Prescriptive

Prescriptive linguists are literally the worst.

Systems in which the rules are based on usage, such as languages or customary law, are condemned to become absurd, cumbersome and contradictory, since every time a small error slips into one of their usages, it is integrated into the rules, by definition, for eternity. The more users are ignorant, the more systems degrade rapidly. English, poorly used by millions of people, natives or not, for centuries, is an example of the degradation of a system at terminal stage, no longer presenting any logic, neither in its syntax, nor its grammar, nor its vocabulary or its pronunciation. Similarly, with customary rights becoming too cumbersome and incomprehensible, the states which rely on them tend to switch to prescriptive law.

For one thing, spoken language tends to be less subjected to prescriptive pressures than written language, and hence is a less artificial medium of com- munication (written language is often a kind of 'censored' version of spoken language). [...]