correctness (n.)

A term usually encountered in LINGUISTICS in the context of criticism of PRESCRIPTIVE attitudes to LANGUAGE. The judgements of TRADITIONAL grammarians that usages were either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ (correct v. incorrect) has been replaced by a concern to describe the observable facts of linguistic usage, without reference to value judgements, and to replace absolute notions of correctness by an emphasis on the relative APPROPRIATENESS of language to social settings. Similarly, the question of evaluating GRAMMAR in terms of correctness (as in a decision PROCEDURE) has given way to a concern over the relative merits of competing grammars, bearing in mind their purpose (as in an evaluation procedure).