Quotes About Linguistics

Nadie inventó el subjuntivo ni la conjunción copulativa. Fue una gigantesca interacción comunicativa, expresiva, hiriente o amorosa a la que pulió las herramientas lingüísticas.

plural is generally formed from the singular by the addition of s or es.

A Pronoun is a word used for or instead of a noun to keep us from repeating the same noun too often. Pronouns, like nouns, have case, number, gender and person. There are three kinds of pronouns, personal, relative and adjective.

Knavery?" Art3mis said after she'd finished reading it. "Were you using a thesaurus when you wrote this?

Le napolitain sait fustiger. Je ne ressens la morsure d'une insulte dans aucune autre langue. M'en lancer une en italien, c'est comme jeter une pierre sur mon ombre et pas sur mon corps.

As a linguist suggests: " There are messages primarily serving to establish, to prolong, or to discontinue communication, to check whether the channel works (" Hello, do you hear me?"), to attract the attention of the interlocutor or to confirm his continued attention (" Are you listening?" or in Shakespearean diction, "Lend me your ears!"— and on the other end of the wire "Um-hum!").

Women apologize as often to their friends as to strangers. Men rarely apologize to their friends. "Men," the linguist Janet Homes writes, "seem to avoid apologies where possible.

Telling a joke is like doing a linguistic pirouette. If you fall flat, it means not only that you don't have the wherewithal to do it well but also that you have misjudged your own skill, that you are fool enough to undertake something you can't finish -- and that lack of self-control or self-knowledge is a lack of grace.

I have no special desire to go crawl around in caves, but I really like the word [spelunking] and want to use it in conversation. I do a lot of things just to use words I like.

It is one of the aims of linguistics to define itself, to recognise what belongs within its domain. In those cases where it relies upon psychology, it will do so indirectly, remaining independent.

If a term becomes too popular, its irritant value is ramped up. The impulse is then to replace it with something else.

Lexicographers are language reporters.

Also, I think having a musicality about me that helps in identifying different things in languages and getting them right.

If I could talk in only one language for the rest of my life, it'd be Tamil.

Having a facility for language is an important part of being an author.

In a sense, every form of expression is imposed upon one by social factors, one's own language above all.

I grew up in a house where language was appreciated and cared about. I'm sure that, although I wasn't aware of it at the time, it must have made an impression on me.

The dictionary is like a time capsule of all of human thinking ever since words began to be written down. And exploring where words have come from can increase your understanding of the words themselves and expand your understanding of how to use the words, and all of this change happens in your thinking when you read the words.

It's hard to learn an American accent. Some of the Rs at the ends of words are incredibly hard.

Il existe onze mots en gaélique pour définir les différentes sortes de pluie, comme il y en a quatorze au Québec pour décrire la neige dans tous ses états.

I break up the English a little bit. I don't mean to do it, but it just comes out that way.

Betty G. Birney

Texting is fingered speech. Now we can write the way we talk.

Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.