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Normative

As a non-native English speaker, I have some difficulty understanding the meaning of the word 'normative', in most contexts. I am fully aware of dictionary descriptions, but they have not helped me so far.

Maybe someone could, kindly rephrase the following sentence:

The approach is descriptive rather than normative.

Thanks

Jorge
Jorge
As a non-native English speaker, I have some difficulty understanding the meaning of the word 'normative', in most contexts. I am fully aware of dictionary descriptions, but they have not helped me so far.

Maybe someone could, kindly rephrase the following sentence:

The approach is descriptive rather than normative.

Thanks

Jorge

The sentence sets up an opposition between two approaches. That's to say "descriptive" is a type of "approach" which is in opposition to the "normative" one. Out of context it lacks clear meaning; the sentence leaves us wondering what the "normative" (normal) approach should be.

If I had to guess I would say that the descriptive approach is set up in opposition to (perhaps) an analytical approach (that is the "normative" approach). Description and analysis are two approaches which work quite nicely as oppositions.

If I were to paraphrase I'd say: "They took a descriptive approach rather than the more standard (normal) approach."

Hope that's some help.
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Jorge
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englishstudent
The sentence sets up an opposition between two approaches. That's to say "descriptive" is a type of "approach" which is in opposition to the "normative" one. Out of context it lacks clear meaning; the sentence leaves us wondering what the "normative" (normal) approach should be.

If I had to guess I would say that the descriptive approach is set up in opposition to (perhaps) an analytical approach (that is the "normative" approach). Description and analysis are two approaches which work quite nicely as oppositions.

If I were to paraphrase I'd say: "They took a descriptive approach rather than the more standard (normal) approach."

Hope that's some help.


Thanks for the input. Let me try and out it into context: it is in a passage about European identity and how you could put them into different categories by different approaches.

One approach looks at the identities of people living in Europe as against another that looks at the identities specific to Europe.

The first approach is descriptive rather than normative.

Any further help would be much appreciated.

Jorge

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