Quotes About Language

Asl?nda anlam do?as? gere?i söyleyece?ini söyleyip hemen kapanmak ister. Belirsizlikten korkar. Yitip gidece?ini san?r. Belirsizlik, anlam yoksunlu?u de?ildir. Tam tersine 'çokanlaml?l?kt?r', s?n?rs?zl?kt?r. ?iir orda boy göstermek ister. Orda kendine gelir." ?lhan Berk, 'Poetika', sayfa 61

Le parole che definiscono i sentimenti sono molto vaghe; è meglio evitare il loro impiego e attenersi alle descrizioni degli oggetti, degli esseri umani e di se stessi, vale a dire alla descrizione fedele dei fatti.

Nous écrirons : « Nous mangeons beaucoup de noix », et non pas : « Nous aimons les noix », car le mot « aimer » n'est pas sûr, il manque de précision et d'objectivité. […] Les mots qui définissent les sentiments sont très vagues; il vaut mieux éviter leur emploi et s'en tenir à la description des objets, des êtres humains et de soi-même, c'est-à-dire à la description fidèles des faits.

Je parle le français depuis plus de trente ans, je l'écris depuis vingt ans, mais je ne le connais toujours pas. Je ne le parle pas sans fautes, et je ne peux l'écrire qu'avec l'aide de dictionnaires fréquemment consultés. C'est pour cette raison que j'appelle la langue française une langue ennemie, elle aussi. Il y a encore une autre raison, et c'est la plus grave : cette langue est en train de tuer ma langue maternelle. -L'Analphabète

If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong.

Jak looks at me mock-longingly and spouts three more random Spanish words: "Amor y cacahuetes." "Love and peanuts?" I ask. Jak nods. "Love and peanuts.

If you must come out and say it, do it in dialog, not narration.

Now, as we all know, a group of dolphins is called a pod, a group of crows is called a murder, and so on. Henceforth, I'd like all groups of people who call themselves reporters but are actually only bloggers writing listicles to be known as a scumbag.

La générosité universelle est une langue sans mots, une vue sans vision, un corps sans acte, une preuve sans argumentation, c'est une source qui vient de la mer et des mystères de la mer.

He has a splendid repertoire of 500 words. Why does he insist on using only 150?

Arabic equals Sanskrit plus history, equals Greek minus tragedy

He directed her attention to another question: "When I speak to you in your language, what happens to mine? Does my language continue to speak, but in silence?

j'ai rêvé , l'autre nuit, que mon corps était des mots.

When a politician says 'yes', it really means 'may be', when he/she says 'may be', it really means 'no'. If a politician says 'no', it means that he/she is not a real politician.

English is necessary as at present original works of science are in English. I believe that in two decades times original works of science will start coming out in our languages. Then we can move over like the Japanese.

And at school there was little or no time for those other stories, just an orderly accumulation of the real knowledge they brought to us, in books they made available to us, in a language they taught us.

At times, I have been convinced that books hold all the material of life--at least all the stuff that fits between an A and a Z.

I place my fingers upon these keys typing 2,000 dreams per minute and naked of spirit dance forth my cosmic vortex upon this crucifix called language.

Poetry is less a respecter of individual persons than it is a compassionate witness to the meanings of the secret language that beats inside human hearts, the music that pulses through human cries, and the divinity which shines love beyond the veils of human limitations.

Chi nata Pho pabohsa awpa heta ahy hmata âhnaw awpa châvei. Nâma nata keima tawhta tawhta pabohsana rai hria eimâ thao awpa a châ.

I see the power of music to connect cultures. I see it when I stand on a stage at a bluegrass festival … and I bust out into a song in Chinese, and everybody's eyes just pop wide open.

But behavior in the human being is sometimes a defense, a way of concealing motives and thoughts, as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication.

I loved those Latin words for their dignity, their foreignness, and the way my tongue had to wrap around them. I felt that in learning the special language of a scholarly order, I was amassing a kind of force. This was the pure and noble side of the world, uncorrupted by secrets and trickery. How extraordinary that a word could serve as a shorthand for an elaborate tale of disease.

He had a theory that bedroom Amharic and bedside Amharic were really the same thing: Please lie down. Take off your shirt. Open your mouth. Take a deep breath... The language of love was the same as the language of medicine.