Each of us speaks and puts thoughts in verbal form. But for some reason, not everything that we say becomes quoted. Most often they repeat the phrases of well-known people who, for some reason, hit people in memory. What are statements and how to make your even the most ordinary thought become a winged expression passed from mouth to mouth? Let's try to find out.
Theory of Times
By definition, a statement is a separate sentence, correct from the point of view of grammar, which is perceived exclusively in conjunction with its meaning and is true or false. The last quality of a statement is determined based on its correspondence to reality. If you delve into psychology and analyze various types of utterances, you can find information about their different types based on the structure. For example, denial statements that contradict each other; statements-conditions associated with the words "if - then" and so on; I-statements (I think), you-statements (you are wrong) and the like; some other categories.
Theory Two
But, probably, all these questions of dry theory are not very relevant for the topic of what statements are in the sense of literary and, so to speak, universal. More often we mean by this word a certain thought, a statement made by an authoritative person, perceived as knowingly true. Yes, far from all replicas of famous and not so personas can be considered quotes. So where is the line between a meaningless phrase and a truly great utterance?
Where from?
It is not easy to analyze the mechanism of the formation of quotes; it does not matter whether it is Russian statements or not. At first glance, everything is clear: one separate phrase stands out from the context, either existing independently, or changing its meaning without a certain environment, is repeated many times and, already fixed in people's memory, becomes a quote. And sometimes this consolidation is not even required - just select a thought from the context. For example, well-known Russian utterances are far from always familiar to absolutely everyone: there are replicas that cause automatic recall because of their fame (“Feeling not at home ...” will easily be supplemented with the word “plate”), while others will cause difficulty and among the most erudite (“He who loves rain ...” the correct ending is “rain and fire”). That is, there is a peculiar gradation. But regardless of whether the quotes are known or not, they always have something catchy.
Great and powerful
Statements about the Russian language are a whole layer of Russian-language phrases. It is easier to name the one who did not say anything about the great and the mighty (this, by the way, was also one of the statements). Let's start collecting comments, perhaps from the classics.
Kuprin, for example, said that the Russian language in skillful hands and experienced lips is beautiful, melodious, expressive, flexible, obedient, agile and roomy. And how can you disagree with him? By its sound, our native speech really stands out among European languages, differing even from related Slavic. The system of synonyms and antonyms in it is colossal - one word can be replaced by almost a dozen others, if it is natively Russian, of course, and they themselves are so multifunctional that you wonder: the same word, depending on the context, can have completely different meanings . Well, how not to agree with this assessment?
Great and mighty from the side
I would also like to give statements about the Russian language of those who are familiar with our culture only by hearsay, that is, they are not its bearers. Friedrich Engels, one of the founders of overwhelming Russia of Marxism, compared his native German and Russian, and in favor of the latter, believing that he has all the properties of German, but does not possess its rudeness. Indeed, in their grammatical system, Russian and German are very similar - the same changes in the endings of nouns depending on the case, the variability of verb forms and many more qualities that are foreign to another European. I would like to end this section with the words of Jared Leto, the same idol of youth as Engels once: "The Russian language needs to be respected, not played with it." Again, one cannot but agree: it is in the literary form, revered and cherished, that our language is revealed in all its beauty.
The whole variety of language
But what do they say about other dialects? What other famous sayings about the language exist?
Homer once in his words embodied the basic principle of the existence of mankind: "What word you say - you will hear it," that is, he perceives language as a means of communication, and not a specific dialect or dialect. S. Lets warns: “Speak smartly: the enemy is eavesdropping”, that is, here we are talking about language as a means of demonstrating one's intellect, prestige, so to speak, awareness of certain issues. “A well-expressed thought sounds clever in all languages,” D. Dryden believed, perceiving the language as a distinctive sign of the people, emphasizing its originality. That is, we can safely say that great statements about the language are not fixed on only one aspect of it, they try to cover as many meanings as possible. How multifaceted and extensive the language itself is, so many-sided opinions about it.
Statements from the people
How to understand what statements are, if they can include almost any phrase that has at least some meaning? And why do “utterances”, although not, “utterances”, with a capital letter, to emphasize the importance, become phrases of well-known personalities, can ordinary people not say something that could well remain in human memory? I would like to give as examples the statements about the Russian man and his lifestyle from the “Russian Radio” - those who understand these very simple inhabitants the best. What is it worth only one thing: “Slow down, less Russian”, at the same time referring both to the saying and to Gogol’s “What Russian doesn’t like to drive fast. Continuing the theme of the wordplay, one cannot help but remember, “The fisherman fisherman hates for sure” - there is still in our nature, albeit generous and friendly, this competition. Well, which has already become canonical “Stop the earth, I will go down” - how often you want to shout these simple words, but still we all grit our teeth and then make our way “through thorns to the stars”, as Seneca said.
True or false
Proceeding from the interpretation of what statements are, we understood: any sentence with its meaning, which is true or false, can be considered to be. But at the same time, for some reason, almost all the quotes are subconsciously perceived as exceptional truth, not even subject to doubt. For example, the hero of one of the cult Soviet films believed that we had forgotten how to do stupid things, and at the same time, we stopped climbing into the windows of our beloved women. But can this statement be considered true? Yes, perhaps the part about stupidities is fair, but how can one relate the desire to climb windows with stupidity? It turns out that part of the phrase should be perceived as a lie, while the other will remain the truth? Hegel believed that only contradictions, especially those brought to the extreme, become mobile, so the choice between truth and false statements is another choice for each person, which must be made independently, and not based on the majority opinion.
It does not matter whether the Russian statements are or not, they are devoted to language, exact sciences, or even to some abstract topics. The main thing is to understand: each of us is free to choose what he considers a worthy and interesting statement, and what does not represent any value for him.