Quotation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about quoting. For information about the punctuation mark, see Quotation mark and Quotation mark, non-English usage; see also Financial quote.

For the Wikipedia quotation templates, see Category:Quotation templates.

A quotation is the repetition of one linguistic expression as part of another one, particularly when the quoted expression is well-known or explicitly attributed (as by citation) to its original source.

A quotation can also refer to the repeated use of units of any other form of expression, especialy parts of artistic works: elements of a painting, scenes from a movie or sections from a musical composition.

The rest of this article will deal only with written or oral quotations.

Quotation classification

There are two broad categories which most quotations fall into, beauty and truth, although some quotations fit equally well into both these groups. 'Beautiful' quotations are words remembered for their aesthetically pleasing use of language, whereas many other quotations are remembered on the grounds that they express some truth. These latter quotations are often called maxims or aphorisms and they are highly regarded for being pithy renderings of ideas that most people have but most have not been able to express so clearly. A third type of quotation may be any line which merely reminds the person who quotes it of a particularly memorable work, sometimes making a subtle comparison to the situation or topic at hand.

Reasons for using quotations

Quotations are used for a variety of reasons: to illuminate the meaning or to support the arguments of the work in which it is being quoted, or to provide direct information about the work being quoted (whether in order to discuss it, positively or negatively, to pay homage to the original work or author, to make the user of the quotation seem well-read).

Common quotation sources

Famous quotations are frequently collected in books that are sometimes called quotation dictionaries or treasuries. Of these, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, and The Yale Book of Quotations are considered the most reliable and comprehensive sources. Diaries and calendars often include quotations for entertainment or inspirational purposes, and small, dedicated sections in newspapers and weekly magazines — with recent quotations by leading personalities on current topics — have also become commonplace. Chiefly through the World Wide Web, the Internet has become the world's main quotation repository.

Misquotations

The art of quotation is fraught with difficulties. If the source of a quotation is not given it can lead readers to think that the author using the quotation originated the thought or that he is being dishonest. Some people are thought to have said certain things, but there is no evidence of these words in any of their surviving writings: when this is the case, the words have merely to be attributed to them. Many quotations are routinely incorrect or attributed to the wrong authors, and quotations from obscure writers are often attributed to far more famous writers by lax quoters. Good examples of this are Winston Churchill, to whom many political quotations of uncertain origin are attributed, and Oscar Wilde, who is believed to have said far more witty things than he probably could have.

Deliberate misquotation is very common either because the misquotation is better known than the original or simply because the misquotation fits the situation better. Possibly worse than misquotation is deliberate misinterpretation, where an author's words are taken out of context and are used to support a position or idea that the author would never have agreed with and was not the author's intention. This can be especially problematic with playwrights and authors of fiction who do not necessarily agree with the sentiments of their characters.

Quotations and the Internet

Chiefly a text medium in the beginning, the World Wide Web gave rise to any number of personal quotation collections that continue to flourish, even though very few of them seem to facilitate accurate information or correct citation. In June 27, 2003, a sister project of the Wikimedia Foundation called Wikiquote was created as a free online encyclopedia of quotations in every language and it is now the biggest single quotation collection in the world.

The increase of written means of informal communication brought about by the Internet has produced the practice of using quotations as personal flags, as in one's own signature block. This is most commonly seen in email messages and Usenet posts, while is almost never seen in blog posts. Quotations are also popular as a user's personal message, a line under the user's nickname in some Instant Messaging clients (and here they often go uncited). In all these cases, quotations are usually included to give a glimpse of the user's personality, to make a statement of their beliefs, or to spread views and ideas.

The sheer bulk of online quotations, combined with more efficient search engines, has effectively made the Internet the world's quotation storehouse, encompassing an unprecedented number of easily obtainable quotations. Though matters of accuracy still remain, features such as Amazon.com's Search Inside the Book and Google Print may serve to alleviate such concerns.

In mid-February 2007, a web startup called Quotations Book launched, with a new approach to viewing quotations. They indexed the volunteer-led Project Gutenberg, and created surrounding text for classic quotations to be viewed in the context of a classic book, using the 19,000+ books at Project Gutenberg as the corpus (example). The site is a social network, expected to add features as time goes on [1].

See also

• Citation
• Apophthegm
• Proverb
• Aphorism
• Stock phrase
• Cliché
• Adage
• Maxim
• Epigram
• Misquotation
• Contextomy
• Spin (public relations)
• List of book titles taken from literature
• List of musical pieces which use quotation

External links

• Beam me up, Scotty, by David McKie Guardian article discussing mis-quotations.

Collections of quotes

• Wikiquote: Wikipedia's sister project for quotations
• Simple Quotes Easy simple Quotes
• Famous Quotations Collection of Famous Quotations
• Deep Thought Quotations Quotations submitted and rated by the public