Quotes About Linguistics

I welcome new words, or old words used in new ways, provided the result is more precision, added color or greater expressiveness.

I wish that I spoke more languages. I speak a couple languages, but not well enough to really dub myself. French is really the only one, and it's a difficult thing.

At home I can become lazy and if a Welsh word is really long, I just replace it with English.

Youthquake' wasn't an entirely predictable choice for Oxford's Word of 2017. It hasn't been on the lips of an entire nation, nor is it new. But it amply fulfilled the criteria Oxford requires for selection.

I'm pretty good with languages.

I love the word 'dearth,' by the way. It's one of my favorite words.

I just love dialects; they're really fun.

If you have a big enough dictionary, just about everything is a word.

Most of the words you know and love and use every day are not words you learned by looking them up in a dictionary and reading a definition.

Don't hate the word, playa; hate the dictionary.

I've always been in love with language. My favorite book is a dictionary. I have always loved words.

A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas.

Funny how words in one language get used in another language. For example, 'scotch' in Russian is tape and 'pampers' means diapers.

I have an acquired taste for language, yet it is seldom an actual focus of mine.

The words 'maybe' and 'perhaps' are literally the same - the flavor is the same, the educational level is the same. But you just know when to use maybe and when to use perhaps. I think it's because of this: You get to know the tastes or musical tastes of words themselves, and this informs your choice, whether you use them or not.

One of the series I like is D.M. Cornish's 'Monster Blood Tattoo,' in which he creates a whole language. Kids who are reading that are building a language in their heads. There's no real cognitive difference. I think kids are excited by language, and they're not always given credit for that.

The thing that's depressing is teaching graduate students today and discovering that they don't know simple elemental facts of grammar. They really do not know how to scan a line; they've never been taught to scan a line. Many of them don't know the difference between 'lie' and 'lay,' let alone 'its' and 'it's.' And they're in graduate school!

It is no secret that the fruits of language study are in no sort of relation to the labour spent on teaching and learning them.

It would be good if teachers could genuinely understand that black English is not mistakes, it's just different English, and that what you want to do is add an additional dialect to black students' repertoire rather than teaching them out of what's thought of as a bad habit, like sloppy posture or chewing with your mouth open.

Don't gobblefunk around with words.

However, it may come as a surprise to know that in the Hebrew language the word for "service" is the same word used for "worship.

Sir, I can use profanity in more than a thousand languages, some having curses that will addle an egg at a hundred paces.

language is sacred. It has glory, even in ordinary speech. The way most people use it, it's like a winged horse pulling a junk wagon.

Making a--new--excuse me. Did you say language? Yes. What's the matter with English? Isn't it good enough for you, you incomprehensible little being?