What is this?

Scriptivism is taken from the real words Descriptivism and Prescriptivism. Mehscriptivism is another made-up word which just means you fall in the middle of those two ends of the spectrum.

Please keep in mind: This website is a Web Interface experiment (I am a web developer, not an English professor). Its content is not intended to be taken seriously.

Types of Scriptivists

Prescriptivists strictly adhere to the rules of a language, using those rules to be specific and unambiguous. Often, this demands a wide, niché vocabulary as they usually avoid "slang".

Mehscriptivists don't care too much about following the rules. They do what makes sense to them, and it works most of the time. They use language in ways that falls equally on both sides of the spectrum.

Descriptivists use language more loosely, relying on context and social interaction for the dynamic meaning of words and phrases, sometimes directly violating "the rules." They invent new words and phrases frequently.

Which is better?

Language stays useful when it evolves with new technology, new concepts, and unique art. A healthy language requires both those who invent new words and phrases and those who bring order to them. Most people do a little of both.

One may think that Descriptivists are just wrong. For instance, when someone uses the word "ginormous", a Prescriptivist might call that "slang" and point out that it's a combination of gigantic and enormous. But everyone knows what a person means when they say "ginormous". "Anyways" isn't technically correct, but people use it instead of "anyway", anyway. That makes "Anyways" a Descriptivist word and "Anyway" a Prescriptivist word.

The choice for each word/phrase is binary: either it's Prescriptivist or Descriptivist. But a person using language naturally will always use a mix of words and phrases, and therefore will always fall on a spectrum. I'd argue no one will ever say "To go boldly where no man has gone before" unless they are referring to the technical incorrectness of the original phrase.

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