“I believe one of the functions of language used poetically is to explore experiences and hidden sources of behavior in a way that will not be tedious to the reader.”

—  Vernon Scannell

Tiger and the Rose, 1971

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I believe one of the functions of language used poetically is to explore experiences and hidden sources of behavior in …" by Vernon Scannell?
Vernon Scannell photo
Vernon Scannell 33
British boxer and poet 1922–2007

Related quotes

“Language use is a curious behavior, but once the transition to language is made, literature is a likely consequence, since it is linked to the dynamic of the linguistic symbol through the functioning of the imagination.”

Russell Berman (1950) American academic

Source: Fiction Sets You Free: Literature, Liberty and Western Culture (2007), p. 45

Gregory Colbert photo

“In exploring the shared language and poetic sensibilities of all animals, I am working toward rediscovering the common ground that once existed when people lived in harmony with animals.”

Gregory Colbert (1960) Canadian photographer

"Nature's Living Masterpieces" in Camera Arts (July 2005)
Context: In exploring the shared language and poetic sensibilities of all animals, I am working toward rediscovering the common ground that once existed when people lived in harmony with animals. The images depict a world that is without beginning or end, here or there, past or present. I hope that the overall effect is an experience of wonder and contemplation, serenity and hope.

Thornton Wilder photo

“The future author is one who discovers that language, the exploration and manipulation of the resources of language, will serve him in winning through to his way.”

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American playwright and novelist

Writers at Work interview (1958)

“Prose uses the medium of language whilst poetry serves language and explores it.”

Michael Schmidt (poet) (1947) American poet

The Great Modern Poets, London, 2006

Michael Halliday photo

“In the relative orientation of different social groups towards the various functions of language in given contexts and towards the different areas of meaning that may be explored within a given function”

Michael Halliday (1925–2018) Australian linguist

Source: 1970s and later, Explorations in the functions of language, 1973, p. xiv cited in: Piet Van de Craen (2007) Van Brussel gesproken. p. 118.

David Yezzi photo

“Language has an incantory power. The source qualities of language go to the very roots of our experience of poetry.”

David Yezzi (1966) American poet

Interview with Ernest Hibert (2006)

Herbert Marcuse photo

“This organization of functional discourse is of vital importance; it serves as a vehicle of coordination and subordination. The unified, functional language is an irreconcilably anti-critical and anti-dialectical language. In it, operational and behavioral rationality absorbs the transcendent, negative, oppositional elements of Reason.”

Herbert Marcuse book One-Dimensional Man

Source: One-Dimensional Man (1964), p. 97

“I am really interested in the different ways that language functions… When language begins to break down a little bit, it becomes exciting and communicates in nearly the simplest way that it can function: you are forced to be aware of the sounds and the poetic parts of words. If you deal only with what is known, you’ll have redundancy; on the other hand, if you deal only with the unknown, you cannot communicate at all. There is always some combination of the two, and it is how they touch each other that makes communication interesting.”

Bruce Nauman (1941) American artist

Source: Christopher Cordes, ‎John Yau (1989), Bruce Nauman, 1989 Bruce Nauman, prints 1970-89: a catalogue raisonné, p. xx: In answer of the question "How does your work reflect your views on the use of language today?"

Gerard Manley Hopkins photo

“The poetical language of an age should be the current language heightened, to any degree heightened and unlike itself, but not…an obsolete one.”

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) English poet

Letter to Robert Bridges (14 August 1879)
Letters, etc

Caterina Davinio photo

“When I speak of language, I do not only mean poetic or verbal language: I am thinking of the language of mathematics, of physics, et cetera. It is a fascinating topic. Language is an interface between us and the world. Beyond language there is nothing but pure mystical contemplation of the universe.”

Caterina Davinio (1957) Italian writer

Source: Virtual Mercury House. Planetary & Interplanetary Events, p. 48

Related topics