# Descriptive Linguistics | | In the study of language, description or **Descriptive Linguistics** is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used by a speech community. | |-|-| | | wikipedia:: [Linguistic description](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_description) | > [!summary]- Wikipedia Synopsis > In the study of language, description or **Descriptive Linguistics** is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community.All academic research in linguistics is descriptive; like all other scientific disciplines, it seeks to describe reality, without the bias of preconceived ideas about how it ought to be. Modern descriptive linguistics is based on a structural approach to language, as exemplified in the work of Leonard Bloomfield and others. This type of linguistics utilizes different methods in order to describe a language such as basic data collection, and different types of elicitation methods.