The search for the symbolic value of phonemes, each taken as a whole, runs the risk of giving rise to ambiguous and trivial interpretations because phonemes are complex entities, bundles of different distinctive features.
Roman JakobsonRead
Semantics, or the study of meaning, remained undeveloped, while phonetics made rapid progress and even came to occupy the central place in the scientific study of language.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The study of meaning in language has lagged behind the study of sounds.
In this quote, Roman Jakobson highlights the disparity in the development of linguistic studies, indicating that while phonetics, the study of sounds, has advanced significantly and become central to language science, the field of semantics, which deals with meaning, has not received the same level of attention or advancement. This suggests an inherent imbalance in linguistic research and emphasizes the importance of semantics in understanding language as a whole.
Themes
SemanticsPhoneticsLanguageMeaningStudy
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on linguistics, you might use this quote to illustrate the importance of semantics.
More from Roman Jakobson
All quotes βThe task is to investigate speech sounds in relation to the meanings with which they are invested, i.e., sounds viewed as signifiers, and above all to throw light on the structure of the relation between sounds and meaning.
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Bilingualism is for me the fundamental problem of linguistics.
Roman JakobsonRead
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