How we cite our quotes: (Story.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Yes, a great bunch of fellows, I thought—language was a bit of a problem, but they were so keen for me to join their party, they just wouldn't take no for an answer—really friendly people I thought…" Rincewind started to correct him, then realized he didn't know how to begin. (1.23.40-41)
We return to that nonverbal communication we talked about earlier, and this time we add cultural norms. When Twoflower says language was a bit of a problem, he means the words, but we see that it's also the cultural customs that are a bit beyond Twoflower's grasps. In other words, cultural customs are a type of language, too.
Quote #5
"I can see into your mind, false wizard! Am I not a dryad? Do you not know that what you belittle by the name tree is but the mere four-dimensional analogue of a whole multidimensional universe which—no, I can see you do not." (2.5.11)
Another example of the depths of words we don't consider in our day-to-day use of them. Sure, real trees might not serve as extra-dimensional housing for mythical creatures, but the word tree doesn't quiet do justice to the complex system of roots, leaves, trunk, xylem, and such that comprise that word. So cool.
Quote #6
The floor was a continuous mosaic of eight-sided tiles, the corridor walls were angled to give the corridors eight sides if the walls and ceilings were counted and, in those places where part of the masonry had fallen in, Twoflower noticed that even the stones themselves had eight sides. (2.8.4)
Yeah, you can't have a tiled floor composed entirely of regular octagons. You just can't do it, totally impossible. But language has the power to make the impossible possible, even if only in your mind for that brief moment before reality comes crashing back in on the fictional vortex.