Anticipation, Simultaneity/Consecutivity and Distinctive Features in Phonology

The notion of distinctive features has had a firm position in phonology since the time of the Prague Linguistic Circle and especially that of one of its representatives, Roman Jakobson, whose well-known delimitation of a phoneme as “a bundle of distinctive features” (Jakobson, 1962, p. 421), that is, a set of simultaneous distinctive features, has inspired many scholars. Jakobson’s attempt “to analyse the distribution of distinctive features along two axes: that of simultaneity and that of successiveness” (ibid., p. 435) helped cover several phonetic and/or phonological processes and phenomena. Distinctive features, although theoretical constructs (Giegerich, 1992, p. 89), reflect phonetic, that is, articulatory and acoustic, properties of sounds. In the flow of speech, some features tend to influence the neighbouring phonemes. Sometimes speech organs produce something that the brain just ‘plans’ to produce (anticipatory speech errors). There are situations where it seems as if the successive organization of phonemes went hand in hand with the simultaneous nature of certain articulatory characteristics of those phonemes (the transgression of consonants and inherence of vowels in Romportl’s theory), or the given feature seems to be anticipated by the preceding segment. This is the case with nasalization and/or anticipatory coarticulation, as well as regressive (anticipatory) assimilation. In addition, simultaneity/consecutivity is a decisive criterion for the difference between the so-called complex segments, as specified in Feature Geometry, and simple segments (Duanmu, 2009). Moreover, the phonological opposition of simultaneity- successivity (that is, consecutivity) itself functions as a feature making a difference between segmental and suprasegmental elements in the sound system of a language, as was first mentioned by Harris (1944), later indicated by Jakobson (1962) and then fully developed by Sabol (2007, 2012).

Translating Semiotic “Polyphony” of Texts as a Culture-Formative Creation

“The Master and Margarita” is generally considered Mikhail Bulgakov’s literary masterpiece. It is a “melting pot” of literary genres, motives, themes, imagery and intertextual references. All these elements cooperate in creating a “polyphonic” novel, in Bakhtin’s sense of the word, not only when it comes to the different nature and “voice” of single characters but also with reference to the “poly-structured” construction of the text itself. The paper will illustrate the peculiarity of Bulgakov’s novel and the semiotic and semiosic character of his creation. The adjective “semiosic” derives from “semiosis” as defined, among others, by C.S. Peirce, who stresses the meaning-making “power” of some semiotic processes. The paper aims also at answering the question why this novel has been translated several times into Polish and Italian since 1967 (when the first edition of the novel was published in Western Europe). Due to the very specific construction of the plot and of the formal aspects of the novel, translators had to deal with a significant number of problems of “untranslatability” that they could solve only by using their creative potential. It was Roman Jakobson who through his linguistic analysis reached the conclusion that for the untranslatable—poetry for example—“Only creative transposition is possible”. Using creativity translators were also able to discover further interpretations of Bulgakov’s literary work and to perform a culture-formative act as their efforts offer new points of view on reality and its perception, wider knowledge of the social life not only in Soviet times but in a more universal perspective as well as new models of text and literariness. That’s why a novel like Bulgakov’s masterpiece has been translated so many times and it is still translated in the two languages selected for the purposes of this research and all over the world. And this is also the reason why it can be considered a meaning-generative and culture-formative text even if its first edition appeared in 1940.

"(In)distinct Languages": Revisiting the Dualism of Literal and Literary Meaning in Roman Jakobson and Donald Davidson

(In)distinct Languages: Revisiting the Dualism of Literal and Literary Meaning in Roman Jakobson and Donald Davidson The paper traces the relationship between the literal and literary language that is found in structuralism and analytic philosophy. The paper’s gist provides a comparative account of Roman Jakobson’s and Donald Davidson’s notions of poetic language and their relation to the general idea of language as it is given in their work. In reconsidering Jakobson’s and Davidson’s arguments, I propose abandoning the dualistic hypotheses of the oppositions between literal and non-literal language, and between literal and literary language. I contend that the notions of first and literal meanings are necessary for other types of interpretation. The dualistic hypothesis requires the cascade model, which displays a bottom-top transition across hierarchically arranged levels of meanings. Instead, I outline the multilayered structure of language with two thresholds: mimetic and semiotic. Therefore, the cascade model should be replaced with the palimpsest model of concurring, merging, and blending layers of meanings. Języki (nie)odrębne. Jeszcze raz o dualizmie znaczeń, dosłownego i literackiego, u Romana Jakobsona i Donalda DavidsonaW artykule poddano analizie relacje między językiem dosłownym a językiem literackim, występujące w strukturalizmie i filozofii analitycznej. W rozważaniach istotna była konfrontacja koncepcji języka poetyckiego Romana Jakobsona i Donalda Davidsona oraz ich związku z ogólną ideą języka, jaką można znaleźć w ich pracach. Rozważając ponownie argumenty Jakobsona i Davidsona, autor proponuje porzucić dualistyczne hipotezy, zasadzające się na opozycji między językiem dosłownym a językiem niedosłownym oraz między językiem dosłownym a językiem literackim. Twierdzi, że pojęcia znaczenia pierwszego i dosłownego są niezbędne w innych typach interpretacji. Hipoteza dualistyczna wymaga modelu kaskadowego, który ukazuje przejście od dołu do góry przez hierarchicznie ułożone poziomy znaczeń. Zamiast tego autor zarysowuje wielowarstwową strukturę języka z dwoma poziomami: mimetycznym i semiotycznym i wskazuje na konieczność zastąpienia modelu kaskadowego palimpsestowym modelem współbieżności, łączenia i mieszania warstw znaczeniowych.

"Prima Facie": um estudo sobre as capas dos livros de artista

O artigo se baseia nas funções da linguagem, de acordo com Roman Jakobson, para estabelecer uma tipologia das capas de livros, seus usos e funções — capas informativas, poéticas, expressivas ou metalinguísticas. As reflexões sobre a estrutura da capa são baseadas no texto de Gerard Genette sobre os paratextos editoriais. Alguns aspectos históricos do livro são abordados, bem como as tendências mais recentes da arte contemporânea, como a escrita não-criativa. Apresenta também a relação complementar entre as informações da folha de rosto e da capa, os livros cuja narrativa começa na capa, os que possuem mais de uma capa e as obras que são constituídas apenas pela sobrecapa. O artigo apresenta estudos de caso de livros antigos e recentes, artistas estabelecidos e jovens artistas, brasileiros e estrangeiros.

Krystyny Pisarkowej odkrywanie Malinowskiego

Krystyna Pisarkowa’s Discovering of Malinowski The article is concerned with the two-volume publication Językoznawstwo Bronisława Malinowskiego [Bronisław Malinowski’s Linguistics], edited by Krystyna Pisarek. Its first volume contains the editor’s thorough analysis of the linguistic achievements of this Polish-born British anthropologist, while the second volume includes translations of Malinowski’s works and a dictionary of the Kiriwina language. The linguistic importance of Malinowski’s works had been underestimated: his articles “Classificatory Particles in the Language of Kiriwina” (1920) and “The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages” (1923) were not included in the thirteen-volume collection of his writings (Dzieła [Works]). Pisarkowa, in turn, does recognize Malinowski’s contribution to linguistics and considers the following to be his unique achievements: (1) the discovery of the phatic function of speech (adopted by Roman Jakobson in his classification of language functions); (2) an explicit formulation of the principle of contextualism and the pragmatic aspect of word meaning; and (3) a precise description of the Kiriwina system of classificatory particles.

Synergia epistemologiczna na przykładzie wybranych zagadnień semiotyki znaku językowego w retrospektywie

Przedmiotem artykułu jest studium synergii epistemologicznej w domenie semiotyki znaku językowego na przykładzie niektórych aspektów semiotycznego wymiaru dzieła językoznawców, często przesłanianego przez ich bardziej spektakularne teorie językoznawstwa formalnego. Badanie wpisuje się w kanon semiotyki językoznawczej, rozwijany od wielu lat w pracach Zdzisława Wąsika (np. 1996, 2017). Do bazy analitycznej wybrałam omówienia dwojakiego rodzaju: zarówno przykłady dzieł językoznawców mniej popularnych wśród polskojęzycznej akademii (na przykład Yishai Tobin, Julia Kristeva), jak i przykłady myśli naukowców bardzo znanych, ale rozważanych z nietypowej perspektywy ich mniej cytowanych dzieł (Ferdynand de Saussure (1878-79), Charles Morris czy Roman Jakobson (1973). Główną tezę artykułu ‒ synergię epistemologiczną ‒ rozumiem jako uwypuklenie sposobu, w jaki badania prowadzone w jednej dziedzinie wspierały rozwój pokrewnych paradygmatów.

Os artigos tchecos perdidos de Roman Jakobson sobre fonologia: um caso de como evitar anacronismo em historiografia linguística

Embora a teoria dos traços distintivos de Roman Jakobson esteja bem representada em seus trabalhos em inglês após sua imigração para os Estados Unidos, um quadro completo do desenvolvimento dessa teoria ainda está por ser feito, ainda que todos os seus trabalhos iniciais sobre o tópico, escritos em tcheco, francês e alemão já tenham sido bem examinados. Apesar de alguns desses trabalhos já terem sido vertidos para o inglês, pode haver diferenças enganosas entre os originais (escritos em outros idiomas) e essas traduções. Baseado na comparação entre as obras fonológicas de Jakobson publicadas no início dos anos de 1930 (“Z fonologie spisovné slovenštiny” e algumas entradas da enciclopédia Ottův) e suas versões presentes em seus Selected Writings, o presente artigo procura esclarecer alguns detalhes sobre a divisibilidade do fonema, a natureza paradigmática do traço distintivo e a nomenclatura e a classificação dos traços distintivos. Este estudo também procura oferecer um exemplo específico sobre como evitar anacronismos na pesquisa sobre história da linguística.

Jan Mukařovský na França

Embora o estruturalismo tenha se originado no final dos anos de 1920 na Tchecoslováquia, avanços importantes de acadêmicos do Círculo Linguístico de Praga permaneceram amplamente desconhecidos dos praticantes do estruturalismo francês. Este artigo identifica algumas das áreas em que os estruturalismos tcheco e francês divergem. No entanto, alguns princípios do estruturalismo tcheco encontraram lugar no âmbito da pesquisa francesa, como o modelo funcional de comunicação de Roman Jakobson. Alguns pontos de comparação entre os dois estruturalismos, incluindo a “atividade estruturalista” de Roland Barthes ou a estética de Gérard Genette, são brevemente discutidos. Um conhecimento historiográfico mais amplo das duas tradições tem o potencial de enriquecer nossa compreensão de questões que até agora foram insuficientemente exploradas e de abrir novas perspectivas.