HSCR 2021

This volume contains studies presented at the 4th International Workshopon the History of Speech Communication Research (HSCR 2021). The seriesof workshops was initiated in Dresden in 2015. The current workshop tookplace in Prague at the Institute of Phonetics, Charles University, amid theever-changing pandemic circumstances - for the first time in a hybrid form.There are nine contributions, written by 12 authors from six countries.The contributions analyze the contextual background of particular personalitiesor investigate how specific research practices developed over time. Moreover,each contribution demonstrates a significant connection between variousaspects of speech communication research and the wider social context. Aspecial theme of this workshop was the link in linguistic signs between theform (sound) and the meaning (sense). The phonetic endeavour was oftenclaimed to concern only the form, while meaning was delegated to someoneelse. This is not only one-sided, but also difficult to integrate into thelarge body of scientific knowledge, as the opening keynote emphasized.