The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) organized in Beijing Tuesday an international linguistics symposium to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of late Chinese linguist Lu Shuxiang.

A founder of modern Chinese linguistics, Lu decisively influenced linguistic research on the Chinese language.

The linguist, born in 1904 in Danyang of Jiangsu Province, studied in Britain after graduating from China's Southeast University. He died in 1998.

"Talks on Grammar and Rhetoric", a book written by Lu and another linguist Zhu Dexi, aroused interest in learning Chinese grammar among the public after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

The "Modern Chinese Dictionary", co-edited by Lu and Ding Shengshu, had 40 million copies published.

Longtime director of the CASS Institute of Linguistics and the first president of the Linguistics Society of China, Lu specialized in linguistics theories, grammar of the Chinese language, Chinese dialects, history of the Chinese language, foreign languages teaching, Chinese language teaching, dictionary compiling and ancient books filing.

At the opening of the symposium, Chen Kuiyuan, CASS president, said that Lu had made great contribution to the country's progress in social science research.

In his 70-year academic career, Chen said, Lu published about two dozen books and more than 600 papers.

He urged social scientists to model Lu's scientific spirit and moral character.

Jiang Lansheng, a recognized linguist who is also vice CASS president, called Lu, her mentor in the 1970s, a versatile researcher.

"He combined knowledge and methodology in many fields in linguistics and did innovative jobs," she said.

About 160 domestic and overseas linguists are participating in the two-day symposium. Their papers to the symposium cover syntax of the Chinese language, semantics, phonology, social linguistics, historical linguistics and language teaching.

The 2004 awards for young linguists were also granted at the inaugural. Lu donated some of his author's remuneration in 1983 to fund the awards. More than 40 young linguists were awarded in the past 12 selections.
 
(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2004)