#language

The language I learned was pretty, full of passivity and silence. I had no proper language for the issues of blood and anger, yet much of what went on when I was a child made me angry. There were no words a nice girl could use to describe anger; her options were to remain silent or to use indiscreet language, the kind that curls in a room like smoke and soon disappears. We girls were taught to speak safely and to bandage our anger with polite, pretty words. We might talk about the anger only in questions and sighs, unable to curse, yell or break windows in the beautiful garden. ↗

— Beth Bagley

#language #silencing #anger

...hear the language, this English, double-jointed as Bedivere's limbs. It only sounds awkward. In its ability to join one concept to another as with pegs, its dependent clauses, figures of speech and cadenced alliteration, a man can say one thing five ways and yet imply a sixth; can change meaning with an inflection, a pause or a deliberate misuse of a word, can mock, scorn and flay an opponent without uttering one overt insult. ↗

— Parke Godwin

#change

Zoë threw up her hands in exasperation. "I hate this language. It changes too often! ↗

— Rick Riordan

#zoe-nightshade #change

How many Lojbanists does it take to change a broken light-bulb?” goes the old Lojban joke. “Two: one to decide what to change it into and one to decide what kind of bulb emits broken light. ↗

— Arika Okrent

#language #linguistics #lojban #change

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say infinitely when you mean very; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. ↗

— C.S. Lewis

#exageration #language #on-writing #power-of-words #superlatives

Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation. ↗

— Douglas Adams

#power-of-words #communication

For in spite of language, in spite of intelligence and intuition and sympathy, one can never really communicate anything to anybody. ↗

— Aldous Huxley

#inadequacy-of-words #language #communication

Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own. ↗

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

#knowledge #languages #travel #understanding #communication

When I say or write something, there are actually a whole lot of different things I am communicating. The propositional content (i.e., the verbal information I'm trying to convey) is only one part of it. Another part is stuff about me, the communicator. Everyone knows this. It's a function of the fact there are so many different well-formed ways to say the same basic thing, from e.g. "I was attacked by a bear!" to "Goddamn bear tried to kill me!" to "That ursine juggernaut did essay to sup upon my person!" and so on. ↗

— David Foster Wallace

#communication #language #communication

Words have power. ↗

— Mira Grant

#language #persuasion #power #words #communication