Prescriptive versus descriptive grammar: Do prescriptive rules actually reflect the reality?

Abstract

The aim of this study is to unearth the use of Turkish predictive conditionals in authentic contexts in contrast to the prescriptive rules provided in traditional grammar books. There are many books of Turkish grammar which reveal the rules of Turkish grammar, however these books are overwhelmingly dependent upon rationalist approaches and they do not study how the Turkish language is really used. In this sense, this study formed an experimental design in which participants, who are monolingual university-graduates, were to produce the language. In order to achieve this goal, grammaticality judgements were designed as data collection tool. The results were analysed via statistical tools. The results of the study will contribute to the literature by providing an account of Turkish predictive conditionals as they are used by the monolingual speakers.