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Quote by Kate Forsyth

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Kate Forsyth
Kate Forsyth

Kate Forsyth is an Australian author renowned for her fantasy and mystery novels. Born in 1966, she has a lifelong interest in mythology and folk tales. Forsyth's works often blend historical and fictional elements, enjoying great popularity among readers. more

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“Fairy-tales are as old as language itself. Indeed, many linguistic scholars believe that language was invented simply so that humans could tell each other stories. Non-verbal communication is surprisingly effective, as anyone who has observed chimpanzees at the zoo can confirm. However, for humans to express more sophisticated ideas they needed a more subtle and complex form of communication. And so, about sixty thousand years ago, humans began telling each other stories. The purpose of these stories was manifold. On the one hand, they amused and entertained and brought comfort and consolation. On the other, they warned and enlightened and taught what was needed to be known.”

StorytellingFairy TalesKate Forsyth
Author:Kate Forsyth
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“Fairy tales have been with us for a very long time. Ever since humans invented language, we have used those sounds laden with meaning to create stories – to teach, to warn, to entertain, and to effect change upon the world. Those stories have been handed down through many generations – changing with each retelling, but still carrying within them the same wisdom and transformative power that has helped shape the human psyche.”

StorytellingFairy TalesKate Forsyth
Author:Kate Forsyth
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“And after that, and also for each word, there should be sentences that show the twists and turns of meanings—the way almost every word slips in its silvery, fishlike way, weaving this way and that, adding subtleties of nuance to itself, and then perhaps shedding them as public mood dictates.”

WordsLexicology
Book:The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
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“No critic and advocate of immutability has ever once managed properly or even marginally to outwit the English language's capacity for foxy and relentlessly slippery flexibility. For English is a language that simply cannot be fixed, not can its use ever be absolutely laid down. It changes constantly; it grows with an almost exponential joy. It evolves eternally; its words alter their senses and their meanings subtly, slowly, or speedily according to fashion and need.”

LanguageWordsLexicology
Book:The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary
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