In linguistics, prescription denotes two normative practices: the codification of a grammar, and formal usage rules — how a language should be spoken and written.
To establish a Standard language, prescriptive usage rules establish spelling, grammar, and syntax standards; and what usages are socially proper and politically correct.
Nonetheless, linguistic prescriptivism is universal — if usage preferences are conservative, prescription might (appear to) be resistant to language change, if the usage preferences are radical, prescription usually produces neologisms – newly coined words or phrases.
Prescriptive linguistics is contrasted with descriptive linguistics, which observes and records how language is practised. The basis of linguistic research is text (corpus) analysis and field studies; yet description includes each researcher’s observations of his and her (own) language usage. Despite apparent opposition, prescription and description (how language should be used, and how language is used) exist in a complementary dynamic tension of mutual linguistic support.
The principal purpose of prescriptive linguistics is establishing a Standard language, by formally defining and deriving a standard dialect from the written and spoken usages common to the language populace. The purpose of the Standard language is inter-regional communication among speakers of different dialects of the standard language employed as a lingua franca.
In a certain shop a man might be asked whether he would like a Panini. The man replies: “Thank you young man, but the question should be whether I would like a Panino surely.” This reply is a typical form of linguistic prescription.
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