An open letter on Journal of Chinese Linguistics transition

William S-Y. Wang 王士元

Excerpt 节选

Dear Friends of JCL,

I remember vividly that evening in 1973, when I drove up the narrow winding roads of the Berkeley Hills. Professor Y.R. Chao (赵元任) was waiting for me at the door of his Cragmont Avenue home. He beamed as I handed him the very first issue of Journal of Chinese Linguistics (JCL), which was dedicated to this eminent scholar. (JCL vol. 1, no. 1: i) He was also particularly pleased to see listed among the Associate Editors his long time friend, the eminent Professor Fang-Kuei Li (李方桂).
On p.ii of that inaugural issue, I discussed why it was necessary for the field of Chinese linguistics to have its own voice:

Chinese linguistics derives from two distinct but related fields of knowledge. In one, the objective is to deepen our understanding of Chinese culture (in the broadest sense of the term) via its primary medium of expression - its language. Whether it is a piece of inscription to be deciphered, a philosophy to be analyzed, or a poem whose rimes are to be reconstructed, a solid knowledge of the language of that time is crucial. Such studies have a long tradition in Sinology; indeed, they were virtually the only ones which scholars interested in Chinese pursued, until recent times. The other field of knowledge is aimed at discovering the general principles underlying human language as a whole. The Chinese language is particularly important here not only because of the time depth of its literature and the wealth of its dialects, but even more because of the unique properties of its syntax and phonology. It constitutes a tremendously rich resource for Linguistics to tap - from the study of sound change to investigations of sociolinguistic variation. These two fields, Linguistics and Sinology, flow together in their concern with the Chinese language. The central questions on the language remain the same: its structure, its ontogeny, and its phylogeny, as well as the interactions between the Chinese language on the one hand, and Chinese thought, literature, and social systems on the other. Also of considerable interest are the questions which arise when the Chinese language comes into contact with other languages, be it in the controlled context of a language class or on the streets of an emigrant community. All in all, there is much to be done. Before today, papers on Chinese linguistics had to seek foster homes in diverse journals of general linguistics and in publications of various hues of orientalia. This situation was at best a nuisance, and at worst a serious impediment to the communication and progress of our field. In this journal, let us hope, Chinese Linguistics will have found its own voice.
(William S-Y. Wang, “Chinese Linguistics.” Journal of Chinese Linguistics volume1, number1 [January 1973], p. ii)

…… I made use of the first Newsletter of IACL to again stress the necessity to have a broad vision for our field in these words:

… We have papers on the Han dialects as well as on the languages of the ethnic minorities. Some papers are strongly theoretical, while others emphasize an experimental or computational orientation. While most of the discussion has centered around spoken language, there is also concern with our unique morphosyllabic writing system. There are papers in psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics. After all, language is an activity that pervades every aspect of human life. It is natural that the study of language should be broadly based and that it should draw from many disciplines.

The term "Chinese Linguistics" in our IACL has several interpretations. Among these, one reading has to do with the traditions, theories and results of linguistics and philology as practiced by Chinese scholars past and present. Another reading has to do with the application of the methods of general linguistics to the languages found in China. This would include, of course, research on many non-Sinitic languages, such as Altaic, Austric, Tibeto-Burman, etc., especially on their interactions with the Han dialects. After all, China is a Sprachbund in the full sense of the word. Her linguistic fabric has been woven together over the millennia from many intertwining and inseparable strands. …
(William S-Y. Wang, “An Association of Our Own.” Newsletter [of] International Association of Chinese Linguistics, volume 1, number 1 [Jan.1993], p.1)

While I mentioned several allied disciplines in 1993, I could not have foreseen the spectacular advances in several areas made in the intervening decades that are deeply relevant to the study of language. One area studies human evolution using methods of genetics – including the exciting developments of methods to extract DNA from fossils of our close relatives who became extinct dozens of millennia ago. Perhaps the day will come when we will be able to say which of our close relatives, Neanderthals, Denisovans, etc., had the pre-requisite DNA for language, whether or not they had invented it themselves during their time.

Another area studies the brain directly using powerful methods of imaging. This area has already given us much new information about how aspects of language acquisition begin as early as fetal life. It is also making important progress toward elucidating how language is impaired, abruptly through injury or gradually through ageing. Such knowledge about language during the sunset years will play a major role someday when we will be able to retard or prevent such impairment through appropriate intervention.

Thanks to these spectacular advances, questions in linguistics which drew mere speculations earlier can now be pursued by rigorous scientific methods. Language research in the West is taking giant strides forward in these multi-disciplinary areas. Vanguard journals like Nature, Science frequently publish papers in linguistics with authors from evolutionary anthropology and cognitive neuroscience. Chinese Linguistics surely must not miss out on these research opportunities on the fundamental questions on language. JCL will always be ready to encourage the opening of new frontiers. The natural sciences and technology in China have essentially attained international standards of excellence, worthy of the status of daguo 大国. In the humanities and social sciences, it seems China still lags behind by a significant margin – which requires all of us to work harder.
……

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