Some differences between these three concepts are that the language is a communication system and it is made up of socially shared rules; it would have more a universal aspect. Also, there are theories that say that a language does not only refer to a human communication, but for animals, plants and nature. Conversely, the linguistic code is the set of rules shared by a specific community, that allows them to exchange and express their thoughts, ideas or emotions in a meaningful way; it would have more a social aspect. Finally, the speech is the specific use that each person gives to the language; it would have more an individual and cultural aspect.
Image taken from: http://www.language-exchanges.org/sites/default/files/LanguagePartners5.png
Ferdinand de Saussure
1857 - 1913
1857 - 1913
Image taken from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Ferdinand_de_Saussure_by_Jullien.png
Ferdinand was born in Geneva into a family of well - known scientists. His father, Henri de Saussure was a biologist, mineralogist and entomologist, his grandfather, Horace Benedict was a geologist. and his son was the psychoanalyst Raimond de Saussure. Ferdinand de Saussure laid the foundations of modern structural linguistics, he is widely considered one of the father of 20th-century linguistics. He studied Sanskrit and comparative linguistics in Geneva, Paris, and Leipzig, where he fell in with the circle of young scholars known as the Neogrammarians. He obtained his Ph.D from the university of Leipzig, where he studied Indo - European languages.
In 1862 he got married and also he is got his M.A. In 1878, at the age of 21, Saussure published a long and precocious paper called "Note on the Primitive System of the Indo-European Vowels". His writings include Écrits de linguistique générale, Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européenes, Cours de linguistique générale, and Recueil des publications scientifiques de F. de Saussure.
This brilliant start was not followed by any tremendous output of published work, but it contained the seeds of his essential insight into the importance of the linguistic system and how central it is for understanding human knowledge and behavior. De Saussure was only eight years younger than Karl Brugmann, and he died some years earlier than Brugmann; yet because of his re-focussing of attention onto aspects of language that had not been part of the older field, he seems to belong to a later generation. His ideas fit into a recognizably modern era in which human phenomena are no longer viewed primarily from the point of view of their construed trajectory through time, but as structural wholes that are self-contained and whose parts fill interrelated functions.
The fundamental dimensions of linguistic organization introduced by Saussure are still basic to many approaches to how the phenomenon of language can be approached, even though they have naturally been extended and refined considerably over time. Prague school linguist Jan Mukařovský wrote that Saussure's "discovery of the internal structure of the linguistic sign differentiated the sign both from mere acoustic "things" ... and from mental processes", and that in this development "new roads were thereby opened not only for linguistics, but also, in the future, for the theory of literature. Ruqaiya Hasan argues that "the impact of Saussure’s theory of the linguistic sign has been such that modern linguists and their theories have since been positioned by reference to him: they are known as pre-Saussurean, Saussurean, anti-Saussurean, post-Saussurean, or non-Saussure"
Following his death in 1913 in Vufflens-leChateau, Vaud, Switzerland, colleagues and students, Charles Bally and Albert Sechaye, feared the loss of his lectures and compiled the Cours de linguistique générale. Bally and Sechaye would pursue their own linguistic studies. These students compiled their notes to produce the work. This was based on a series of three lectures that Ferdinand de Saussure gave at the University of Geneva.
Some of his manuscripts, including an unfinished essay discovered in 1996, were published in Writings in General Linguistics, though most of the material in this book had already been published in Engler's critical edition of the Course in 1967 and 1974.
Ferdinand was born in Geneva into a family of well - known scientists. His father, Henri de Saussure was a biologist, mineralogist and entomologist, his grandfather, Horace Benedict was a geologist. and his son was the psychoanalyst Raimond de Saussure. Ferdinand de Saussure laid the foundations of modern structural linguistics, he is widely considered one of the father of 20th-century linguistics. He studied Sanskrit and comparative linguistics in Geneva, Paris, and Leipzig, where he fell in with the circle of young scholars known as the Neogrammarians. He obtained his Ph.D from the university of Leipzig, where he studied Indo - European languages.
In 1862 he got married and also he is got his M.A. In 1878, at the age of 21, Saussure published a long and precocious paper called "Note on the Primitive System of the Indo-European Vowels". His writings include Écrits de linguistique générale, Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européenes, Cours de linguistique générale, and Recueil des publications scientifiques de F. de Saussure.
This brilliant start was not followed by any tremendous output of published work, but it contained the seeds of his essential insight into the importance of the linguistic system and how central it is for understanding human knowledge and behavior. De Saussure was only eight years younger than Karl Brugmann, and he died some years earlier than Brugmann; yet because of his re-focussing of attention onto aspects of language that had not been part of the older field, he seems to belong to a later generation. His ideas fit into a recognizably modern era in which human phenomena are no longer viewed primarily from the point of view of their construed trajectory through time, but as structural wholes that are self-contained and whose parts fill interrelated functions.
The fundamental dimensions of linguistic organization introduced by Saussure are still basic to many approaches to how the phenomenon of language can be approached, even though they have naturally been extended and refined considerably over time. Prague school linguist Jan Mukařovský wrote that Saussure's "discovery of the internal structure of the linguistic sign differentiated the sign both from mere acoustic "things" ... and from mental processes", and that in this development "new roads were thereby opened not only for linguistics, but also, in the future, for the theory of literature. Ruqaiya Hasan argues that "the impact of Saussure’s theory of the linguistic sign has been such that modern linguists and their theories have since been positioned by reference to him: they are known as pre-Saussurean, Saussurean, anti-Saussurean, post-Saussurean, or non-Saussure"
Following his death in 1913 in Vufflens-leChateau, Vaud, Switzerland, colleagues and students, Charles Bally and Albert Sechaye, feared the loss of his lectures and compiled the Cours de linguistique générale. Bally and Sechaye would pursue their own linguistic studies. These students compiled their notes to produce the work. This was based on a series of three lectures that Ferdinand de Saussure gave at the University of Geneva.
Some of his manuscripts, including an unfinished essay discovered in 1996, were published in Writings in General Linguistics, though most of the material in this book had already been published in Engler's critical edition of the Course in 1967 and 1974.
The importance of speech
The difference between a language and a dialect
Sources
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Found/saussurebio.html
http://www.egs.edu/library/ferdinand-de-saussure/biography/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wfpfLkEy-http://www.poemhunter.com/ferdinand-de-saussure/biography/http://www.answers.com/topic/ferdinand-de-saussure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbvCD29Sg58
Nature of the linguistic sign
A sign is composed by a signified and a signifier. These las two are inseperable. Wherein the signified is the concept that a signifier refers to. And the signifier can be any material thing that signifies.
Also, signifiers can be attached to many signifieds. This is because a concept or word, can be connected to multiple signifieds. Therefore, each person has a different image (signifier) in mind than others.
The sign has three main features:
-It is arbitrary, because there is no natural reason why a signifier is linked to a signified. In this way, their relationship is created by convention.
- It is relational, because it only makes sense in relation to other signs in the same system.
- It is differential, because it defines things by what they are not rather than by what they are.
Signs are conventional too: In image and language. This can be explained by the arbitrary feature. One as an English- Spanish teacher has to aknowlege this for better understanding of a language.
Image taken from:
http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/theory/luco/screenshots/Saussure.jpg
Some important aspects of the sign and the language are:
Inmutability is when the sign can not be modified in any way. And it always resists to all arbitrary substitution. Language is always a heritage of the preceding period. This means that the sign was not chosen "freely" as it seems. Therefore, it is not only checked by social forces but by time too. This is the reason why it resists to arbitrary subsitution. On the other hand, Mutability is when a community of speakers can change or modify some signs through evolution of time. These two components (comunitiy of speakers and time) are directly connected, because one without the other could never make a mutation of a sign. Taking into account that the continuity of language necessarily implies change, it may vary the relationship between the signified and the signifier. Another aspect is the diachrony as the study of the changing state of a language over time; and the synchrony as the study of the language at a given moment, it refers to an specific state of things; like the system of communication. Two other concepts are syntagm and paradigm, the first (concerning positioning) as a group of words that have a unitary sense and also they have the same function; this can provide possibilities of combination. The second one (concerning substitution) as a set of associated signifiers or signifieds which are all members of some defining category, but in which each is significantly different; they involve differentiation.
In conclusion, the paper stressed that the linguistic code is the system of a language, as a system of forms and parole. Besides, speech acts are made possible by the language. The language is essentially a depository, a thing received from without. Its social nature is one of its internal characters, language is the set of linguistic habits which allow an individual to understand and be understood.
Also, signifiers can be attached to many signifieds. This is because a concept or word, can be connected to multiple signifieds. Therefore, each person has a different image (signifier) in mind than others.
The sign has three main features:
-It is arbitrary, because there is no natural reason why a signifier is linked to a signified. In this way, their relationship is created by convention.
- It is relational, because it only makes sense in relation to other signs in the same system.
- It is differential, because it defines things by what they are not rather than by what they are.
Signs are conventional too: In image and language. This can be explained by the arbitrary feature. One as an English- Spanish teacher has to aknowlege this for better understanding of a language.
Image taken from:
http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/theory/luco/screenshots/Saussure.jpg
Some important aspects of the sign and the language are:
Inmutability is when the sign can not be modified in any way. And it always resists to all arbitrary substitution. Language is always a heritage of the preceding period. This means that the sign was not chosen "freely" as it seems. Therefore, it is not only checked by social forces but by time too. This is the reason why it resists to arbitrary subsitution. On the other hand, Mutability is when a community of speakers can change or modify some signs through evolution of time. These two components (comunitiy of speakers and time) are directly connected, because one without the other could never make a mutation of a sign. Taking into account that the continuity of language necessarily implies change, it may vary the relationship between the signified and the signifier. Another aspect is the diachrony as the study of the changing state of a language over time; and the synchrony as the study of the language at a given moment, it refers to an specific state of things; like the system of communication. Two other concepts are syntagm and paradigm, the first (concerning positioning) as a group of words that have a unitary sense and also they have the same function; this can provide possibilities of combination. The second one (concerning substitution) as a set of associated signifiers or signifieds which are all members of some defining category, but in which each is significantly different; they involve differentiation.
In conclusion, the paper stressed that the linguistic code is the system of a language, as a system of forms and parole. Besides, speech acts are made possible by the language. The language is essentially a depository, a thing received from without. Its social nature is one of its internal characters, language is the set of linguistic habits which allow an individual to understand and be understood.
Charles Sanders Peirce
(1839-1914)
Image taken from:
http://www.egs.edu/library/charles-sanders-peirce/biography/
Charles Sanders Peirce was born September 10, 1839 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and died April 19, 1914 in Milford, Pennsylvania. He was a logician, philosopher, and scientist. As the son of Benjamin Charles Sanders Peirce, an eminent scientist and professor of mathematics at Harvard, Charles Sanders Peirce grew up in an intellectually stimulating environment. Under the guidance and education of his father he soon, reportedly at the age of just twelve, became fascinated with logic.
In 1855, Charles Sanders Peirce began his studies at Harvard. There he started a life-long friendship with the philosopher and psychologist William James, who greatly supported him for most of his life. During his first year, Charles Sanders Peirce undertook private studies in philosophy, especially focusing on Kant. He graduated in 1859 and then went on to pursue a Masters as well receiving his M.A. from Harvard in 1862. Four years later, he also obtained a Bachelors of Science, summa cum laude, in chemistry.
From 1859 until 1891 Charles Sanders Peirce worked as a scientist for the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, while privately pursuing his studies in logic. During his employment at the Survey, Charles Sanders Peirce was sent to Europe in 1870-71 to work and again in 1875/76 and 1877. He also worked as an assistant at the astronomical observatory at Harvard, between 1869 and 1872. As a result he published Photometric Researches (1878), which turned out to be his only book published during his lifetime.
In 1867, he became a member of the The Academy of Arts and Science and ten years later, in 1877, a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was appointed a lecturer in logic at the Johns Hopkins University in 1879, his only academic position. He lost his post a few years later, in 1884, as it was made public that he had been living with a “gypsy” yet was still married. From his lectures Charles Sanders Peirce edited Studies in Logic (1883), an essay collection by the scholar and his students.
Still working for the Survey, Charles Sanders Peirce stayed in Washington for two years after his dismissal. In 1891, he then had to leave the U.S. Coast Survey. After his discharge, Charles Sanders Peirce purchased a house and property in Milford, Pennsylvania, where he lived until his death. This was a time of great poverty. Charles Sanders Peirce was dependent on financial aid and, having no other income, sporadic jobs as a translator and scientific consultant. William James remained committed and tried to help Charles Sanders Peirce. Among other things, he organized two paid lectures for him at Harvard, both on issues of Pragmatism, and he also sought support for Charles Sanders Peirce from his friends.
MAIN CONCEPTS
-Representamen
-Object
-Interpretant
-Icons
-Index
-Symbols
-Firstness
-Secondness
-Thirdness
Below, there is a PDF file where these main concepts are explained. The presentation was done for educational purpose in teams with Michael Hernandez, Daniel Ramírez and Yesenia Rincón.
The next activity took place the class, and explains with examples Peirce´s concepts.
http://www.egs.edu/library/charles-sanders-peirce/biography/
Charles Sanders Peirce was born September 10, 1839 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and died April 19, 1914 in Milford, Pennsylvania. He was a logician, philosopher, and scientist. As the son of Benjamin Charles Sanders Peirce, an eminent scientist and professor of mathematics at Harvard, Charles Sanders Peirce grew up in an intellectually stimulating environment. Under the guidance and education of his father he soon, reportedly at the age of just twelve, became fascinated with logic.
In 1855, Charles Sanders Peirce began his studies at Harvard. There he started a life-long friendship with the philosopher and psychologist William James, who greatly supported him for most of his life. During his first year, Charles Sanders Peirce undertook private studies in philosophy, especially focusing on Kant. He graduated in 1859 and then went on to pursue a Masters as well receiving his M.A. from Harvard in 1862. Four years later, he also obtained a Bachelors of Science, summa cum laude, in chemistry.
From 1859 until 1891 Charles Sanders Peirce worked as a scientist for the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, while privately pursuing his studies in logic. During his employment at the Survey, Charles Sanders Peirce was sent to Europe in 1870-71 to work and again in 1875/76 and 1877. He also worked as an assistant at the astronomical observatory at Harvard, between 1869 and 1872. As a result he published Photometric Researches (1878), which turned out to be his only book published during his lifetime.
In 1867, he became a member of the The Academy of Arts and Science and ten years later, in 1877, a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was appointed a lecturer in logic at the Johns Hopkins University in 1879, his only academic position. He lost his post a few years later, in 1884, as it was made public that he had been living with a “gypsy” yet was still married. From his lectures Charles Sanders Peirce edited Studies in Logic (1883), an essay collection by the scholar and his students.
Still working for the Survey, Charles Sanders Peirce stayed in Washington for two years after his dismissal. In 1891, he then had to leave the U.S. Coast Survey. After his discharge, Charles Sanders Peirce purchased a house and property in Milford, Pennsylvania, where he lived until his death. This was a time of great poverty. Charles Sanders Peirce was dependent on financial aid and, having no other income, sporadic jobs as a translator and scientific consultant. William James remained committed and tried to help Charles Sanders Peirce. Among other things, he organized two paid lectures for him at Harvard, both on issues of Pragmatism, and he also sought support for Charles Sanders Peirce from his friends.
MAIN CONCEPTS
-Representamen
-Object
-Interpretant
-Icons
-Index
-Symbols
-Firstness
-Secondness
-Thirdness
Below, there is a PDF file where these main concepts are explained. The presentation was done for educational purpose in teams with Michael Hernandez, Daniel Ramírez and Yesenia Rincón.
The next activity took place the class, and explains with examples Peirce´s concepts.
semiotics_and_linguistics.pdf |
the_sign_1.pdf |
Sources
http://www.egs.edu/library/charles-sanders-peirce/biography/
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Peirce_Charles.html
http://www.egs.edu/library/charles-sanders-peirce/biography/
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Peirce_Charles.html
Image taken from: http://rlv.zcache.com/semiosis_three_subjects_sign_object_peirce_quote_postcard-rd1ba43ba1030402ea6e4644d8da6d99f_vgbaq_8byvr_324.jpg
Roland Barthes
(1915-1980)
Image taken from
http://www.biography.com/people/roland-barthes-36995
Roland Barthes was born in 1915 in Cherbough, Manche. His father died in Barthes infancy, for instance he had to move with his mother to Bayonne. in 1924, they moved to Paris . There, he went to a school named Lycée Montagne. Due to their economical struggles, Barthes had to work and study at the time. Nonetheless, he attended the Sorborne university to study classical letters, grammar and philology, he recieved his degree in 1939 1943.
His doctoral studies were interrupted by illness, unfortunately he a diagnostic with tuberculosis. This caused him to be in sanatoriums many years (from 1934-1935 and agian in 1942-1946.) But even though he was sick, he managed to enrich his career by teaching in many institutes. He was considered a leading critic of his generation. He was also able to publish many works selling a lot of copies.
Barthes was a structurist and semiolotician highly influenced by Fernand de Saussure's theory of signs and signification. His text inspired criticism from colleagues who even made publications about what the thought as incorrect about Barthes theories, to which he responded in new publications. One of his famous quotes was "... for writing can tell the truth on language, but not the truth on the real." In this way he made explicit the limitations of writing and expressing the reality in words, he thought reality had much more variety which writing couldn't explain.
In his las book, La Chambre Claire (Camera Lucinda, 1980), writen in three months between his mother death and his own, he expresses his close relationship with his mother and the strong feelings he had for her. He wrote that the body could never find its zero degree but perhaps his mother could give it back.
Roland Barthes died at the age of 65 on march 23 of 1980 in a street accident in Paris.
Sources: http://www.egs.edu/library/roland-barthes/biography/
http://www.biography.com/people/roland-barthes-36995
MAIN CONCEPTS
-Language and speech
-Signified and signifier
-Syntagm and system
-Denotation and Connotation
The concepts above are explained in the blogs archives in two word documents. The documents are reading lectures and are explained in a more complete way.
The first elements are articulated. Language is a system of arbitrary or unmotivated values. It's a social institution, in other words, it's essentially a collective contract made of certain number of elements. Language is also constituted in the individual through his learning from the environmental speech. On the other hand, speech is essentially and individual act of selection and actualisation. It's a code used by a subject to express personal thought. However, one cannot exist without the other. Language and speech have a dialectical relationship: Language is at the same time product and instrument of speech.
The second elements are signified and signifier. One must understand the signified as a mental representation of something. In Saussure's words, it is the mental image, In Peirce’s, it would be an index and so on. Also, for semiotics signifieds constitute the “plane of content."anyway, it has not elaborated a semantics. On the other hand, signifiers constitute the “plane of expression” and can be relayed on a certain matter of words. In semiology, all kinds of matters are involved, not only material ones but also sound and image, object and writing. These two concepts are articulated, one has to do with the other and together constitute the sign
http://www.biography.com/people/roland-barthes-36995
Roland Barthes was born in 1915 in Cherbough, Manche. His father died in Barthes infancy, for instance he had to move with his mother to Bayonne. in 1924, they moved to Paris . There, he went to a school named Lycée Montagne. Due to their economical struggles, Barthes had to work and study at the time. Nonetheless, he attended the Sorborne university to study classical letters, grammar and philology, he recieved his degree in 1939 1943.
His doctoral studies were interrupted by illness, unfortunately he a diagnostic with tuberculosis. This caused him to be in sanatoriums many years (from 1934-1935 and agian in 1942-1946.) But even though he was sick, he managed to enrich his career by teaching in many institutes. He was considered a leading critic of his generation. He was also able to publish many works selling a lot of copies.
Barthes was a structurist and semiolotician highly influenced by Fernand de Saussure's theory of signs and signification. His text inspired criticism from colleagues who even made publications about what the thought as incorrect about Barthes theories, to which he responded in new publications. One of his famous quotes was "... for writing can tell the truth on language, but not the truth on the real." In this way he made explicit the limitations of writing and expressing the reality in words, he thought reality had much more variety which writing couldn't explain.
In his las book, La Chambre Claire (Camera Lucinda, 1980), writen in three months between his mother death and his own, he expresses his close relationship with his mother and the strong feelings he had for her. He wrote that the body could never find its zero degree but perhaps his mother could give it back.
Roland Barthes died at the age of 65 on march 23 of 1980 in a street accident in Paris.
Sources: http://www.egs.edu/library/roland-barthes/biography/
http://www.biography.com/people/roland-barthes-36995
MAIN CONCEPTS
-Language and speech
-Signified and signifier
-Syntagm and system
-Denotation and Connotation
The concepts above are explained in the blogs archives in two word documents. The documents are reading lectures and are explained in a more complete way.
The first elements are articulated. Language is a system of arbitrary or unmotivated values. It's a social institution, in other words, it's essentially a collective contract made of certain number of elements. Language is also constituted in the individual through his learning from the environmental speech. On the other hand, speech is essentially and individual act of selection and actualisation. It's a code used by a subject to express personal thought. However, one cannot exist without the other. Language and speech have a dialectical relationship: Language is at the same time product and instrument of speech.
The second elements are signified and signifier. One must understand the signified as a mental representation of something. In Saussure's words, it is the mental image, In Peirce’s, it would be an index and so on. Also, for semiotics signifieds constitute the “plane of content."anyway, it has not elaborated a semantics. On the other hand, signifiers constitute the “plane of expression” and can be relayed on a certain matter of words. In semiology, all kinds of matters are involved, not only material ones but also sound and image, object and writing. These two concepts are articulated, one has to do with the other and together constitute the sign
the next is
Roman Jakobson
(1896-1982)
Image taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Jakobson
Roman Jakobson was born on october 11 in 1896 in Moscow, Russian Empire, in a wealthy Jewish family. His father was an industrialist named Osip Jakobson and his mother a chemist, Anna Volpert Jakobson. He developed his fascination for language at a very early age. He studied at the Lazarev institute of oriental languages and later at the Historical-Philological faculty of Moscow university.
At that time, the only way to aproach the science of language was through diachrony (Saussure's terms) , in other words, to study language through history and development of words across time. Even though this was the belief, Jakobson had already had contact with Saussure's work and was able to aproach the science of language by synchrony, the way language serves its basic functions to comunicate between speakers.
Jakobson moved to Prague in 1920 due to political fights in Russia. He got his Ph.D from Charles University in 1930 and became a proffesor in 1933 of Masaryk university, he also became one of the founders of "Prague school" of linguistic theory with other Czech academics. His universalizing structural-functional theory of phonology was the first successful solution of a plane of linguistic analysis.
He managed to escape from the war in Prague in 1939 to Denmark where he got associated to a linguistic circle. In 1940 he moved to sweden where he started working at Karolinksa Hospital. When it was feared for German ocupation, he left for New York City in 1941, where he began teaching at "The new school". He met Claude Lévi-Strauss with whom he collaborated and became a key exponent of structuralism. After the war, he became a consultant to the International Auxiliary Language Association
Jakobson was one of the most influential intellectuals of the 20th century. He died at the age of 85 in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 18 July 1982 .
Sources: http://www.signosemio.com/jakobson/index-en.asp
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Roman_Jakobson.html
He introduced the model function of language. According to Jakobson, the act of verbal communication is composed by six elements:
1. Content is oriented toward the context
2. Addresser is the emotive function. Is the one who comunicates something to someone.
3. Addressee is the conative function. Is the one who recieves the message comunicated.
4. Contact Establishes, prolongues or discontinues comunication.
5. Common code The metalingual function that is used to establish mutual agreement on the code.
6. Message is the poetic function. Can be esthetic or rhetorical.
Each of these factors must be present and concordant in order for communication to succeed.
Sources
http://www.signosemio.com/jakobson/functions-of-language.asp
http://www.rlwclarke.net/courses/LITS3304/2004-2005/05AJakobsonLinguisticsAndPoetics.pdf
Roman Jakobson was born on october 11 in 1896 in Moscow, Russian Empire, in a wealthy Jewish family. His father was an industrialist named Osip Jakobson and his mother a chemist, Anna Volpert Jakobson. He developed his fascination for language at a very early age. He studied at the Lazarev institute of oriental languages and later at the Historical-Philological faculty of Moscow university.
At that time, the only way to aproach the science of language was through diachrony (Saussure's terms) , in other words, to study language through history and development of words across time. Even though this was the belief, Jakobson had already had contact with Saussure's work and was able to aproach the science of language by synchrony, the way language serves its basic functions to comunicate between speakers.
Jakobson moved to Prague in 1920 due to political fights in Russia. He got his Ph.D from Charles University in 1930 and became a proffesor in 1933 of Masaryk university, he also became one of the founders of "Prague school" of linguistic theory with other Czech academics. His universalizing structural-functional theory of phonology was the first successful solution of a plane of linguistic analysis.
He managed to escape from the war in Prague in 1939 to Denmark where he got associated to a linguistic circle. In 1940 he moved to sweden where he started working at Karolinksa Hospital. When it was feared for German ocupation, he left for New York City in 1941, where he began teaching at "The new school". He met Claude Lévi-Strauss with whom he collaborated and became a key exponent of structuralism. After the war, he became a consultant to the International Auxiliary Language Association
Jakobson was one of the most influential intellectuals of the 20th century. He died at the age of 85 in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 18 July 1982 .
Sources: http://www.signosemio.com/jakobson/index-en.asp
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Roman_Jakobson.html
He introduced the model function of language. According to Jakobson, the act of verbal communication is composed by six elements:
1. Content is oriented toward the context
2. Addresser is the emotive function. Is the one who comunicates something to someone.
3. Addressee is the conative function. Is the one who recieves the message comunicated.
4. Contact Establishes, prolongues or discontinues comunication.
5. Common code The metalingual function that is used to establish mutual agreement on the code.
6. Message is the poetic function. Can be esthetic or rhetorical.
Each of these factors must be present and concordant in order for communication to succeed.
Sources
http://www.signosemio.com/jakobson/functions-of-language.asp
http://www.rlwclarke.net/courses/LITS3304/2004-2005/05AJakobsonLinguisticsAndPoetics.pdf
Image taken from: http://yosukeyanase.blogspot.com/2012/04/david-block-2003-social-turn-in-second.html
For educational purpose.
For educational purpose.