Notes on Jakobson: Linguistics and Poetics (Six Functions of Language; Selection and Combination; Ambiguity; Poetics)

Six constitutive factors and six corresponding functions in verbal communication

• The six basic factors in any speech event

  • ADDRESSER: the speaker
  • ADDRESSEE: the listener
  • MESSAGE: the content to be transmitted
  • CONTEXT: the referent situation or environment to which the message relates
  • CODE: the shared language system (grammar, vocabulary, signs) used by both parties
  • CONTACT: the physical channel and psychological connection enabling communication

• Jakobson’s central claim: each factor determines a different function of language; the dominant function shapes the verbal structure of the message.

• The six functions (and their basic orientation)

  • EMOTIVE (expressive): oriented toward the ADDRESSER; expresses the speaker’s attitude or emotion toward the content. Often realized in interjections; emphasizes the speaker’s feelings. Named preferentially over “emotional.”
  • REFERENTIAL (cognitive/denotative): oriented toward the REFERENT or context; concerns information about the real world or the context. Often the leading task in referential messages.
  • CONATIVE: oriented toward the ADDRESSEE; expressed through vocatives and imperatives; aims to influence the addressee’s behavior or attention.
  • PHATIC (contact): oriented toward maintaining contact and channel reliability; used to start, sustain, or confirm the communication channel (e.g., Hello, do you hear me? Are you listening?). Shared by humans and talking birds; first function acquired by infants.
  • METALINGUAL (metalingual): oriented toward checking and negotiating the code itself; glossing or asking about meaning to ensure both parties share the same code (e.g., requests like “What do you mean?” or “What is it you’re saying?”).
  • POETIC: oriented toward the message as such; the dominant function in poetry but not exclusive to poetry. Its presence can heighten or even redefine other functions; important in non-poetic texts when style and form become central.

• Relationship among functions

  • The six factors can all be involved in any utterance; the leading (dominant) function shapes the form and organization of the message.
  • Even when the heart of a message is referential (cognitive goals), other functions (emotive, phatic, etc.) participate and color the utterance.
  • The poetic function is not the sole function of verbal art; it is the dominant function in poetry but serves as a subsidiary or accessory component in other language uses.

• Traditional triadic model (Bühler) vs Jakobson’s expansion

  • Bühler’s triad emphasized three functions: emotive, conative, referential (addressing the addresser, addressee, and referent).
  • Jakobson adds three more functions (poetic, phatic, metalingual) to account for the full range of verbal communication and its complexities.
  • This expansion helps explain phenomena like incantations, spells, and the ‘third-person’ influence in a speech act.

• Examples illustrating the functions

  • EMOTIVE: interjections showing speaker’s attitude (e.g., emotional coloring in speech).
  • REFERENTIAL: denotative content about the world.
  • CONATIVE: imperative forms and vocatives (e.g., commands; direct appeals).
  • PHATIC: phrases that maintain contact irrespective of informational content (e.g., “Hello, can you hear me?”).
  • METALINGUAL: questions about meaning or code to ensure mutual understanding (e.g., “Do you know what I mean?”; “What is ‘plucked’?”).
  • POETIC: organization and style of the message; in poetry, the emphasis on form (sound, rhythm, metaphor) becomes central.

• The “two levels” of language and the metalanguage concept

  • Object language: speaking about objects or content.
  • Metalanguage: speaking about language itself (definitions, glosses, code-checks).
  • Metalanguage is not merely a theoretical tool for logicians; it operates in everyday speech (e.g., glossing, explaining linguistic terms, clarifying codes).
  • Aphasia can involve loss of metalanguage abilities, illustrating its role in normal communication.

• The six factors have been illustrated with extended examples

  • A critical example set shows how the six factors interact in real discourse (including dialogue sequences and famous lines).
  • The phatic function is presented as essential for initiating and maintaining conversation (e.g., “Are you listening?”; “Lend me your ears!”).
  • The metalingual function appears in dialogues where interlocutors verify shared codes (e.g., “I don’t follow you—what do you mean?”).
  • The referential function is foregrounded in much of scientific and descriptive language; nevertheless, poetic elements may obscure or modulate referential clarity.

• The poetic function and its empirical criterion

  • The poetic function is identified by its basis in the principles of selection and combination:
  • Selection: the speaker chooses a word from a set of semantically cognate options (e.g., child, kid, youngster, tot).
  • Combination: the chosen words form a sequence.
  • The poetic function projects equivalence from the axis of selection into the axis of combination: equivalence becomes a constitutive device of the sequence.
  • In poetry, equivalence can be realized through:
  • Syllable-level correspondence (unstress vs. stress)
  • Prosodic length (long vs. short vowels)
  • Word boundaries and pauses (syntagmatic structure)
  • The concept of morae or stresses as units of measure
  • Poetic sequences may use isochronic or graded timing; verse provides regular rhythmic patterns that reflect musical time.
  • Hopkins’s view: verse can be defined as “speech wholly or partially repeating the same figure of sound.”
  • Verse-like effects appear outside poetry (advertising jingles, mnemonic lines, medieval laws in verse, etc.), yet the primary intent may still be non-poetic; the poetic function remains present.
  • Verse often transcends poetry; poetry, however, remains a special, intensified use of the poetic function.
  • The adaptation or mixing of poetic means with other art forms (music, visual art) does not eliminate poetry’s core function but redefines its domain.
  • The ultimate claim: poetry is a form of language; poetics studies the poetic function within language and across its uses.

• Ambiguity as intrinsic to self-referential messages

  • Poetry often embeds ambiguity: the message may be interpreted in multiple ways by the addresser and addressee.
  • The message can be a quasi-quoted discourse where “speech within speech” creates nested interpretations (e.g., how a poem can address readers while presenting a speaker’s voice).
  • Examples cited include “Wrestling Jacob” (a poem that both addresses the Saviour and serves as the poet’s message to readers).
  • Fairy-tale openings like the Majorcan "Aixo era y no era" illustrate double referentiality (It was and it was not).
  • The supremacy of the poetic function over the referential function can render referential content ambiguous while preserving its presence.
  • Reiteration and the repetition of sequence structures create an enduring, endur-ing sign; poetry tends to convert a message into an enduring form through reiteration.

• The internal form of a name and the language of imagery

  • The internal semantic load of names and the way poetic language reinterprets ordinary terms (e.g., the kinship of Cocktails with plumage, or the metaphorical play in Wallace Stevens’s lines) demonstrates how poetry redefines ordinary discourse.
  • Example passages illustrate how proper nouns, adjectives, and metaphoric pairs are repurposed for poetic effect (e.g., “New Haven” as a juxtaposition of opposites or punned echoes like “Heaven-Haven”).
  • The idea that poetry re-evaluates discourse components rather than merely adorns prose is emphasized.

• The closing position of linguistics and poetry

  • The author argues for the right and duty of linguistics to investigate verbal art in all its breadth and variety, including poetry.
  • If poetry is a kind of language, the linguist must include poetry in the study of language—poetics is a branch of linguistics and its wider application.
  • A motto: "Linguista sum; linguistici nihil a me alicnum puto" (I am a linguist; I consider nothing of linguistic study to be beyond me).
  • The author references Ransom’s claim that poetry is a form of language and argues for poetry to be included in linguistic inquiry.

• Contextual notes about the surrounding discourse in the source material

  • The passage also includes endorsements and reviews of a broader work on discourse (The Discourse Reader) by Adam Jaworski and Nikolas Coupland, summarizing why discourse studies are essential across disciplines (sociology, cultural studies, communications, linguistics, etc.).
  • Notable endorsements cite the book’s breadth, interdisciplinarity, and usefulness for undergraduates and researchers alike.

• Key takeaways for exam preparation

  • Remember the six factors and their six corresponding functions, especially the dominant role of the POETIC function in poetry and its interaction with other functions.
  • Understand the difference between selection (choosing among equivalents) and combination (building a sequence), and how poetry membership relies on projecting equivalence into sequence.
  • Recognize the role of ambivalence and “speech within speech” as intrinsic features of poetic messages.
  • Be able to describe how metalingual checks occur in ordinary speech and how phatic functions support the communication channel.
  • Be prepared to distinguish between referential content and the poetic shaping of that content, and to discuss how verse can occur outside traditional poetry (advertising, mnemonic verse, etc.).

• Illustrative quotations and references mentioned

  • “Poetry is a kin d of language” (Ransom) and related statements about the scope of poetics.
  • Hopkins on verse as the repetition of a sound figure: "verse as speech wholly or partially repeating the same figure of sound".
  • Majorca storytellers’ exordium: "Aixo era y no era" (It was and it was not).
  • Majakovskij’s remark on adjectives in poetry: in poetry, any adjective may become a poetic epithet (e.g., “great,” in Moscow street names).
  • Empson (1955) on ambiguity as central to poetry.

• Symbols, terms, and short glossary

  • ADDRESSER: speaker or narrator
  • ADDRESSEE: listener or reader
  • MESSAGE: content/codified information to be transmitted
  • CONTEXT: situational background
  • CODE: shared system of signs (language)
  • CONTACT: channel and social connection enabling communication
  • EMOTIVE: attitude of the speaker toward the content
  • REFERENTIAL: information about the world or context
  • CONATIVE: address/command toward the listener
  • PHATIC: channel maintenance and social contact
  • METALINGUAL: language about language; glossing and code-checking
  • POETIC: form and stylistic shaping of the message

• A compact symbolic note

  • Let S be the set of semantically cognate words and V the set of cognate verbs; selection chooses s ∈ S and v ∈ V, forming a sequence (s, v).
  • Poetic function: Esel → Eseq, i.e., equivalence in selection is projected into the sequence (contiguity) in poetry.
  • Phatic, Metalingual, and other functions operate alongside this core process to modulate impact, understanding, and social bonding.

• Notable historical anchors

  • Jakobson’s framework appears as an expansion of the traditional model (phonology, syntax, semantics) into a social-semiotic theory of language use.
  • The discussion situates poetics within a broader semiotic and linguistic framework, bridging poetry with everyday discourse, advertising, or ritual language.

• Practical exam angles

  • Be able to identify which function dominates a given utterance and give evidence from the form and context (e.g., imperative verbs signal Conative, interjections signal Emotive, or glossing signals Metalingual use).
  • Explain how a text can be both referential and poetic, with poetry shaping the referent through stylistic devices.
  • Discuss how ambiguity arises when multiple functions interplay, especially in self-referential or speech-within-speech structures.

• Reference to the source and broader discourse

  • The material is drawn from Roman Jakobson’s LINGUISTICS AND POETICS, as part of his broader theory of language functions.
  • The excerpt is from a discussion that connects poetics with systemic linguistics and wider discourse analysis, including later endorsements of discourse studies as a field.