the belief that there are correct and wrong ways to use language and that books about language should give rules to follow, rather than describing how language is really used

There has been a blurring of the sharp distinction between descriptivism and prescriptivism in the writings of grammarians and lexicographers. 在文法学者和词典编纂者的作品中，描述主义和规约主义之间的界限开始模糊了。