Which statement reflects prescriptive attitudes toward pronunciation?

• A. Pronunciation must always match spelling.
• B. Pronunciation should be treated as important and not altered away from tradition.
• C. Pronunciation changes are irrelevant to language status.
• D. Pronunciation is fixed and unchanging.

Answer: (B)

Prescriptive attitudes toward pronunciation involve valuing established norms and insisting that speech should follow traditional, accepted forms. The statement that pronunciation should be treated as important and not altered away from tradition captures this stance: it asserts that how people pronounce words matters for correctness and that deviations from the traditional standard should be avoided. This reflects the idea that pronunciation is tied to social judgments and status, and it should be maintained rather than allowed to drift.

The other statements don’t fit as well. One focuses on pronunciation and spelling as if they must always align, which is a narrower rule rather than a general normative stance about preserving tradition. Another suggests pronunciation changes are irrelevant to language status, which downplays social norms. The last treats pronunciation as fixed and unchanging, which is an extreme, deterministic view not typically how prescriptivists argue (they emphasize norm maintenance, not impossibility of change).