Roman Jakobson's Unknown Contributions to Ottův Slovník Naučný Nové Doby (Otto Encyclopaedia of the New Age)

Abstract

The article discusses hitherto unidentified contributions of Roman Jakobson (1896–1982) to Ottův slovnik naucný nove doby ('Otto Encyclopaedia of the New Age'), a prestigious encyclopaedia published in Prague between 1930–1943. To complement the five entries by the great linguist for the Encyclopaedia that are listed in the existing bibliographies of his work (Phoneme, Phonology, Linguistics, Metrics, and Mathesius, Vilem), the article identifies the following entries as also written by Jakobson: Morpheme, Prague Linguistic Circle and Havranek, Bohuslav. Whereas the authorship of the latter can only be considered highly probable, the remaining two are identified as indisputable products of Roman Jakobson. The article contains an English translation of, and a brief commentary on, all the hitherto unidentified entries.