The function of poetry is to point out that the sign is not identical to the referent.

- Roman Jakobson

What's next? Shall we appoint elephants to teach zoology?

- Roman Jakobson

Every linguistic sign is located on two axes: the axis of simultaneity and that of succession.

- Roman Jakobson

Bilingualism is for me the fundamental problem of linguistics.

- Roman Jakobson

When I speak it is in order to be heard.

- Roman Jakobson

Speech sounds cannot be understood, delimited, classified and explained except in the light of the tasks which they perform in language.

- Roman Jakobson

A new era in the physiological investigation of linguistic sounds was opened up by X-ray photography.

- Roman Jakobson

The poetic function is the set towards the message itself, focus on the message for its own sake which by promoting the palpability of signs, deepens…

- Roman Jakobson

A linguist deaf to the poetic functions of language and a literary scholar indifferent to linguistics are equally flagrant anachronisms.

- Roman Jakobson