This paper was written in English. It was published in the proceedings of the 23rd edition of the Conference of the Student Organization of Linguistics in Europe (ConSole XXIII), which took place in Paris (January 7th-9th, 2015).

I would like to thank the reviewers who guided me through what happened to be my first publication. I am most indebted to their valuable advice, with special thanks to George Saad.
Cet article en anglais a été publié suite à ma participation au colloque ConSole XXIII (Conference of the Student Organization of Linguistics in Europe) à Paris, du 7 au 9 janvier 2015.
J’aimerais en profiter pour remercier les relecteurs qui m’ont guidée dans ce qui devait être ma première publication. Je leur suis reconnaissante pour leurs conseils précieux, avec des remerciements particuliers pour George Saad.

Abstract

This article is meant to show how central Firth’s particular position towards the phoneme is, in terms of constitution of the concept of phonaesthesia as a direct answer to the flaws he denounced in the phoneme.
The rejection of the phoneme theory then led to the constitution of a whole and coherent theory of language now known under the name Contextual theory of meaning or even Firthian linguistics. It has eventually resulted in the creation of an independent school of thinking, the London School of Linguistics that has influenced many generations of British linguists.

References

Senis A. (2016a ) « The contribution of John Rupert Firth to the history of linguistics and the rejection of the phoneme theory » in Bellamy, Kate, Elena Karvovskaya, Martin Kohlberger and George Saad, ed. 2016. ConSOLE XXIII : Proceedings of the 23rd Conference of the Student Organization of Linguistics in Europe (7-9 January 2015, Paris). Leiden : Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, p. 273-293. ISSN : 1574-499X.

This paper can be downloaded free of charge on the website of the University of Leiden where all the proceedings of the ConSole conferences are published.
You can also find it below.