#vocabulary

Sound is the vocabulary of nature. ↗

— Pierre Schaeffer

#sound #vocabulary

There is a way in which all writing is connected. In a second language, for example, a workshop can liberate the students' use of the vocabulary they're acquiring. ↗

— Marilyn Hacker

#connected #example #for example #language #liberate

Human vocabulary is still not capable, and probably never will be, of knowing, recognizing, and communicating everything that can be humanly experienced and felt. Some say that the main cause of this very serious difficulty lies in the fact that human beings are basically made of clay, which, as the encyclopedias helpfully explain, is a detrital sedimentary rock made up of tiny mineral fragments measuring one two hundred and fifty-sixths of a millimeter. Until now, despite long linguistic study, no one has managed to come up with a name for this. ↗

— José Saramago

#vocabulary #communication

Metaphor isn't just decorative language. If it were, it wouldn't scare us so much. . . . Colorful language threatens some people, who associate it, I think, with a kind of eroticism (playing with language in public = playing with yourself), and with extra expense (having to sense or feel more). I don't share that opinion. Why reduce life to a monotone? Is that truer to the experience of being alive? I don't think so. It robs us of life's many textures. Language provides an abundance of words to keep us company on our travels. But we're losing words at a reckless pace, the national vocabulary is shrinking. Most Americans use only several hundred words or so. Frugality has its place, but not in the larder of language. We rely on words to help us detail how we feel, what we once felt, what we can feel. When the blood drains out of language, one's experience of life weakens and grows pale. It's not simply a dumbing down, but a numbing. ↗

— Diane Ackerman

#metaphor #vocabulary #experience

In fact, eloquence in English will inevitably make use of the Latin element in our vocabulary. ↗

— Robert Fitzgerald

#eloquence #english #fact #in fact #inevitably

I've actually become much, much dumber through being married and having these children. I find that I'm not half as sharp that I once was. I can't even help them with their 4th and 5th grade vocabulary and math work at this point. ↗

— Patrick Warburton

#become #being #children #dumber #even

First, we have to find a common vocabulary for energy security. This notion has a radically different meaning for different people. For Americans it is a geopolitical question. For the Europeans right now it is very much focused on the dependence on imported natural gas. ↗

— Daniel Yergin

#dependence #different #different meaning #different people #energy

I think the most overused words in our vocabulary in the South are black and white. ↗

— Artur Davis

#black and white #i #i think #most #our

Being a mother gives you an incredible feeling of empowerment, you think if I can go through such pain and that level of sleep and still operate and not be grumpy you can do anything. It can be quite scary, you can't function your brain, forget your vocabulary. ↗

— Anna Friel

#being #brain #empowerment #feeling #forget

I know what people laugh at. I know their vocabulary. ↗

— Gallagher

#know #laugh #people #their #vocabulary