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Linguistics 441
him and his disciple,’ the ingenious musicologist Gustav Becking, throughout
the first third of our century (160; 7). All the speakers, writers and musicians
proved to belong to one of the three basic types (with further subdivisions)
expressed in the entire exteriorized behavior of any individual as specific rhythmic
curves which, therefore, received the name of Generalkurven or Personalkurven;
they were also termed Beckingkurven, since they were discovered by
Becking during his joint research with Sievers. These three curves have been
mapped as follows (7, p. 52 f.):
Hauptschlag: Nebenschlag:
spitz - spitz (Heine-type)
spitz - rund (Goet he-t ype)
rund - rund (Schiller-type)
If a representative of one type has to recite, sing, or play a work of a poet or
composer of the same kinesthetic type, the performance appears to be reinforced
by this affinity, but if the author and performer belong to two totally opposite
types, the reproduction undergoes inhibitions (Hemrnungen). It turned out that
these three idiosyncratic types and their interrelations apply to all kinds of our
motor activities, such as the manner of bodily, manual, and facial movements,
gait, handwriting and drawing, dancing, sport, and courtship. The attractions
and repulsions between different types act not only within a single motor sphere
but also across the diverse spheres. Moreover, the effect of certain auditory and
visual stimuli is akin to one of the three motor types, and, correspondingly,
these incentives inay either stimulate or inhibit the response, as was experienced
by readers when they faced, in alternate order, the same verses coupled with a
wire figure now of a coincident and now of an opposite type.
In his notable summarizing report on these personal curves, Sievers asserts
‘dass sie das konstanteste sind, was es uberhaupt beim denkenden und handelnden
Menschen gibt: wenigstens ist mir trotz mehrjahrigem Suchen kein Fall
bekannt geworden, dass ein Individuum beim eigenen Produzieren uber mehr
als eine Beckingkurve frei verfugte, mag es auch sonst noch so reich sein an
klanglicher Variabilitat . Es lasst sich auch nicht bezweifeln, dass dieBeckingkurve
sum angeborenen BesitzIdes Individuums gehort (wie ich bei Neugeborenen
habe feststellen konnen), und dass bei ihrer ubertragung vom Individuum zu
Individuum die iiblichen Allgemeingesetze der Vererbung eine grosse, wenn
auch nicht die allein ausschlaggebende Rolle spielen. So ist es auch allein zu
verstehen, wenn ganze Stamme oder gar Volker sich manchmal fast bis zur
Ausschliesslichkeit nur einer und derselben Beckingkurve bedienen’ (160, p. 74).
The innateness of the three ‘individual curves’ seems probable but still requires
careful verification.
This research, which exhibited a superb skill and penetrating intuition of the
two inquirers, yet which originally lacked any theoretical foundation, unfortunately
has been discontinued, but now it could and should be resumed on new
methodological principles. The tentative psychophysical typology advanced by
Sievers and Becking should be confronted with such problems as the attraction