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Forming grammatically correct sentences is for the normal individual the prerequisite for any submission to social laws. No one is supposed to be ignorant of grammaticality; those who are belong in special institutions. The unity of language is fundamentally political.
Gilles Deleuze
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Language and grammar are essential for social cohesion and understanding societal norms.

This quote by Gilles Deleuze emphasizes the importance of grammar and language in societal structures. He suggests that the ability to form grammatically correct sentences is not merely a linguistic skill but a fundamental prerequisite for engaging with social laws and norms. Those who do not grasp grammaticality are seen as disconnected from the societal fabric, highlighting the political nature of language and its role in maintaining unity within communities.

Themes

LanguageGrammarSocietyPoliticsCommunication

In practice

Example use cases

In a debate about educational standards, one might use this quote to stress the importance of grammar.

More from Gilles Deleuze

Language is not made to be believed but to be obeyed, and to compel obedience newspapers, news, proceed by redundancy, in that they tell us what we ‘must’ think, retain, expect, etc. language is neither informational nor communicational. It is not the communication of information but something quite different: the transmission of order-words, either from one statement to another or within each statement, insofar as each statement accomplishes an act and the act is accomplished in the statement
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Something in the world forces us to think. This something is an object not of recognition but of a fundamental encounter.
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Intuition is neither a feeling, an inspiration nor a disorderly sympathy but a fully developed method.
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Let us create extraordinary words, on condition that they be put to the most ordinary use and that the entity they designate be made to exist in the same way as the most common object.
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Art is not communicative, art is not reflexive. Art, science, philosophy are neither contemplative, neither reflexive, nor communicative. They are creative, that's all.
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To affirm is not to bear, carry, or harness oneself to that which exists, but on the contrary to unburden, unharness, and set free that which lives.
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