Quotes About Language

Ben Yagoda's fine book When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It.

parts of speech.

El verbo puede crearse su propia carne, como el caracol su concha: pero la carne sola jamás creará al verbo, y como la estatua existirá sin alma.

If we do not get No Child Left Behind right for Limited English Proficient students, the law will be a failure for most schools in the 15th Congressional District, and for many across the nation.

Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.

I am, by calling, a dealer in words; and words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.

Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.

silence is the language of god, all else is poor translation.

I barely speak English, but I'm fluent in throwing shade.

I'm not a great poetry fan.

Everybody at home speaks mandarin except me.

No one's going to be able to operate without a grounding in the basic sciences. Language would be helpful, although English is becoming increasingly international. And travel. You have to have a global attitude.

M]odern physics has definitely decided for Plato. For the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense of the word: they are forms, structures, or – in Plato's sense – Ideas, which can be unambiguously spoken of only in the language of mathematics.

Extended minds are implicit in our language. The words "attention" and "intention" come from the Latin root tendere, to stretch, as in "tense" and "tension." "Attention" is ad + tendere, "to stretch toward"; "intention," in + tendere, "to stretch into.

Carter Please tell me you speak English. I'm Detective Carter. Do you speaka any English Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth

We said nothing for some time but we couldn't have been more eloquent.

The European languages have their strengths, but for the purposes of cursing out loud you can't beat some of the Indian languages for range and originality.

It comes down to this: Ruby is a language for grown-ups; it gives you the tools for writing clear and concise code. It's up to you to use them.

I couldn't possibly have sex with someone with such a slender grasp on grammar!

After all, when you come right down to it, how many people speak the same language even when they speak the same language?

Rose: 'If you are an alien, how come you sound like you're from the north?' Doctor: 'Lots of planets have a north!

I fell on my feet and found my bearings because of these. I could talk to them. They listened and answered, for or against, but always weighing what they had heard, unlike my mother, who used language for manipulation, not to express an opinion or state a fact. What sounded like a fact might be a lie, and every opinion was tailored for the moment.

big stories love little words to fly around in

The ancient Greeks believed that when you read aloud, it was actually the dead, borrowing your tongue, in order to speak again.