Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey. — Roman Jakobson
The function of poetry is to point out that the sign is not identical to the referent. — Roman Jakobson
A new era in the physiological investigation of linguistic sounds was opened up by x-ray photography. — Roman Jakobson
At first acoustics attributed to the different sounds only a limited number of characteristic features. — Roman Jakobson
Every linguistic sign is located on two axes: the axis of simultaneity and that of succession. — Roman Jakobson
For example, the opposition between acute and grave phonemes has the capacity to suggest an image of bright and dark — Roman Jakobson
Of course, we have known for a long time that a word, like any verbal sign, is a unity of two components. — Roman Jakobson
The task is to investigate speech sounds in relation to the meanings with which they are invested — Roman Jakobson
Now the identification of individual sounds by phonetic observation is an artificial way of proceeding. — Roman Jakobson
Linguistic sounds, considered as external, physical phenomena have two aspects, the motor and the acoustic. — Roman Jakobson