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Roman Jakobson

Roman Jakobson Books

Linguist

Roman Jakobson, born on October 11, 1896 in Russia and died on July 18, 1982 in the United States, was one of the most outstanding linguists of the 20th century. He is renowned for his contributions to structuralism, transformational-generative grammar, and semiotics.

Language in Literature

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Selected Writings: Word and Language

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To honor Roman Jakobson: Essays on the...

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Related Quotes

“The function of poetry is to point out that the sign is not identical to the referent.”

Art Poetry Function Poetry Is Identical

Book:To honor Roman Jakobson: Essays on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, 11 October 1966

Source: To honor Roman Jakobson: Essays on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, 11 October 1966

“The poetic function is the set towards the message itself, focus on the message for its own sake which by promoting the palpability of signs, deepens the fundamental dichotomy of signs and objects.”

Art Poetry Focus Objects Messages Function Fundamentals Sake Poetic Promoting Dichotomy

Author:Roman Jakobson

“A new era in the physiological investigation of linguistic sounds was opened up by X-ray photography.”

Sound Photography Eras Rays Investigation Linguistics New Era Physiological

Author:Roman Jakobson

“What's next? Shall we appoint elephants to teach zoology?”

Next Teach Teaching Elephants Zoology

Author:Roman Jakobson

“Bilingualism is for me the fundamental problem of linguistics.”

Problem Language Fundamentals Linguistics Bilingualism

Book:Selected Writings: Word and Language

Source: Selected Writings: Word and Language

“In poetic language, in which the sign as such takes on an autonomous value, this sound symbolism becomes an actual factor and creates a sort of accompaniment to the signified.”

Values Language Sound Factors Poetic Symbolism Autonomous

Author:Roman Jakobson

“It is once again the vexing problem of identity within variety; without a solution to this disturbing problem there can be no system, no classification.”

Problem Identity Solutions Variety Disturbing Classification

Author:Roman Jakobson

“Speech sounds cannot be understood, delimited, classified and explained except in the light of the tasks which they perform in language.”

Light Language Sound Speech Understood Tasks

Author:Roman Jakobson

“A linguist deaf to the poetic functions of language and a literary scholar indifferent to linguistics are equally flagrant anachronisms.”

Language Function Poetic Scholar Indifferent Deaf Linguistics Linguists Anachronism

Book:Language in Literature

Source: Language in Literature

“The search for the symbolic value of phonemes, each taken as a whole, runs the risk of giving rise to ambiguous and trivial interpretations because phonemes are complex entities, bundles of different distinctive features.”

Giving Different Whole Running Values Taken Risk Complexes Features Interpretation Entity Corny Symbolic Distinctive Ambiguous Bundles

Author:Roman Jakobson

“Linguistic sounds, considered as external, physical phenomena have two aspects, the motor and the acoustic.”

Two Sound Aspect Motor Acoustics Linguistics

Author:Roman Jakobson

“Acoustic phonetics, which is developing and increasing in richness very rapidly, already enables us to solve many of the mysteries of sound, mysteries which motor phonetics could not even begin to solve.”

Sound Mystery Solve Developing Motor Richness Acoustics Phonetics

Author:Roman Jakobson

“At first acoustics attributed to the different sounds only a limited number of characteristic features.”

Firsts Different Sound Numbers Features Characteristics Acoustics

Author:Roman Jakobson

“Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey.”

Book:Language in Literature

Source: Language in Literature

“Every linguistic sign is located on two axes: the axis of simultaneity and that of succession.”

Two Succession Axes

Author:Roman Jakobson

“Now the identification of individual sounds by phonetic observation is an artificial way of proceeding.”

Way Individual Sound Observation Artificial Identification Proceeding

Author:Roman Jakobson

“Remember that the pharynx is at a crossroads from which leads off, at the top, the passage to the mouth cavity and the passage to the nasal cavity, and below, the passage to the larynx.”

Remember Mouths Passages Crossroads

Author:Roman Jakobson

“Semantics, or the study of meaning, remained undeveloped, while phonetics made rapid progress and even came to occupy the central place in the scientific study of language.”

Made Language Study Progress Rapids Semantics Phonetics

Author:Roman Jakobson

“When I speak it is in order to be heard.”

Order Speak Heard

Author:Roman Jakobson

About the Author

Born: October 11, 1896
Died: July 18, 1982
Known for: Linguist
Quotes: 19

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Sound Language Linguistics Acoustics Function Poetic Art Different Features Fundamentals

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Books & Sources

Language in LiteratureRelated source material

Selected Writings: Word and LanguageRelated source material

To honor Roman Jakobson: Essays on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, 11 October 1966Related source material

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