Flashcards on Roman Jakobson: Language Structure and Functions
Roman Jakobson: Language Structure and Functions Explained
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Poetics
34 cards
Card 1
Question: What primary question does poetics address regarding verbal messages?
Answer: What makes a verbal message a work of art?
Card 2
Question: Why does Jakobson argue poetics has a leading place in literary studies?
Answer: Because poetics studies the differentia specifica of verbal art in relation to other arts and kinds of verbal behaviour, dealing with problems of verb
Card 3
Question: How does Jakobson relate poetics to linguistics?
Answer: He regards poetics as an integral part of linguistics since linguistics is the global science of verbal structure and poetics deals with verbal struct
Card 4
Question: What is one objection to linking poetics with linguistics, and how does Jakobson respond?
Answer: Objection: many poetic devices occur in other arts. Response: structural features can persist across media and many poetic features belong to general
Card 5
Question: How does Jakobson use transposition between arts to support comparability of arts?
Answer: He notes that works (e.g., Wuthering Heights, medieval legends, L’après-midi d’un faune) can be transposed into other media while preserving structura
Card 6
Question: What broader theoretical field does Jakobson say many poetic features belong to?
Answer: General semiotics (theory of signs).
Card 7
Question: Which aspects of language, besides verbal art, share properties with other sign systems according to Jakobson?
Answer: Many properties of language are shared with some or all other sign systems (pansemiotic features).
Card 8
Question: Why are questions about word-world relations not specific to poetics?
Answer: Because relations between word and world concern all kinds of discourse and are within linguistics' remit to explore how discourse verbalizes the univ
Card 9
Question: What common misunderstanding separates poetics from linguistics regarding evaluation?
Answer: That poetics is primarily evaluative while linguistics is not. Jakobson rejects this, arguing all verbal behaviour is goal-directed and requires analy
Card 10
Question: How does Jakobson relate the temporal dynamics of literary models to linguistic change?
Answer: He notes parallels between the revival of neglected poets and historical revivals in standard languages, showing both fields experience spatial and te