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David Crystal Quotes


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Quotes by David Crystal

Showing 1-10 of 60 Quotes by David Crystal

Vocabulary is a matter of word-building as well as word-using.

~David Crystal

Topics: Matter Vocabulary Well

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The story of English spelling is the story of thousands of people - some well-known, most totally unknown - who left a permanent linguistic fingerprint on our orthography.

~David Crystal

Topics: English Left Linguistic Most Our People Permanent Some Spelling Story Thousands Thousands Of People Totally Unknown Well-Known Who

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There is no such thing as an ugly accent, like there's no such thing as an ugly flower.

~David Crystal

Topics: Accent Flower Like Thing Ugly

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The main effect of the Internet on language has been to increase the expressive richness of language, providing the language with a new set of communicative dimensions that haven't existed in the past.

~David Crystal

Topics: Been Dimensions Effect Existed Expressive In The Past Increase Internet Language Main New Past Providing Richness Set

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There's an old little jingle: 'The chief use of slang is to show that you're one of the gang.' What that means is that every social group has its own linguistic bonding mechanism. If there's a group of lawyers, they have their own slang. If there's a group of doctors, they have their own slang, and so on.

~David Crystal

Topics: Bonding Chief Doctors Every Gang Group Lawyers Linguistic Little Means Mechanism Old Own Show Slang Social Social Group Use You

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Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries eventually reflect popular choices. And the Internet is allowing more people to influence spelling than ever before.

~David Crystal

Topics: Allowing Before Choices Dictionaries Eventually Ever Influence Internet Made More More People People Popular Reflect Spelling Than

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People are very ready to criticize other people's accents. There's no correlation between accents and intelligence or accents and criminality, but people do make judgments.

~David Crystal

Topics: Accents Between Correlation Criticize Intelligence Judgments Make Other People Ready Very

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Word books traditionally focus on unusual and quirky items. They tend to ignore the words that provide the skeleton of the language, without which it would fall apart, such as 'and' and 'what,' or words that provide structure to our conversation, such as 'hello.'

~David Crystal

Topics: Apart Books Conversation Fall Focus Hello Ignore Items Language Our Provide Quirky Skeleton Structure Tend Unusual Which Without Word Words Would

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'Spell it Out' rose to be number 4 on the best-selling Amazon chart - ahead of 'Fifty Shades of Grey!' Who ever would have thought that spelling would one day beat sex - even if it was for only a few hours!

~David Crystal

Topics: Amazon Beat Chart Day Even Ever Few Fifty Grey Hours Number One Day Only Out Rose Sex Shades Spell Spelling Thought Who Would Ahead

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The Internet has given us 10 or 15 new styles of communication: long messages like blogging, and then short messages like texting and tweeting. I see it all as part of an expanding array of linguistic possibilities.

~David Crystal

Topics: Array Blogging Communication Expanding Given Internet Like Linguistic Long Messages New Part Possibilities See Short Styles Texting Then Tweeting Us I See

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Biography

Nationality: English

Type: Educator

Born: Unknown

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Find David Crystal on Amazon

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