描述主义是一种非判断性的语言研究方法，关注语言的实际口语和书面语。也被称为语言描述主义，它与规定主义形成对比。

语言学家克里斯蒂安·梅尔（Christian Mair）在《超越‘三个圈’》一文中指出“以语言描述主义的精神研究人类语言是过去两个世纪人文学科中伟大的民主事业之一。在二十世纪，结构主义描述主义和社会语言学已经发展成为一门新兴的学科。教会我们尊重世界上所有语言的结构复杂性、交际充分性和创造性表达潜力，包括受到社会歧视的工人阶级和种族言论。”

（世界英语：新的理论和方法考虑，2016年）。

论规定主义与描述主义

"Excepting only in certain educational contexts, modern linguists utterly reject prescriptivism, and their investigations are based instead on descriptivism. In a descriptivist approach, we try to describe the facts of linguistic behavior exactly as we find them, and we refrain from making value judgments about the speech of native speakers. . . . "Descriptivism is a central tenet of what we regard as a scientific approach to the study of language: the very first requirement in any scientific investigation is to get the facts right."

（R.L.特拉斯克，《语言和语言学中的关键概念》，劳特利奇，1999年）

描述主义的领域

"When we observe a linguistic phenomenon, such as the ones we observe on the Web, and report on what we see (i.e., the ways people use language and the way they interact), we are usually within the realm of linguistic descriptivism. For instance, if we take inventory of the specific linguistic features of the discourse of a given speech community (e.g., gamers, sports enthusiasts, technology majors), we are within the realm of descriptivism. A speech community, as Gumperz (1968:381) points out, is 'any human aggregate characterized by regular and frequent interaction by means of a shared body of verbal signs and set off from similar aggregates by significant differences in language usage.' Descriptivism involves observing and analyzing, without passing too much judgment, the habits and practices within speech communities, focusing on language users and uses without attempting to get them to modify their language according to standards external to the language itself. Descriptive linguistics aims to understand the ways people use language in the world, given all of the forces that influence such use. Prescriptivism lies at the other end of this continuum and is usually associated with stipulating rules and norms for language use."

（Patricia Friedrich和Eduardo H.Diniz de Figueiredo，“导论：透视语言、英语和技术”，《数字英语的社会语言学》，Routledge，2016）

关于语言的权威话语

"Even the most descriptive of linguists have not shied away from describing theirs as the only acceptable approach to grammar nor from ridiculing and condemning the prescriptivist statements of others. "To a great extent, this is a story of a contest about who speaks authoritatively about the character of language and the methods for analyzing and describing it. The story reflects a continuing struggle to gain the exclusive right to speak authoritatively about language. The details reveal that prescriptivism remains entrenched in ostensibly descriptive as well as admittedly prescriptive approaches. For one thing, despite a professed commitment to descriptivism, professional linguists sometimes espouse prescriptivist positions, though not often about particular items of style or grammar."

（Edward Finegan，“用法”，《剑桥英语史：北美英语》，ed.J.Algeo，剑桥大学出版社，2001年）

描述主义与规定主义

"[D]escriptivism is like common law, which works on precedent and accumulates slowly over time. Prescriptivism is an authoritarian version of code law, which says precedent be damned: if the rule book says this is the law, that's that."

（罗伯特·莱恩·格林，你说什么就是什么。德拉科特，2011）

"At more rarefied levels, prescriptivism has become a four-letter word, with scholars arguing that it is neither desirable nor feasible to attempt to intervene in the 'natural' life of language. A deliberate renunciation of prescriptivism is more like atheism than agnosticism: a conscious nonbelief is, itself, a belief, and a refusal to intervene is essentially prescriptivism in reverse. In any event, in their rush away from prescriptivism, linguists may have abdicated a useful role as arbiters and many have left much of the field open to those stylized as 'language shamans' by Dwight Bollinger, one of the few linguists who was willing to write about the 'public life' of language. Bolinger rightly criticized the obvious crank elements, but he also understood the desire, however ill-informed, for authoritative standards."

（约翰·爱德华兹，《社会语言学：非常简短的介绍》，牛津大学出版社，2013年）

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