Question of Jakobson's "Linguistics and Poetics."

[Константин Диброва]

Amanda,

As the question is not the one of whether Jacobson's speculation is linguistically sound or not but that of the speculation as it is, we'll have to admit that your colleague is right:
 The verbal structure of a message depends principally on the
predominant function. But even though a set (Einstellung) toward the referent, an orientation toward the CONTEXT - briefly the so-called REFERENTIAL,  denotative",  cognitive" function - is the leading task of numerous messages,... Whenever the addresser and/or addressee need to check up whether they use the same code, speech is focused on the code: it performs a metalingual (i.e. glossing) function. Linguistics and Poetics, p. 353, 356
P.S. By the way, accroding to Jacobson's theory whose pie is humble, the addresser's or the addresee's?
Konstantin Dibrova
Associate Professor, Ph.D. (General Linguistics)
Business English Department,
St.Petersburg State University
Dibrova_K at mail.ru
> Hello SEELANGers,
>
> I have a question for the linguists out there or anyone who knows their
> Jakobson.
>
> I am sitting in on a Semiotics class, taught by a colleague of mine
> from the French department. When reading Jakobson's "Linguistics and
> Poetics" we had a disagreement over the following passage:
>
> "Language must be investigated in all the variety of its functions.
> Before discussing the poetic function we must define its place among
> the other functions of language. An outline of these functions demands
> a concise survey of the constitutive factors in any speech event, in
> any act of verbal communication. The ADDRESSER sends a MESSAGE to the
> ADDRESSEE. To be operative the message requires a CONTEXT referred to
> ( referent in another, somewhat ambiguous, nomenclature), seizable by
> the addressee, and either verbal or capable of being verbalized; a CODE
> fully, or at least partially, common to the addresser and addressee (or
> in other words, to the encoder and decoder of the message); and,
> finally, a CONTACT, a physical channel and psychological connection
> between the addresser and the addressee, enabling both of them to enter
> and stay in communication."
>
> I thought this passage quite clearly indicated Jakobson's contention
> that ANY speech event must have these six factors (with an explanation,
> later in the essay, that the emphasis on one particular element in a
> given speech act can make the message, "phatic" or "poetic," etc). My
> colleague insists that Jakobson is trying to say only that any speech
> act MAY have any of these 6 elements, but need not contain all six.
>
> I am certainly prepared to eat humble pie, but would like some outside
> input on the question.
>
> Thanks so much!
>
> Amanda Ewington
> -----------------------------------------------
> Amanda Ewington, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor of Russian
> Davidson College
> Department of German and Russian
> Box 6936
> Davidson, NC 28035-6936
> tel: (704)894-2397
> fax: (704)894-2782
> amewington at davidson.edu
> http://www.davidson.edu/russian/index.htm
>
> Courier:
> 209 Ridge Road
> Davidson, NC 28036
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