Roman Jakobson's seminal work on metaphor and metonymy revolutionized linguistic and literary analysis. He argued that these two figures of speech represent fundamental axes of language, with metaphor based on similarity and metonymy on contiguity. Understanding this distinction allows for a deeper appreciation of how meaning is created and conveyed, influencing fields from literary criticism to psychoanalysis. His concepts explain the selection and combination of words in language, reflecting cognitive processes of substitution and connection.