Roman Jakobson's poetic function of language: The historic theory of equivalence projections from the axis of selection into the axis of combination

In the initial section of this investigation a theoretical frame for equivalence theory is provided. Factors participating in a speech event are associated with communicative functions.Roman Jakobson, who singled out the constituent 'MESSAGE' and attached an equivalence projection to it, was born in 1897 in Moscow and died 1982 in Boston, Massachusetts. His definition of the poetic function is applied to a very simple student poem in chapter two.The invariances explained with the help of German poems, are closely examined in an octastich by Paul Klee, in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's lyrical masterpiece 'To the moon' and in the sonnet 'Les chats' by Charles Baudelaire.Exploitation of invariants in verbal works of art is discussed in connection with a couple of axes, the axis of selection and the axis of combination.The founder of equivalence theory himself is explained in a manner as congenial as possible, to the effect that even the referential function emerges as a relative concept. Linguistic equivalents in poetry are demonstrated in relation to five other functions participating in a speech act.Jacobson's critics are closely analyzed. With the assistance of their insights into Jakobson's attempted act of defining poetry, and the master's admitted standpoint, that the poetic function is by no means alien to a referential use of language, a conclusion is drawn.When functioning as a linguist, it turns out that Roman Jakobson's own theoretical language possesses the very qualities of a language of art it tries to distinguish itself from.The projection of invariances from a domain called 'selection' into another realm called 'combination' cannot protect itself from forces rendering any attempt of exclusion or definition as inconsistent .