It is well known that the tense systems of French, English and German teem with logical inconsistencies as they are actually used.
More Quotes from Edward Sapir:
National languages are all huge systems of vested interests which sullenly resist critical inquiry.Edward Sapir
It is no secret that the fruits of language study are in no sort of relation to the labour spent on teaching and learning them.
Edward Sapir
It would, of course, be hopeless to attempt to crowd into an international language all those local overtones of meaning which are so dear to the heart of the nationalist.
Edward Sapir
The modern mind tends to be more and more critical and analytical in spirit, hence it must devise for itself an engine of expression which is logically defensible at every point and which tends to correspond to the rigorous spirit of modern science.
Edward Sapir
Both French and Latin are involved with nationalistic and religious implications which could not be entirely shaken off, and so, while they seemed for a long time to have solved the international language problem up to a certain point, they did not really do so in spirit.
Edward Sapir
The psychology of a language which, in one way or another, is imposed upon one because of factors beyond one's control, is very different from the psychology of a language which one accepts of one's free will.
Edward Sapir
Readers Who Like This Quotation Also Like:
Based on Topics: English QuotesTranslation is the art of failure.
Umberto Eco
I think the Iraq War is not particularly tailored to American interests.
Peter Brimelow
When I was starting to get noticed as an actor in the 1970s for something other than the third cowboy on the right who ended up dying in every movie or episode, Burt Reynolds was the biggest star in the world.
Bruce Dern