J. R. Firth
English linguist
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
The noises of the human race are indeed a chattering Babel, a confusion of tongues. Such abounding diversity is at once a challenge to those minds which seek ordered simplicity in the world, and at the same time a collectors' paradise.
—J. R. Firth, English linguist, Alphabets and Phonology in India and Burma, 1936
Posted on May 19, 2004 at 9:14 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Speech is the telephone network, the nervous system of our society much more than the vehicle for the lyrical outbursts of the individual soul. It is a network of bonds and obligations.
—J. R. Firth, English linguist, The Tongues of Men, 1937
Posted on January 12, 2004 at 7:51 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
You shall know a word by the company it keeps.
—J. R. Firth, English linguist, A Synopsis of Linguistic Theory, 1957
Posted on January 9, 2003 at 10:33 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Voice developed in the trees, gesture on the ground.
—J. R. Firth, English linguist, Speech, 1930
Posted on November 25, 1998 at 11:32 AM
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