Facets of signs: Roman Jakobson’s semiotic thought
Facets of signs: Roman Jakobson’s semiotic thought

Summary/Abstract: Roman Jakobson was the spiritus movens of several intellectual movements of the twentieth century. He was the promoting actor of the Moscow Linguistic Circle, as well as the Society for the Study of Poetic Language (OPOJAZ), not to mention his involvement in the Prague Linguistic Circle. Moreover, he played a decisive role in the promotion of semiotic research and made untiring eff orts to ensure the divulgation of Charles Sander Peirce ’s ideas among the academic community of the 1950s and 1960s (Jakobson 1971i[1966]; 1985d[1975]; 1985f[1977]). For Irene Portis-Winner (1981: 3) he was a “focal synthesizer”, the first who “brought together Peircean and Saussurian concepts”. Likewise, Umberto Eco (1987: 111) considered him as “the major ‘catalyst’ in the contemporary ‘semiotic reaction’”. Although many have criticized Jakobson’s interpretation of Peirce’s semiotics as being too selective, limited and inaccurate (Short 1998; Waugh , Monville Burston 2002: xxxvii), there is no reason for denying Jakobson’s remarkable role as a promoter of semiotic thought. His achievements in this respect are undeniable and well-documented (Eco 1987; Waugh, Monville-Burston 2002: lviii–lix).

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