What is linguistics?

Author: Zhang Zhigang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: Authored by renowned scholars from prestigious institutions, this series makes it easy for you to enter the realm of humanities and social sciences. The publication of the "What Are Humanities and Social Sciences?" series can be said to be a great deed and a great achievement, providing us with an opportunity to compensate for the serious lack of humanistic spirit and independent personality in life. I know that expressing professional knowledge and spirit in a simple and interesting way is extremely difficult, and it is a true test of the author's knowledge and ability. From various details, it is clear that this series has been carefully planned. I sincerely hope that the compilation of this series is a good start and a sustainable process, becoming a brand like France's "What Is This?" series.
— Kunming: Chen Taiwei Undergraduate
Thank you for publishing such a great book! It is popular and vivid, which is quite rare in social science popularization literature. It has greatly benefited my liberal arts studies, and I have learned a lot. Humanistic knowledge is more scarce and in short supply in China today than scientific and technological knowledge, and there are even fewer liberal arts books suitable for the general public and students. Thank you for doing this good thing for us liberal arts students.
— Hebei: Wang Zivwei High School Student
With the approach and writing style of this series, many people will benefit from it. I am afraid it won’t sell well, and there will be no readers for it!
— Jiangsu: Hu Guangyun Graduated Bank Employee
I am a criminal, and my only suggestion is that you can bring "Humanities and Social Sciences" into elementary school. Start with children so they can understand "Humanities and Social Sciences" from a young age, preferably "Ethics," "Sociology," or "Law." How good it would be if I had read these books since childhood!
— Hunan: Cao Zaiqi Prisoner
As a prestigious university in the humanities, Peking University’s publication of this series at the beginning of the new century is a great honor for me. I hope Peking University, with its broad, can provide more knowledge to those who pursue it.
— Shanxi: Shen Yongjun College Student
This series is very valuable, allowing me to roughly grasp the basic knowledge of each discipline. It is comprehensive, and the authors are all famous scholars in China. I hope more books of this kind will be published in the future.
— Zhejiang: Qiu Fanglie Master’s Student
In the spring of 2003, Comrade Yang Shulan invited me to write a manuscript for a book titled "What Is Linguistics?" The requirements were to make it easy to understand while reflecting the latest achievements in disciplinary research, as a new book in the second volume of Peking University Press’s "What Are Humanities and Social Sciences?" series. Due to teaching and other distractions, I didn’t start planning the book until this spring. At first, I thought more about introducing the basic knowledge of linguistics and wanted to write a popular booklet. However, after writing a few chapters, I realized it was just a concise edition of "Introduction to Linguistics," with too much and scattered content, and I couldn’t properly handle the popular views in academia on basic linguistic issues versus my own opinions. I thought about giving up, but Comrade Shulan disagreed.
The publication of the "What Are Humanities and Social Sciences?" series can be said to be a great deed and a great achievement, providing us with an opportunity to compensate for the serious lack of humanistic spirit and independent personality in life. This series is authored by renowned scholars from prestigious institutions, making it easy for you to enter the realm of humanities and social sciences. This book is part of the series, focusing on the author’s latest views on some basic linguistic issues, using this as a main thread to discuss related topics and introduce some fundamental knowledge of linguistics.