The distinction drawn here is linguistic descriptivism vs. prescriptivism. If we take “actual linguist” in this context to mean scientific-minded academic researchers, the field largely requires itself by nature to be descriptive—they’re attempting to document and describe actual human behavior “in the wild”. It is, typically, not the business of scientists to be dictating terms to reality (they leave that to the engineers). As Emily points out, L’Académie française doesn’t seem to contain a single academic linguist.
I suspect this is mostly a disagreement on the definition of “linguist”.
Some academic linguists further take an active stand against prescriptivism, even outside the context of their field. Language Log has of course discussed the issue, such as some recent posts here and here, which you’ve probably already read, given that you linked to Language Log in the main post.
Indeed. If someone were to say, “There are no prescriptivist linguists” I’d take that to be a false statement. I’ve known at least one academic who argued in favor of prescriptivism, and more are out there (thus, the need for academic linguists to argue against prescriptivism).
It is a rule of thumb that at least one academic somewhere will sincerely hold any possible position you can think of. Nevertheless, a prescriptivist approach is a fringe position in the field of linguistics, if only because it is usually incompatible with a scientific approach to the subject.
The distinction drawn here is linguistic descriptivism vs. prescriptivism. If we take “actual linguist” in this context to mean scientific-minded academic researchers, the field largely requires itself by nature to be descriptive—they’re attempting to document and describe actual human behavior “in the wild”. It is, typically, not the business of scientists to be dictating terms to reality (they leave that to the engineers). As Emily points out, L’Académie française doesn’t seem to contain a single academic linguist.
I suspect this is mostly a disagreement on the definition of “linguist”.
Some academic linguists further take an active stand against prescriptivism, even outside the context of their field. Language Log has of course discussed the issue, such as some recent posts here and here, which you’ve probably already read, given that you linked to Language Log in the main post.
Indeed. If someone were to say, “There are no prescriptivist linguists” I’d take that to be a false statement. I’ve known at least one academic who argued in favor of prescriptivism, and more are out there (thus, the need for academic linguists to argue against prescriptivism).
It is a rule of thumb that at least one academic somewhere will sincerely hold any possible position you can think of. Nevertheless, a prescriptivist approach is a fringe position in the field of linguistics, if only because it is usually incompatible with a scientific approach to the subject.