James Matisoff Quotes

James Alan Matisoff is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a noted authority on Tibeto-Burman languages and other languages of mainland Southeast Asia. Wikipedia

✵ 14. July 1937

James Matisoff: 3 quotes0 likes

Famous James Matisoff Quotes

“I decided to start with the reproductive system, not only because of its prurient interest but also because it seemed like the point of departure for all things.”

Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman (2003) (p.x)

“There can be no more solemn duty for the comparative linguist than to reconstruct his language family's word for the Supreme Being.”

"God and the Sino-Tibetan Copula" (1985) (p.4)

“Bilingual humor may be viewed as a relatively benign response to the frustrations inherent in living in such a linguistically and racially heterogeneous region as the hills and valleys of backwoods Southeast Asia.”

"Lahu bilingual humor" (1969) (p.172)

Similar authors

Noam Chomsky photo

Noam Chomsky334

american linguist, philosopher and activist None

Antonio Gramsci photo

Antonio Gramsci22

Italian writer, politician, theorist, sociologist and lingu… None

Elfriede Jelinek photo

Elfriede Jelinek50

Austrian writer None

Bertrand Russell photo

Bertrand Russell562

logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and politi… None

Miguel ángel Asturias photo

Miguel ángel Asturias2

colombia None

Rabindranath Tagore photo

Rabindranath Tagore178

Bengali polymath None

Michael Halliday photo

Michael Halliday23

Australian linguist None

Luce Irigaray photo

Luce Irigaray2

feminist, philosopher, linguist, psychoanalyst, sociologist… None

Steven Pinker photo

Steven Pinker33

psychologist, linguist, author None

Gregory Bateson photo

Gregory Bateson49

English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual … None