Quotes About Language

Nothing is improbable until it moves into past tense.

The brain is a statistical, probabilistic system, with logic and mathematics running as higher-level processes. The computer is a logical, mathematical system, upon which higher-level statistical, probabilistic systems, such as human language and intelligence, could possibly be built.

The transposition of two Letters by five placeings will be sufficient for 32 Differences [and] by this Art a way is opened, whereby a man may expresse and signifie the intentions of his minde, at any distance of place, by objects … capable of a twofold difference onely,

The problem with communication is the illusion that is has occurred.

It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth, without making some other Englishman hate or despise him; English is not accessible even to Englishmen.

England and America are two countries separated by a common language.

No man fully capable of his own language ever masters another.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

English is the easiest language to speak badly.

Young. Old. Just Words.

Why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways?

I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?

When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to hear '27 months.' 'He's two' will do just fine. He's not a cheese. And I didn't really care in the first place.

Meow" means "woof" in cat.

There is evidently a set song and sentiment for every dance, for the songs are perfectly measured, and sung in exact time with the beat of the drum; and always with an uniform and invariable set of sounds and expressions, which clearly indicate certain sentiments, which are expressed by the voice, though sometimes not given in any known language whatever.

Sick I am of idle words, past all reconciling, Words that weary and perplex and pander and conceal, Wake the sounds that cannot lie, for all their sweet beguiling; The language one need fathom not, but only hear and feel.

Language is a poor thing. You fill your lungs with wind and shake a little slit in your throat, and make mouths, and that shakes the air; and the air shakes a pair of little drums in my head—a very complicated arrangement, with lots of bones behind—and my brain seizes your meaning in the rough. What a roundabout way, and what a waste of time.

A successful interpretive language both tolerates ambiguity and takes advantage of it. "A language which has maximum compression would actually be completely unsuited to conveying information beyond a certain degree of complexity, because you could never find out whether a text is right or wrong," von Neumann explained

But "it is almost universally agreed that the word justify (dikaio?) does not mean 'make righteous.'"21 Rather, it designates the status — the relationship of righteousness.

The Hebrew view of humanity is very different from the Greek view. There is no trace of dualism. The Hebrew word for body (gewiyyâ) occurs only fourteen times in the Old Testament5 and never stands in contrast to the soul (neeš).

The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.

I know that this traitor language can turn One truth into another or even Against itself. Yet, it is all we have.

Creative semantics is the key to contemporary government; it consists of talking in strange tongues lest the public learn the inevitable inconveniently early.

Because immigrants came here precisely for the social and economic benefits, refusing to learn English was self-defeating.