Lexical Transformation Quotes

Language, the machine of the poet, is best fitted for his purpose in its rudest state. Nations, like individuals, first perceive, and then abstract. They advance from particular images to general terms. Hence the vocabulary of an enlightened society is philosophical, that of a half-civilized people is poetical.

If words are to change their meanings, as assuredly they are, let each user of language make such changes as please himself, put up his own suggestions, and let the best win.

What action could bodies and substances have if they were not named in a further increase of dignity where common nouns become proper nouns?

To go from "gnarly" to "literally," that shows I'm growing up, right?

But the adjectives change,” said Jimmy. “Nothing’s worse than last year’s adjectives.

If we want to change the nuance of a particular word we have to change that ourselves.

Remember in the forms of speech comes change Within a thousand years, and words that then Were well esteemed, seem foolish now and strange; And yet they spake them so, time and again, And thrived in love as well as any men; And so to win their loves in sundry days, In sundry lands there are as many ways.

What is slang in one age sometimes goes into the vocabulary of the purist in the next.