| 释义 |
prescriptive, a.|prɪˈskrɪptɪv|
[ad. late L. præscriptīv-us of or relating to a legal exception or demurrer: see prescript n. and -ive.]
1. a. That prescribes or directs; giving definite, precise directions or instructions. Now also spec. in Linguistics. (Opp. descriptive a. 3 b: cf. normative grammar s.v. normative a. b.)
1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) VII. xviii. 93 A will to be executed by a father for a daughter..carries somewhat daring and prescriptive in the very word. 1788Trifler No. 10. 126 Prescriptive rules for the preservation of health. 1849Robertson Serm. Ser. i. vi. 92 Thus the spirit of the prescription may be still in force when the prescriptive authority is repealed. 1933O. Jespersen Essent. Eng. Gram. i. 19 Of greater value, however, than this prescriptive grammar is a purely descriptive grammar. 1963Eng. Jrnl. May 338/1 An accurate description of the language as it is actually used, kept simple by the relative absence of variants..will in itself serve prescriptive purposes. 1968J. Lyons Introd. Theoret. Linguistics i. 43 Linguistics..is descriptive, not prescriptive (or normative). 1977Time 4 Apr. 5/3 The point to be made to Ms. Spaak, the Académie Francaise and all other prescriptive-normative institutions that would like to see language spoken in a certain way: c'est impossible.
b. Philos. Having or implying an imperative force. Also absol.
1946Jrnl. Philos. XLIII. 35 The issue is whether a definition shall be taken as prescriptive in empirical enquiry or used as a convenient tool constantly responsible to facts. A nominal definition is by definition prescriptive. 1951[see descriptive a. 3 a]. 1952R. M. Hare Lang. Morals i. 2 If moral language belongs to the genus ‘prescriptive language’, we shall most easily understand its nature if we compare and contrast first of all prescriptive language with other sorts of language. 1961I. L. Horowitz Philos., Sci. & Sociol. of Knowl. vii. 88 Whatever the ratio of descriptive and prescriptive elements in an ideology, it is clearly a different qualitative entity than either religion or science. 1963R. M. Hare Freedom & Reason v. 72 If moral judgements were singular prescriptives.., there would be less difficulty. 1967Encycl. Philos. II. 314/2 All the views of definition that have been proposed can be subsumed under three general types of positions... These three general positions will be called ‘essentialist’, ‘prescriptive’, and ‘linguistic’ types. 1976T. D. Perry Moral Reasoning & Truth 176 Every moral statement is prescriptive in the sense that it entails a certain imperative.
†2. Appointed or fixed by prescription. Obs.
1765Blackstone Comm. I. xviii. 485 Directions are given for appointing a new officer, in case there be no election, or a void one, made upon the charter or prescriptive day.
3. Derived from or founded on prescription or lapse of time, as prescriptive right or prescriptive title.
1766Blackstone Comm. II. xxxii. 494 Lords of manors..who have to this day a prescriptive right to grant administration to their intestate tenants and suitors. 1782Burke Reform Representation Wks. 1842 II. 487 Our constitution is a prescriptive constitution; it is a constitution, whose sole authority is, that it has existed time out of mind. 1876Grant Burgh Sch. Scot. ii. v. 182 The ancient holiday, to which the scholars believed they had acquired a prescriptive title from immemorial usage.
4. a. Arising from or recognized by long-standing custom or usage; prescribed by custom.
1765Johnson Preface in Plays of Shakespeare I. p. vii, The Poet, of whose works I have undertaken the revision, may now begin to assume the dignity of an ancient, and claim the privilege of established fame and prescriptive veneration. 1775Johnson Let. to Mrs. Thrale 11 June, Unusual compliments, to which there is no stated and prescriptive answer, embarrass the feeble,..and disgust the wise. 1805Roscoe Leo X, II. 23 A work, which does not implicitly adopt prescriptive errors. 1837Hawthorne Twice-told T. (1851) II. i. 9 To have his regular score at the bar..and his prescriptive corner at the winter's fireside. a1854H. Reed Lect. Brit. Poets (1857) II. x. 14 To have the sun called by his simple almanac name, instead of the loftier prescriptive title of Phœbus.
b. Anthrop. Applied to marriage traditionally considered obligatory between persons in certain categories of relationship to each other within a tribe or kinship group. (Cf. preferential a. d.)
1958Amer. Anthropologist LX. 75 Prescriptive marriage rules entail enduring affinal ties between groups. 1961E. Leach Rethinking Anthropol. iii. 54 Needham..claims to have demonstrated that a rule of prescriptive patrilineal cross-cousin marriage is an impossibility. 1968R. Needham tr. Lévi-Strauss's Elem. Struct. Kinship (1969) p. xxxi, Exceptional cases apart, they do what they say they must, hence the reason for calling their marriage system ‘prescriptive’. 1971F. Korn in R. Needham Rethinking Kinship & Marriage 113 The terms can be consistently arranged in an asymmetric prescriptive terminology.
5. Giving or recognizing prescription or prescriptive right. rare.
1785Burke Nabob of Arcot's Debts Wks. IV. 226 This venerable patriarchal job,..hoary with prescriptive years. 1796― Let. Noble Ld. ibid. VIII. 48 The duke of Bedford will stand as long as prescriptive law endures.
Hence preˈscriptively adv., by prescription; by recognized custom; preˈscriptiveness, prescriptive character or quality.
1780Burke Œcon. Reform Wks. III. 272 The forest lands, in which the crown has (where they are not granted or prescriptively held) the dominion of the soil, and the vert and venison. 1826–7De Quincey Lessing Wks. 1859 XIII. 298 The cards themselves, by their gay colouring, and the antique prescriptiveness of the figures..throw an air of brilliancy upon the game. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. I. 178 We continue to admire pictures prescriptively and by tradition. |