Quotes About Language

There aren't a lot of humans who speak more than one dialect of Forshan. I know all four of the major ones.' 'Impressive,' Duvall Said. 'I'm good with my tongue,' Dahl said. 'Now who's being forward?' Duvall asked.

Wow, really?" I said, before I could stop myself. "I used the wrong word, didn't I," Davidson said, looking at me. "I can never remember if 'clank' or 'threep' is the word I'm not supposed to be using today.

With sentences, shorter is better than longer:

Radio and television speech becomes standardized, perhaps better English than we have ever used. Just as our bread, mixed and baked, packaged and sold without benefit of accident of human frailty, is uniformly good and uniformly tasteless, so will our speech become one speech.

He wanted to say something beautiful, I think.

She cared deeply about words and she hated their misuse as she would hate the clumsy handling of any fine thing.

Communications must destroy localness, by a slow, inevitable process [...] Radio and television speech becomes standardized, perhaps better English than we have ever used. Just as our bread, mixed and baked, packaged and sold without benefit of accident of human frailty, is uniformly good and uniformly tasteless, so will our speech become one speech [...] What I am mourning is perhaps not worth saving, but I regret its loss nevertheless

I like a lot of talk in a book and I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks

This is just a nigger talkin', an' a busted-back nigger. So it don't mean nothing, see? You couldn't remember it anyways. I seen it over an' over-a guy talkin' to another guy and it don't make no difference if he don't hear or understand. The thing is, they're talkin', or they're settin' still not talkin'. It don't make no difference, no difference.

Words pick up flavors and odors like butter in a refrigerator.

The craft or art of writing is the clumsy attempt to find symbols for the wordlessness.

A writer lives in awe of words, for they can be cruel or kind, and they can change their meanings right in front of you. They pick up flavors and odors like butter in a refrigerator.

Then it occured to me that the elicate shades of feeling, of reaction, are the result of communication, and without such communication they tend to disappear. A man with nothing to say has no words.

Duygularla iliÅŸkili deÄŸilse, sözcükler anlams?zd?r. Ä°nsan bir düÅŸüncenin sonucuna göre mi harekete geçeri yoksa duygu eylemi harekete geçirir de bazen düÅŸünce mi onu uygulamaya döker?

Her face looked for the answer that is always concealed in language.

He don't talk like other people. He's an Irishman. And he's all full of plans - a hundred plans a day. And he's all full of hope.

Ever'body says words different,'' said Ivy. "Arkansas folks says 'em different, and Oklahomy folks says 'em different. And we seen a lady from Massachusetts, an' she said 'em differentest of all. Couldn' hardly make out what she was sayin'.'' Noah

AÄŸz?nla söyleyemeyeceÄŸin bir ÅŸeyi, kaleme dayan?p yazmak neye yarar?

Can you imagine? said Adam. 'He'll know so many new things. I wonder if he'll talk different. You know, Lee, in the East a boy takes on the speech of his school. You can tell a Harvard man from a Princeton man. At least that's what they say.' 'I'll listen,' said Lee. 'I wonder what dialect they speak at Stanford.

Os ucranianos não são como os russos: são um tipo de eslavo diferente. E embora na sua maioria falem e leiam russo, a sua língua é diferente e autónoma, mais parecida com as línguas eslavas do Sul do que com o Russo. Muitas palavras ucranianas, em particular palavras relativas ao mundo rural, são as mesmas que em húngaro, e muitas das suas palavras são mais parecidas com o checo do que com o russo.

What is this? He has a sensation of touching glass. He doesn't know if they are talking about nothing or making code for the deepest meanings.

With his white collar he forges god's name on every word he speaks

I remember one English teacher in the eighth grade, Florence Schrack, whose husband also taught at the high school. I thought what she said made sense, and she parsed sentences on the blackboard and gave me, I'd like to think, some sense of English grammar and that there is a grammar, that those commas serve a purpose and that a sentence has a logic, that you can break it down. I've tried not to forget those lessons, and to treat the English language with respect as a kind of intricate tool.

I would write ads for deodorants or labels for catsup bottles, if I had to. The miracle of turning inklings into thoughts and thoughts into words and words into metal and print and ink never palls for me.