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Pragmatic vs Normative - What's the difference?

pragmatic | normative |

As adjectives the difference between pragmatic and normative

is that pragmatic is practical, concerned with making decisions and actions that are useful in practice, not just theory while normative is of or pertaining to a norm or standard.

pragmatic

English

Alternative forms

* pragmatick (archaic) * pragmatique (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Practical, concerned with making decisions and actions that are useful in practice, not just theory.
  • * The sturdy furniture in the student lounge was pragmatic , but unattractive.
  • *
  • Nor indeed are these restrictions pragmatic'' in nature: i.e. the ill-formedness of the ''heed''-sentences in (60) is entirely different in kind from the oddity of sentences like:
    (61)      !That man will eat any car which thinks he?s stupid
    which is purely ''pragmatic
    (i.e. lies in the fact that (61) describes the kind of bizarre situation which just doesn?t happen in the world we are familiar with, where cars don?t think, and people don?t eat cars).
  • philosophical; dealing with causes, reasons, and effects, rather than with details and circumstances; said of literature.
  • * Sir W. Hamilton
  • Pragmatic history.
  • * M. Arnold
  • Pragmatic poetry.

    Synonyms

    * (practical) down-to-earth, functional, practical, utilitarian, realistic

    Antonyms

    * idealistic

    Derived terms

    * pragma * pragmatically * pragmaticism * pragmatics

    normative

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of or pertaining to a norm or standard.
  • Conforming to a norm or norms.
  • normative behaviour
  • Attempting to establish or prescribe a norm.
  • normative grammar

    Hyponyms

    * prescriptive * proscriptive

    Derived terms

    * normative economics * normative ethics * normative grammar * normatively * normativeness * normative science * normative system * normativist * normativity