Roman Jakobson Quotes

As Bromberger observed, rules are understood to be elements of the computational systems that determine the sound and meaning of the infinite array of expressions of a language; the information so derived is accessed by other systems in language use.

A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas.

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

I became aware that all sounds can make meaningful language.

If words are not things, or maps are not the actual territory, then, obviously, the only possible link between the objective world and the linguistic world is found in structure, and structure alone.

I know what the structure of the language is.

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.

Words have meaning. And their meaning doesn't change.

Social criticism begins with grammar and the re-establishing of meanings.

Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.

The ambiguities of language, both in terms of vocabulary and syntax, are fascinating: how important connotation is, what is lost and what is gained in the linguistic transition.

Languages are true analytical methods.

Words are things, but things which mean. We cannot do away with meaning without doing away with signs, that is, with language itself. Moreover, we would have to do away with the universe. All the things man touches are impregnated with meaning.

Language makes infinite use of finite media.

Ordinary language carries with it conditions of meaning which it is easy to recognize by classifying the contexts in which the expression is employed in a meaningful manner.

According to scholars of linguistics, the relation between a word and its meaning is arbitrary.

The integers of language are sentences, and their organs are the parts of speech. Linguistic organization, then, consists in the differentiation of the parts of speech and the integration of the sentence.

From a strictly articulatory point of view there is no succession of sounds.

Words have not only a definition... but also the felt quality of their own kind of sound.

The meanings of words and the uses of words come from practice from the way people in a given culture use those words.

Language is something that I take great interest in.

My linguistics is pretty theoretical.

A word is nothing unless it has values and an atmosphere, unless you grasp its historical significance.

I remember having a discussion with [Kaz] about his translation of the word shunyata as "boundlessness," instead of the more traditional "emptiness." I said: "Kaz, everyone is used to the word emptiness for shunyata. This might not sit well with people. He said: "Translator's prerogative!" Then he added, "One cannot assume we know what they meant...." I agreed.

One line plus one line results in many meanings.