Were a language ever completely "grammatical" it would be a… - Edward Sapir

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Were a language ever completely "grammatical" it would be a perfect engine of conceptual expression. Unfortunately, or luckily, no language is tyrannically consistent. All grammars leak.

Edward Sapir

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About Edward Sapir

Edward Sapir (Jan. 26, 1884 – Feb. 4, 1939) was an American anthropologist and linguist, a leader in American structural linguistics, and a pioneer of concepts in linguistic relativity as a creator of what is now called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. He is arguably the most influential figure in American linguistics.

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Originators like Edward Sapir:

Benjamin Lee Whorf S. I. Hayakawa Ferdinand de Saussure David Crystal Michael Halliday

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Cultural anthropology is not valuable because it uncovers the archaic in the psychological sense. It is valuable because it is constantly rediscovering the normal.

Human beings do not wish to be modest; they want to be as expressive — that is, as immodest — as fear allows; fashion helps them solve that paradoxical problem.

Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols.

Were a language ever completely "grammatical" it would be a perfect engine of conceptual expression. Unfortunately, or luckily, no language is tyrann… - Edward Sapir

About Edward Sapir

Additional quotes by Edward Sapir