Dead Language

Famous quotes containing the words dead and/or language:

    I wouldn’t pray just for a old man that’s dead because he’s all right. If I was to pray, I’d pray for the folks that’s alive and don’t know which way to turn. Grampa here, he ain’t got no more trouble like that. He’s got his job all cut out for him. So cover him up and let him get to it.
    Nunnally Johnson (1897–1977)

    There is no such thing as a language, not if a language is anything like what many philosophers and linguists have supposed. There is therefore no such thing to be learned, mastered, or born with. We must give up the idea of a clearly defined shared structure which language-users acquire and then apply to cases.
    Donald Davidson (b. 1917)