Temelji jezika

The book was written in collaboration with the American Slavist Morris Halle and represents a systematization of the facts of modern phonology, the development of theories of distinctive features and binary oppositions in the widest extension of the linguistic phenomenon.

The book has two main parts: Part I: Phonology and Phonetics – introduces 12 pairs of distinctive features (later expanded to more). Each phoneme is defined by binary values ​​(+/-) according to acoustic and articulatory criteria:

• vocalic: vowel/consonant, compact/diffuse, acute/grave, flat/scattered
• consonantal: interrupted/continuous, strident/dull, nasal/oral, voiced/voiceless
• additional: sharp/blunt, tense/relaxed, etc. This binary hierarchy (laws of implication) explains universal patterns in the world's languages: why some oppositions exist only if others exist, how phonemes develop in children and disappear in aphasia. Examples from English, Russian and other languages ​​show how phonemes are distinguished by minimal pairs (e.g. Bitter/Chitter in New York).

Part II: Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Disturbances – Jakobson applies Saussure's axes: selective (paradigmatic, similarity) and combinative (syntagmatic, adjacency). Aphasias reveal the core of language:

• similarity aphasia (continuous, Wernicke) – problems with paradigm, metaphors, lexical choice.
• adjacency aphasia (interrupted, Broca) – problems with syntagma, grammar, metonymy. This shows that language is not just sound, but a structure of oppositions.

The work is canonical for structural phonology, influenced semiotics, psycholinguistics and literary theory (poetic function).