Qixiang Cen: Figures of General Linguistics

This handsome collection (Chinese title being pu tong yu yan xue ren wu zhi) consists of eighteen articles devoted to eighteen linguists. It can be roughly divided into four sections, i.e. (1) Western European linguists (1-90), (2) American linguists (91-112), (3) Slavic linguists (113-172), and (4) Chinese linguists (173-213). The section on Western European linguists introduces Ferdinand de Saussure (1857– –1913), Antoine Meillet (1866–1936), Vilhem Thomsen (1842–1927), Karl Verner (1846– –1896), Otto Jespersen (1860–1943), Joseph Vendryès (1875–1960), Marcel Cohen (1884– –1974), and André Martinet (1908–1999). As can be seen, these eight linguists are not exactly chronologically presented, since the three Danish linguists were all born earlier than Meillet. This presentation arrangement implies Cen’s view of the position that Saussure and Meillet take in the history of linguistics. The article on Saussure focuses on his Cours de linguistique générale (1916) and Cen concludes with the statement that since its publication the revision and development of linguistic theories by all linguists have to be based on the relevant concepts in this book (16). The article on Meillet talks about his achievements in historical-comparative linguistics, historical linguistics, and general linguistics. The three articles on Thomsen, Verner, and Jespersen introduce their respective contribution, i.e. Thomsen’s deciphering of the Turkic Orkhon inscriptions, Verner’s Law, and Jespersen’s study of English and other subjects. The article on Vendryès focuses on his Le Langage (1921), which Cen believes has deeply influenced linguistics in China (58). In fact, Cen and his student (the late Professor Ye Feisheng) co-translated Le Langage into Chinese (published in 1992). The article on Cohen is comprehensive with some account of their interpersonal relation-