Quotes About Language

a seconda di come trattiamo il linguaggio e la scrittura, così verremo trattati.

Explicar, explicar —gruñía Etienne—. Ustedes si no nombran las cosas ni siquiera las ven. Y esto se llama perro y esto se llama casa, como decía el de Duino. Perico, hay que mostrar, no explicar. Pinto, ergo soy.

las palabras decidieron el curso de las acciones, tal como suele ocurrir en esta vida.

Quello che mi piace del tuo corpo è il sesso Quello che mi piace del tuo sesso è la bocca Quello che mi piace della tua bocca è la lingua Quello che mi piace della tua lingua è la parola

Messieurs les douaniers, assez de conneries, ouvrez d'une bonne fois le colis, nom de Dieu, merde alors

Cada vez iré sintiendo menos y recordando más, pero qué es el recuerdo sino el idioma de los sentimientos

Estoy harto de palabras, perras sedientas!

nueva alquimia del verbo

No me importa si lo digo mal y te hacen reír mis palabras. Yo te hablo como puedo, no sé decir lo que siento.

But what is memory if not the language of feeling, a dictionary of faces and days and smells which repeat themselves like the verbs and adjectives in a speech, sneaking in behind the thing itself,into the pure present, making us sad or teaching us vicariously...

Chaque fois je vais sentir moins et souvenant plus, mais quelle est la mémoire, mais le langage des sentiments, un dictionnaire des visages et des jours et des parfums qui reviennent comme des verbes et des adjectifs dans la parole." Marelle

How could I be sure of these teeangers' national origin? Was I using names of origin to give them a place instead, when it was clear that they were moving toward a new language?

As you can see, the hyphen is a nasty, tricky, evil little mark that gets its kicks igniting arguments in newsrooms and trying to make everyone in the English-speaking world look like an idiot - it's the Bill Maher of punctuation.

Is that a dangler in your memo or are you just glad to see me?

Subordinating conjunctions are a much larger set. They include after, although, as, because, before, if, since, than, though, unless, until, when, and while.

Subordinating conjunctions relegate clauses to a lower grammatical status. Subordination means that what was a whole sentence is whole no more. It's a mere subordinate clause.

Amateur grammar snobs are a lot like amateur gynecologists—they're everywhere, they're all too eager to offer their services, and they're anything but gentle.

The job of a subordinating conjunction is (drum roll, please) to subordinate. It relegates a clause to a lower grammatical status in the sentence.

Language is political. That's why you and me, my Brother and Sister, that's why we supposed to choke our natural self into the weird, lying, barbarous, unreal, white speech and writing habits that the schools lay down like holy law. Because, in other words, the powerful don't play; they mean to keep that power, and those who are the powerless (you and me) better shape up --mimic/ape/suck --in the very image of the powerful, or the powerful will destroy you --you and our children.

Entonces cállate la fucking boca.

Sure, I liked girls but I was always too terrified to speak to them unless we were arguing or I was calling them stupidos, which was one of my favorite words that year.

The fact that I am writing to you in English already falsifies what I wanted to tell you. My subject: how to explain to you that I don't belong to English though I belong nowhere else Gustavo Pérez Firmat

How much English do you know? None, Papi said after a moment. Eulalio shook his head. Papi met Eulalio last and liked him least.

Hail, Dog of God, was how he welcomed me my first day in Demarest. Took a week before I figured out what the hell he meant. God. Domini. Dog. Canis. Hail, Dominicanis.