Cover not available
Article published In:
Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 35:3 (2008) ► pp.342–384

The Birth of Applied Linguistics

The Anglo-Scandinavian school as ‘discourse community’

| University of Sheffield

The major claim of this article is that there is an independent and clearly defined chapter in the development of linguistics, beginning in the 1880s, which represents the birth of modern applied linguistics, and which has been overlooked in linguistic historiography because of the comparative marginalisation of applied linguistics in the literature. This is the Anglo-Scandinavian School, a phrase its members used to describe themselves. Pioneers within phonetics, these linguists applied their phonetic knowledge to a range of ‘real world’ language issues, notably language-teaching reform, orthographic reform, language planning, and the study of the spoken language. As well as presenting the ideas of the Anglo-Scandinavian School and how they were developed, this article interrogates the notion of a school in intellectual history and proposes that it may in fact be more fruitful to view intellectual history in terms of discourse communities.

Published online: 15 August 2008
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.35.3.04lin
References
Atherton, Mark
In preparation. Henry Sweet and the Nature of Language.
Brekke, K[nud Olai]
1894 Indberetning om en høsten 1893 foretagen stipendiereise til England for at studere Gouins metode for undervisning i sprog [Report on a scholarship visit to England in the autumn of 1893 to study Gouin’s method of language teaching]. Kristiania: A. W. Brøggers bogtrykkeri.Google Scholar
Burke, Peter
ed. 1991 New Perspectives on Historical Writing. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Collins, Beverley & Inger M[argarethe] Mees
1999 The Real Professor Higgins: The life and career of Daniel Jones. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Davies, Alan & Catherine Elder
2004 “General Introduction: Applied linguistics. Subject to discipline?”. Handbook of Applied Linguistics ed. by Alan Davies & Catherine Elder, 1–15. Malden, Mass., Oxford & Carlton: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ellis, A[lexander] J[ohn]
1885 The Alphabet of Nature; or, Contributions towards a more accurate analysis and symbolization of spoken sounds; with some account of the principal phonetic alphabets hitherto proposed. London: Bagster.Google Scholar
Eriksson, Manne
1961 Svensk ljudskrift 1878–1960: En översikt över det svenska landsmålsalfabetets utveckling och användning huvudsakligen i tidskriften Svenska landsmål [Swedish phonetic transcription 1878–1960: An overview of the development and use of the Swedish dialect alphabet, primarily in the journal Svenska landsmål ]. (= Svenska landsmål och svenskt folkliv B, 62.) Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt & Söner.Google Scholar
Fay, Brian, Philip Pomper & Richard T. Vann
eds. 1998 History and Theory: Contemporary readings. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Foldvik, Arne Kjell
1976 “Henry Sweet om lydskrift, Svenska landsmålsalfabetet og J. A. Lundell”. Svenska landsmål och svenskt folkliv 991.64–68.Google Scholar
Holm, Gösta
1996 “Lundell, Johan August”. Lexicon Grammaticorum: Who’s who in the history of world linguistics ed. by Harro Stammerjohann, p. 593. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Hovdhaugen, Even, Fred Karlsson, Carol Henriksen & Bengt Sigurd
2000 The History of Linguistics in the Nordic Countries. Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica.Google Scholar
Howatt, A[nthony] P[hilip] R[eid] and R[ichard] C. Smith
eds. 2002 Modern Language Teaching: The reform movement. 51 vols. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Howatt, A. P. R., with H[enry] G[eorge] Widdowson
2004 A History of English Language Teaching. 2nd ed. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jankowsky, Kurt R.
2001 “The Consolidation of the Neogrammarian Framework”. History of the Language Sciences – Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaften – Histoire des sciences du langage, vol II1 ed. by Sylvain Auroux, E. F. K. Koerner, Hans-Josef Niederehe & Kees Versteegh, 1350–1368. Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Jespersen, Otto
1886 “Den ny sprogundervisnings program”. Vor Ungdom 1886.353–381.Google Scholar
1889 Fransk Læsebog efter Lydskriftmetoden. Kjøbenhavn: N. publ.Google Scholar
1897–1899 Fonetik: En systematisk fremstilling af læren om sproglyd. København: Schubothe.Google Scholar
1901 Sprogundervisning. København: Schubothe.Google Scholar
1909 “Artenes oprindelse og sprogenes verden [The origin of species and the world of languages]”. Tilskueren 1909.8–17.Google Scholar
1916 Nutidssprog hos Börn og Voxne [Contemporary language amongst children and adults]. København & Kristiania: Gyldendal.Google Scholar
1933 Linguistica: Selected Papers in English, French and German. Copenhagen: Levin & Munksgaard; London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
1995 [1938]  A Linguist’s Life. An English translation of Otto Jespersen’s autobiography with notes, photos and a bibliography. Edited by Arne Juul, Hans F[rede] Nielsen & Jørgen Erik Nielsen, Odense: Odense University Press. [Original title, En sprogmands levned. København: Gyldendal 1938.]Google Scholar
Jordanova, Ludmilla
2000 History in Practice. London: Arnold; New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Juul, Arne
2002 Den levende fonograf: Nordmændenes Professor Higgins. (= University of Southern Denmark Studies in Linguistics, 14.) Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag.Google Scholar
Juul, Arne & Hans F[rede] Nielsen
eds. 1989 Otto Jespersen: Facets of his life and work. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jørgensen, C[hristian Peter Julius]
ed. 1893 Forhandlinger paa det fjerde nordiske Filologmøde i København. Den 18–21 juli 1892. Tillæg: Berättelse om Förhandlingarna vid det tredje nordiska filologmötet i Stockholm 10–13 augusti 1886 af Nils Linder [Proceedings from the Fourth Nordic Philologists Meeting, Copenhagen, 18–21 July 1892. Appendix: Presentation of Proceedings at the Third Nordic Philologists Meeting, Stockholm, 10–13 August 1886 by Nils Linder]. København: Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn).Google Scholar
Klinghardt, Hermann
1888 Ein Jahr Erfahrungen mit der neuen Methode: Bericht über den Unterricht mit einer englischen Anfängerklasse im Schuljahre 1887/88; zugleich eine Anleitung für jüngere Fachgenossen. Marburg: N. G. Elwert.Google Scholar
Langslet, Lars Roar
1999 I kamp for norsk kultur: Riksmålsbevegelsens historie gjennom 100 år [Fighting for Norwegian culture: 100 Years of the Riksmål movement’s history]. Oslo: Riksmålsforbundet.Google Scholar
Larsen, Amund B[redesen]
1897 Oversigt over de norske bygdemål [Overview of the Norwegian rural dialects]. Kristiania: Aschehoug.Google Scholar
Leffler, L[eopold] Fr[edrik], J. A. Lundell & Eugène Schwartz
1886 Några anmärkningar i rättstafningsfrågan med särskild hänsyn till rättstafningssällskapets reformförslag [Some observations on the orthography question with particular regard to the reform proposals of the spelling association]. Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt & Söner.Google Scholar
Linn, Andrew R[obert]
2002 “ Quousque Tandem: Language-teaching reform in 19th-century Scandinavia”. The Henry Sweet Society Bulletin 381.34–42.Google Scholar
Linn, Andrew R.
2003 “Johan Storm, ‘målmennenes og fornorskingsmennenes argeste motstander’ [Johan Storm, ‘fiercest opponent of the Landsmål activists and the Norwegianisers alike’]”. Krefter og motkrefter i språknormeringa: Om språknormer i teori og praksis ed. by Helge Omdal & Rune Røsstad, 175–186. Kristiansand: Høyskoleforlaget.Google Scholar
2004a Johan Storm, dhi grétest pràktikal liNgwist in dhi werld. Oxford & Boston: Blackwell.Google Scholar
2004b “Research Ethics in Book-Based, Historical Research”. Flores Grammaticæ: Essays in memory of Vivien Law ed. by Nicola McLelland & Andrew R. Linn, 21–32. Münster: Nodus.Google Scholar
2006 “Adolf Gotthard Noreen”. Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, 2nd ed. directed by Keith Brown, vol. VIII1, p. 696. Oxford: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lundell, J[ohan] A[ugust]
1879 “Det svenska landsmålsalfabetet, tillika en öfversikt af språkljudens förekomst inom svenska mål [The Swedish Landsmålsalfabet, together with an overview of the occurrence of speech sounds in the Swedish language]”. Nyare bidrag till kännedom om de svenska landsmålen ock svenskt folklif 11.11–158.Google Scholar
Lundell, J. A.
1881 “Om dialektstudier med särskild hänsyn till de nordiska språken: Föredrag vid andra nordiska filologmötet i Kristiania i allmän sammankomst den 11 augusti 1881”. Nyare bidrag till kännedom om de svenska landsmålen ock svenskt folklif 3:1.1–31.Google Scholar
1885 Review of Norvegia 1. Nordisk Revy 1885.458–460. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1886 Om rättstafningsfrågan: Tre föreläsningar [On the orthography question: Three lectures]. Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt & Söner.Google Scholar
1887 “Olika ståndpunkter”. Nordisk Tidskrift för Vetenskap, Konst och Industri 101.1–30.Google Scholar
1888 “Die phonetik als universitätsfach”. Phonetische Studien 11.1–17.Google Scholar
1890 Études sur la pronunciation russe 1e partie : Compte rendu de la littérature. 1e livraison. (= Upsala Universitets Årsskrift 1891 [sic] Filosofi, Språkvetenskap och Historiska vetenskaper. 1.) Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt & Söner.Google Scholar
1893 Svensk ordlista med reformstavning ock uttalsbeteckning [Swedish Wordlist with Reformed Spelling and Pronunciation Guide]. Under medvärkan av Hilda Lundell och Elise Zetterqvist samt flere fackmän. Stockholm: Hugo Geber.Google Scholar
1911–1914 Lärobok i ryska språket. Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt & Söner.Google Scholar
1928 “The Swedish Dialect Alphabet”. Studia Neophilologica 11.1–17. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1934 Svensk rättstavning. Principutredning. (= Studentföreningen Verdandis småskrifter, 368.) Stockholm: Albert Bonnier.Google Scholar
Lundell, J. A., Hilda Lundell & Elise Zetterqvist
(née Lundell) 1889–1940 “Folkminnen från Kläckeberga och Dörby, upptecknade av Hilda Lundell och Elise Zetterqvist, utgivna under medverkan av J.A. Lundell”. Nyare bidrag till kännedom om de svenska landsmålen ock svenskt folklif 91.Google Scholar
Lundell, J. A. & Al[exander] A. Rubetz
1921 Svensk-Rysk Parlör till tjänst för ryssar och svenskar vid inlärande av svensk och ryskt talspråk. Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt & Söner.Google Scholar
MacMahon, Michael K. C.
In preparation. Through the Silent Land: The life and times of Henry Sweet.
Moberg, Lennart
1979 “Om den nordiska språkvetenskapen i Sverige för hundra år sedan”. Svenska landsmål och svenskt folkliv 1021.53–71.Google Scholar
Nystrand, Martin
1982, ed. What Writers Know: The language, process, and structure of written discourse. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Passy, Paul
1887 Le phonétisme au Congrès philologique de Stockholm en 1886: Rapport présenté au Ministre de l’Instruction publique. Paris: Ch. Delagrave & Hachette et Cie.Google Scholar
Paul, Hermann
1886 Review of Hugo Schuchardt, Ueber die Lautgesetze: Gegen die Junggrammatiker (Berlin: Robert Oppenheim 1885) Literaturblatt für germanische und romanische Philologie 71.1–6.Google Scholar
Raudnitzky, Hans
1911 Die Bell-Sweetsche Schule. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der englischen Phonetik. (= Marburger Studien zur englischen Philologie, 13.) Marburg: N. G. Elwert.Google Scholar
Rischel, Jørgen
1989 “Otto Jespersen’s Contribution to Danish and General Phonetics”. Juul & Nielsen, eds. 1989.43–60.Google Scholar
Sellberg, Lars
1988 “Rationalismen”. De nordiske skriftspråkenes utvikling på 1800-tallet, vol. III: Ideologier og språkstyring, 93–112. Oslo: Nordisk Språksekretariat.Google Scholar
Sievers, Eduard
1876 Grundzüge der Lautphysiologie zur Einführung in das Studium der Lautlehre der indogermanischen Sprachen. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel.Google Scholar
1881 Grundzüge der Phonetik zur Einführung in das Studium der Lautlehre der indogermanischen Sprachen. Zweite wesentlich umgearbeitete und vermehrte Auflage der Grundzüge der Lautphysiologie. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel. (5th ed. 1901.)Google Scholar
Storm, Johan
1860 “Tale og Accent i Forhold til Sang”. Illustreret Nyhedsblad 91.169–170, 177–178.Google Scholar
1878 “Det norske Målstræv”. Nordisk Tidskrift för Vetenskap, Konst och Industri 11.407–430, 526–550.Google Scholar
1879 Engelsk Filologi: Anvisning til et videnskabeligt Studium af det engelske Sprog for Studerende, Lærere og Viderekomne. I: Det levende Sprog. Kristiania: Alb. Cammermeyer.Google Scholar
1880 “De svenske Dialekter”. Nordisk Tidskrift för Vetenskap, Konst och Industri 31.333–350.Google Scholar
1881 Englische Philologie: Anleitung zum wissenschaftlichen Studium der englischen Sprache. Vom Verfasser für das deutsche Publikum bearbeitet. I: Die lebende Sprache. Heilbronn: Gebr. Henninger.Google Scholar
1883 “Engelsk Stil ved Realartium 1882, med nogle Bemærkninger om Realdannelsen”. Morgenbladet 23, 25, and 26 January 1883.Google Scholar
1884 Kortere Ordliste med Forklaring af Lydskriften. (= Bilag til Norvegia, 1.)Google Scholar
1887 Franske Taleøvelser. En systematisk Fremstilling af det franske Talesprog gjennem Samtaler af det daglige Liv, ordnede efter Grammatiken. Mellemtrin. Kjøbenhavn: Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn).Google Scholar
1892 Englische Philologie: Anleitung zum wissenschaftlichen Studium der englischen Sprache. Vom Verfasser für das deutsche Publikum bearbeitet. I: Die lebende Sprache. 1. Abteilung: Phonetik und Aussprache. Zweite, vollständig umgearbeitete und sehr vermehrte Auflage. Leipzig: O. R. Reisland.Google Scholar
1896 Norsk Sprog. Kraakemaal og Landsmaal [Norwegian language: Crow language and Landsmaal]. Kjøbenhavn: Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag (F. Hegel & Søn).Google Scholar
1911a Større fransk Syntax I: Artiklerne. Kristiania & Kjøbenhavn: Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag.Google Scholar
1911b Om Nabosprog og Grænsedialekter. (= Videnskapsselskapets Skrifter, II. Hist.-Filos. Klasse, 1911, 4.) Kristiania: I Kommission hos Jacob Dybwad.Google Scholar
Svahn, Oscar
1882 Lärobok i Välläsning. Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt & Söner.Google Scholar
Swales, John M[alcolm]
1990 Genre Analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sweet, Henry
1877 Handbook of Phonetics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
1899 The Practical Study of Languages: A guide for teachers and learners. London: J. M. Dent & Sons.Google Scholar
Sørensen, Knud
1971 “The Teaching of English in Denmark: An historical survey”. Pædagogica Historica 11:1.90–101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Teleman, Ulf
2003 Tradis och funkis: Svensk språkvård och språkpolitik efter 1800. (= Skrifter utgivna av Svenska språknämnden, 87.) Stockholm: Norstedts ordbok.Google Scholar
Tortarolo, Edoardo
1996 “Intellectual History and Historiography”. Intellectual News 11.17–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vachek, Josef
1966 The Linguistic School of Prague: An introduction to its theory and practice. Bloomington & London: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Venås, Kjell
2000 Ivar Aasen og universitetet. Oslo: Universitetet i Oslo.Google Scholar
Viëtor, Wilhelm [= Quousque Tandem]
1882 Der Sprachunterricht muss umkehren! Ein Beitrag zur Überbürdungsfrage. Heilbronn: Gebr. Henninger.Google Scholar
Watts, Richard J.
1999 “The Social Construction of Standard English”. Standard English: The widening debate ed. by Tony Bex & Richard J. Watts, 40–68. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Forthcoming. “Grammar Writers in Eighteenth-Century Britain: A community of practice or a discourse community?” Grammars, Grammarians and Grammar Writing ed. by Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade Berlin Mouton de Gruyter DOI logo
Wenger, Etienne
1998 Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Western, August
1885 Englische Lautlehre für Studierende und Lehrer. Heilbronn: Gebr. Henninger.Google Scholar
1888 “Mere om den nye sprogundervisning [More about the new language teaching]”. Vor Ungdom 1888.40–70.Google Scholar
1889 “Kurze Darstellung des norwegischen Lautsystems”. Phonetische Studien 21.259–282.Google Scholar
Witting, Claes
1982/1984 “Lundell, Johan August”. Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, band 24: Ljungdahl- Malmros ed. by Birgitta Lager-Kromnow, 261–264. Stockholm: Svenskt biografiskt lexikon.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 7 other publications

Atherton, Mark
2010. Imaginative Science. Historiographia Linguistica 37:1-2 ► pp. 31 ff. DOI logo
Léon, Jacqueline
2021. The War Effort, the Technologisation of Linguistics and the Emergence of Applied Linguistics. In Automating Linguistics [History of Computing, ], ► pp. 21 ff. DOI logo
McLelland, Nicola
2012. Walter Rippmann and Otto Siepmann as Reform Movement Textbook Authors: A Contribution to the History of Teaching and Learning German in the United Kingdom. Language & History 55:2 ► pp. 123 ff. DOI logo
Pellin, Tommaso
2011. The Sweet Revolutionaries: The Chinese Revolution in Grammar Studies and Henry Sweet. Language & History 54:1 ► pp. 35 ff. DOI logo
Smith, Richard
2016. Building ‘Applied Linguistic Historiography’: Rationale, Scope, and Methods. Applied Linguistics 37:1 ► pp. 71 ff. DOI logo
Véronique, Georges Daniel
2020. Néo-grammairiens et phonéticiens dans la réforme de l’enseignement des langues vivantes en Europe : Henry Sweet (1845-1912), Paul Passy (1859-1940) et Otto Jespersen (1860-1943). Documents pour l'histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde :64-65 ► pp. 47 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2013. Current Bibliography of the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences, 2013. Isis 104:S1 ► pp. i ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 may 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.