2,489 Quotes About Language

the truly unique feature of our language is not its ability to transmitinformation about men and lions. Rather, it’s the ability to transmit informationabout things that do not exist at all. As far as we know, only Sapiens can talkabout entire kinds of entities that they have never seen, touched or smelled.

This is a conjuring trick, enabling Fitzgerald to have it both ways. The insufficiency of language becomes, in his hands, not a tragedy of human inarticulacy, but a romance of possibility.

Second-guessing a decision made by a programming-language designer is the first step on the road to becoming one.

Statt der typischen Kehllaute hatte Sofi Knacklaute gehört. War das Berberisch? Sie hoffte auf Äthiopisch.

Since we routinely express ideas and feelings in language, we may be forgiven for assigning a role to it, but isn't it remarkable how often we struggle to find our words? It's not that we don't know what we thought or felt, but we just can't put our verbal finger on it. This would of course be wholly unnecessary if thoughts and feelings were linguistic products to begin with. In that case, we'd expect a waterfall of words!

Either only English or only Bengali will make attitude but the mixture of these wont make an attitude, its just an excuse.

When we examine common words, we find that, broadly speaking, proper names stand for particulars, while other substantives, adjectives, prepositions, and verbs stand for universals. Pronouns stand for particulars, but are ambiguous: it is only by the context or the circumstances that we know the pronoun's meaning. Every sentence must contain at least one universal.

Biting into a samosa is like trying to pronounce words in English, you have to shape your mouth in a way to get every bit.

Touch me again with your speaking. The hectic crowded feeling of being: I would drink it all in. Brimming with things that swell, and make me flip over on myself: elation and jealousy and spasms of love.