Page 38 - Critical and Cultural Theory

THE SIGN
the paradigmatic process of selection, whereby a word is chosen
out of a pool of analogous words. Thus, selection is related to the
metaphoric mode.
Jakobson arrived at this conclusion through his study of the
linguistic disturbance known as aphasia. Jakobson distinguishes
between two forms of aphasia: the contiguity disorder, consisting
of a difficulty in combining words and hence of a tendency to
produce metaphors; and the similarity disorder, consisting of a
difficulty in selecting words and hence of a tendency to produce
metonymies. In literary terms, the contiguity disorder is associated
with metaphor and poetry, and the similarity disorder with
metonymy and prose. Both metaphor and metonymy are figures
of equivalence. In ordinary language, equivalence applies essen-
tially to the axis of selection: we select certain signs from a range
of equivalent signs. In poetic language, equivalence is also applied
to the axis of combination: signs are strung together on the basis
of similarities in pattern and sound: 'the metrical parallelisms of
lines, or the phonic equivalence of rhyming words' (Jakobson and
Halle 1956: 95).
For Jakobson, as for Saussure, all forms of language are based
on relationships between signifiers and signifieds. However, a
distinction must be drawn between prose and poetry. Prose subor-
dinates the signifier to the interests of the signified; that is, it is
more concerned with the content of an utterance and the message
it conveys than with the form of the utterance, how the message is
conveyed. Poetry, by contrast, foregrounds the signifier: it places
great emphasis on the shapes and sounds of words as means of
evoking meaning, rather than subordinating them to the concepts
they stand for. The forms through which a message is articulated
contribute to the message itself: 'the poetic function is defined as a
specialized use of language in which the signifier intensifies the
message' (Easthope 1983: 15). The poetic function is not exclusive
to poetry. It also features in various aspects of ordinary language,
such as political slogans. 'I like Ike', for example, uses a basic
poetic form which makes it more striking than Tke is great' or 'I
respect Ike'.
Structuralism develops some of the positions outlined above. It
seeks for universal patterns of signs and, while conceding that the
particular signs employed by any given culture are context bound,
it also maintains that all cultures orchestrate their signs into struc-

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