Bertil Malmberg, first Chair of Phonetics in Sweden

Peer Evaluations

Abstract

Following a royal act, a new academic discipline, Phonetics, was officially given birth in 1947. However, it was not until November 1950 that, at Lund University, Bertil Malmberg was appointed to the first Chair of Phonetics in Sweden.
Four Scandinavian experts were chosen to evaluate Malmberg’s scientific competence. The peers produced four evaluations, which constitute the central corpus for the present study. In order to analyse these evaluations, I will make use of a hermeneutic approach combining three ways of interpretive positioning - three stances. The first stance fits into the field of the history of science. The second stance concerns the rhetorical and textual aspects of the peer evaluations. The last stance is more epistemological in character. It mainly concerns the relationship between scientific knowledge and the definition of an academic discipline.