March 8, 2006, SIS
“Comparative Study Between Chinese and Foreign Languages in the 20th Century” is a joint monograph by teachers of
the School of International Studies, among whom are Xu Gaoyu, Zhang Jianli, Ma Boshen, He Wenzhong, Wu Yongqin and Xie Zhiyu.
The new book, which has been published by Higher Education Press recently, makes a complete and multidimensional review
on the comparative study between Chinese and foreign languages in the 20th century, as well as the development and changes
in the academic thinking and research methods. It also reveals the track of the development in comparative study between
Chinese and foreign languages in China. This book exhaustively hackles the prominent academic achievement in such areas
as comparative studies between Chinese and English, Chinese and Russian, Chinese and Japanese, Chinese and German,
Chinese and French. The accomplishment on the comparative study between Chinese and English concentrates on 6 special
topics: phonology, grammar, lexicology, rhetoric, pragmatics, and context. A special chapter in the book is designed to introduce the
research status of the comparative study between Chinese and foreign languages in Hong Kong. In this chapter, the authors also
put forward their opinions on the research direction of the comparative study between Chinese and foreign languages in the
21st century.
The index, which is enclosed at the end of the book, includes over 1,000 research papers on comparative study between Chinese and
foreign languages ever published on academic newspapers and journals in Mainland China.
As the first book on comparative study of languages, not only does this new book present the panorama of the development of the
subject, but also it enables people to have a knowledge of the related topics in great detail by offering them abundant information.
The monograph makes it possible for readers to get fully acquainted with China’s achievement during the one-century comparative
study between Chinese and foreign languages. On the other hand, it plays an important role in further promoting the development
of our country’s comparative study between Chinese and foreign languages, improving the research quality in this area, and
avoiding needless repetition in researche.
This book has a total of 400,000 Chinese characters and is advisable for Chinese and foreign languages teaching staff and
researchers, staff teaching Chinese as a second language, translators (including those engaged in machine translation),
and people compiling bilingual dictionaries. It is also an advisable reference book for students in linguistics, undergraduate
language majors and postgraduates in related fields.
