Quotes About Language

Mångata. Em sueco, o reflexo da Lua que forma uma estrada na água.

Joder, padre. Es usted el único maldito políglota al que no le gusta hablar.

Que los limites de tu lenguaje son los lìmites de tu mundo. Aun sin expresarlo en estos términos, cualquier fanàtico de la lectura lo comprende de forma intuitiva, y por eso nunca puede leer lo suficiente.

Señora, inspector. Lo de señorita es machista.

Bakiginin. En carelio, idioma que se habla desde el golfo de Finlandia hasta el mar Blanco, la tristeza del constructor de paredes. El contraste entre la necesidad de alejar a todo el mundo de tu vida, y la imposibilidad de hacerlo.

El lenguaje de la política -en contra de sus propias intenciones- suele ser impreciso y ambiguo, de ahí el riesgo de su transformación, por pereza mental o por motivos utilitarios, en etiquetas o fórmulas estereotipadas, en eslóganes publicitarios o simples estribillos que no dicen nada.

El lenguaje no es una propiedad del individuo, sino de la colectividad. No es que un individuo se comunique bien; sería mejor decir que un grupo está bien comunicado. La capacidad para compartir y transmitir información entre individuos y entre generaciones por la vía del lenguaje confiere una gran ventaja adaptativa al grupo en su conjunto, no al individuo aislado.

Literature is a state of culture, poetry is a state of grace, before and after culture.

Words are only words

I must try to be charitable, Caroline thought: probably she doesn't mean to sound as if she is continually translating from Latin.

I have just had a thought about the cut of the Minerva's spanker-boom.' 'How little I understand of that sentence,' she said, admiring his drawing. 'And is there truly something on a ship called a f'c'sle? It seems to have an unwarranted excess of apostrophes. My suspicion is that when we landlubbers are not by, seamen do not use these words at all and talk quite normally.

How do you say yoo-hoo in Arabic?" "I believe that yoo-hoo could be part of a universal language," Dan said. "Like ow. Or- you're stepping on my foot." "That's universal?" "No, you're stepping on my foot. Ow." Amy moved.

Oh, terrific," Dan muttered. "Just what we need. Another code! Why can't people just say what they mean? Why can't they say THE MAP IS IN THE DESK?

Ticket and passport. We're crossing the border." "Oh. Sorry." Dan handed the conductor his ticket. " Grazie ." " De nada ," Dan said. "That's Spanish," Amy whispered. "No, it's whatever ," Dan said. "I'm too tired to think.

You cannot answer a question that you cannot ask, and you cannot ask a question that you have no words for.

My emphasis on language also comes from a deep conviction that language shapes our thoughts. You cannot answer a question that you cannot ask, and you cannot ask a question that you have no words for.

Despite heroic efforts by the geneticist Sewall Wright (1889–1988), causal vocabulary was virtually prohibited for more than half a century. And when you prohibit speech, you prohibit thought and stifle principles, methods, and tools.

The violence of language consists in its effort to capture the ineffable and, hence, to destroy it, to seize hold of that which must remain elusive for language to operate as a living thing.

An orange day, a happy day, a brand-new day in the secret language that only the three of us seemed to understand. "Mmmmm," Daddy said, taking a bite of his roll. "Orange wakes you up, but cinnamon makes you remember.

He looked for gestures, afraid of words

The oral examination was given in two parts. The first required that the candidate demonstrate a proficiency in a chosen foreign language and was scored in an objective manner. The second portion gave the State Department the opportunity to judge the applicant's ability to think on her feet. These answers by their very nature were highly subjective.

I have tried to communicate my ideas in a language that preserves connections, a language that is faithful both to the dispassionate, reasoned traditions of my profession and to the passionate claims of people who have been violated and outraged. I have tried to find a language that can withstand the imperatives of doublethink and allows all of us to come a little closer to facing the unspeakable.

Parents should conduct their arguments in quiet, respectful tones, but in a foreign language. You'd be surprised what an inducement that is to the education of children.

I can write in Latin, French, and common English. I will not, however, write in German; it is a barbaric tongue that curdles the ink.