Linguist Quotes

Ludoviko Lazaro Zamenhof

J. M. Coetzee

Octavio Paz

Sigrid Undset

Ferdinand de Saussure

Julio Cortázar

Machado de Assis

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
Hold me with Thy powerful hand;
Bread of heaven!
Feed me till I want no more.

William Williams Pantycelyn

Here I begin to know that blessedness is what can be snatched out the passing day and put away to think of afterwards.

In contemporary society, advertising is everywhere. We cannot walk down the street, shop, watch television, go through our mail, log on to the Internet, read a newspaper or take a train without encountering it. Whether we are alone, with our friends or family, or in a crowd, advertising is always with us, if only on the label of something we are using.

A physical system is just that: a physical system. What is systematized is matter itself, and the processes in which the system is realized are also material. But a biological system is more complex: it is both biological and physical — it is matter with the added component of life; and a social system is more complex still: it is physical, and biological, with the added component of social order, or value. … A semiotic system is still one step further in complexity: it is physical, and biological, and social —and also semiotic: what is being systematized is meaning. In evolutionary terms, it is a system of the fourth order of complexity

Michael Halliday

We are not so naive as some think of us; we do not believe that a neutral base will turn men into angels; we know quite well that the people who are evil will still be evil; but we believe that communication and relationships based on a neutral base will at least do away with the great mass of brutality and crimes which are caused not by ill will, but simply by mutual misunderstandings and impositions.

Ludoviko Lazaro Zamenhof

If you give yourself that short little moment of thinking, then you cannot miss it.

Girls are not accustomed to jockeying for status in an obvious way; they are more concerned that they be liked.

Alchemy is a science, not yet known but which may become known.

Athanasius Kircher

Pragmatics studies the factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction and the effects of our choice on others.

In English we have noticed twenty-five consonant and about twenty vowel phonemes. Although individual pronunciations may differ, the phonemic habits of the same group or class will be similar. They will make similar use of heterophony. Words not phonetically separated — that is, homophones — may be separated by function or by experiential context

John Rupert Firth

It becomes necessary to realize that the body is not conscious, but we are conscious of the body, also that the mind is not conscious but we are conscious of the mind.

Barefoot girl-child
weeping at her grandma's door,
her disquiet deep:
autumn's limping in. No beauty in a cold heart...
the cock won't crow again.
"Who are you sorry for, so?"
"Everyone," she says.

The wisdom obtained in the higher states of consciousness is different from that obtained by inference and testimony as it refers to particulars.

I have resisted the term sociolinguistics for many years, since it implies that there can be a successful linguistic theory or practice which is not social.

There is no absolute virtue in iambic pentameter as such.. however well they may be done. There is no immediate virtue to rhythm even. These things are merely a means to an end.

Heart weeps. Head tries to help heart. Head tells heart how it is, again: You will lose the ones you love. They will all go. But even the earth will go, someday. Heart feels better, then. But the words of head do not remain long in the ears of heart. Heart is so new to this. I want them back, says heart. Head is all heart has. Help, head. Help heart.

When writing a poem, I feel like I'm translating. And when I'm translating, I feel like I'm writing.

Refinement is just as much a Christian grace in a man as in a woman; but he is not such a hateful, unsexed creature without it as a woman is.

Charlotte Mary Yonge

As a scientist, objectivity is one of my most deeply held values. If we could just try harder, I once thought, surely we could each see the world as others see it and learn to respect one another's views more readily. But I learned from the Pirahas, our expectations, our culture, and our experiences can render even perceptions of the environment nearly incommensurable cross-culturally.

It is generally believed that scientific talent reveals itself in early youth. [...] This was certainly not my case. I somehow slid into my scientific profession. My mother wished for me to become a physician, just like my father. [...] I myself wanted to be a lawyer, defender of the unjustly accused. But my career is the result of political circumstances, academic possibilities, and lucky accidents.

If we can't be a great nation in population we can be a great nation in spirit!

This period is characterized by a diversity of textual transmissions undreamed of two decades ago.

Moshe Goshen-Gottstein

The nomadic Semite... roves as a herdsman, partaking of Allah's hospitality.

Cyrus H. Gordon

It's a good thing when you don't dare do something if you don't think it's right. But it's not good when you think something's not right because you don't dare do it.

A little philosophy carries a man from God, but a great deal brings him back again.