Using description to teach (about) prescription

In the spirit of Emonds’ (1986) article, Grammatically Deviant Prestige Constructions, I propose a way to heighten students’ awareness of language by applying the tools of descriptive linguistic analysis to prescriptive grammatical rules. Students are then able tomake informed decisions about prestige usage (Emonds’ PU), and to critique (and undermine) the role of prestige usage in linguistic discrimination.