Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry

by Stephen Rudy (Preface), Stephen Rudy (Foreword by)

Roman Jakobson greatly influenced the development of linguistic theory. He was a founder of and prime mover in the Prague Linguistic Circle. On the basis of the new structuralist concepts, he set forth bold theories of general linguistics and illustrated them with demonstrations based on Slavic and other languages. Taking a leading role in the elucidation of the structural linguistic field of phonology, Jakobson used these insights to develop new trends in historical phonology. Altogether, his linguistics appears to incorporate the technical design of modern theoretical concepts, but at the same time transcends purely formal modelling through its interdisciplinary focus upon historical and poetry matters. Jakobson was successful in presenting innovative theoretical insights and relating them to possible practical applications. Specifically, his work on the general processes of language aquisition and loss opened up new methods for linguists and doctors alike.

Genres: Nonfiction

832 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Airam · Rating 2 out of 5]

The essays are very uneven in their accessibility, but overall this type of writing is just unnecessarily convoluted. As much as I want to take the time to unravel what Jakobson is saying, as it is often brilliant, this type of obscure communication (ironical in someone studying communication their whole life!) fends me off.
Take the famous "Linguistics and Poetics". The nomenclature gets so confusing you're struggling to make sense of the most basic sentence, much less consider whether it even makes sense... I don't know if Jakobson's audience at the time didn't need him to go over the definitions of all these terms, but I felt an urgent need for a Jakobson glossary and the absence of one turned my reading into an almost allucinatory experience.

[Alejandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wanna read Lacan? You gotta read Jakobson.