Sentence:  "But since you have brought up Jakobson's formula", I continued, "let me remind you that he intended the formula to express the relation distinctive or constitutive of sign, a relation Jakobson felicitously characterized as <WSD>"renvoi</WSD>"." 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Cross-reference in text; a sign that refers to something introduced earlier in a text.