Dictionary Quote by Steven Pinker

“People are under the impression that dictionaries legislate language. What a dictionary does is keep track of usages over time.”

Steven Pinker

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Dictionary Doe Impression Keep Language People Time Track Usage

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Forcing modern speakers of English to not - whoops, not to split an infinitive because it isn't done in Latin makes about as much…

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Consistent style prevents presentation from getting in the way of content.

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The supposedly immaterial soul, we now know, can be bisected with a knife, altered by chemicals, started or stopped by electricity, and extinguished by…

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I've never argued that humans are massively hot-wired. What I was trying to point out was that you can't understand how we learn unless…

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As many political writers have pointed out, commitment to political equality is not an empirical claim that people are clones.

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Since violence is largely a male pastime, cultures that empower women tend to move away from the glorification of violence and are less likely…

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When it comes to explaining human thought and behavior, the possibility that heredity plays any role at all still has the power to shock.…

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Morality is not just any old topic in psychology but close to our conception of the meaning of life. Moral goodness is what gives…

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“The biblical story of the binding of Isaac shows that human sacrifice was far from unthinkable in the 1st millennium BCE. The Israelites boasted…

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Part of the bargain of being alive is that one takes a chance at dying a premature or painful death, be it from violence,…

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In fact, without a specification of a creature's goals, the very idea of intelligence is meaningless. A toadstool could be given a genius award…

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“The obvious cure for the tragic shortcomings of human intuition in a high-tech world is education. And this offers priorities for educational policy: to…

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There is no such word as item girl in the dictionary. People have created this word and I don't believe that I am an…

Shefali Zariwala

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“I hereby propose the term “miserize”, as a verb for misery – referring to “to cause misery”.”

Abhijit Naskar

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The only place where compensation comes before service is in the dictionary or anywhere the government meddles.

Orrin Woodward

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What's a depression? The dictionary says a depression is a dent. And what's a dent? Everybody knows a dent is a hole. And what's…

Jimmy Durante

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Cults use our vocabulary, but they don't use our dictionary.

Charles R. Swindoll

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I've been in 'Who's Who' and I know what's what, but it'll be the first time I ever made the dictionary.

Mae West

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Everybody talks about being a role model. But if you look up the word 'role' in a dictionary, it describes playing a part. Everything…

Shaquille O'Neal

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Weird itself, even in the dictionary, is just something that is different and unexplainable. A weirdo is someone who follows their heart. Im definitely…

Kid Cudi

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I'm not sure what to call 'Lego Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary.' Nonfiction? Movie/toy fiction? But it is any Lego/'Star Wars' kid's dream. Call…

Jon Scieszka

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There is a word Kristos in the Greek dictionary, and this word is supposed to be borrowed from the Sanskrit word "Krishna," and Christ…

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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If you look in the dictionary under 'perfectionist,' you see Henry Selick correcting the definition of perfectionist in the dictionary. I mean, he is…

John Hodgman

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I'm pretty sure that if you looked up the word "nuts" in the dictionary, you'll find my picture. Just another fun feature of my…

James Patterson

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Dictionary Quote by Steven Pinker

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