In order to do this, I need to introduce another problematic opposition, that between description and prescription

Codification versus prescription

Whilst, as we have seen, many linguists-including Haugen-have apparently used codification and prescription as quasi-synonyms, here I argue that they should be differentiated.

Curzan observes that the LSA guidelines for non-sexist usage Footnote 10 represent this last type of prescriptivism, as in the following extract:

In our terms, codification is a neutral term, which refers to the production of grammars, dictionaries and other types of metalinguistic works, and is thus equivalent to […]