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Quote by Roman Jakobson

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Selected Writings: Word and Language

This compilation delves into the study of language, examining various aspects such as word choice, syntax, and the evolution of linguistic constructs. more

Author

Roman Jakobson
Roman Jakobson

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. more

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“I have never known what is Arabic or English, or which one was really mine beyond any doubt. What I do know, however, is that the two have always been together in my life, one resonating in the other, sometimes ironically, sometimes nostalgically, most often each correcting, and commenting on, the other. Each can seem like my absolutely first language, but neither is.”

KnowsFirstsTwoSometimesSeemsTogetherLanguageKnownDoubtMinesCorrectingResonating
Book:Out Of Place: A Memoir
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“We do not for example say that the person has a perfect knowledge of some language L similar to English but still different from it. What we say is that the child or foreigner has a 'partial knowledge of English' or is 'on his or her way' towards acquiring knowledge of English, and if they reach this goal, they will then know English.”

IfsKnowsWayChildrenPersonsStillsDifferentLanguageGoalPerfectExampleEnglish LanguageForeignersAcquiring Knowledge
Book:Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use
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“Hell is out of fashion - institutional hells at any rate. The populated infernos of the 20th century are more private affairs, the gaps between the bars are the sutures of one's own skull. A valid hell is one from which there is a possibility of redemption, even if this is never achieved, the dungeons of an architecture of grace whose spires point to some kind of heaven. The institutional hells of the present century are reached with one-way tickets, marked Nagasaki and Buchenwald, worlds of terminal horror even more final than the grave.”

IfsWorldWayKindHeavenHellGraceCenturyFashionPossibilityHorrorFinalsRateAffairArchitectureGravesBarsRedemptionOne WayGapsTickets20th CenturySkullsDungeonsInfernoTerminalSpiresBuchenwald
Author:J. G. Ballard
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“And what have you laymen made of hell? A kind of penal servitude for eternity, on the lines of your convict prisons on earth, to which you condemn in advance all the wretched felons your police have hunted from the beginning - enemies of society, as you call them. You're kind enough to include the blasphemers and the profane. What proud or reasonable man could stomach such a notion of God's justice? And when you find that notion inconvenient it's easy enough for you to put it on one side. Hell is not to love any more, Madame. Not to love any more!”

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Book:The Diary of a Country Priest
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“There sighs, lamentations and loud wailings resounded through the starless air, so that at first it made me weep; strange tongues, horrible language, words of pain, tones of anger, voices loud and hoarse, and with these the sound of hands, made a tumult which is whirling through that air forever dark, and sand eddies in a whirlwind.”

FirstsMadeHandsPainLanguageSoundVoiceDarkHellForeverAirStrangeTongueHorribleLoudToneSandSighWhirlwindTumultWailingLamentationLanguage Words
Author:Dante Alighieri
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