“Though it's true that (dictionary-maker Samuel) Johnson sometimes seem to feel that the language was in decline, he didn't rail against it with (Jonathan) Swift's anger. Instead, he hoped the example of his dictionary would temper that change by providing… — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“Like so many of his successors in the language-crank world today, though, (Jonathan) Swift not only loathes (the) banal and common change (language); he ascribes it to moral failing.” — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“Peeves are like that: my peeves are law, yours are unhealthy obsessions.” — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“Only 8000 different words appear in the Hebrew Bible, compared to the 20,000 or more that the average adult needs to know in most languages.” — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“If you look at the historical record, you will find that language has always been in decline. Which means, really, and it never has.” — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“to form such harsh unharmonious Sounds, that none but a Northern Ear could endure: They” — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“Arguments about language are usually arguments about politics, disguised and channeled through one of our most distinctive markers of identity.” — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“Afrikaans was the language of the white minority in South Africa, and the forced learning of it created resentment among blacks. Even so, Nelson… — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“I think flexibility, humility, and multilingualism should take the place of sticklerism, arrogance, and nationalism when we think about language. I” — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“Virtually anything can be translated—“X cannot be translated” usually means nothing more exciting than “We have a word, X, that you need three or… — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“America’s short-lived experiment with language planning is so obscure to modern memory that while the Klingon language has a 3,000-word entry on Wikipedia, as… — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“I'd start to explain with the outward sheepish and inner pride of the nerd.” — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“Knowing the difference between “infer” and “imply” is no more likely to create a skeptical, bullshit-detecting citizen than knowing the atomic weight of uranium… — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“It is possible to communicate beautifully or boringly, in every language on Earth. But people don't like to believe this. They make self-aggrandizing myths… — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“Language is not law; it is in fact a lot like music. Speech is jazz – first you learn the basic rules, and then… — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“Other “no-word-for” and “can’t-be-translated” myths include the stories that the Irish have no word for “sex” or even “yes” (how, one wonders, is there… — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
“Bryson says we have no word for the Danish hygge, then goes on to tell us exactly what it means: “instantly satisfying and cozy”… — Robert Lane Greene Copy Share Image
