Quotes About Language

Gender-specific words (councilwoman, businessman, altar girl) are neither good nor bad in themselves, but they sometimes identify and even emphasize a person's sex when it is not necessary (and is sometimes even objectionable) to do so. Male and female versions of a root word are also likely to be weighted quite differently (governor/governess, master/mistress).

One problem with gender-free terms, however, is that they sometimes obscure reality. Battered spouse implies that men and women are equally battered; this is far from true. Parent is too often taken to mean mother and obscures the fact that more and more fathers are involved in parenting;

the story of teachers who took two groups of children to opposite ends of the playground: one group was told they were going to build "snowmen"; they made 11 snowmen and 1 snowwoman. The other group was told they were going to build "snow figures"; that group made 5 snowmen, 3 snowwomen, 2 snow dogs, 1 snow horse, and 1 snow spaceship.

He often devised sentences that began with his favorite capitals. Rs and Qs were his art.

Words The word used for ejaculation—baashkizige—is also used for shooting off a gun. The word used for condom—biinda'oojigan—means gun case. Millie entered these words into her notebook. Fascinating.

In English there was a word for every object. In Ojibwe there was a word for every action. English had more shades of personal emotion, but Ojibwe had more shades of family relationships.

English is an all-devouring language that has moved across North America like the fabulous plagues of locusts that darkened the sky and devoured even the handles of rakes and hoes. Yet the omnivorous nature of a colonial language is a writer's gift. Raised in the English language, I partake of a mongrel feast.

So maybe we are on the wrong side of the English language.

They sat on chairs made of air and fanned their faces with transparent leaves. They spoke in both languages. We love you, don't cry. Sorrow eats time. Be patient. Time eats sorrow.

Thus was her salvation composed of the very great and very small. The vast comfort of a God who comforted her in a language other than her own. The bread of life. The gold orange of washed carrots and the taste of salt.

There's something very pleasant about a language you don't understand... It's like a fog swirling around in our thoughts... It's nice, it's like a dream, there's really nothing better... It's fine as long as the words stay in the dream...

When you stop to examine the way in which words are formed and uttered, our sentences are hard put to it to survive the disaster of their slobbery origins. The mechanical effort of conversation is nastier and more complicated than defecation.

Ce qu'est beau dans le monde animal c'est qu'ils savent sans se dire, tout et tout !... et de très loin ! à vitesse-lumière !... nous avec la tête pleine de mots, effrayant le mal qu'on se donne pour s'emberlifiquer en pire ! plus rien savoir !... tout barafouiller, rien saisir !... si on se l'agite! la grosse nénette !... pas un mili d'onde !... tout nous frise !... file !...

The mechanical effort of conversation is nastier and more complicated than defecation.

We're not suspicious enough of words, and calamity strikes. Certain

S rije?ima nikad nismo dovoljno na oprezu, rije?i se ?ine posve ništavne, svakako bezopasne, djeluju kao kakvi mali vjetrovi, mali glasovi iz usta, ni vru?i ni hladni, i lako hvatani ?im dopru kroz uho u golemu, sivu mlitavu dosadu mozga. Ne zaziremo od njih, rije?i, i eto ti nesre?e!

Entre el penis i les matemàtiques, senyor Baryton, no hi ha res! Res! Hi ha el buit!

ils fracassaient autour d'eux un idiome de castagnettes en brandissant au-dessus de leurs têtes des mains crispées dans un vent d'arguments.

But they'd been blocked by the trauma, a force field created by the violence of that day, impermeable to words. Each of them occupied her own dark solitude; feelings could break through, but language couldn't.

Language supplies us with ways to express ever subtler levels of meaning, but does that imply language gives meaning, or robs us of it when we are at a loss to name things?

Living in a country where I didn't speak the language suited me just fine. Everything was an adventure, including buying milk at the corner store. I developed the art of getting lost... It was a safe kind of chaos, and at some point that I was cultivating my 'aloneness' in this strange place as a method for putting off loneliness.

E la gente ride di me perché uso parole grosse. Ma se si hanno in testa idee grosse, bisogna usare parole grosse per esprimerle, non trova?

If you have big ideas you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?

Quando aprendemos que a linguagem nos foi dada para que possamos esconder nossos pensamentos, nos tornamos menos interessantes.- Anne