Reasearch On The Relation Between Jakobsonian Poetics And Linguistics

Roman Jakobson(1896-1982) is a vital literary theorist and also an important linguist of the 20th century. As one of the representative figures of the Russian Formalism, Jakobson is dedicated to investigation on scientific research on literature. Due to his Prague school period and his life in America, Jakobson went far further than his fellow Russian theorists and made greater influence. In the 1958 International Linguistic Assembly, Jakobson made the famous speech "closing statement: Linguistics and Poetics", in which he made a concise conclusion of his poetic thoughts. In this speech, Jakobson came up with the core assertion that poetics is a part of linguistics, and made an overall clarification of six-function diagram, bipolar function of language and poetic function. Thus, his poetic theory was summarized as linguistic poetics.In his theoretical system, poetics and linguistics are closely interwined, and have tight relation to each other. But for a long time, researches on Jakobson’s linguistic or poetics often emphasize on influences of his concepts, terms and methods on separate discipline and history of theory. Internal structure of his theory——Mutual influence and permeation of linguistics and poetics remains uncovered or only known briefly. To accurately understand the theoretical contents of Jakobson’s thought, it’s necessary to discuss the relation between poetics and linguistic in Jakobson’s vision. It’s also important to find the true meaning of his core assertion about linguistic poetics——"poetic is a part of linguistics". If taken as a theoretical system, only the synchronic research——research on the relationship between constituent parts can make certain for us value and meaning for each part. So this thesis is bent on searching and comparing Jakobson’s writings about poetics and linguistics, digging the internal link between the two to better understand Jakobson’s poetic thought.The essay includes four chapters. The first chapter introduces the background of Jakobsonian poetics, beginning with Symbolism and futurism, and displays the basic opinions of Russian Formalists citing quotes from their writings. The second chapter introduces poetic opinion of Jakobson, featuring poetic function, six-function diagram, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations as well as metaphor and metonymy. A brief outline of Jakobson’s poetic opinion is provided and basic concepts for latter discussion is introduced. The third chapter introduces the linguistic foundations of Jakobsonian poetics, discussing Phonetics, binary oppositions, up to mark theory and hierarchy, in order to investigate the influence of functional view of language on poetic research. The fourth chapter introduces the poetic inventions of Jakobson and centers on the sound-meaning relations, appliances of grammatical category by poetry, parallels and reiteration, interplay of metaphor and metonymy. The ultimate aim is to sketch the outline and inner relation of linguistic poetics of Roman Jakobson.