THE ROLE OF AMERICAN STRUCTURALISM in Phonetics
Early linguistic studies were concerned with historical issues such as language families. As linguists in the United States became involved in the study of American Indian languages during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it became increasingly clear that the historical orientation of nineteenth-century European linguistics was not very practical for work with languages that lacked extensive written materials from the past. Furthermore, many American linguists of this period were also anthropologists—scientists who study human beings.
These factors led to a speech-oriented focus in the linguistic studies in the United States. Scholars turned their attention to the form of languages, emphasizing the description of the phonological and other surface forms of these languages. American linguists frequently approached American Indian languages without the advantage of knowing even the basic sound system, let alone the principles of sentence formation or meaning of these languages.
Thus, they had to start their studies with what was most immediately observable in these languages—the sounds. Since few linguists ever achieved this degree of fluency in American Indian languages, American linguistics of the first half of the twentieth century was characterized by an intensive investigation of sounds and the principles of word formation. Little (if at all) attention was paid to syntax (i.e., word-order) or semantics (i.e., meaning).
Because of its attention to the form, or structure of language, American linguistics of the early 20th century came to be known as Structural Linguistics. Attempting to describe languages that they themselves could not speak, American linguists were forced to concentrate on the directly observable aspects of these languages—their sounds. In their work, they gradually evolved a set of procedures considered useful in determining the sound system of languages. These procedures and techniques were later known as Discovery Procedures.
Despite the limitations of this early work on American Indian languages, the detailed, objective investigations of linguists during the first half of the twentieth century provided concrete evidence about the diversity that exists among human languages.
