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Normativity in Language and Linguistics
Edited by Aleksi Mäkilähde, Ville Leppänen and Esa Itkonen
[Studies in Language Companion Series 209] 2019
► pp. 103–124

A primer for linguistic normativists

A normative domain is a realm of action or thought in which it’s necessary to invoke the concepts of requirement/obligation, permission or prohibition. Closely associated with these is that of correctness. A rule of grammar, as this term is traditionally understood (e.g., the requirement that determiners precede the nouns with which they are associated) is accordingly normative in nature. This chapter explores some of the consequences of this fact, including: the relationship between the notions of rule and constraint; broad- vs. narrow-scope rules; and ascription of different kinds of ill-formedness to ungrammatical examples. Some attention is also given to the critique of grammaticality-based and intuition-grounded linguistic practice advanced by Sampson and Babarczy (2013), and motivation is offered for a warmer embrace of traditional grammar than is customary among linguists.

Keywords: grammar, grammaticality, etiological property, intuition, normative domain, norms, normativity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.What is a normative domain?
  • 3.What is a rule?
    • Case 1
    • Case 2
    • Case 3
  • 4.Is there such a thing as grammaticality? (1)
  • 5.Is there such a thing as grammaticality? (2)
  • 6.The place of linguistic intuition
  • 7.Normativity and prescriptivism
  • 8.Etiological analysis: Further discussion
  • 9.Should we love traditional grammar?
  • 10.Summary and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 4 December 2019
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.209.04kac
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