Guest Speaker

I have written quite a a lot about Roman Jakobson in this space without providing a proper introduction to his work and exceptional career, which resists straightforward summary. In this entry, therefore, I would like to refer anyone interested to an interview with Margaret Thomas that ranges over Jakobson’s contributions to theoretical linguistics, applied linguistics, poetics, semiotics, translation theory, and literary criticism, as well as his engagements with prominent “Circles” of linguists in Moscow, Prague, Copenhagen, and New York. The interview was recorded shortly after Thomas published a four-volume collection of essays ranging over Jakobson’s oeuvre (Thomas, 2014). The interview mingles reflections on Jakobson’s personal life with discussion of his research on language.

Works cited:

Thomas, Margaret. Roman Jakobson, I-IV, Critical Assessments of Leading Linguists. London and New York: Routledge, 2014.