Although some critics consider it time-consuming and demanding, proponents of the monolingual approach for field research (i.e., learning to speak a target field language as part of the research process) argue that it can provide a unique insight into its structures. However, this claim remains largely unsubstantiated in the available literature…

The phonological inventory of Old Okinawan is often reconstructed according to modern Ryukyuan languages. Although the importance of historical resources is never ignored in the study of Okinawan historical linguistics, reconstruction based on historical sources is not well investigated yet, due to the two reasons that a) authors of previous…

Evaluates various explanations for the fact that Chinese writing has remained at the ideographic stage for several thousand years. Reasons include dialect differences, social and political unrest, and attempts by the ruling class and men of letters to preserve complex character writing as an indication of class superiority. (Author/DB)

Presents background information on Chinese writing, discusses its defects, suggests how to develop Chinese writing, and offers opinions about research in Chinese writing. (Author/DB)

Identifies basic tasks in Chinese writing reform. These include simplification of characters, spreading the use of the standard vernacular, and spreading the use of phonetic spelling. (Author/DB)

The study of minority languages in the People's Republic of China, in the form of organized governmental research since the 1950s, has resulted in the recent publication of more than 50 descriptive grammars. Although some practical purposes of the study were achieved, such as the identification of ethnicity and orthographic design and reform,…

ORIENTALISTS HAVE OBSERVED THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL "STANDARD" LANGUAGES OF CHINA AND JAPAN AS A GRADUAL REPLACEMENT OF THE OLD "WRITTEN-LITERARY" LANGUAGE BY THE "COLLOQUIAL" SPOKEN LANGUAGE. THE AUTHOR DEFINES "WRITTEN-LITERARY" LANGUAGE, CORRESPONDING TO "WEN-YEN" IN CHINESE AND…

A study investigated patterns of usage of French connectors (e.g., "alors,""mais,""puisque") among Chinese university students of French as a foreign language. The study arose from concern that the lack of connector usage contributed to a lack of coherence in the students' oral and written language. Subjects were 45…

Trends and developments in computer applications in Chinese language research are described, focusing on these areas: input of Chinese characters and Chinese corpus; automatic segmentation of Chinese written text in corpus; development of a grammar knowledge base for Chinese words to be used as a resource for text segmentation and corpus…