Quotes About Language

A palindrome is a word or pattern that instead of developing in different directions it folds in on itself so that the beginning and end mirror each other, that they are the same.

If you have a child with autism, and he or she has good intelligence, with no delay in language learning maybe there is an advantage to autism as well? Maybe it gives them a better understanding of mathematics, or science? After all, the essence of science and the essence of autism is to notice patterns that others have not noticed.

Metaphor is not just the detection of patterns; it is the creation of patterns.

Spanglish is very natural. It's however it comes out. But there are a few patterns that all of us, especially Mexican-American writers, just noticed in how we utilized Spanglish. It comes out of necessity when you can't find the next word. You go to whatever language will serve you best.

Paul is an awful name. I might as well be Bob.

I enjoy sitting beside Paul Merson every Saturday and listening to his unique pronunciation of foreign names. That really tickles me.

The use of food metaphors is really well established English... Somebody is a peach, a hot tamale.

I never dream in French, but certain French words seem better or more fun than English words - like 'pois chiches' for chick peas!

Most people, throughout history, haven't learned one language to the exclusion of another. You learn to speak differently to a peasant and to a shoemaker. You speak differently to your mother, who comes from Burgundy, and to your father, who comes from Swabia.

Words are not pebbles in alien juxtaposition.

I'm absolutely pedantic about language; it must go back to my schools.

I sometimes think it is because they are so bad at expressing themselves verbally that writers take to pen and paper in the first place.

People love to talk about the things that are important to them, but oftentimes as a journalist, if you're entering a world that's pretty esoteric and difficult to penetrate and has many barriers to outsiders, then the people inside that world just don't have the same language as you do.

There's what people say, and there's what people mean, and I like to explore the difference between the two.

Lots of English people say exactly the opposite of what they mean.

Auditioning for a couple of years, 99 per cent of the time you are doing an American accent.

I watch a lot of Hindi films. I live in Hyderabad, where 60 per cent of the people speak Hindi.

What we perceive things to be when they come out of our mouth is not what the listener perceives it to be. They think it differently. They're not your blood. They're not your mind. You get in an argument.

Because I'm a synesthete I see characters in colors and I perceive a W as green.

Should such an ignorant people lead the world? How did it come to this in the first place? 82 percent of us don't even have a passport! Just a handful can speak a language other than English.

I'm sure 50 percent of television ads use rhyme.

It's maybe a better thought to change the perception of an accent than to avoid it all together.

In a sense, words are encyclopedias of ignorance because they freeze perceptions at one moment in history and then insist we continue to use these frozen perceptions when we should be doing better.

Key metaphors help determine what and how we perceive and how we think about our perceptions.