Janet Jackson Quotes

If we are to look only at the words, then we inquire, not what this man meant, but what those words would mean in the mouth of a normal speaker.

The closer the look one takes at a word, the greater distance from which it looks back.

At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.

Metaphor matters because it creates expectations.

Without a possibility of change in meanings human communication could not perform its present functions.

The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him. That remark in itself wouldn’t make any sense if quoted as it stands. The average man ought to be allowed a quotation of no less than three sentences, one to make his statement and two to explain what he meant. Ralph Waldo Emerson was about the only one who could stand having his utterances broken up into sentence quotations, and every once in a while even he doesn’t sound so sensible in short snatches.

I was once told by someone wise that writing is perilous as you cannot always guarantee your words will be read in the spirit in which they were written.

We never choose which words to use, for as long as they mean what they mean to mean, we don’t care if they make sense or nonsense.

Semantics is about the relation of words to thoughts, but it also about the relation of words to other human concerns. Semantics is about the relation of words to reality - the way that speakers commit themselves to a shared understanding of the truth, and the way their thoughts are anchored to things and situations in the world.

It's important to be precise about words, because of the thought value of them-they frame and shape so much of the way we understand things.

Words have meaning. And their meaning doesn't change.

Words are not pebbles in alien juxtaposition.

Something's that written out is okay, but it's not always a clear indication of what a person means.

When you know the lyrics to a tune, you have some kind of insight as to it's composition. If you don't understand what it's about, you're depriving yourself of being really able to communicate this poem.

Language is a tool adequate to provide any degree of precision relevant to a particular situation.

Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon absolute truth.

For me, words are just words, nothing else.

In common use almost every word has many shades of meaning, and therefore needs to be interpreted by the context.

Language is not simply a reporting device for experience but a defining framework for it.

The truth is not simply what you think it is; it is also the circumstances in which it is said, and to whom, why, and how it is said

Be sure that you go to the author to get at his meaning, not to find yours.

Words are a strange thing. You once saw an animal and decided it's a 'cat.' But cat is a sound. This cat has nothing to do with the animal. But I have decided it's a cat. So a cat it is.

Human communication above and beyond the words that we say is so nuanced. It makes it difficult to not only analyze the vocabulary you use but the intention behind it. That's something even humans have difficulty doing, let alone a robot.

It's the intent, not the word, that makes something harsh.

I never knew words could be so confusing," Milo said to Tock as he bent down to scratch the dog's ear. "Only when you use a lot to say a little," answered Tock. Milo thought this was quite the wisest thing he'd heard all day.