Jakobson, Roman and Jurij Tynjanov 1981[1928d]. Problems in the Study of Language and Literature. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 3-6.
6. The assertation of two differing concepts - la langue and la parole - and the analysis of the relationship between them (the Geneva school) has been exceedingly fruitful for linguistic science. The principles involved in relating these two categories (i.e., the existing norm and the individual utterances) as applied to literature must be elaborated. In this latter case, the individual utterance cannot be considered without reference to the existing complex of norms. (The investigator, in isolating the former from the latter, inescapably deforms the system of artistic values under consideration, thus losing the possibility of establishing its immanent laws.) (Jakobson & Tynjanov 1981[1928d]: 5)
Later Jakobson goes on to form "duplex structures" to lay bare the relationships between code (language) and message (utterance).
Jakobson, Roman 1981[1964e]. Language in Operation. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 7-17.
Recently, aboard a train, I overheard a scrap of conversation. A man said to a young lady, "They were playing "The Raven" on the radio. An old record of a London actor dead for years. I wish you had heard his nevermore". Although I was not the addressee of the stranger's oral message, I received it nevertheless and later transposed this utterance first into handrwiting and then into printed symbols; now it has become a part of a new framework - my message to the prospective reader of these pages.
The stranger had resorted to a literary quotation, which apparently alluded to an emotional experience shared with his female interlocutor. He referred to a performance allegedly transmitted by broadcast. A dead British actor was the original sender of a message addressed "to whom it may concern". He, in turn, had merely reproduced Edgar Allan Poe's literary message of 1845. Furthermore, the American poet himself was ostensibly only transmitting the confession of a "lover lamenting his deceased mistress" - perhaps the poet himself, perhaps some other man, real or imaginary. Within this monologue, the word nevermore is attributed to a talking bird, with the further implication that that one word uttered by the Raven had been caught from some unhappy master, as the melancholy burden of his customary laments. (Jakobson 1981[1964e]: 7)
Compare this to the "communication network" approach of Ruesch. More specifically, to the quasi-anonymous "cultural messages" (or "cultural network").
This is a chair of actual and fictitious senders and receivers, most of whom merely relay and to a large extent intentionally quote one and the same message, which, at least to a few of them, was familiar beforehand. Some of the participants in this one-way communication are widely separated from each other in time and/or space, and these gaps are bridged through various means of recording and transmission. The whole sequence offers a typical example of an intricate process of communication. It is very different from the trivial pattern of the speech circuit graphically presented in textbooks: A and B talk face to face so that an imaginary thread goes from A's brain through his mouth to the ear and brain of B and through his mouth back to A's ear and brain. (Jakobson 1981[1964e]: 8)
Instead of a "cycle" of communication such a complicated sequence actually constitutes a system, especially because Jakobson was an observer, and not a participant in the middle of the sequence.
In this mass-oriented poetic utterance, as the author well understood, the reported speech of the avian title-hero is the "pivot upon which the whole structure might turn" (p. 37). Actually, this missage within a message "produced a sensation", and readers were reportedly "haunted by the Nevermore". (Jakobson 1981[1964e]: 8)
Reported speech or
M/M forms an important part of this sequence, as does metacommunication in Ruesch's approach.
Similarly, there is no freedom or choice when an officer of the Fourth Hussars is commissioned to performa a task: "Sir" is the only admissible answer. However, as Churchill notes in his memoirs, this reply can carry a wide range of emotional modulations; whereas the "non-reasoning creature capable of speech" (p. 38), having presumably learned its word by rote, monotonously repeats it without any variation. Thus its utterance lacks both cognitive and emotive information. (Jakobson 1981[1964e]: 8-9)
Now one only has to look for "emotional information" in nonverbal behaviour.
For talking birds, however, as their student Mowrer [Learning Theory and Personality Dynamics, 1950, p. 688f.] noted, vocalization is primarily a means of getting their human partner to continue communication with them and to give in fact no sign of parting.
In this peculiar variety of interlocution, here carried to its most extreme limit, each question is predetermined by the answer that follows: the answer is the stimulus and the question, the response. (Jakobson 1981[1964e]: 9)
This explains Jakobson's remark that "The endeavor to start and sustain communication is typical of talking birds" (Jakobson 1985[1976c]: 115). Orval Hobart Mowrer's book does indeed contain a chapter "On the Psychology of "Talking Birds"".
The inverted answer and question game is typical of inner speech, where the subject knows beforehand the reply to the question he will put to himself. (Jakobson 1981[1964e]: 10)
Cf. autocommunication.
The two cardinal and complementary traits of verbal behavior are brought out here: that inner-peech is in essence a dialogue, and that any reported speech is appropriated and remolded by the quoter, whether it is a quotation from an alter or from an earlier phase of the ega (said I). (Jakobson 1981[1964e]: 11)
Cf. intercommunication precedes, accompanies and follows autocommunication and the possible transformations of content involved.
In point of fact, the author of "The Raven" formulated perfectly the relationship between poetic language and its translation into what now would be called metalanguage of scientific analysis. In his Marginalia, Poe recognized that the two aspects stand in complementary relation to each other: he said that we are able "to see distinctly the machinery" of any work of art and at the same time to enjoy this ability, but "only just in proportion as we do not enjoy the legitimate effect designed by the artist". Moreover, in order to counter past and future objections to this analysis of "The Raven", he added that "to reflect analytically upon Art, is to reflect after the fashion of the mirrors in the temple of Smyrna, which represent the fairest image as deformed " (1849). Truth, in Poe's opinion, demands a precision absolutely antagonistic to the predominant aim of poetic fiction; but when he translated the language of art into the language of precision, the critics apprehended his attempt as a mere fiction defying truth. (Jakobson 1981[1964e]: 12-13)
One of the possible types of metalanguage.
In "The Raven" this theme displays a particular "force of contrast" (p. 43), expressed in a pointedly romantic oxymoron: the colloquy between the lover and the bird is an anomalous communication about the severance of all communication. This pseudo-dialogue is tragically one-sided: there is no real interchange of any kind. To his desperate queries and appeals the hero receives only seeming answers - from the bird, from the echo, and from the volumes of forgotten lore; his own lips are "best suited" (p. 39) for vain soliloquy. Here a further oxymoron, a new contradiction, is advanced by the poet: he assigns to this solitary speech the widest radius of overt communication, but realizes at once that this exhibitionistic widening of the appeal may "endanger the psychological reality of the image of the enlarged self confronting the notself", as it was later to be formulated by Edward Sapir. (Jakobson 1981[1964e]: 14)
Sapir's quote reminds me so many other thinkers from that era (Sapir published his
Language in 1921), like George Herbert Mead and John Cowper Powys.
It may be recalled once more that the supreme effect of "The Raven" lies in its daring experimentation with intricate problems of communication. The dominant motif of the poem is the lover's irrecocable loss of contact with the rare and radiant maiden; henceforth no common context with her is conceivable, either on this earth or within the distant Aidenn (the fanciful spelling is needed as an echo for maiden). (Jakobson 1981[1964e]: 14-15)
Sometimes Jakobson uses the term "context" in weirdly technical ways.
The inevitable Nevermore is always the same and always different: on the one hand expressive modulations diversify the sound, and on the other "the variation of application (p. 39), i.e., the multiformity of contexts, imparts a different connotation to the meaning of the word on its every recurrence.
A word out of conetxt allows an indeterminate number of solutions, and the listener is engaged in guessing what is meant by the isolated nevermore. But within the conetxt of the dialogue it signifies by turns: nevermore will you forget her; nevermore will I leave you. Moreover, the same word can function as a proper name, an emblematic noun which the lover attributes to his nocturnal visitor: a bird above his chamber door *** with such name as "Nevermore". Poe rendered this variation of usage particularly effective "by adhering, in general, to the monotone of sound" - that is to say, by favoring a deliberate suppression of emotive modulations.
On the other hand, however great the variety of contextual meanings, the word< nevermore, like any other word, retains the same general meaning through all its varied applications. The tension between this intrinsic unity and the diversity of contextual or situational meaning is the pivotal problem of the linguistic discipline labeled semantics, while the discipline termed phonemics is primarily concerned with the tension between identity and variation on the sound level of language. The compound nevermore denotes a negation, a denial forever in the future as opposed to the past. Even the transposition of this temporal adverb into a proper name retains a metaphorical tie with this general semantic value. (Jakobson 1981[1964e]: 15)
This concerns contextual meaning.
More than anyone, Baudelaire, in his notes to Poe's poem, vividly conceives the particular conceptual and emotive tensity of this "profound and mysterious" word. It fuses end with endlessnes. It contrasts the prospective with the foregone, the eternal with the transient, negation with assertion, and in itself it contrasts sharply with the animal nature of the utterer, who is inescapably bound to the tangible present of time and space. (Jakobson 1981[1964e]: 16)
Synonyms for the emotive function and conetext.
The expression beast upon the sculptured bust suggests a puzzling connection between the sitter and the seat, both named by two alternants of the "same" root. This propensity to infer a connection in meaning from similarity in sound illustrates the poetic function of language. (Jakobson 1981[1964e]: 17)
Another aspect of the "phonico-semantic knot" in the poetic function.
Jakobson, Roman 1981[1968c]. Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 87-97.
Despite some borderline, transitional formations, there is in language a definite, clear-cut discrimination between these two classes of expressed concepts - material and relational - or, in more technical terms, between the lexical and grammatical aspecs of language. The linguist must faithfully follow this objective structural dichotomy and thoroughly translate the grammatical concepts actually present in a given language into his technical metalanguage, without any imposition of arbitrary or outlandish categories upon the language observed. The categories described are intrinsic constituents of the verbal code, manipulated by language users, and not at all "grammarian's conveniences", as even such attentive inquirers into poets' grammar as, e.g., Donald Davie [Articulate Energy; An Inquiry into the Syntax of English Poetry, 1955, p. 144] were inclined to believe. (Jakobson 1981[1968c]: 87)
Another type of metalanguage.
Later, in his preliminary notes to the planned Foundations of Language, Sapir outlined the fundamental types of referents which serve as "a natural basis for parts of speech", namely existents and their linguistic expression, the noun; occurrents expressed by the verb; and finally modes of existence and occurrence represented in language by the adjective and the adverb respectively. (Jakobson 1981[1968c]: 88)
The piece that Jakobson refers to, "Totality" (1930), is published in
The collected works of Edward Sapir, p. 300-326.
Linguistic fictions should neither be "mistaken for realities" nor be ascribed to the creative fancy of the linguist: they "owe their existence" actually "to language alone" and particularly to the "grammatical form of the discourse", in Bentham's terms.
The indispensable, mandatory role played by the grammatical concepts confronts us with the intricate problem of the relationship between referential, cognitive value and linguistic fiction. (Jakobson 1981[1968c]: 88-89)
Fictitious entities (linguistic fictions) belong to "the universe of discourse".
There, where the poetic function dominates over the strictly cognitive function, the latter is more or less dimmed, or as Sir Philip Sidney declared in his Defence of Poesie, "Now for the Poet, he nothing affirmeth, and therefore never liets". Consequently, in Bentham's succinct formulation, "the Fictions of the poet are pure of insincerity." (Jakobson 1981[1968c]: 89)
In poetry the cognitive/referential function of language is "more or less dimmed".
I doubt that efforts of such scholars as Christine Brook-Rose to draw a rigorous line of demarcation between tropes and poetic scenery are applicable to this ballad, and in general, the range of poems and poetic trends for which such a boundary actually exists is very limited. (Jakobson 1981[1968c]: 92)
He is referring to her
A Grammar of Metaphor (1958). This is the same Brook-Rose who uses the illustration of Jakobson's communication model in her nover
Thru (1975).
Jakobson, Roman 1981[1966f]. Grammatical Parallelism and its Russian Facet. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 98-135.
Phonemic features are sequences, both morphological and lexical, syntactic and phraseological units, when occirring in metrically or strophically corresponding positions, are necessarily subject to the conscious or subconscious questions whether, how far, and in what respect the positionally corresponding entities are mutually similar. (Jakobson 1981[1966f]: 98)
Parallelism, or "poetic artifice" consists in "recurrent returns" and these are not necessarily intentional.
The evocation of Grief, destined to become the chief actor in the song, opens its first line, and the internal parallelism is reinforced by the reduplication góre góre and by the etymological figure (paregmenon) which links the apposition goreván'ice to its head word góre. Tautological variations of this noun are usual in Russian emotive speech: góre gór'koe, góre gorjúčee, góre-górjuško, etc.; Povest': 296 Govorít sero góre gorínskoe. The demoninative verb gorevát' 'to grieve' from góre 'grief' gave in turn a deverbative noun goreván'e 'grieving', used here in its diminutive form goreván'ice, which opposes to the virtual nomen agentis a somewhat softened or even caressing nomen actionis. (Jakobson 1981[1966f]: 112)
Here the emotive function is
evocative much like it is supposed to be in Anton Marty's treatment.
With all its intricacy, the structure of parallelistic poetry appears diaphanous as soon as it is submitted to a close linguistic analysis, both of the parallel distitch and of their relationship within a broader context. The hexastich 4:8 in the Song of Solomon, discussed by Bertholet and Albright, is said to contain "allusions of unmistakably Canaanite mythological origin" and to belong to the most archaic poetic texts of the Bible. The following transcription is accompanied by a translation which nearly coincides with Albright's wording. 1. Ƥittī milləbātōn kallāh
2. Ƥittī milləbātōn tābōƤī
3. tāšūrī mērōƤš Ƥămānāh
4. mērōƤš śənīr wəḥermōn
5. mimməƤōnōt Ƥămāyōt
6. mēharərēy nəmērīm | With me from Lebanon, bride,
with me from Lebanon come!
depart from the speak of Amanah,
from the peak of Senir and Hermon
from the lairs of lions,
from the mountains of leopards! |
The whole hexastich is cemented by the six ocurrences of the preposition 'from' and by a noun as the second word unit of every line. Each of the three distichs has its own conspicuous structural properties. The first is the only one which repeats words in identical metrical positions. The first word pair is echoed in 2, and while the third words of the two lines belong to different parts of speech, they still follow the parallelistic pattern, since both the vocative function of the final noun in 1 ["bride"] and the imperative function of the final verb in 2 ["come!"] represent one and the same conative level of language. Thus the first distich, alone in this fragment, fulfills the leading scheme of ancient Hebrew parallelism: abc - abc (or more exactly abc1 - abc2). In a similar way the Russian folk song treats imperatives as parallels to vocative terms; e.g. Solov éj ty mój solovéjuško! || Ne vzvivájstja ty vysokóxon'ko! 'Nightingale!' and 'Don't soar!', 'Uncle!' and 'Come!', 'Brother!' and 'Ride!' figure in binary formulas of Russian wedding songs. (Jakobson 1981[1966f]: 130-131)
The vocative is apparently the "naming the addressee" (e.g. Latin
vocarat that both calls out and "names" Celer) and the imperative is
commanding.
Rhyme has been repeatedly characterized as a condensed parallelism, but rigorous comparison of rhyme and pervasive parallelism shows that there is a fundamental difference. The PHONEMIC equivalence of rhyming words is compulsory, whereas the linguistic level of any correspondence between two paralleled terms is subjective to a free choice. The fluctuating distribution of different linguistic levels between variables and invariants imparts a highly diversified character to parallelistic poetry and provides it with ample opportinities to individualize the parts and to group them with respect to the wholes. Against the background of totally congruent lines, the sporadic concurrence of equivalence on one linguistic level with disagreement on another level acts as a forceful device. (Jakobson 1981[1966f]: 133)
Parallelisms are more semantic and not as compulsory as rhyme.
The metaphoric image of "orphan lines" is a contrivance of a detached onlooker to whom the verbal art of continuous correspondences remains aesthetically alien. Orphan lines in poetry of pervasive parallels are a contradiction in terms, since whatever the status of a line, all its structure and functions are indissolubly interlaced with the near and distant environment, and the task of linguistic analysis is to disclose the levels of this coaction. (Jakobson 1981[1966f]: 135)
Just like the addresser and addressee are functionally "verbal persons", so is context a "verbal environment".
Jakobson, Roman 1981[1970e]. Subliminal Verbal Patterning in Poetry. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 136-147.
Whenever and wherever I discuss the phonological and grammatical texture of poetry, and whatever the language and epoch of the poems examined, one question constantly arises among the readers or listeners: Are the designs disclosed by linguistic analysis deliberately and rationally planned in the creative word of the poet and is he really aware of them? (Jakobson 1981[1970e]: 136)
This actually seems to be all he is discussing. (And also why I am reluctant to call his scheme of language functions a communication model - it is more like a typology of language functions for the phonological and grammatical analysis of poetry.)
In particular, when comparing the extant variants of a poem, one realizes the relevance of the phonemic, morphological, and syntactic framework for the author. (Jakobson 1981[1970e]: 136)
Yup, these are the lower level in the linguistic "pyramid" (cf. the diagram of units in the theses of cultural semiotics).
The poet's metalanguage may lag far behind his poetic language [...] (Jakobson 1981[1970e]: 139)
Another type of metalanguage.
[...] while the acute (dental) stop appears only in its sharp variety - once voiced /d'/ and once with a contextual loss of its morphological voicing (lébed'). (Jakobson 1981[1970e]: 142)
I have a nagging suspicion that "a contextual loss" is actually what he means by something being "nonverbalized".
The third antithesis predicts high stature for the addressee and a sombre future for the addresser; at the same time, personal nouns of feminine and masculine gender announces the sex of the two characters. (Jakobson 1981[1970e]: 145)
Is this the vocative function?
Jakobson, Roman 1981a. Notes on the Contours of an Ancient Japanese Poem: the Farewell Poem of 732 by Takapasi Musimarö. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 157-164.
The addressee of this poetic message, Pudipara Umkapyi (694-737), was a high dignitary sent as vice-ambassador to China in 716, governor of Hitashi province in 719, supervisor of the construction of a new palace in 726, minister in 731, nominated governor general of the Western provinces in 732, a particularly important military post in view of the dangerous adversaries, China and Korea, this region faced at that time. (Jakobson 1981a: 159)
This is where it becomes clear that the "addresse" is an "internal" factor of the poetic structure. It really is "that whom the poem is written to".
While possessing a wealth of biographical information on the high-ranking addressee of the poem and on his noble ancestors, we lack any data about its addresser, who must have been a man of lower descent, presumably an officer of subaltern rank. He may have served under Umakapyi and seems to be connected with Nara and its cultural life in the capital's late period. (Jakobson 1981a: 159)
The addresser is in fact the "author" of the poem.
Actually, the poet's message offecs a picturesque and moving dynamic display of vast, though mostly encircled spaces, mastered by a chain of intense moves (the poem excels in verbs of motion), moves linked with announcements of temporal changes (2y toward the time when***; 15y toward the time when***; 14y time when***). Attention is continually focused on both the horizontal and vertical directions. (Jakobson 1981a: 160)
These directions probably belong to the poetic message's context.
The undulating movement changes into the up and down of the vertical style: the verb 'to see, to survey' is first addressed condescendingly in the chief's order to the "soldiers under command" (imperotive 6myiyö-tö) and then focused honorifically in the eulogist's praise of the chief for "having graciously surveyed (10myesi) the state of the country." (Jakobson 1981a: 160)
A more direct connection between commands and imperatives.
The addressee's swift return, prompted by the simultaneous image of the recurring spring, is implored and anticipated by the addresser in honorific terms signaling the social distance between the superior and his inferior (imperative 12kyimasane' deign to come'; 17kyimasaba 'when you deign to come'). Yet at the same time the latter uses humble forms to announce his own steps along the Tatuta ways to meet his hero (16mukape mawidemu 'it will be an honor to go to meet') and thus to shorten the spatial distance between the sender and the receiver of the message. (Jakobson 1981a: 160)
For some reason I find this use of the terms "sender" and "receiver" awfully weird.
Besides this pronoun there are no genuine grammatical subjects in our text, and as a matter of fact, the two mentioned pronouns occur here not as subjects but in a merely vocative function.
While the first sentence of the poem is focused solely on the addressee, the second one takes notice, moreover, of the intended moves of the addresser, eager to meet his hero. (Jakobson 1981a: 162)
The vocative is focused solely on the addressee, while "the intended moves of the addresser" concerns the emotive function (it "aims a direct expression of the speaker's attitude toward what he is speaking about").
Jakobson, Roman 1981[1970f]. Martin's Codax's Poetic Texture: A Revised Version of a Letter to Haroldo de Campos. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 169-175.
Only two finite forms occur in the poem: the second person plural in the present tence (sabedes and - perhaps, with an imperative connotation - treydes) and the first person plural in the future tense (veeremo' and banhar nos emos). (Jakobson & Jones 1981[1970f]: 174)
Thus there can be imperative connotation!
Jakobson, Roman and Paolo Valesio 1981[1966g]. Vocabularum constructio in Dante's Sonnet "Se vedi li occhi miei". In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 176-192.
3.5. Two synecdoches followed by pronouns refer to the first-person hero, 1occhi miei - with their further pronominal substitute 4i - and 2cor mi. As to the second-person hero, after the introductory conditional clause 1se vedi he is apostrophized in the final line (- 1) of the initial strophe and again in the final line (- 1) of the third strophe, in the first instance by a single, and in the second by a double, vocative expression, the sole syntactically independent nouns in the poem - 4Signor and 11foco d'amor, lume del cielo - with a concomitant 4,11tu and subsequent conative forms. A double subjunctive - 4svaghi, 5paghi - follows after the single vocative, while the single imperative - 14leva - is preceded by a double vocative. Both allocutions are surrounded by oblique and possessive pronominal forms - 3ti, da te, 5tua, and 10tuo, 13tuo. (Jakobson & Valesio 1981[1966g]: 182)
Thus, "you" is the most explicitly conative word.
The final line of the odd strophe opens both appeals to the front, while their conative verbal forms appear at the end of the next line marked by the same rhyme, i.e. of the first line of the even quatrain (4svaghi - 5paghi) and of the second line of the even tercet (11cielo - 13velo). (Jakobson & Valesio 1981[1966g]: 184)
Right, not "conative words" but "conative verbal forms".
In Sapir's terms one might say that the "exstents" supplant the "occurrents", as revealed byt he predominantly substantive rhymes of the tercets in opposition to the verbal rhymes of the quatrains and by the sharp contrast between the total grammatical inventory of both inner strophes and the abundance of verbs in the quatrain and of the nouns in the tercet. Furthemore, the contingency of the subjectives in the first appeal to the Lord (the restrictive condition, the dependence on the principal verb, and the subjective note of the request) differs strikingly from the second invocation with its unconditional and detached imperative. The consistently promonimal objects of these conative forms are full of import: while the subjective point at the eyes of the implorer - 4i - and at the offender - 6chi*** - the imperative aims at Virtue - 13la - as its goal. (Jakobson & Valesio 1981[1966g]: 189)
The improrer is the addresser and the imploree is the addressee.
[...] with the exception of the subjunctive 8che 'l mondo allaghi standing in forceful semantic contrast to the second-person subjective 5che paghi, the addresser's wish placed upon the celestial addressee. (Jakobson & Valesio 1981[1966g]: 190)
The
prayer is in Jakobson's terms "the addresser's wish placed upon the celestial addressee".
Jakobson, Roman 1981[1966h]. The Grammatical Texture of a Sonnet from Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 275-283.
The only grammatical subject and hero of the initial octave, designated in each of its lines, is 'I', while all the objects, both direct and prepositional, are substantives used in their abstract meanings and devoid of any article: love (4 times), pitte, fire, dill, desire, want, store. No addressee is mentioned within these eight lines; but 'thou', the second person pronoun, apostrophized in the apposition as the personified Love, becomes the addressee and hero of the subsequent, third quatrain, whereas 'I', which occurred ten times in the first and second quatrains, is suppressed in the third one, and likewise the possessive 'my' yields to 'thy'. Both 'I' as addresser and 'thou' as addressee appear together in the final, synthesizing couplet. (Jakobson 1981[1966h]: 276)
The addresser is the first person "I", the addressee is the second person "you" and the referent is the "third person" something or someone, "it".
In contradistinction to the inaugural octave and the final couplet, the second, medial part of the poem contains third person subjects and no others. The contrast is sharpened either by the inanimate referent of the demonstrative pronoun (this is thy worke) or by the subject in plural (children, they). The second person pronoun occurs only as an apostrophe (thou God) or in its possessive form (thy worke). (Jakobson 1981[1966h]: 277)
Yup, the "third person" is an inanimate referent.
The pronouns 'I' from the octave and 'thou' from the last quatrain return; this time, however, the first person pronoun is used not only in nominative but also in its objective case, and the second person pronoun solely in the objective case (13I crave of thee: 14Let me***). The role of the dramatis personae when expressively confronted with each other becomes thereby more dynamic. The octave was a soliloqui, focused on the speaker; the following quatrain obscures the addresser and evokes the addressee; in its couplet the sonnet acquires a touch of dialogue. (Jakobson 1981[1966h]: 280)
You could call the addresser and addressee
dramatis personae or just
actors or
actants.
Not only this final "speech in speech" but also the introductory, reporting part of the coupled is conceived as oratio directa wit hemphatic references to the addressee. (Jakobson 1981[1966h]: 281)
I think his "model" is not so much about modelling communication as such, but rather modelling communication
in poetry.
Jakobson, Roman and Lawrence G. Jones 1981[1970g]. Shakespeare's Verbal Art in "Th'Expence of Spirit". In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 284-303.
A sound reaction against such forced, oversimplified, and diluting interpretations of Shakespeare's very words and particularly against an excessive modernization of his punctuation led Laura Riding and Robert Graves to the opposite extreme. (Jakobson & Jones 1981[1970g]: 301)
At the time of reading this I thought that my future exposition of Jakobson's functions will also be "a sound reaction against such forced, oversimplified, and diluting interpretations" of it as a "communication model".
Jakobson, Roman 1981[1970h]. On the Verbal Art of William Blake on Other Poet-Painters. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 322-344.
There is a sensible difference between a global symmetry of outer/inner and odd/even constituents: the former suggests a closed configuration, and the latter, an open-ended chain. Blake's poem associates the former with nouns and the latter with verbs, and one ought to recall Edwar Sapir's semantic definition of nouns as "existents" and of verbs as "occurrents". (Jakobson 1981[1970h]: 326)
Though, what practical use will one gain from using obscure terms for something that is universally understood in more common terms? (I won't know before reading Sapir.)
Infant, the title hero, and the two other dramatis personae are presented with reference to the addresser of the message: I, my mother, my father. (Jakobson 1981[1970h]: 327)
These are possessive vocative verbal forms?
Jakobson, Roman 1981[1964f]. The Grammatical Structure of Janko Král's Verses. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 482-498.
The first person - the triple som of the initial couplet - changes from an agent into a dim addressee of action, the enclitic dative mi, while the actor's role becomes a pars pro toto, competing with another synecdochic image, oko. (Jakobson 1981[1964f]: 488)
The first person can also be the addressee?
In the second quintet, feminine nomatives (34noc, 36rosička) replace the neuters of stanzas II-IV and for the first time the inanimate masculine emerges in its singular form (38ohniček). Again the universe of discourse becomes somewhat more personalized. (Jakobson 1981[1964f]: 491)
Referring to the addresser or the addressee apparently constitutes the personalization of the universe of discourse.
The deer is apostrophized and becomes the addressee of the old man's message, a virtual respondent to his queries and a dramatis personae, ty - the second person of the plot, associated with the first person ja by similarity and, in the latter's summonses, by a purposed contiguity: 25Jeleň jelenko nože si lahňi 26Ku mně peknje tvoje rožki*** 29Sem hlauku tvoju sem na koleno. (Jakobson 1981[1964f]: 493)
Yeah, I bet I'm going to have a lot of fun finding nonverbal equivalents (or at least non-equivalents) to all these possible variations of the emotive and conative functions.
In the sixth stanza the first two lines contain a double appelation (oslovenie), in the seventh stanza, two imperative constructions - one explicit (25nože si lahňi), the other elliptic (26Ku mně peknje tvoje rožki) - and finally in the eighth stanza, one elliptic imperative construction (29Sem hlauku tvoju) followed by a hortative (30Něch ju vihladkám). (Jakobson 1981[1964f]: 495)
It would be much easier to understand all these contructions if they were... in English.
The reinstated past, the theme of the five final stanzas, puts an end to any gradual development and fulfillment; the past tense is superseded by the present, the perfective aspect by the imperfective. Statics prevails over dynamics, state over action. The old man's 'I', suppressed in the four preceding stanzas, comes into focus. The second person is ostensively introduced, the message looks for a responding addressee. The narrative is replaced by requests, - at first imperative, then interrogative - which are addressed to the deer, the hero's metaphoric alter ego. (Jakobson 1981[1964f]: 497)
At least "the message looks for a responding addressee" has a simple nonverbal equivalent in the look or gaze that searches or waits for eye contact to occur. (Is the squint an
interrogative nonverbal sign?)
A different language is too often taken for stammering, a nonconformist virtuosity is misinterpreted as formlessness, exquisite variability is confused with cruelty, intentional enigmatic indefiniteness is deplored as the disappointing obscurity or fragmentariness of a mere neglected sketch, and in the stupendous interplay of symmetry and disequilibrium onesided critics are prone to overlook the harmony and to observe nothing but chaos. (Jakobson 1981[1964f]: 498)
Wow. That is just beautiful. Jakobson got all poetic and philosophical... I have to add this quote to the left sidebar of this blog.
Jakobson, Roman and Peter Colaclides 1981[1966k]. Grammatical Imagery in Cavafy's Poem ΘΥΜΗΣΟΥ, ΣΩΜΙΑ... In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 582-590.
Inversely, the three main clauses of the final sentence separate the first, indicative predicate from the two concluding imperatives: 8μοιἀζει *** - *** 10θυμησου ***, *** 11θυμησου. (Jakobson & Colaclides 1981[1966k]: 583)
The imperative (
10 and
11) here is "remember". In a modern example (made famous by the 2005 film
V for Vendetta), in the line "Remember, remember, the fifth of November" the "remember" is imperative and "the fifth of November" is indicative. In a 1742 version it was "Don't you Remember The Fifth of November", where the first part is not so much imperative as inquisitive.
Compound verbal forms are excluded. The conjugation is confined to a few manifestly binary oppositions: aoristic versus presential aspect, medio-passive versus active voice, imperative versus indicative mood, and, within the latter, preterit versus present tense. There are only two persons, the second, apostrophized, and the third, referred to. While the second person is confined to the singular, the third is used in both numbers with a distinct prevalence of the plural. On the other hand, thet hird person is limited to the active voice, whether in transitive or non-transitive constructions, whereas the second person has both the active and the medio-passive voice at its disposal and in transitive constructions makes use of the medio-passive only. The two verbal aspects are divided between both persons: the second person is confined to the aoristic, and the third to the presential aspect (with one salient exception in the medial line). The second person has a choice between the indicative and the imperative, and the third person between the present and the imperfect. Thus, the actions centered around the addressee are merely stated, whereas, whenever the action is attributed to an extrinsic factor ("third person"), those events are represented in their unfolding and proceeding; even if they pertain to the past [...], they appear as an ever present, not epic but dramatic, past. (Jakobson & Colaclides 1981[1966k]: 588-589)
I finally looked it up:
apostrophized means, in rhetoric, "[to] address an exclamatory passage in a speech or poem to (someone or something)." (Thus reinforcing my earlier assumptions that Jakobson's model is more poetic than merely linguistic or communicative.) The key phrase in this passage is "an extrinsic factor" because this later leads us to a conclusion that the poetic function is
introversive and the referential, cognitive or contextual function is
extroversive.
Jakobson, Roman and Stephen Rudy 1981[1977b]. Yeats' "Sorrow of Love" through the Years. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 600-638.
In Valéry's view Mallarmé was right, for the essence of poetry lies precisely in the poetic transformation of verbal material and in the coupling of its phonetic and semantic aspects. (Jakobson & Rudy 1981[1977b]: 601)
The first aspect concerns the poetic function as an "artistic device" and the second concerns the phonico-semantic knot.
2.0. As early as 1899 Yeats stated that he "revised, and, to a great extent, re-wrote*** certain lyrics" (Var., 846). His epigraph to Collected Works in Verse and Prose (Stanford-on-Avon, 1908) reads:The friends that have it I do wrong
When ever I remake a song,
Should know what issue is at stake:
It is myself that I remake. (Var., 778)
And in January, 1927 he mentions "new revisions on which my heart is greatly set" and adds, characteristically, "one is always cutting out the dead wood" (Var., 848). (Jakobson & Rudy 1981[1977b]: 602)
This concerns autocommunication and the
auto in it. That is, how self-communication transforms the self.
The system of metaphors underlying the inner quatrain of SL 1925 differs patently from the whimsical metathetic confrontation of the two sociative prepositions with (II 1 And then you came with***, 2 And with you came***) in SL 1892 and from the series of summarizing totalizers (II 2 the whole of***, 3 And all the*** of**-, 4 And all the *** of ***) in the early version. (Jakobson & Rudy 1981[1977b]: 605)
Sociatives and totalizers? Sometimes I feel like Jakobson is pulling these terms out of his ass. (But then again I'm so unconversant with linguistics and grammatical terms that I have no right to complain.)
6.3 The poem contains six personal (human, i.e. belonging to the who-gender) nouns, of which two common (II 1girl, 4peers) and two proper names (3Odysseus, 4Priam) appear in the inner quatrain, whereas each of the outer quatrains has only one personal noun, the possessive man's in I4 and III4. Of these six personal nouns only one (II1girl) belongs to the feminine (she-) gender, while the other five are of the masculine (he-) gender. (Jakobson & Rudy 1981[1977b]: 608)
Thus far I understand that (personal) (pro)nouns and proper names are not
exactly tied to the addresser and addressee. So despite a good will to do so, i should probably not tie them together.
The increase of personalization among the nouns of SL 1925 is also witnessed by the replacement of the personal pronoun you in II1-2 of SL 1892 by the noun II1girl (cf. 19.7). (Jakobson & Rudy 1981[1977b]: 609)
In other words, I suspect that personalization is only tangentially related to the emotive and conative functions.
In Sl 1925 Yeats "dropped the simulation of the structure of address" (Parkinson 1951: 168), while all the early versions of SL twice make use of the personal pronoun you in the first distich, with reference to the female addressee of the poem, and then of her in the second distich, with reference to the world, which merges with the addressee: II1you came with ***, 2And with you came the whole of the world's tears. (Jakobson & Rudy 1981[1977b]: 612)
Aren't all structures of address in poetry
simulation? The citation:
Parkisnos, T. 1951. W. B. Yeats Self-Critic. Belkley, Los Angeles.Finally, II 1those, in the context you came with those red mournful lips, reinforces the odic manner of direct address in the early version and makes the roles of both the addresser and the addressee more prominent. (Jakobson & Rudy 1981[1977b]: 612)
Apparently you can identify poetic genres on the basis of the functions (the ode being predominantly conative,
zaum being predominantly poetic, etc.).
13.2 All three semantic types of verbs outlined by Jespersen (1924: 86) - verbs of action, of process, and of state - occur, each twice, among the six finite forms of SL 1925. The verbs of action are represented by two compound forms bound to the fist hemistich of the last line in the outer quatrains (I 4Had blotted out, III 4Could but compose). The verbs of state are restructed to the first distich of the inner quatrain (II 1had, 2And seemed). The repeated verb of process occurs in the initial hemistich of the inner and last quatrains (II 1arose, III 1Arose). In SL 1925 the verbs of action in their compound form each consist of four syllables, the verbs of process - two, and the verbs of state - of only one syllable. (Jakobson & Rudy 1981[1977b]: 616)
These terms come from Otto Jespersen's 1924.
The Philosophy of Grammar. This could be useful for elaborating the grammatical side of concourse. (TÜR'il on hulk koopiaid erinevatest väljaannetest, isegi
1924. aastast.)
16.0 According to Yeats' meditation of 1900, "all sounds, all colours, all forms, either because of their preordained energies or because of long association, evoke indefinable and yet precise emotions, or, as I prefer to think, call down among us certain disembodied powers, whose footsteps over our hearts we call emotions" ("The Symoblism of Poetry", in Essays, 156f.). (Jakobson & Rudy 1981[1977b]: 619)
I should probably check out this essay because Yeats (
1903) very casualle draws a distinction between emotional symbols and intellectual symbols. The reference:
Yeats, William Butler 1903. "The Symbolism of Poetry". In: Ideas of Good and Evil. Second edition. London: A. H. Bullen, 237-256.Thus P. Kiparsky singles out (1975: 581), on the one hand, "members of lexical categories - nouns (including members of compounds), adjectives, verbs, and adverbs" and, on the other hand, "members of non-lexical categories (such as his, the, and, with)" which are in construction with the lexical members. (Russian tradition terms these two classes of units as 'lexical' and 'formal' respectively.) (Jakobson & Rudy 1981[1977b]: 623)
How is this distinction any different from Aristotle's categorematic and syncategorematic or Marty's autosemantica and synsemantica?
19.32 The outline of PHase 15 in A Vision (p. 136) adds that "now contemplation and desire, united into one, inhabit a world where every beloved image has bodily form, and every bodily form is loved. This love knows nothing of desire, for desire implies effort ***. As all effort has ceased, all thought has become image, because no thought could exist if it were not carried to its own extinction." (Jakobson & Rudy 1981[1977b]: 633)
For some reason this reminds me of Peirce, in which case a thought carried to its own extinction would be a though-sign reaching Thirdness.
The repeated arose in II1 and III1 of SL 1925 prompts one critic, John Unterecker, to see a double vision of "a girl arose" and "a girl, a rose" (1959: 159). (Jakobson & Rudy 1981[1977b]: 634)
I quite like this because I'm a fan of phrases that begin with the indefinite article "a". Checking my
A List of Every Band Ever, I find the following list of bands: A Girl A Gun A Ghost; A Girl And A Guitar; A Girl and a Gun; A Girl Called Eddy; A Girl Called Johnny; A Girl Called Kate (Tambre 2014: 18-20) and secondly: A Rose By Any Other Name; A Rose For Ona; A Rose In The Ashes (
ibid, 34-36). A combination of these two is indeed lacking in actual bands. Also, I already recorded a possible Czech name for a virtual band:
A hore rastjem ako ten topol.
Jakobson, Roman and Bayara Aroutunova 1981[1972a]. (with B. Aroutunova) An Unknown Album Page by Nikolaj Gogol' - / 696. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 679-695.
Frak, "tail coat", and Mundir, "full-dress uniform", are capitalized in Gogol's autograph and obviously associated with animates, in particular, with human beings. Metonymic and metaphoric associations between suits and their wearers are typical feature of Gogol's writings: Černye fraki mel'kali i nosilis' vroz' i kučami tam i tam, kak nosjatsja muxi, "Black tail-coats flashed and flitted alone and in flocks here and there, like flitting flies" (VI, 14); Oficery, damy, fraki - vsë sdelalos' ljubezno, "Officers, ladies, tail-coats - everything became amiable" (VI, 174); I vi soveršenno zasnuvšem gorode, možet byt', plelas' gde-nibud' frizovaja šinel', goremyka neizvestno kakogo klassa i čina, "And ina completely slumbering city, maybe, there trudged somewhere a frieze overcoat, a wretch of unknown class and rank" (VI, 176); Bormotala kofejnaja šinel', "A coffee-colored overcoat mumbled" (VIII, 148); Solomennaja šljapa, verojatno, tože zdorova, "The straw hat is, probably, als in good health" (XI, 145). (Jakobson & Aroutunova 1981[1972a]: 685)
Relevant because of the metonymy - a part of a body (Zamjatin), a handbag (
Anna Karenina) or, here, an item of clothing, standing for the whole person. This is an aspect of concourse.
The second of the three sentences which form the initial paragraph of AP differ in several respects from the other passages of this page: 1) It is the sole simple sentence - the only one devoid of subordinate clauses; 2) It is the only sentence with an allocution pointing to the addressee and with the first-person of the verb as a reference to the addresser; [...] (Jakobson & Aroutunova 1981[1972a]: 687)
Allocution is "a formal speech giving advice or a warning."
Patent references to the addressee are present solely in the two even sentences and underscored, moreover, by an allocution at the end of II and by the emphatic vam za vaše at the end of IV. The sensu stricto personal pronouns are represented in AP, and namely in its even sentences, only by three datives of "you" (vam), once in II and twice in IV. The addresser of the message, designated by the first person verb in the sentence II, is shifted to the third, talked-about person through the conversion of the author's name Gogol' into the subject of IV. The only two proper names which occur in AP, designating first the feminine addresee and then the masculine addresser of the message, are used to conclude the even sentences: II, Mar'ja Aleksandrovna; IV, Gogol'. (Jakobson & Aroutunova 1981[1972a]: 689-690)
I knew about
sensu but I did not know about
sensu stricto.
The artist's intention faces him with long years of experimentation and creative eagerness, interrupted by violent crises, lingering periods of "drowsy inertness" (17 October 1840; XI, 314), and ever deeper feelings of setbacks with an "insensibly quiescent torpidity" and "numb inanity" (January 1840; XI, 274). Gogol' comments: "I am no longer able to write something" (ibid.); "The work I began doesn't go" (XI, 248). He is afraid, however, of rumors spreading about his throes of creation. Three years after having exulted in a surge of his youthful ardor in a letter to Žukovskij, Gogol' complains to Marija Petrovna Balabina how hard it is "to find himself an old man despite his young age"; he rusches to add that his letter assumed an overly serious air, and that it has to be immediately torn to pieces by the addressee (5 September 1839; XI, 245 f.). In a letter to his friend Mixail Petrovič Pogodin, Gogol' depicts his "indescribable morbid anguish", and adds at the end: "What can I write now? It's beyond my powers*** I would like to keep my condition from my friends. Tear my letter to pieces. With all my force, I summon up my courage" (Rome, 17 October 1840; XI, 314 f. and 317). (Jakobson & Aroutunova 1981[1972a]: 692-693)
This must be the first
extraliterary conative/imperative form I've met.
Jakobson, Roman 1981[1933b]. Is the Film in Decline?. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 732-739.
However, is the cinema an autonomous art? Where is its specific hero to be found? What kind of material does this art transform? The creator of the Soviet film, Lev Kulešov, correctly states that it is real things that serve as cinematographic material. And the creator of the French film, Louis Delluc, has perfectly grasped that in film even man is "a mere detail, a mere bit de la matière du monde" [Photogènie, 1920]. But on the other hand, signs are the material of every art. (Jakobson 1981[1933b]: 733)
Signs may be the material of every art, but the material of verbal art does not have to be "real things" but may very well be something in "the universe of discourse" or the poetic material itself (e.g. the phonica-semantic knot).
As a reaction against an overdone sophistication, against a technique reeking of ornamentation, there arises a purposeful looseness, an intentional rawness, sketchiness as a device (L'Âge d'or of the cinematic genius Buñuel). Dilettantism is beginning to delign. In the current vocabulary the words "dilettantism" and "illiteracy" sound desparingly pejorative. Yet there are periods not only in the history of art but even in the history of culture when these factors undoubtedly have a positive, dynamic role. Rousseau - Henri or Jean Jacques. (Jakobson 1981[1933b]: 738)
I like this idea. #metablog - my "readings" can be taken as a
dilettant way of doing (humanistic, semiotic) science.
Jakobson, Roman 1981[1934a]. What is Poetry?. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 740-750.
For today's poet, as for Karamazov senior, "there is no such thing as an ugly woman". No nook or cranny, no activity, landscape, or thought stands outside the pale of poetic subject matter. In other words, the issue of poetic subject matter has no validity today. (Jakobson 1981[1934a]: 740-741)
Reminded me of this: "The notion "ship" in poetical contexts carries with it certain conventional corollaries, of which "oars" is one; the question whether or not the ship concerned would in fact have oars is a question to be asked of sobersided prose authors, not of poets." (Courtney 1988: 44)
Every verbal act in a certain sense stylizes and transforms the event it depicts. How it does so is determined by its slant, its emotional content, the audience it is addressed to, the preliminary "censorship" it undergoes, the supply of ready-made patterns it draws from. Because the poeticity of the verbal act makes it clear that communication is not of prime importance, "censorship" here can be relaxed, toned down. (Jakobson 1981[1934a]: 746)
"Slant" (either "a particular point of view from which something is seen or presented" or "slope or lean in a particular direction; diverge or cause to diverge from the vertical or horizontal" could concern the context; emotional content of course belongs to the addresser, the addressee is the audience, "censorship" could concern the channel and "ready-made patterns" of course is related to the code; and lastly, "poeticity" and its relaxness concerns the message. All six components are present.
It has been quite fashionable in critical circles to profess certain doubts about what is called the formalist study of literature. The school, say its detractors, fails to grasp the relationship of art to real life, it calls for an "art for art's sake" approach, it is following in the footstepsof Kantian aesthetics. Critics with objections in this vein are so completely one-sided in their radicalism that, forgetting the existence of a third dimension, they view everything on a single plane. Neither Tynjanov nor Mukařovský nor Šklovskij nor I - none of us have ever proclaimed the self-sufficiency of art. What we have been trying to show is that art is an integral part of the social structure, a component that interacts with all the others and is itself mutable since both the domain of art and its relationship to the other constituents of the social structure are in constant dialectical flux. What we stand for is not the separatism of art but the autonomy of the aesthetic function. (Jakobson 1981[1934a]: 749-750)
An explanation of the formalist view of
autonomy (in a similar vein, cf. literary study as an autonomus field, e.g.
Kirjandus kui selline).
But how does poeticity manifest itself? Poeticity is present when the word is felt as a word and not a mere representation of the object being named or an outburst of emotion, when words and their composition,t heir meaning, their external and inner form acquire a weight and value of their own instead of referring indifferently to reality. (Jakobson 1981[1934a]: 750)
The poetic function, the referential function and the expressive function.
Jakobson, Roman 1981[1971d]. The Dominant. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 751-756.
Just as a poetic work is not exhausted by its aesthetic function, similarly aesthetic function is not limited to the poetic work; an orator's address, everyday conversation, newspaper articles, advertisements, a scientific treatise - all may employ aesthetic consideration, give expression to aesthetic function, and often use words in and for themselves, not merely as a referential device. (Jakobson 1981[1971d]: 752-753)
Cf.
slovo kak takovoe.
Because a poetic work also has a referential function, it is sometimes considered by adherents of the latter point of view as a straightforward document of cultural history, social relations, or biography. In contrast to one-sided monism and one-sided pluralism, there exists a point of view which combines an awareness of the multiple functions of a poetic workw ith a comprehension of its integrity, that is to say, that function which unites and determines the poetic work. (Jakobson 1981[1971d]: 753)
Jakobson himself adheres to the latter point of view. And it is clear that he is talking about the
hierarchy of functions: "The diversity lies not in a monopoly of some one of these several functions but in a different hierarchical order of functions." (Jakobson 1981[1960c]: 21-22) [I have to note that 1971d, "The Dominant", was first delivered as a lecture in 1935.]
In the referential function, the sign has minimal internal connection with the designated object, and therefore the sign in itself carries only a minimal importance; on the other hand, the expressive function demands a more direct, intimate relatioship between the sign and the object, and therefore a greater attention to the internal structure of the sign. (Jakobson 1981[1971d]: 753)
That is to say, the referential sign is more extroversive and the emotive sign is more introversive.
Jakobson, Roman 1981j. Retrospect. In: Rudy, Stephen (ed.), Selected Writings III: Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 765-789.
On the one hand, the science of language, which obviously should examine verbal signs in all their arrangements and functions, cannot rightfully neglect the poetic function, which together with the other verbal functions participates in the speech of every human being from earliest infancy and plays a crucial role in the structuring of discourse. This function entails an introverted attitude toward verbal signs in their union of the signans and the signatum, and it acquires a dominant position in poetic language. The latter calls for a most meticulous examination by the linguist, especially since verse seems to beling to the universal phenomena of human culture. (Jakobson 1981j: 765)
In other words, the poetic function in introversive.
If the poem raises questions which go beyond its verbal texture, we enter - and the science of language provides us with a host of examples - into a broader concetric circle, that of semiotics, which incorporates linguistics as its fundamental part. (Jakobson 1981j: 766)
This is apparently the treshold between linguistics and semiotics.
Finally, the "universe of discourse", in the terms of Charles Sanders Peirce, i.e. the relation between discourse nad the environment referred to and common to both addresser and addressee (see II, 436), is an acute problem that concerns the poetic text, as well as all other varieties of verbal enunciation. (Jakobson 1981j: 766)
An explanation of "the universe of discourse" or
context. Notice that, like code, the context must be common to both the addresser and addressee.
Poetry sets off the structural elements of all the linguistic levels, from the network of distinctive features to the arrangement of the entire text. The relation between the signans and the signatum (or in Saussure's translation of the traditional Stoic terms, signifiant and signifié) involves all of these levels and acquires a particular significance in verse, where the introverted nature of the poetic function reaches its apex. In Baudelairean terms, it is a complex and indivisible totality where everything becomes significatif, réciproque, converse, correspondant and where a perpetual interplay of sound and meaning establishes an analogy between the two facets, a relationship either paronomastic and anagrammatic, or figurative (occasionally onomatopoeic). (Jakobson 1981j: 767)
In short, the phonica-semantic knot signifies the introversive nature of the poetic function.
Jurij Lotman defends the new inquiry into the artistic function of grammatical categories, which is to a certain degree equivalent to the interplay of geometric structures in the spatial kinds of art (p. 195). (Jakobson 1981j: 768)
This is a reference to the Russian version of
The Structure of the Artistic Text.
Contrary to our critic's judgment on the futility of the analyst's tendency to link the distribution of grammatical categories "to the most extrinsic aspects of the text, particularly to versification", it is by just such a confrontation that the explorer manages to escape from the danger of a blind, mechanical, and arbitrary recording of the grammatical oppositions involved and can grasp the hierarchy of their functions in the poetic work. (Jakobson 1981j: 769-770)
This is how his scheme of language functions and the grammatical study of poetry are related.
As Baudelaire underscores, l'ordre entre les mots bestows incontrovertible value on them (valeur irréfutable). The grammatical categories of words (or, in the limpid terminology of medieval scholars, modi significandi essentiales et accidentales), as well as the syntactic functions of these classes and subclasses, form, so to speak, the skeletal and muscular systems of the language; consequently, the grammatical texture of poetic language constitutes a large part of its intrinsic value. (Jakobson 1981j: 771)
If I weren't in a schedule, I would look into this
modi significandi. But I know that it is quite difficult to get into the Scholasticts and just note that this is related to
invariant general and
variant particular/contextual meaning.
The differences in syntactic construction between the three sections of the sonnet diversify the prosodic modulations of their lines and delineate the semantic triptych. The naive belief of the critic that the writer does not have at his disposal the play of intonation, naturally contradicts once again the rich and reliable linguistic experience. (Jakobson 1981j: 776)
Cf. the emotive function.
Georges Mounin's disdain for the facts forces him to deny the affinity or r and l, totally proved by their mutual substitution in children's language and in aphasia, as well as by the interdialectical and interlingual identification of the various phonetic shapes of the liquids in the perception of native speakers. Likewise, the emotive difference between the phonemes /r/ and /l/ as an abrupt and smooth opposites is sufficiently established on the basis of and reconfirmed by the investigators of "sound symbolism". (Jakobson 1981j: 784)
More emotive function, the phonemic level.
While the whole text of the poem uses no other verbal persons than the third one, - the "nonperson" as the latter is called in linguistic tradition, - the pronominal forms display a totally different principle. (Jakobson 1981j: 786)
A succinct explanation for why the third person is either someone or
something.
Jakobson, Roman 1979[1926b]. Afterword of 1926. In: Rudy, Stephen and Martha Taylor (eds.), Selected Writings IV: On Verse, Its Masters and Explorers. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 122-130.
K. H. Hilar, chief producer of the Prague National Theater: "Even though quantity cannot be overlooked in modern Czech poetry, as a tectonic principle it is still not as conscious a device as it was in Romantic poetry, which was in close contact with quantitative versification. The discordances between word stress and quantity, even though they are ignored by official prosody, enrich the rhythm and enhance its plasticity. They arse bring about an extension of the ranges of Czech stage language. If, in such cases, the performer places the stress where the meter demands it, this may violate the language, but this violation may be justified if it benefits the expressiveness of the verse." (Jakobson 1979[1926b]: 127)
The emotive function of language may trump the norms of language.
["Karel Dorstál, the director of the Prague National Theater:"] "Pure accentual verse, which achieved its summit in the poetry of Machar, need not be rejected but, also, it must not be generalized. It has a specific tinge - that of a brusque, sober style without lyricism, a style of imperative sentences, corresponding to the staccato in music. Even Vrchlický's verse was, to a certain extent, a reaction to that style. That reaction became more consistent and pointed in the work of the modernists and later of the so-called Czech poetists. With regard to rhythm, other trends of the young generation, in particular Wolker, follow more in Machar's footsteps. The distribution of word boundaries in verse has a significant effect: it creates at one moment an impression of fluidity and at another, one of choppiness. Focusing upon quantitative elements of the melodization of Czech verse serve to overcome its monotony and lack of expressiveness caused by the uniformity and scanty expressiveness of the Czech stress pattern. An effective step in that direction is Březina's free verse." (Jakobson 1979[1926b]: 128)
This is not the time that monotony and expressiveness occur together in Jakobson's writings and for a good reason - they are opposites. Also, look up the automatization of expressive features.
Jakobson, Roman 1979[1936c]. Metrics. In: Rudy, Stephen and Martha Taylor (eds.), Selected Writings IV: On Verse, Its Masters and Explorers. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 147-159.
Rhyme is not conceived as a mere matter of sound: sound similarity necessarily draws attention to grammatical and semantic similarities ad dissimilarities. The close connection between the rhythmico-melodic structure of a verse and its syntax must be ascertained without confusing verse values with syntactic ones. The expressiveness of verse (M. Grammont) is investigated without forgetting the basic difference between poetic ad emotive language. (Jakobson 1979[1936c]: 148)
Since both types of language are quite introversive, I'm not even sure at this point what the exact difference is.
Jakobson, Roman 1979[1937f]. The Statue in Puškin's Poetic Mythology. In: Rudy, Stephen and Martha Taylor (eds.), Selected Writings IV: On Verse, Its Masters and Explorers. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton, 237-280.
Vladimir Majakovskij once remarked that the verse form of every really new and hence original poet can be mastered only if some of his basic intonation penetrates tot he reader and takes hold of him. It thes spreads and recurs, and the more the poet takes root,t hem ore his admirers and adversaries become accustomed to the sound of his verse, the more difficult it is for them to abstract these original elements from his works. They are the essential, irreplaceable component of his poetry, just as intonation is the basic cement of our speech, and it is interesting that just such elements are the most difficult to analyze. If we move from the one aspect of poetry to the other, from sound to meaning, we encounter an analogous phenomenon. In the multiform symbolism of a poetic oeuvre we find certain constant organizing, cementing elements which are the vehicle of unity in the multiplicity of the poet's works and which stamp these works with the poet's individuality. These elements introduce the totality of a poet's individual mythology into the variegated tangle of often divergent and unrelated poetic motifs; they make poems by Puškin - Puškin's, those by Mácha - truly Mácha's, those by Baudelaire - Baudelairean. (Jakobson 1979[1937f]: 237)
"Cementing" is what the dominant function does.
Whether it concerns the rhythm, the melodics, or the semantics of a poetic work, the variable episodic, optional elements will differ substantially from its "invariants". There are verse components that vary from line to line and thus set off and individualize each line; there are other components that do not mark single lines but the verse of the whole poem or a poet's verse in general. They preduce the verse design, they create the ideal metrical scheme without which the verse could not be perceived and the poem would disintegrate. In the same way, scattered symbols are in themselves mute; they can be understood fully only in their relation to a whole symbolic system. (Jakobson 1979[1937f]: 238)
"Episodic" is a familiar term for "random stuff". The last bit about mute symbols most likely comes from Saussure.
The "first person", as Puškin expressed it, can also be a collective body; it is not by chance that a poem about the Caucasians and an alien individual and their dramatic conflict is named after this individual, the "Caucasian captive", and that a later poem about the gypsies and an alien individual and their conflict is called The Gypsies; the center fo gravity is located in a different place in each of them. (Jakobson 1979[1937f]: 240)
Cf. Lotman's
collective "I". But now I have to finish. I cannot read the whole of Volume V because the deadline for papers on Jakobson is approaching fast and I have to move on to Ruesch to make it all happen and come together (with nonverbal communication).
