Noam Chomsky Quotes

I have resisted the term sociolinguistics for many years, since it implies that there can be a successful linguistic theory or practice which is not social.

I think a very important aspect of language has to do with the establishment of social relations and interactions. Often, this is described as communication. But that is very misleading, I think.

My linguistics is pretty theoretical.

The powerful notion of entropy, which comes from a very special branch of physics … is certainly useful in the study of communication and quite helpful when applied in the theory of language.

Semiotics is a general theory of all existing languages... all forms of communication - visual, tactile, and so on... There is general semiotics, which is a philosophical approach to this field, and then there are many specific semiotics.

Languages are true analytical methods.

Well, American dialects have been studied for a hundred years or so.

With sociolinguistics, after covering the basics of the field, I focused on discourse analysis.

As a sociolinguist, I want to know how cultural differences affect the ways people talk and listen. My research method, inspired by the work of Robin Lakoff and John Gumperz of the University of California at Berkeley, is sociolinguistic microanalysis. I tape-record and transcribe naturally occurring conversations.

Language is something that I take great interest in.

Language is the tool of my trade -and I use them all - all the Englishes I grew up with

Linguistics becomes an ever eerier area, like I feel like I'm in Oz, Just trying to tell it like it was.

Cultures are virtual realities made of language.

Living had little use for me other than how it could be funneled into dance.

Several of us linguists at that time would record our own kids, just to get some data. There was some literature on it then, but no day-by-day, blow-by-blow examples. I recorded all my children over the years in some shape or form. It's what linguists do. You don't talk to a linguist without having what you say taken down and used in evidence against you at some point in time.

It has never been in my power to study anything, mathematics, ethics, metaphysics, gravitation, thermodynamics, optics, chemistry, comparative anatomy, astronomy, psychology, phonetics, economics, the history of science, whist, men and women, wine, metrology, except as a study of semeiotic .

People think, 'Oh my goodness! I have to do something really big.' You don't. Do what you love. There's a great quote from a poet I use all the time: 'Instead of asking what the world needs, ask yourself what you love,' because what the world needs is more people doing what they love.

There is no use indicting words, they are no shoddier than what they peddle.

My life is a blessing every day that I get up. God saved my feet. How am I not going to use them?

Money is life energy that we exchange and use as a result of the service we provide to the universe.

We find our calling or it finds us, and it's a sin against the fates not to use your talent when you have it.

A person of definite character and purpose who comprehends our way of thought is sure to exert power over us. He cannot altogether be resisted; because, if he understands us, he can make us understand him, through the word, the look, or other symbol.

Language is by its very nature a communal thing.