Roman Jakobson quotes

When I speak it is in order to be heard. (Roman Jakobson)
Linguistic sounds, considered as external, physical phenomena have two aspects, the motor and the acoustic. View quote
Roman Jakobson
Every linguistic sign is located on two axes: the axis of simultaneity and that of succession. View quote
Roman Jakobson
A new era in the physiological investigation of linguistic sounds was opened up by X-ray photography. View quote
Roman Jakobson
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. View quote
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. View quote
Roman Jakobson
Now the identification of individual sounds by phonetic observation is an artificial way of proceeding. View quote
Roman Jakobson
Speech sounds cannot be understood, delimited, classified and explained except in the light of the tasks which they perform in language. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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. (Roman Jakobson)
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. View quote
Roman Jakobson
At first acoustics attributed to the different sounds only a limited number of characteristic features. View quote
Roman Jakobson