English language
From Wikiquote
Quotations about the English language or some aspect of it. English is one of the most widespread and most widely spoken languages in the world.
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[edit] Sourced
- The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.
- To boldly go is rhythmically very neat. The Star Trek scriptwriter hasn't been linguistically bold at all.
- David Crystal in Who Cares About English Usage
- The English-speaking world may be divided into (1) those who neither know nor care what a split infinitive is; (2) those who do not know, but care very much; (3) those who know and condemn; (4) those who know and approve; and (5) those who know and distinguish....
- Fowler's Modern English Usage, second edition, p 579
- [A speaker who uses a multiple negative] spreads as it were a thin layer of negative colouring over the whole sentence instead of confining it to a single place.
- Otto Jespersen, quoted in Fowler's Modern English Usage, p 384
- The name is misleading, for the preposition to no more belongs to the infinitive as a necessary part of it, than the definite article belongs to the substantive, and no one would think of calling the good man a split substantive.
- Otto Jespersen, referring to split infinitives, in Essentials of English Grammar
- English has a grammar of great simplicity and flexibility.
- The Story of English, p 47
- Fussing about split infinitives is one of the more tiresome pastimes invented by nineteenth century grammarians.
- Barbara Strang in Modern English Structure
[edit] Unsourced
- English is the result of Norman men-at-arms attempting to pick up Saxon barmaids and is no more legitimate than any of the other results.
- This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.
