I have a distinguished colleague who unceasingly tries to persuade me to see that my attempts at descriptive grammar really have a prescriptive subtext. We were both participants in a workshop on ...

Descriptive grammar seeks to simply convey a message. In Kenya today, most people have a preference for descriptive English grammar over the prescriptive for being non-restrictive.

Lexicographers, on the other hand, claim their expertise as descriptive—i.e., documenting how grammar is diverse and changing in society, even when it deviates from what grammarians might find ...

Competition between the ‘Yankees’ and ‘Limeys’ (derogatory terms) spanning decades is, to a larger extent, responsible for the American and British versions of the English language. Out of this ...