The American Four-Level Analysis of Intonation Contours

Abstract

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.