Quotes About Language

Continuându-ÅŸi lectura, Domnul Smith, plesc?ie.

PUPIL: Are the roots of words square? PROFESSOR: Square or cube. That depends. PUPIL: I've got a toothache.

PROFESSOR: Good, let's go on. I tell you, let's go on . . . How would you say, for example, in French: the roses of my grandmother are as yellow as my grandfather who was Asiatic?

He would say ect. instead of ect., and thus instead of ect., instead of ect. and thus and so forth!

Says Robert Roth in Story and Reality: "For the Greeks . . . words were definitions. . . . For the Hebrews, on the contrary, words were descriptions." 14

It is a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word.

A metaphor has three parts: the object we are trying to describe, the term we use to describe it, and the idea that is conveyed when the two come together. In this, a metaphor is itself a metaphor for the Trinity. In the Trinity, the object we are trying to describe is God the Father, the term we use to describe it is Jesus the Son, and when we grasp that idea, we are filled with the Spirit.

Metaphor is even built into the basic structure of creation. DNA is a code. A code is a kind of language. DNA expresses an idea—the idea of a man and a woman together—and brings it into being as you or me.

It seems that after the African migration, small numbers of Homo sapiens were better adapted to manage these shifts in climate than earlier versions of human had been. If so, this happened not because of classic Darwinian evolution (there wasn't time) but because of the accelerated development caused by culture – language, learning, copying, remembering.

Almost five hundred years ago, John Wilkins, a philosopher and bishop, pushed heavily for the written language to adopt an upside-down exclamation point at the end of a sentence to indicate irony. Think of how many online feuds that could have prevented.

polyglot, attempts to draw them into conversation.

Don't be crude, Professor. Profanity is one contest you will not win with me.

The greatest tie of all is language . . . Words are the only things that last forever. The most tremendous monuments or prodigies of engineering crumble under the hand of time. The Pyramids moulder, the bridges rust, the canals fill up, grass covers the railway track; but words spoken two or three thousand years ago remain with us now, not as mere relics of the past, but with all their pristine vital force.

If an English writer cannot say what he has to say in English, and in simple English, depend upon it, it is probably not worth saying

The greatest tie of all is language . . . Words are the only things that last forever. The most tremendous monuments or prodigies of engineering crumble under the hand of time. The Pyramids moulder, the bridges rust, the canals fill up, grass covers the railway track; but words spoken two or three thousand years ago remain with us now, not as mere relics of the past, but with all their pristine vital force.'204

When General Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult, who was in charge at Saint-Omer (77 letters) reported that it was impossible to embark the entire force in twenty-four hours, Napoleon expostulated, 'Impossible, sir! I am not acquainted with the word; it is not in the French language, erase it from your dictionary.

Palabras pulcramente escogidas; frases de cuidada estructura; acumulación argumental; empleo de la analogía; despliegue de excentricidades... Esos son los cinco mimbres retóricos del mayor orador de su generación.

the message 'Stay put' which would be sent out by the Ministry of Information in the event of a German invasion. 'First of all, it is American slang; secondly, it does not express the fact. The people have not been "put" anywhere. What is the matter with "Stand fast", or "Stand firm"? Of the two I prefer the latter.

I shot Jin a look. I don't know what kind of look it was. I'm not sure there's a word for a combination of shock, horror, and admiration occurring all at once. I'm going with shorrorulation. If they can make up words, so can I.

I'd always thought "die" would have more symmetry in the last line, but when I'd brought it up to my parents, they'd accused me of being needlessly fatalistic.

Unintentional puns are the best.

because of the ease with which Japanese office workers communicate, they have, in fact, been slow to embrace electronic mail.

I was certain about this: In the best new language, there would be no words for me or you. Those words have caused all the trouble started by the old languages. In any new language, there should only be we.

after midnight Just words. No more pictures. No charts or plays or poems. Now it's just about the words.