Jakobson Denies Czech Charges Of Attempts to 'Incite' Scientists

Several Czech newspapers carried articles Saturday accusing Roman Jakobson, Samuel Hazard Cross Professor of Semitic Languages and Literatures, of trying to incite scientists in Czechoslovakia.

Jakobson vigorously denied Czech allegations that he has been "misusing the scientific authority of Harvard University," by sending "inciting publications which have nothing in common with science."

Jakobson commented that the charges, which were reported by the Czech news agency, CTK, were "completely invented and utterly fantastic." "I can't imagine what this is all about," he added.

A former student at Prague University, Jakobson said that he exchanges linguistic papers with scholars in many countries, including Czechoslovakia. He denied, however, that these papers were in any way inflammatory or objectionable. "They are not scientific publications," he noted, "They are linguistic papers and contain nothing of a political or scientific nature."

Noting that he had sent "no more than two or three papers" to Czech scholars in the past year, Jakobson stated that the accusations had come as a "complete surprise." In his last visit to Czechoslovakia, he reported, he had been well received, and a lecture which he gave at Prague University had been "warmly reviewed."

A native of Moscow who arrived in this country in 1941, Jakobson taught for a time at columbia University.