Rules that govern how a language should be used a Don t split infinitives b Don t use double negation c Don t end a sentence with a preposition 3 Goals of imposing prescriptive rules a Standardization b Goal keeping c Prevent change decline of the language d Assimilate to a more prestigious system i Latin doesn t have split infinitives ii Logic interprets double negation as positive 4 John says that Mary likes something a Not captured in any prescriptive rule b Hard to know what the rule would be English speakers just know this 5 Prescriptive rules are known consciously a There are no prescriptive rules for many of the things that native speakers get right Tacit Knowledge 1 Things we get right without being able to say how we do it a Walking vision etc 2 Much of what it means to know one s native language is tacit Descriptive Rules 1 More evidence of tacit knowledge a Phenomena prescriptive rules are intended to suppress are actually systematic i I want to quickly read this I want to this read quickly