Roman Jakobson

When I speak it is in order to be heard.

For example, the opposition between acute and grave phonemes has the capacity to suggest an image of bright and dark, of pointed and rounded, of thin and thick, of light and heavy, etc.

Linguistic sounds, considered as external, physical phenomena have two aspects, the motor and the acoustic.

The fact that I spent my life in universities in a manner that I no longer have close identification with bricklayers is a pain to me.

The richness of the world, all artificial pleasures, have the taste of sickness and give off a smell of death in the face of certain spiritual possessions.