Elizabeth Bowen Quotes

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

We have only the language for fun and miserable, and maybe we need language for deep and shallow, meaningful and meaningless.

Words are not pebbles in alien juxtaposition.

Meaning is what essence becomes when it is divorced from the object of reference and wedded to the word.

The medium is not the message - the message is the message.

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

A signal is comprehended if it serves to make us notice the object or situation it bespeaks. A symbol is understood when we conceive the idea it presents.

Words are things, but things which mean. We cannot do away with meaning without doing away with signs, that is, with language itself. Moreover, we would have to do away with the universe. All the things man touches are impregnated with meaning.

Thus, we see that one of the obvious origins of human disagreement lies in the use of noises for words.

Language is always burdened by thought.

Words exist because of meaning; once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words.

Words mean more than we mean to express when we use them: so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer meant.

I don't talk things, sir. I talk the meaning of things.

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.

Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning.

A lot of people understand what not saying anything means, so, in effect, not saying anything is really saying a lot.

My use of language is part and parcel of my message.

Symbols are the imaginative signposts of life.

The medium is the message.

The ambiguities of language, both in terms of vocabulary and syntax, are fascinating: how important connotation is, what is lost and what is gained in the linguistic transition.

Words take on many different meanings.

Language, after all, is only the use of symbols, and Art also can only affect us through symbols.

The trouble with words is that you never know whose mouths they have been in.

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

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