descriptivism the thesis that the meaning of any evaluative statement is purely descriptive or factual, i.e., determined, apart from its syntactical features, entirely by its truth conditions. Nondescriptivism (of which emotivism and prescriptivism are the main varieties) is the view that the meaning of full-blooded evaluative statements is such that they necessarily express the speaker’s sentiments or commitments. Nonnaturalism, naturalism, and supernaturalism are descriptivist views about the nature of the properties to which the meaning rules refer. Descriptivism is related to cognitivism and moral realism. See also EMOTIVISM , ETHICS. B.W.H.