The ambiguities of language, both in terms of vocabulary and syntax, are fascinating: how important connotation is, what is lost and what is gained in the linguistic transition.
quote by Marilyn Hacker
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
No important national language, at least in the Occidental world, has complete regularity of grammatical structure, nor is there a single logical category which is adequately and consistently handled in terms of linguistic symbolism.
quote by Edward Sapir
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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His vocabulary
her vocabulary
every word fits into its space
like a classroom
her vocabulary
each word carries its own weight
as it files into my mind
her vocabulary
notes of the morning birds
that strain to sing
her vocabulary
my mind polished
like silver
her vocabulary
the calisthenics of her mind
in my mind
her vocabulary
the precision of her mind
etched onto my heart
her vocabulary
sublime as a glass of
evening whisky
her vocabulary
strikes like
glitters of diamonds
his vocabulary
my brain has no space
to breathe
his vocabulary
every piece of writing
has become a thesis
his vocabulary
he asks to take him
as he is
his vocabulary
she feels he is not true
to his own feelings
his vocabulary
she asks it is weaned from
dictionary or experience
his vocabulary
she asks he is out to impress
or express
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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It's like learning a language; you can't speak a language fluently until you find out who you are in that language, and that has as much to do with your body as it does with vocabulary and grammar.
quote by Fred Frith
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Those who prefer their English sloppy have only themselves to thank if the advertisement writer uses his mastery of the vocabulary and syntax to mislead their weak minds.
quote by Dorothy L. Sayers
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The supposed inferiority of a constructed language to a national one on the score of richness of connotation is, of course, no criticism of the idea of a constructed language.
quote by Edward Sapir
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Linguistic philosophers continue to argue that probably music is not a language, that is in the philosophical debate. Another point of view is to say that music is a very profound language.
quote by Robert Fripp
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Lesbos
curiosity drives you to open the door
go outside the fence
and enter a new territory
it is an island of women with breasts
and flowers
with heads and eyes of men
their vocabulary is made of man's terms
the grammar and syntax
muscular, yet deep within upon a close scrutiny
as you see it clearly
their hearts are still soft and fragile
they bleed real blood
when you remind them of their
births, their childhood, and how they grow
to be always alone
they do not show the signs of a sigh &
as you enter their circle you are met with nothing
but their own woes
you speak
and then they throw you stones
definitely, there is no place for you here
the one with the short curly hair
shortsighted and emaciated
makes it very clear
now you are back in your own world
and you realize
things are just perfect
and the air is not as cold as ice.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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So long as we use a certain language, all questions that we can ask will have to be formulated in it and will thereby confirm the theory of the universe which is implied in the vocabulary and structure of the language.
quote by Michael Polanyi
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Arthur Young's Reflexive Universe - fascinating but too schematic to fit into my scheme. The most I could hope for was a sense of the vocabulary and some possible images.
quote by James Merrill
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Talk Straight, And Be Understood
when you write me
was it with the objective that i cannot understand you?
do you conceal true intent
with words that from time to time i have to refer to
a dictionary
threshing out
a connotation from a denotation?
if you hand me metaphors
on a platter for breakfast
i may be lost
in the labyrinths of the poem
and i cannot be back
home on time
and you will regret
my being lost
because you tell me that you
cannot wait forever
clicking clock
cruel running monotones
next time, please write to me in simple terms
one that draws me nearer to you
so that i may understand how you are doing,
what you are, and
where are you going
because it will be same with me
when i say i am lost, i am lost, i am not into a Greek tragedy
facing the cyclops and looking for the golden fleece
or building that horse
to the enemies
you have a bow and arrow
strike me at the center of my heart
do not talk about the apple on my hair
i know how to wriggle in
pain
with you, just tell me
and soon
this will be
over.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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I ascribe a basic importance to the phenomenon of language. To speak means to be in a position to use a certain syntax, to grasp the morphology of this or that language, but it means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization.
quote by Frantz Fanon
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Innocence lost and pain gained.
I lost my innocence.
Not once not twice but more times than I can count.
It was becuase of bastards.
Bastards who wanted to hurt.
I lost my innocence and gained pain.
On the day you raped me.
I lost everything.
Lost my innocence.
Lost my life.
Lost my happiness.
Lost my way of being.
You raped me.
You didnt lose anything.
You gained the power.
I lost every thing that day.
All I was to gain was pain.
I lost more than one thing.
I lost my innocence.
But gained the pain
poem by Amy Kerswell
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Sub-language
a lustful desire suppressed
takes a language of its own
at first you disregard it
but soon it finds its own
grammar & syntax in your lips,
you taste it again, lick it, roll it
inside your gum, sip and swallow,
your teeth delighting, your tongue
trembling to such sweetness,
you love it, and at the
end, it becomes your
main language again
this time more subtle
metaphorical, lyrical,
and more responsible.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Ruminating the past
I gained my parents at my birth.
I gained my brothers and sisters
And then my kids and their kids
Every gain to me was a pleasure.
Then I grieve over the loss of them,
One by one, or at leaving them.
I weep and weep, profoundly weep
Over their death or in their sick beds.
What we lose is what we had gained.
The gained are destined to be lost
Or from them we shall be lost.
I recall the good they have done.
I repent the wrongs done to them.
Rumination of pleasure and regrets
Keep me at the old age engaged.
27.03.2001, Pmdi
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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It was less a literary thing than a linguistic, philosophical preoccupation... discovering how far you can go with language to create immediate, elementary experience.
quote by Robert Morgan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In terms of language, yeah we get bleeped and blurred and things, but in terms of content, I would probably say we're getting away with more here than we could get away with in Britain. And that surprised us so much!
quote by Graham Norton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The pull between sound and syntax creates a kind of musical tension in the language that interests me.
quote by Marilyn Hacker
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I find the subject of childhood fascinating. I explored this subject in Speak to me of love and I am curious about portraying the often painful transition into the adult world.
quote by Sophie Marceau
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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An Un Anyone?
Careful
there are Nouns here
which innocently
can
contain your life.
Were it not for 'Un'
all would be lost.
So many of our utterances
not only restrain the brain
but prevent
emphatically
new things being said.
Language is a universe
in which you cannot be understood
unless you already agree
with its assumptions and premises
of right, wrong or the good;
A universe in which you cannot conceive
anything really new
because you do not have the language
to express the idea;
a language which does not yet exist.
So the problem is
how to say something new
when you lack a vocabulary
or utterances?
I don't have a final solution
but I do have a start:
dismantle the current language first
starting with the Noun.
To see the new
we must first Unsee the old-
here my friends lies salvation-
in the utterance Un.
Un-love
Un-done
Un-believe
are an excellent start
because they get us to begin
the unraveling
of that which is wound so tight
that new meaning can't get in.
To continue:
Un isn' t simply the opposite-
it is a pronouncement
a nullification-
a cleaning out-
of that which occupies that noun space
so something new can get in.
Now let's take Un-love.
To Un-love is not to hate
for here
we simply state
we are not in the state of love.
Not so strange,
it happens to all of us.
We simply
one day
fall into Un-love
meaning love has gone away.
Doing this has caused so much misery
yet we have no word or meaning
for what Un-love means.
You see the problem
or should I say the unclarity
that Un-love brings.
If I
one day
suddenly
Un-love you
what does this mean?
Not I suppose
just that love
has gone
but where has it gone to?
In Un-love Land
there is no hate
not even perhaps
indifference
but, perhaps
to an empty space
prompting a need to find new
words, nouns or even vocabularies.
Now you see the problem;
the conundrum here-
no such words currently yet exist-
unless we pause now
to invent new words
to fill that void
and in doing so
create a whole new language
or description of what is meant
by Un-love.
Here my point exactly.
we don't know
what Un-Love means
or its vocabulary
until
some poet
creates the vision
and the new words to
that go with it.
Pointedly:
how do
I now
un-write this poem?
See what I mean?
Can't be done
unless I create
somehow
a vision
and words
to capture it.
Humm,
Consider this the Un-Write.
Maybe it will catch on.
poem by Lonnie Hicks
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The Love That I've Lost
Seems I'm standin' on the edge of time
Walked away when your love was mine
Now I've a feeling nothing gained, something lost.
I've made mistakes and it's no disgrace
The final page just can't erase
I'll ride this storm out
Cause maybe, maybe I was wrong.
Is it just my superstition?
To think I need you to carry on.
Or call it maybe just my intuition,
Cause there's nothing gained,
From the love that I've lost.
Time has changed me, I hope you'll see.
Another way to bring your love to me
I'm like the hero, from a broken dream.
Even now lookin' back on my past
Could have loved you, could of made it last.
I'll ride this storm out cause maybe, maybe I was wrong.
Is it just my superstition?
To think I need you to carry on.
Or call it maybe just my intuition,
Cause there's nothing gained,
From the love that I've lost.
LEAD BREAK
Is it just my superstition?
To think I need you to carry on.
Or call it maybe just my intuition,
Cause there's nothing gained,
From the love that I've lost.
It's just my superstition
Or call it intuition
It's your love that I've lost
It's your love that I've lost
You're what I've lost
song performed by by 38 Special
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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