William Labov famous quotes

We focus upon pairs of words very often which are the same in some areas and different in other areas.
-- William Labov

#Focus #Pairs #Different

An important aspect of the current situation is the strong social reaction against suggestions that the home language of African American children be used in the first steps of learning to read and write.
-- William Labov

#Strong #Children #Writing

I have resisted the term sociolinguistics for many years, since it implies that there can be a successful linguistic theory or practice which is not social.
-- William Labov

#Successful #Practice #Years

It appears that the present-day form of African American English is not the inheritance of the period of slavery, but the creation of the second half of the 20th century.
-- William Labov

#African American #Inheritance #Half

But unlike European countries, America has never finished a map of the United States, only the eastern United States is covered and a few spots here and there.
-- William Labov

#Country #Europe #America

However, research in the years that followed found that in many of its important features, African American Vernacular English was becoming not less, but more different from other dialects.
-- William Labov

#Years #African American #Important

Well, American dialects have been studied for a hundred years or so.
-- William Labov

#Years #Dialect #Hundred

I am now completing research supported by NSF and NEH that is mapping changes in the English language through all of North America, for both mainstream and minority communities.
-- William Labov

#America #Community #Research

This African American Vernacular English shares most of its grammar and vocabulary with other dialects of English. But it is distinct in many ways, and it is more different from standard English than any other dialect spoken in continental North America.
-- William Labov

#America #Vocabulary #Dialect

What happens to the Microsofts, Oracles and IBMs of the world is that when they get big enough, they don't think they need to bring that same level of focus and energy to the end-user experience.

One lesson that every nation can learn from China is to focus more on creating village-level enterprises, quality health services and educational facilities.

I was about one drink away from my limit, In came a black dress with a black body in it, She looked so timid, it took me a minute To get her in focus

You can ruin anything if you focus at it.

Any album that you pick up of mine, you know it's an Akon album. The guests are very limited, and you get to really feel the experience. You get the Akon experience when you get the albums. I always want to make sure that stays the way it is. I don't want to flood the album to where you lose focus on why you bought it.

In conclusion, I invite the media to all grow a pair. And if you can't, I will lend you mine.

To reason with poorly chosen words is like using a pair of scales with inaccurate weights.

It was easy in the early nineties to make a list of great things that could be done, now that there was such a convenient source of entangled pairs. Anton's claim to fame is that he went and did them.

Music is something that takes you to a world which is very different from the world of hatred,jealousy, and all those negative emotions

There are different reasons to make movies.