STRUCTURAL LINGUISTICS IN CHINA

Scientific linguistic research in China began with Jaw Yuan-renn (Chao Yuen-ren) and Lii Fang-guey (Li Fang-kuei), who were influenced by the American structuralism of Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, and Leonard Bloomfield. The subsequent development of linguistics in China, up to the present, has been guided by Jaw and Lii, in part through their leadership in the linguistic surveys conducted by Academia Sinica, in part through the indirect influence of their lectures and publications. The history of the past few decades makes it impossible to limit a treatment of structural linguistics in China to work done in any geographical confines. I include here works written outside China and omit other important linguistic works published in China.