Language usage quotes:

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Language usage always has a political context. -- Jackson Katz
People are under the impression that dictionaries legislate language. What a dictionary does is keep track of usages over time. -- Steven Pinker
I'm really fascinated and you know I've been wondering about that usage of language, various breathing techniques and why in these practices language is being used in another way. -- Kathy Acker
I believe that writers have a responsibility to evolve the language, whether by introducing new words or new usages. Shakespeare alone is responsible for something like 3400 words and phrases. -- Adam Mansbach
That's one of the ways language evolved, by some very obscure form becoming common usage. And I must say that I'm very intrigued by use of language and slang, and criminal underground terms. -- Ricky Jay
It's difficult for me to feel that a solid page without the breakups of paragraphs can be interesting. I break mine up perhaps sooner than I should in terms of the usage of the English language. -- A. E. van Vogt
Language pedants hew to an oral tradition of shibboleths that have no basis in logic or style, that have been defied by great writers for centuries, and that have been disavowed by every thoughtful usage manual. -- Steven Pinker
My suggestion is that at each state the proper order of operation of the mind requires an overall grasp of what is generally known, not only in formal logical, mathematical terms, but also intuitively, in images, feelings, poetic usage of language, etc. -- David Bohm
Usage is the best language teacher. -- Quintilian
Language is more fashion than science, and matters of usage, spelling and pronunciation tend to wander around like hemlines. -- Bill Bryson
Language becomes a prison house only poets can escape...if we do not reject any strict distinctions between ordinary usage and figures of speech. -- Arthur Quinn
If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better. -- George Orwell

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