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Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 42:1 (2015) ► pp.119–137

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The American Four-Level Analysis of Intonation Contours

Historical postscript

 | University of Edinburgh
Published online: 26 May 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.42.1.07lad
Summary
The four-level analysis of English intonation prevalent in American structuralist work from the mid-1940s to the late 1960s is variably credited to 1945 publications by both Kenneth Lee Pike (1912–2000) and Rulon S. Wells (1919–2008). However, Pike’s work was the basis of published language teaching materials as early as 1942. The author reports a brief correspondence with Pike in 1989, which makes clear that Pike felt that his own contribution was underappreciated in the “intellectual climate” of Bloomfieldian linguistics. Bernard Bloch (1907–1965) and especially George L. Trager (1906–1992) appear to have influenced the reception of Pike’s work and to have overstated the credit due to Wells.
Résumé
L’analyse de l’intonation anglaise usuelle aux temps du structuralisme américain (vers 1945–1970) – système à quatre niveaux dits ‘phonèmes’ – est attribuée soit à Kenneth Lee Pike (1912–2000), soit à Rulon S. Wells (1919–2008), tous deux ayant publié leurs versions de cette analyse en 1945. Il faut cependant noter que le système de Pike fut utilisé dès 1942 dans un cours d’anglais langue étrangère. En 1989 l’auteur a échangé des lettres avec Pike, d’où il ressort que celui-ci trouvait que sa contribution au développement de l’analyse américaine n’était pas suffisamment appréciée par ses collègues de l’école de Bloomfield. À l’avis de l’auteur, Bernard Bloch (1907–1965) et surtout George L. Trager (1906–1992) furent responsables d’avoir minimisé la contribution de Pike, en faveur de celle de Wells.
Zusammenfassung
Die Vier-Ebenen-Analyse der englischen Intonation, die in den Arbeiten des amerikanischen Strukturalismus (in der Periode ca. 1945–1970) üblich war, wird sowohl Kenneth Lee Pike (1912–2000) als auch Rulon S. Wells (1919–2008) zugeschrieben, da beide Autoren 1945 wichtige Aufsätze zu diesem Thema veröffentlicht haben. Die Analyse von Pike wurde allerdings schon 1942 in Unterrichtsmaterialien zu Englisch als Fremdsprache verwendet. Aus einem Briefwechsel, den der Autor 1989 mit Pike geführt hat, geht hervor, dass dieser die allgemeine Bewertung seines Beitrags im ‘intellektuellen Klima’ der Zeit als unzureichend empfand. Es hat den Anschein, dass Bernard Bloch (1907–1965) und insbesondere George L. Trager (1906–1992) eine wichtige Rolle in der Abwertung des Beitrags von Pike gespielt haben, zugunsten des Beitrags von Wells.
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