Quotes About Language

The evolution of sense is, in a sense, the evolution of nonsense.

Spontaneous eloquence seems to me a miracle.

Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

I will never go back. For the simple reason that all the Russia I need, after all, is with me--always with me. Her literature, her language, my own Russian childhood. I will never return, I will never surrender.

My mind speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear prefers French.

Everything he said should be followed by a big sic

The organs concerned in the production of English speech sounds are the larynx, the velum, the lips, the tongue (that punchinello in the troupe), and, last but not least, the lower jaw; mainly upon its overenergetic and somewhat ruminant motion did Pnin rely when translating in class passages in the Russian grammar or some poem by Pushkin. If his Russian was music, his English was murder.

Nemcsak a gondolatok, hanem egyszersmint a dolgok világában is élünk. A szavak tapasztalat nélkül értelmetlenek.

Szellemi lábjegyzetként, amely valamikor még jól jöhet, Vanban fölvillant a gondolat: a napszemüveg vagy bármely egyéb vizuális segédeszköz, amely kétségkívül eltorzítja a "tér"-érzékelésünket, vajon nincs-e hatással a beszédstílusunkra is.

As palavras sem a experiência não teriam qualquer significado.

for she soars with the wildest hyperbole when not tagging after the most pedestrian dictum.

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta

but as there is in the world not a single human who can speak my language;

Tenho de reproduzir o impacto aquela visão instantânea por meio de uma sequência de palavras, mas seu acúmulo físico na página faz com que se perca a nitidez da percepção global. p. 112

Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth.

Yaln?zca düÅŸünceler dünyas?nda deÄŸil, nesneler dünyas?nda da ya??yoruz biz. Deneyim olmaks?z?n kelimeler anlams?zd?r.

Mother, what's chtonic?" That, too, you'd explain, Appending: "Would you like a tangerine?" "No. Yes. And what does sempiternal mean?" You'd hesitate. And lustily I'd roar The answer from my desk through the closed door.

My private tragedy, which cannot, and indeed should not, be anybody's concern, is that I had to abandon my natural idiom, my untrammeled, rich, and infinitely docile Russian tongue for a second-rate brand of English, devoid of any of those apparatuses

I had to abandon my natural idiom, my untrammeled, rich, and infinitely docile Russian tongue for a second-rate brand of English, devoid of any of those apparatuses

Not knowing how to write, but sensing with my criminal intuition how words are combined, what one must do for a commonplace word to come alive and to share its neighbor's sheen, heat, shadow, while reflecting itself in its neighbor and renewing the neighboring word in the process, so that the whole line is live iridescence…

I do not know the words I must choose to make you understand why I was so tormented. Such words do not come in the small size that fits your everyday needs.

Vladimir Nabokov

She groped for words. I supplied them mentally. (He broke my heart. You merely broke my life).

Lolita, luz de mi vida, fuego de mis entrañas. Pecado mío alma mía . Lo-li-ta: la punta de la lengua emprende un viaje de tres pasos paladar abajo hasta apoyarse, en el tercero, en el borde de los dientes. Lo. Li. Ta.