Events

Known as the father of modern Chinese linguistics, Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982) is easily the most famous linguist to have come out of China. The remarkable breadth and scope of his studies included physics, mathematics, linguistics, musical and literary composition, and translation, and he was a pioneer in many of these fields. Born and raised in China, Chao attended university in the US, where he earned his MA from Cornell University and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He subsequently taught at Tsinghua University, Harvard University, and University of California at Berkeley. Chao was involved in the vernacular literature movement, translating Alice in Wonderland into vernacular Chinese, and also in the national language and standardization movement. He developed the system of National Romanization which was adopted by the government and was one of the key members of the group that created the national language. Above all, he pioneered the teaching of Chinese in the U.S. with new concepts, methods and textbooks.  All of this will be covered in this online lecture.

The speaker Zhao Xiande is a professor of Chinese at Jiangsu University of Technology in Changzhou, hometown of Yuen Ren Chao. He is the author of Four Legendary Linguists from Changzhou. Prof. Zhao will be delivering the lecture from the former residence of Yuen Ren Chao in Changzhou, a rare lecture not to be missed.

For the audience’s information: Prof. Y. R. Chao delivered a memorial lecture at China Institute on March 6, 1962 following the passing of Dr. Hu Shi, one of the founders of China Institute.

Free, but advanced registration is requested.

中国近代史上，常州走出了数十名海内外闻名的语言学家，堪称“中国语言学之乡”。其中被称为“中国现代语言学之父”的赵元任，当属常州籍语言学家中最知名者。为进一步了解这位中国现代语言学先驱和清华四大导师之一对中国语言学的杰出贡献，华美人文学会特邀江苏理工学院教授、《常州籍四大语言学家与中国语文现代化》作者赵贤德博士于2020年7月12日美东时间晚上8时至9时半（北京时间7月13日上午8时至9时半于常州赵元任故居做《中国现代语言学之父》在线讲座。

赵元任（1892年11月3日—1982年2月24日），清朝著名诗人赵翼（瓯北）后人，先后任教于康乃尔大学、清华大学、哈佛大学、美国夏威夷大学、耶鲁大学、密歇根大学，加州大学伯克利分校，担任过美国语言学会会长。赵元任是中国现代语言学先驱，被誉为“中国现代语言学之父”、“中国现代音乐之先驱”。赵元任在语言学方面的专著有：《现代吴语的研究》《中国话的文法》《国语留声片课本》等。中国正在组织编写《赵元任全集》二十卷，正在进行中。

在此次讲座中赵贤德教授将从如下方面介绍赵元任现在对中国语言学的杰出贡献：1.“中国现代语言学之父”称号来源；2.参加国语运动；3.主持制定国语罗马字拼音法式；4.文字改革；5.美国中文教学；6.中国方言研究；7.中国语言学研究方法。赵教授还将向听众介绍常州赵元任故居。

主讲人赵贤德，男，湖北仙桃人，江苏理工学院人文学院教授、博士，常州名人研究院副院长，常州市大运河文化带建设研究院名人研究中心主任。近年来主持完成国家社科基金项目1项，教育部人文社科项目1项，国家语委科研项目1项，市厅级课题10项，发表学术论文90余篇，出版专著和教材9部；近年来受邀在机关、学校、图书馆、监狱、社区、新华书店等地开展常州人对汉语拼音的贡献做过80多次讲座。