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 ...