Abstract China has intellectual foundations different from those of western countries. However, they have hitherto played no signifi cant role in the development of modern linguistics in China. This is so because modern linguistics in China has its origin in western linguistics, and its development has been guided by different schools of thoughts of western linguistics at its very beginning. In this paper, it is argued that, although it is necessary to use western linguistic theories in studies on Chinese linguistics, the development of an independent way of thought in Chinese linguistics can only result from the theorizing practice that combines general linguistic theories with the intellectual thought of China in an optimal way.
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