Proceedings Fonetik 2009 - Institutionen för lingvistik

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Proceedings, FONETIK 2009, Dept. of Linguistics, Stockholm UniversityA point of departure: Two articlesMalmberg started his prolific authorship in1939 with an article dedicated to the new Praguephonology. For this inaugural article,Malmberg set the objective to inform Swedishlanguage teachers about a series of fundamentalphonological concepts such as function, phoneme,opposition and correlation, concepts advancedby the three Russian linguists R. Jakobson[1896-1982], S. Karcevskij [1884-1995]and N.S. Trubetzkoy [1890-1938]. To emphasizethe revolutionary aspects of Prague phonology,Malmberg started off by clarifying thedifference between phonetics and phonology:« Alors que la phonétique se préoccupe desfaits sonores à caractère langagier et qu’elle sepropose de décrire de manière objective, voireexpérimentale, les différentes phases de la productionde la parole et ce faisant du rôle desorganes phonatoires, la phonologie fixe son attentionuniquement sur la description des propriétésde la parole qui ont un rôle fonctionnel» (Malmberg, 1939 : 204.)He praised Prague phonology in its effort toidentify and systematize functional linguisticforms, but did not hesitate to pronounce severecriticism against Trubetzkoy and his followerswhen they advocated phonology as a sciencestrictly separate from phonetics. Malmberg sustainedthe idea that phonology, if claimed to bea new science, must engage in the search forrelationships between functional aspects ofsounds and their purely phonetic propertieswithin a given system – a particular language.His article includes examples borrowed fromFrench, German, Italian, Swedish and Welsh.For Malmberg, there is no doubt that « la phonologieet la phonétique ne sont pas des sciencesdifférentes mais deux points de vue sur unmême objet, à savoir les formes sonores du langage» (Malmberg 1939 : 210).The first article in experimental phoneticswas published the following year (Malmberg1940) but was based on research conductedduring his stay in Paris 1937-1938. Advisedand encouraged by Fouché, Malmberg tackles,in this first experimental work, an importantproblem of Swedish phonetics, namely the descriptionof musical accents. In the resultingarticle, he presents the experimental protocol asfollows:« On prononce le mot ou la phrase en questiondans une embouchure reliée par un tube élastiqueà un diaphragme phonographique pourvud’un style inscripteur et placé devant un cylindreenregistreur. Le mouvement vibratoire de lacolonne d’air s’inscrit sur un papier noirci sousla forme d’une ligne sinueuse. » (Malmberg1940: 63)The first analysed words anden vs. anden(‘soul’ vs. ‘duck’) revealed a difference in tonalmanifestation. More examples of minimal pairsof word accents, displayed in figures andcurves confirmed the observation. Malmbergclosed his article by putting emphasis on thesignificance of word accents as an importantresearch area in experimental phonetics:« Il y aurait ici un vaste champ de travail pourla phonétique expérimentale, surtout si onconsidère toutes les variations dialectales et individuellesqui existent dans le domaine deslangues suédoise et norvégienne. » (Malmberg1940: 76)Final year in phonetics (1968)Malmberg's correspondence during the year1968 is particularly interesting. It containsabundant information, not least about the varietyof people writing to Malmberg, of issuesraised, and about how Malmberg introducedevents of his private life, health, social and institutionalactivities in his letters. Some exampleswill demonstrate the rich contents of theletters, here presented chronologically (while inthe archive, the correspondence is in alphabeticalorder (based on the initial of the surname ofthe correspondent):January: The year 1968 began as it should!On January 4, representatives of students sent aquestionnaire concerning the Vietnam War toProfessor Malmberg. They emphasized that,they particularly desired answers from thegroup of faculty professors. Malmberg apparentlyneglected to answer. Hence a reminderwas dispatched on January 12. A few dayslater, Malmberg received a prestigious invitationto participate in a "table ronde", a paneldiscussion on structuralism and sociology. Theinvitation particularly stressed the presence tobe of Lévi-Strauss and other eminent professorsof sociology and law. We learn from Malmberg'sresponse, dated February 12, that he haddeclined the invitation for reasons of poorhealth. January also saw the beginning of animportant correspondence between Malmbergand Max Wajskop [1932-1993]. In this correspondence,some of Malmberg's letters were210
Proceedings, FONETIK 2009, Dept. of Linguistics, Stockholm Universitygoing to play a decisive role for the genesis ofphonetics in Belgium, and subsequently also inthe francophone world at large (see Touati,forthcoming).February: On February 8, Sture Allen [born1928] invites Malmberg to participate in a radioprogram on "Vad är allmän språkvetenskap?"(What is general linguistics?). Once more, hehad to decline for reasons of health (letter ofFebruary 12). On February 19, the universityadministration informs that there were threeapplicants for the post as lecturer in phoneticsat the University of Lund: C.-C. Elert, E. Gårdingand K. Hadding-Kock.March: The school specialized in educationof deaf children in Lund asks Malmberg to helpreflect on new structures for its future functioning.April: Malmberg gives a lecture on “Fonetiskaaspekter på uttalsundervisningen i skolorför hörande och hörselskadade” (Phonetic aspectsin the teaching of pronunciation inschools for the deaf and hearing disabled).September: The student union informsMalmberg that a Day's Work for the benefit ofthe students in Hanoi will be organised duringthe week of September 21 to 29.October: A letter of thanks is sent to HansVogt, professor at the University of Oslo, forthe assessment done in view of Malmberg's appointmentto the chair of general linguistics inLund. That same month he received a ratheramusing letter from a young man from Sundsvallwho asks for his autograph as well as asigned photograph. The young man expands onthat his vast collection already boasts the autographof the king of Sweden. Malmberg grantsthe wishes of his young correspondent on November4.November: A "docent" at the University ofUppsala who disagrees with his colleaguesabout the realization of schwa asks Malmbergto serve as expert and make a judgment in thematter. In late November, Malmberg has to goto Uppsala to attend lectures given by applicantsfor two new Swedish professorships inphonetics, at the University of Uppsala and theUniversity of Umeå, respectively. Candidateswho will all become renowned professors inphonetics are Claes-Christan Elert, KerstinHadding-Koch, Björn Lindblom and Sven Öhman(In 1968 and 1969, there is a strong processof institutionalization of phonetics takingplace in Sweden).A theoretical dead-endIn an article just three pages long, Malmberg(1968) traces a brief history of phonemes. Theargument opens on a structuralist credo « Onest d’accord pour voir dans les éléments dulangage humain de toute grandeur et à tous lesniveaux de la description scientifique (contenu,expression, différentes fonctions, etc…), deséléments discrets. » Malmberg continues witha summary of the efforts of classical phoneticiansto produce that monument of phoneticknowledge - the International Alphabet - createdwith the ambition to reflect a universal andphysiological (articulatory according to Malmberg)description of phonemes. The authoritiesquoted here are Passy, Sweet, Sievers,Forchhammer and Jones. He continues by referringto « l’idée ingénieuse [qui] surgira dedécomposer les dits phonèmes […] en unitésplus petites et par là même plus générales et devoir chaque phonème comme une combinaison[…] de traits distinctifs ». In other words, herefers to "Preliminaries to Speech Analysis" byJakobson, Fant and Halle (1952), a publicationwhich may be considered a turning point inphonetics. Indeed, later in his presentation,Malmberg somehow refutes his own argumentabout the ability of acoustic properties to beused as an elegant, simple and unitary way formodelling sounds of language. He highlightsthe fact that spectrographic analysis reveals theneed for an appeal to a notion such as the locusin order to describe, in its complexity andvariation, the acoustic structure of consonants.Malmberg completed his presentation by emphasizingthe following:« Mais rien n’est stable dans le monde des sciences.En phonétique l’intérêt est en train de sedéplacer dans la direction des rapports stimuluset perception […] Si dans mon travail sur leclassement des sons du langage de 1952, j’avaisespéré retrouver dans les faits acoustiques cetordre qui s’était perdu en cours de route avecl’avancement des méthodes physiologiques, jedeviens maintenant de plus en plus enclin àchercher cet ordre non plus dans les spectresqui les spécifient mais sur le niveau perceptuel.Ma conclusion avait été fondée sur une fausseidée des rapports entre son et impression auditive.Je crois avoir découvert, en travaillant parexemple sur différents problèmes de la prosodie,que ces rapports sont bien plus compliquésque je l’avais pensé au début » (Malmberg1968 : 165)211
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