DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS KUN CHANG .Since 1949 there has been a remarkable increase in linguistic activity on the mainland. Before 1949 the linguistic section of the Institute of History and Philology of Aca- demia Sinica had eight people working on Chinese and other national languages. Now the Academy of Sciences has a full-fledged and well-staffed Institute of Lin- guistics for general and Chinese linguistics, and a separate institute for the other national languages. Most universities have introduced linguistic curricula and established linguistic research centers. There have been conferences and debates on linguistics, with many participants. Under the auspices of local governments and with the participation of institutions of higher education linguistic surveys have been conducted throughout the country. Several journals on language study and learning have been founded. More than fifty works on Chinese grammar have been published. Perhaps these undertakings have been overambitious; in any case, the results are rarely impressive. Chinese scholars have done almost no original work on descriptive linguistic theory. The theories they subscribe to can only be inferred from their linguistic descriptions. Mainland emphasis in linguistics is on practical applications. The aim of phonemic analysis is an economical alphabet. A definition of a word is sought in order to determine when there should be a space between two forms in alphabetic writing. Dialectologists establish correspondences between the standard language and other dialects to make standard-language learning more efficient. Three groups have been prominent among recent mainland linguists: (1) those active as linguists before 1949, e.g. Lo Ch'ang-p'ei (1899-1958), Lii Shu-hsiang, Wang Li, Li Chin-hsi, Lu Chih-wei,Kao Ming-k'ai (1913-1965), Ting Sheng-shu, Ts'en Ch'i-hsiang, and Yüan Chia-hua; (2) World War II students of these linguists, who are themselves now members of the Institute of Linguistics and professors of lin- guistics in the universities, e.g. Chu Te-hsi, Fu Mao-chi, Hsing Kung-wan, Li Jung, Lin T'ao, Ma Chung, Ma Hsüeh-liang, and Yü Min; and (3) the Latinizers, such as Ts'ao Po-han (1897-1959) and Lin Han-ta. This third group, termed "rebels" by the Nationalist Party since they favored a romanization which originated in the Soviet Union, after 1949 joined the traditional linguists in developing alphabetic systems for the languages of China. In addition to these three groups, there are many new names, presumably those of. the younger generation of linguists. 60 KUN CHANG Since the other Chinese dialects and other national languages of China are treated in separate articles in this volume, I shall restrict my discussion to mainland work on Mandarin. The following chronological chart supplements this discussion. In it I list, for each year from 1950 to 1963, the significant publications (including translations of Russian linguistic works), conferences, and contacts with the outside world - e.g. the visits abroad and the foreign visitors - which influenced the devel- opment of linguistics in China. CHRONOLOGY 1950 June — The Academy of Sciences in Peking establishes the Institute of Linguistics. July 11 — Jen-min jih-pao (The people's daily, hereafter, JMJP) publishes a Chinese translation of Stalin's "On Marxism in linguistics".1 July 31 — JMJP publishes a Chinese translation of Stalin's "On several problems of linguistics". October — The Chinese translation of Stalin's two articles on linguistics is pub- lished as a monograph. November 2 — The Institute of Linguistics and Peking University sponsor a joint conference on Stalin's views on linguistics. December 9 — Lo Ch'ang-p'ei presents a paper, "The relationship,between Stalin's views on linguistics and linguistic studies in China", at a conference of the Institute of Linguistics. 1951 February 11 — The Institute of Linguistics holds a conference on grammatical problems. March — Lu Chih-wei publishes the revised edition of his monograph, Pei-ching-hua tan-yin-tz'u tz'u-hui (Monosyllabic words in the Peking dialect). June 6 — JMJP publishes an editorial, "The proper use of our national language and the struggle for the purity and health of our language". JMJP begins publishing Lii Shu-hsiang and Chu Te-hsi's Yii-fa hsiu-tz,u chiang- hua (Discussions on Chinese grammar and rhetoric). (This publication continued until December 15,1961; the articles were published as a monograph in December, 1952). Reviews: Wang Sung-mao, Chung-kuo yii-wen 40.20-1 (October, 1955); Hsieh Yung-jen, ibid. 45.47-50 (March, 1956). August 15 — Yii-wen chiao-hsiieh, a monthly journal oh language teaching and learning, is founded in Tientsin. October 20 — Yii-wen hsueh-hsi (hereafter, YWHH), a monthly journal on language learning, is founded in Peking. 1 All publications cited in this article are in Chinese; I have translated the titles into English for the convenience of the reader who may not know Chinese. DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS 61 1952 July 20 — Chung-kuo yil-wen (hereafter, CKYW), a monthly journal on the languages of China, is founded in Peking. The grammar section of the Institute of Linguistics publishes the first installment of Yu-fa chiang-hua (Discussions on Chinese grammar) in CKYW (this publication continued until November, 1953; the installments were published, with revisions, as a monograph in 1961). Reviews: Teng Yi, CKYW23.20-2 (May, 1954); Chang Ju-chou, ibid. 25.16-7 (July, 1954); Liu Shih-jung, ibid. 29-8 (November, 1954); Lii Chi-p'ing, ibid. 116.279-84 (June, 1962). September to November — A Chinese translation of the Soviet Sinologist, I. N. Kon- rad's Treatise on the Chinese language appears: CKYW3.26-8; 4.29-32; 5.22-7, 17 (this translation was published as a pamphlet in December, 1956). 1953 January — A Chinese translation of the "Syllabus of the Introduction to linguistics approved by the Ministry of Education in the Soviet Union" appears: CKYW 7.30-2, 5. February to May — Lii Shu-hsiang visits the Soviet Union as a representative of the Academy of Sciences. March 5 — Stalin dies. April — CKYW (10.32-4, 12) publishes a Chinese translation of the "Syllabus of Stalin's fundamental linguistic theories approved by the Ministry of Education in the Soviet Union". May — CKYW (11.30-2, 13) publishes a Chinese translation of P. S. Kuznecov's article on grammar in the Soviet encyclopaedia. September — Li Chin-hsi and Liu Shih-ju publish the first fascicle of their Chung- kuo yu-fa chiao-ts'ai (Teaching materials on Chinese grammar) (this work was completed in August, 1955). October — CKYW begins publishing articles on form classes. (This debate, in which B. G. Mudrov participated, lasted until July, 1955; two monographs con- taining some of these articles were published in 1955 and 1956). 1954 January — CKYW publishes Lo Ch'ang-p'ei's article, "How should linguists render service to their country in accordance with the general governmental policies [ideological orientation, social reform, and industrialization] during this transi- tional period [the first five-year plan]?" Lo asserts that the first task of Chinese linguists is to devise alphabetic systems for the languages of China. To carry out this task they must select a basic dialect, analyze its word structure and syntactic constructions, and study the differences between the standard dialect and other dialects. He urges that linguists work together to develop a standard method of grammatical, analysis, with a standard terminology. 62 KUN CHANG CKYW begins publishing monographs (twenty-six volumes had appeared by June, 1959). CKYW publishes the first installment of Lo Ch'ang-p'ei and Wang Chun's Yii- yin-hsueh ch'ang-shih (General phonetics) (publication continued until May, 1955; in February, 1956, the installments were published, with revisions, as a monograph under the title P'u-t'ung yu-yin-hsiieh kang-yao [Outline of general phonetics]). Reviews: Szu-ching Li, CKYW 44.38-41 (February, 1956); Chun-shan Lao, ibid. 60.44 (June, 1957); P'u-yii, ibid. 105.43-6 (June, 1961). August — Kao Ming-k'ai's, P'u-fung yil-yen-hsileh (General linguistics), Vol. 1, is published (Vol. 2 was published in January, 1955; a revised edition, in one volume, was published in October, 1957). Reviews: Yu Min, CKYW 34.39-40, 23 (April 1955); Wang Tsung-yen, ibid. 50.45-6 (August, 1956); Kuan-ch'iin Liu, ibid. 50.46-7 (August, 1956). October — The Soviet linguist G. P. Serdyuchenko comes to the Institute of Lin- guistics and the Central Institute of Nationalities as a consultant. (Serdyuchenko returned to the Soviet Union in July, 1957). December — CKYW (^>0.1-11) publishes a Chinese translation of Janusz Chmielews- ki's discussion on the syntactic and morphological problems of Chinese. Review: Lu Chih-wei, CKYW 33.22-4 (March, 1955). 1955 January — CKYW begins publishing a Chinese translation of A. A. Dragunov's Studies on modern Chinese grammar (publication continued until September, 1955). March — CKYW (33.17-20) publishes an article by Hu Ming-yang criticizing the capitalistic ideology of contemporary linguists. April 9 — The editorial board of CKYW organizes a conference in Peking to discuss problems in the standardization of the Chinese language: (1) whether the Peking dialect should be used as the basis for the standard language; (2) whether other Chinese dialects should be taken into consideration in developing an alphabetic writing system; (3) how variant pronunciations for the same form could be elim- inated (e.g. wei-hsien, wei-hsien 'to be dangerous'); and (4) how the number of homonyms could be reduced (e.g. ydng-hui, shui-ni 'cement').- Among the more than twenty participants are these linguists: Fu Mao-chi, Kao Ming-k'ai, Lin Han-ta, Lin T'ao, Lu Chih-wei, Lii Shu-hsiang, Ting Sheng-shU, Ts'ao Po-han, Ts'en Ch'i-hsiang, and Yii Min.