The language rehabilitation industry represents a specialised sector within both the broader language industry and the Greater Health industry. There is a need to develop a “Greater Language Rehabilitation Industry” that aligns with the principles of Greater Health, serves the entire population throughout the life span, and transcends the traditional confines of hearing and speech rehabilitation. Focusing on individuals with language disorders, the language rehabilitation industry possesses dual characteristics: it functions as both a public good and an industry, offering products and services that span language commodities and language welfare. Currently, the market size of China’s language rehabilitation industry exceeds 30 billion RMB, yet a substantial gap between supply and demand persists, indicating a significant market potential that could reach several hundred billion RMB. The industry’s current capacity falls short of meeting the rehabilitation needs of the tens of millions of people affected by language disorders. Addressing this critical issue requires dedicated efforts in three key areas: redefining industry perception, strengthening the human resource system, and enhancing welfare policies. This paper constructs an ecosystem framework for the language rehabilitation industry and argues that language health is an essential component of national health, without which individual well-being and happiness are difficult to achieve. Furthermore, the capacity to provide language rehabilitation services should be regarded as an integral aspect of a nation’s language competence. Achieving “language health for all” should be recognised as a shared goal within the broader “Healthy China” initiative.

From the perspective of actual usage shown in ancient Chinese corpora, the overlap of different first-person pronouns at various semantic levels indicates philosophically that as human beings carry out communication activities in different aspects of existence, the awareness of the self also emerges and gradually deepens in the process of interacting with others on different dimensions. In Classical Chinese, the first-person pronouns in the ordinary sense are primarily three forms: wo 我, yu予(also written 余,台), and wu吾. The pronoun wo chiefly denotes the self as externally manifested and set in contrast to others, with the meaning of the embodied “person” or “body” at its core. By contrast, yu tends to function as a more general term of self-reference, emphasizing the individual as an integrated unity of body and mind. “吾” does not truly emerged untilg the Spring and Autumn Period. It refers to the inner self and denotes the authentic subject. Its appearance marked a deepening of self-cognition and represented a new stage in the development of self-awareness.“思(sī)”(thinking, introspection) is the primordial capability of “吾” and the fundamental way for the subject to confirm the conrcete reality of its own existence, thereby restoring the wholeness of being. In this way, existence and value are rendered fully identical.  “毋我(wú wǒ)” (freedom from ego attachment) is an essential requirement for individuals to participate in experiential communication activities with the “己(jǐ)” (self) that roots in the true reality. “吾丧我(wú sàng wǒ)” (destruction of the ego with the Self) requires 吾as the subject to immune from the dualization of the “己” so that to keep the wholeness of existence of the self. The realization of “己” is not only the restoration of an individual’s reality of existence and the realization of the subjectivity, but also the realization of his value of existence in the current interreaction context, thereby unifying the existence and its value. Through the analysis of the usage of different first-person pronouns in ancient Chinese text, analyzing the function of si 思, and interpreting the meanings of wu wo 毋我and wu sang wo 吾丧我, this paper structurally reconstructs and expounds on the philosophical ideas embodied in the first-person pronouns in classical Chinese.

This article argues that the systematic character of language can be adequately examined only through a metalanguage capable of reflecting on language from a higher-order standpoint. It first considers formal (mathematical) logic as a candidate metalanguage: although it can capture truth relations among propositions, its restricted semantic range prevents it from serving as a metalanguage for the full spectrum of thought. It then revisits Wittgenstein’s notion of language games as an alternative metalanguage that translates meaning into a set of socially rule-governed uses. While this approach offers an external and publicly inspectable point of reference for semantics, it remains limited to reflecting on the nature of rules and does not account for language’s thought-laden dimension. The paper next turns to large language models (LLM) as a contemporary, non-traditional metalanguage. LLM operationalize a grammar of signs grounded in correlational relevance—probabilistically optimized linkages among tokens—and evolutionary updating, whereby empirical Bayesian adjustment continuously recalibrates the credibility of these correlations. On this view, LLM can process relations at scale, yet the resulting sign system remains a mapping that fails to represent the wholeness of objects and the world; it therefore lacks genuine understanding. The essence of thought lies in “selecting” a particular “possible world”. At its core, thinking is an act of “choice”: it selects and commits to a certain possible world among alternatives. Against this background, the article proposes a speculative “grammar of thought” and associated metalanguage built on negation and verbs. Negation secures the essential function of thought as selection—the capacity to choose among possible worlds—while verbs provide the generative structure through which possible worlds are constructed. The author suggests that this framework could upgrade mere mapping into a morphism oriented toward holistic intelligibility, offering a methodological route toward a next-generation of AI “world model”. Its putative advantage lies in simultaneously opening unlimited possibilities, supporting causal explanation, and enabling reflexive analysis of any language from within natural language itself, thus obtaining a better metalanguage.

Since the 1990s, the development of automated essay scoring (AES) has progressed through three major phases: feature-based statistical machine learning, neural network-based deep learning, and generative pre-trained language models. Throughout this evolution, scoring rubrics and language intelligence techniques have intertwined and advanced synergistically, driving AES toward greater efficiency and rationality through their competitive pursuit of dominance in the AES. AES research has evolved from focusing on superficial statistical linguistic features to exploring complex semantic and formal features, enabling comprehensive scoring along both formal and content-based dimensions. Research on AES for Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) has primarily focused on the MHK test and the HSK test, which are designed for domestic ethnic minorities and foreign learners of Chinese, respectively. It lacks the verification of the effects on various neural network models or large-scale datasets. Technological advances in Large Language Models suggest potential solutions to current problems concerning AES for CSL. Future AES research needs to move from resembling the outcomes of manual scoring to imitating the thinking of manual scoring, transition from holistic rating scoring to analytic rating scoring, and enhance AES model reliability and interpretability through both chain-of-thought fine-tuning and high-quality corpora.

Since the proposal of the “Chinese+” concept in 2019, it has attracted considerable attention. However, there is a clear divergence in understanding its connotation and denotation, particularly its relationship with Chinese for Specific Purposes (CSP) language teaching. Scholars hold different views over the relationship between “Chinese+” and CSP language teaching. Some believe that the former is equivalent to the latter, while some think that the former subsumes the latter, and others argue that the former does not subsume the latter. Considering the misunderstandings and misuse of the “Chinese+” concept, this study aims to define the “Chinese+” concept and clarify its relationship with CSP language teaching. Drawing on the theoretical framework of CSP language teaching, this paper examines the connections and distinctions between “Chinese+” and CSP. It posits that “Chinese+” constitutes a more advanced macro-policy concept. Its central ethos lies in the broader and deeper integration of international Chinese Education with Vocational and Professional Education, thereby advancing the internationalization of Chinese Vocational and Professional Education systems and cultivating international professionals who are proficient in Chinese and possess specialized knowledge and skills. CSP, as an academic construct, is oriented towards the professional or academic purposes of learners. Therefore, these two concepts should not be conflated.

Most Chinese cities at the prefectural level and above employ one-character abbreviations for their place names, which can be categorized into three types: initial-character, final-character, and alias-based. Some cities, however, do not implement any one-character abbreviations at all. Through comprehensively examining the one-character abbreviations used in COVID-19 prevention notices and official document codes across 337 mainland Chinese cities, two core mechanisms for abbreviation formation are identified: (1) The first is exclusion mechanism, under which the abbreviations used in public notices avoid using numerals, directional terms, characters identical to provincial names/abbreviations, characters with low distinctiveness or those evoking inappropriate connotations or associations, while document code adoption applies looser restrictions (primarily directional terms and provincial name overlaps) with frequent exceptions. (2) The second is selection mechanisms, which are largely consistent for both types of abbreviations: use an abbreviation wherever possible, with a preference for the first character; if the first character is unsuitable, consider the last character; if an alias exists, it takes precedence; if none of the above apply, no abbreviation is used. Currently, the key issues identified in the use of one-character city name abbreviations in China include: suboptimal character selection, lack of standardized abbreviations for major cities, and improper cultural usage in ethnic minority regions where traditional naming conventions are often overlooked. It is recommended to standardize the abbreviations of well-known cities to align with historical and cultural contexts, enrich the cultural and historical connotations of these abbreviations by incorporating local heritage and linguistic traditions, and implement contextual guidelines to prevent insensitive or culturally inappropriate abbreviations, particularly in ethnic minority regions. To sum up, this study contributes to the rationalization of urban place name abbreviations, fostering clarity in administrative communication while preserving cultural diversity.

The neurodiversity framework offers a transformative alternative to the traditional medical models in autism research. The concept of neurodiversity posits that human neurodevelopment is inherently heterogeneous. Although certain neurotypes are more prevalent within the population than others, there is no singular “correct” or normative type. This article begins by introducing the concept of neurodiversity and critically examines existing language and cognitive-behavioural studies on autistic children within traditional medical frameworks. It argues that, from the neurodiversity perspective, the core objective of language research on autistic children is to investigate their natural trajectories of language development so as to identify their strengths and communicative resources, to foster inclusive communicative environments, and to support them in using language for effective communication, and ultimately to enhance their autonomy, agency, and well-being. To achieve this goal, this article proposes a three-level shift in research approaches. First, at the philosophical level, it advocates the construction of an autonomous framework for language research on autism that does not rely on neurotypical traits as a comparative baseline. Second, at the methodological level, it emphasizes the incorporation of first-hand accounts of autistic experiences and taking autistic traits seriously as part of the research design. Finally, in terms of research content, it argues for a focus on pragmatic competence, particularly on how autistic children use language in social interaction, with the goal of empowering them as confident and effective communicators.

数字中文背景下关键语料基础设施建设的问题与路径 / 胡开宝

数字中文语境下语言学科建设的四大根本性转变 / 黄仁瑄，刘根辉

数字中文建设背景下亟需语言人才的供给侧改革 / 王立非

语言科学交叉学科建设势在必行 / 梁琳琳，朱祖德

数字中文赋能语言文化传承发展的四大路径 / 张洪生

数字中文重构语言–技术产业新生态 / 李 雪

数字中文将推动产业升级 / 张卫国

数字中文促进社会协同进步 / 赫 琳，王炤宇

建议将境外中文资源纳入数字中文新基建 / 王文豪，郭 熙

“Center” (中) and “loyalty” (忠) are fundamental words in the Chinese language, with the latter deriving from the former. The early cognitive mechanism of the Han people, which transitioned “from spatial orientation to temporal concepts, from the concrete to the abstract”, played a fundamental role in driving the semantic derivation of the latter. After the emergence of “loyalty”, its meaning shifted from “sincerity” to “loyalty” within a very short period. The underlying force driving this change was the political-ethical belief in the “integration of family and state”, while its solidification was achieved through habitual collocations from morphology to syntax. In this regard, the ethical propositions and linguistic applications of Confucianism and Mohism exhibit a certain degree of divergence. Regarding the concept of “loyalty to the ruler”, Confucianism, which emphasizes hierarchical order, does not reinforce it in linguistic combinations. In contrast, Mohism, which advocates “universal love” and “elevating uniformity”, frequently employs it in written works, even solidifying the term “loyal minister” (忠臣) as a fixed expression. Once a strong linguistic collocation is established, it can shape value judgments that influence social consciousness, allowing people today to perceive the epistemological significance in the philosophy of language.

Compared with second-generation immigrants born in the host country, the so-called 1.5 generation immigrants—those who migrate during childhood or early adolescence with their parents—generally face the dual challenges of heritage language attrition and the reconstruction cultural identities. This study focuses on 1.5-generation Chinese immigrants who moved to Australia between the ages of 4 and 13. Drawing on the critical period hypothesis and a “time–space–identity” model, it examines how age at migration shapes distinct language trajectories and identity formations through spatiotemporal interaction. Based on data collected from 25 adolescents and their parents through family questionnaires, interviews, ethnographic observations, and voluntarily provided written materials, the study reveals: (1) Children who migrated between ages 4 and 7 typically undergo systematic attrition of Chinese and tend toward an Australian dominant, unidirectional identity orientation; 
(2) Those who migrated between ages 8 and 10 generally retain basic oral Chinese proficiency but experience a precipitous decline in literacy, accompanied by instrumental orientation of cultural identification; and (3) Adolescents who migrated between ages 11 and 13 demonstrate fluent spoken Chinese but limited academic literacy, resulting in a functional division between “everyday Chinese” and “academic English”, alongside a pronounced ethnic identity and ongoing processes of identity reconstruction. Overall, the findings reveal a clear “age gradient effect” and propose a tiered intervention model—remedial, transitional, and integrative—to support heritage language retention and identity development. This research offers theoretical grounding and policy insights for international Chinese language education in overseas Chinese communities.

The development of the Chinese language curriculum for K-12 education represents a critical step for countries seeking to integrate Chinese into their national education systems. To date, 85 countries have formally incorporated Chinese as a foreign language within their basic education frameworks. Curriculum guidelines across these contexts vary in structure: some are issued centrally at the national level, others are developed by regional authorities, and in some cases, national and regional guidelines coexist. A notable trend in recent years has been a shift from list-based syllabi centered on discrete linguistic elements to task-oriented frameworks that prioritize communicative competence. In countries with advanced education systems, Chinese language curricula are increasingly shaped by localization and context-specific needs. Based on an analysis of two representative cases—the New Zealand NCEA Chinese Examination Vocabulary List and the Chinese Language Curriculum Framework for Excellence (2022 Edition) from the United Arab Emirates—this study identifies key challenges in the current development of overseas Chinese language curricula. These include insufficient alignment between content and structure, limited responsiveness to evolving educational paradigms, and the narrow perspectives of curriculum developers. Addressing these issues requires a multifaceted approach: optimizing and integrating curriculum structures, contextualizing implementation and pedagogical application, conducting comparative analysis of second language curriculum models across multiple languages, and establishing collaborative development mechanisms while promoting standardization. These efforts are essential to fostering innovation and enhancing the global design and implementation of Chinese language curricula in K-12 education.

In the digital era, the development and application of generative artificial intelligence, represented by large language models, have made digital literacy a vital component of new quality productive forces. Digital language resources not only reflect a nation’s soft power but also act as the cornerstone of its future development. The vitality and influence of the Chinese language in the digital space are significant indicators of China’s language situation and national standing. This study makes a preliminary evaluation of the vitality and influence of Chinese in the digital space by building an indicator system centered on digital language use. This system covers five vertical domains, including economic, technological, cultural, social, and educational, in addition to basic Digital Chinese indicators. By collecting and analyzing relevant data, the study compares the use of Chinese with that of other major world languages, such as English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic. The findings indicate that, driven by the digital wave, Chinese has broken through geographical boundaries to become a global language. The vitality and influence of Chinese in the digital space are firmly ranked second in the world, having created a considerable gap over other major languages except English. The most prominent characteristic of the Digital Chinese ecosystem is its relative abundance of dynamic data and scarcity of static data. Furthermore, the protection of digital cultural classics and the development of Digital Chinese applications are identified as two major highlights of the language’s digital development.

‘Language professions’ refer to occupational categories in which practitioners derive their livelihood from providing language products and services. They are directly related to the high-quality supply of language products and the sustainable development of the language industry, and affects the overall planning of language talent development. Language professions and talents are producers of language products and providers of language services, and creators of language productivity. These professions can be classified into “typical language professions” and “quasi-language professions” based on whether the primary output consists of language products and the extent to which task completion relies heavily on linguistic expression. This paper defines the concept of “language profession” and maps out the existing language professions and those yet to be recognized in the National Occupational Classification Codex of the People's Republic of China (2022 Edition). It further proposes a foundational research framework for language professions comprising three hierarchical levels: from the base upward, these are studies of occupational conditions, analyses of underlying dynamics and mechanisms, and investigations into development strategies. Building on this framework, the paper offers the following recommendations: for language professions with an established number of practitioners but have not yet been included in the Codex, they should be formally supplemented and recognized, and professional terminology should be standardized; emerging language professions should be actively cultivated, especially language technology professions; Starting from the study of language vocational abilities, construct a language vocational standard system; Focusing on the investigation of language occupational conditions, comprehensively grasp the current state of language professions in China; and a national database of language professions should be established to support talent development in the field and planning for the language industry.

The concept and system of “Digital Chinese” have emerged along the developmental trajectory of “Digital Earth (Global) — Digital XX (Regional/Field) — Digital China (National/Comprehensive) — Digital Chinese”. From a holistic perspective, Digital Chinese constitutes a “seven-in-one” systematic framework, encompassing the following dimensions: Digital Chinese philosophy, technology, resources, applications, governance, research, and civilization. The future development of this system faces theoretical and practical challenges, which can be addressed through strategies such as improving policies and regulations, planning standards and norms, promoting interdepartmental collaboration, enhancing the transformation of scientific research achievements, and advancing technological innovation and application expansion—while remaining grounded in China’s national conditions and learning from international experience. Against the backdrop of the emerging “Threefold Coexistence” era of humans, machines, and nature, the future of Digital Chinese holds immense potential.

Humanity has long been situated in “world history”. Contemporary and future Chinese-language philosophy should move beyond its classical and modern configurations toward a future-oriented form, one that is rooted in the lived experience of the Chinese-speaking world while also articulating the new realities of “China in the world” and “the world within China”. In the face of philosophical questions shared by humankind in the context of world history, providing philosophical responses in Chinese should be regarded as a historical mission for present and future scholars engaged in philosophical research in the Chinese-speaking world. From the perspective of the traditional debate on the correspondence between names and realities, “Chinese-language philosophy” and “Chinese philosophy” each have their own objects of reflection, yet they also significantly intersect and overlap. This article rejects the notion of a “universal philosophy” advanced by some scholars, but does not deny the existence of philosophical questions common to all humanity. From a civilizational perspective, such shared philosophical questions may take distinct philosophical forms when expressed in different national languages. Within genuine world history, in responding to humanity’s shared philosophical questions, philosophies expressed in different national languages can generate philosophical answers that embody an “overlapping consensus”. One of the historical missions of contemporary and future Chinese-language philosophy is to offer its own responses to these shared philosophical questions of humanity.

The development of spoken interaction research has evolved through three stages: the Exploratory Period (pre-1960s), the Development Period (late 1960s–1990s), and the Flourishing Period (21st century–present). Driven by the emergence of Interactional Linguistics, the research focus has shifted from purely ontological descriptions to practical applications. In this study, CiteSpace was employed to conduct a bibliometric analysis of 4,751 publications retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. The results show that applied research on spoken interaction is primarily concentrated in five areas: 1) second language acquisition; 2) speech and language disorder assessment and intervention; 3) doctor-patient communication; 4) psychological intervention; 5) artificial intelligence. Furthermore, the study identifies four emerging trends: 1) the cross-disciplinary integration of research paradigms; 2) the development and integration of foundational research resources; 3) the industrialization of research outcomes; and 4) the alignment of linguistic data with emerging industries. To ensure the sustainable development of spoken interaction research in the Chinese context, the critical focus should be placed on the practical translation of research outcomes. It is imperative to align academic endeavors with national strategies and social demands. By integrating linguistic and multimodal data with application-oriented theoretical findings into the language industry, the field can generate substantial socio-economic benefits, which in turn will nourish further disciplinary advancement.

Scientific research has progressed through experimental, theoretical, computational, and data-intensive paradigms, and is currently advancing toward the fifth paradigm: artificial intelligence-driven scientific discovery. AI is not only an auxiliary tool but also a collaborator and inspirer in knowledge production. Language research, due to the unique nature of its object, is at the forefront of this transformation. The fifth paradigm of language research is essentially a systematic reconstruction of language research “human-machine collaborative generation mechanism.” In knowledge production, this manifests in four fundamental shifts: the cognitive subject is reconstructed from human researchers to a human-AI composite cognitive system; the generation mechanism shifts from an interpretative model to a generative mechanism; the production structure shifts from a linear process to a cyclical system; and the presentation form shifts from rule-based to distributed, parameterized probabilistic representations. In research practice, this transformation manifests in five key areas: the research object has expanded from human language to human-machine hybrid language; in terms of methodology, AI is not only the object of analysis but also a methodological tool for generating data, conducting simulations, and assisting in analysis; the research goal is not only to understand human language but also to construct language intelligent agents capable of generating, understanding, and interacting; the research subject has upgraded from individual scholars to human-machine collaboration; and the disciplinary structure has shifted from a single discipline to a multidisciplinary integration. This transformation brings significant opportunities for language research, such as a leap in research capabilities and room for theoretical innovation. However, it also brings profound challenges, including an interpretive crisis, weakening of theories, concentration of knowledge power, risks to the language ecosystem, and ethical issues. Faced with the systemic reconstruction of the fifth paradigm, language researchers should not merely be followers of methodology, but rather critics of technological governance and builders of language ethics, maintaining human initiative and upholding ultimate human rights.

To meet the demand for transnational communication tools during the first period of globalization (approximately 1870–1914), more than 300 planned languages were created. Among them, Volapük and Esperanto, which emerged in 1880 and 1887 respectively, are particularly well-known. The former enjoyed a brief period of popularity before quickly disappearing, while the latter grew into a “living language” with sustained social vitality. Analyzing the reasons for their success and failure, the founders and users of Volapük did not plan and use the language according to the laws of language evolution, leading to its stagnation due to centralized power monopoly. Esperanto, on the other hand, achieved a leap from a written project to a social reality by relinquishing individual rights, establishing the stability of underlying protocols, and text-driven learning. Comparing their socialization processes reveals that the vitality of a language is rooted in the social emergence of real-world use, rather than the mechanical perfection of grammatical design. The evolutionary paradigm of Esperanto foreshadows the technological logic of the contemporary large language model’s transformation from “rule-driven” to “data-driven”. Essentially, language planning is a social project, and its success hinges on whether it can achieve a paradigm shift from engineering design to ecological cultivation, and from administrative control to democratic governance. Exploring the historical experience of the rise and fall of planned languages can provide theoretical reference and historical lessons for language planning in the data-based intelligence era and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Bai Shuo (2025) recently proposed that we should delve deeper into the first principle of language to create “small yet efficient” low-resource language models and argued that whether language is “learned” is not the essence of Chomskyan linguistic theory. We hold that, in contrast, “linguistic innateness” is the first principle of Chomskyan linguistic theory, since it is essential for humans’ innate “linguistic faculty” to endow humans with recursive abilities, allowing “infinite use of finite means”. The language ability of large language models, however, is learned, and their success is based on “finite use of infinite data”. As far as language technology and language engineering are concerned, it is infeasible or unworkable at this stage to construct “small yet efficient” language models on the first principle of language. While the theory of humans’ innate linguistic faculties still lacks sufficient scientific evidence, the statistical learning theory currently strives to prove that the brains of human infants can perceive external objects, acquire knowledge, and learn language through a conceptual system. The criticism of large language models and the pursuit of “small yet efficient” language models from the linguistic perspective that “language is not learned but an innate ability” may reflect a weakness in scholarly thinking, namely, the “theory-induced blindness”. As surveys and experiments guided by the theory of constructed emotion reveal, what classical emotion theories refer to as emotional universality, often regarded as fact by researchers, is actually the effect of experimental designs. This serves as a wake-up call for the study of universal grammar.

This paper systematically reviews the formation trajectory, theoretical framework, and practical impact of the language resource perspective as a foundational theory of the School of Language Life (SLL). China’s language resource perspective emerged in the early 21st century, an era marked by the development of large-scale corpora. It was advanced by SLL scholars and evolved from theoretical construction to social practice. Its core contributions lie in three areas. Firstly, it constructs a three-dimensional value system, where cultural inheritance value sustains national heritage, social service value underpins language governance, and data intelligence value drives technological innovation. Secondly, it posits that language resources possess both utility and developability, embodying a high unity of material carriers and humanistic value. Within this framework, language resources are classified according to language-internal versus language-derived resources and spatial distribution versus functional hierarchy. Thirdly, it proposes response strategies encompassing resource investigation, storage, and management; processing, annotation, and monitoring; and development, utilization, and protection. This theory has significantly shaped the academic ecology of the SLL. At the ideological level, it has spawned core propositions such as cultural perspective, security perspective, service perspective, and protection-development perspective. At the methodological level, it has forged a tripartite research paradigm integrating a pragmatic and objective empirical approach, a practice-oriented approach to societal feedback, and a concise and precise expressive style. Two decades of research demonstrate that, through research networks and academic platforms, the language resource perspective has not only catalyzed extensive studies of social language applications but also enhanced the systematic development of national language capacity, providing a distinctive Chinese approach to global language resource governance.

Over the past two decades, research on language life, conducted primarily in China, has yielded substantial achievements. However, the theoretical underpinnings for studying language life remain relatively underdeveloped. Drawing on the accumulated scholarship and research practice, this article aims to summarize existing research findings and practices, outline the disciplinary profile of language life as well as to clarify the connotation and characteristics of language life research, and establish a coherent theoretical framework for the study of language life. Based on discussions of the unique attributes of language life, we define language life as “social life formed through the interaction between language and society”, marked by its agentivity, practical embeddedness, and interdisciplinarity. According to the interaction between linguistic functions and social factors in language use and activities, a categorical system of language life is proposed in the form of twelve analytic dimensions, delineated by the varying patterns through which linguistic functions and social factors co-constitute language use and language-related activities. From the perspective of spatial relations, the structure of language life is further described as comprising three interrelated levels: inner, middle, and outer, as well as five upper and lower tiers. Based on a comparison of the scope, research objects, and research objectives between language life research, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics, this paper proposes the establishment of language life studies as a subfield within sociolinguistics. Language life studies is not only theoretically innovative, but it also demonstrates strong practical significance, maintaining both overlap and divergence with sociolinguistics. Language life studies represents a successful effort by Chinese scholars to construct an independent knowledge system in linguistics, contributing significantly to expanding the domain of linguistic inquiry and articulating a people-centered epistemology. Language life studies also carries strong practical significance, informing national strategic planning and serving broader social development. As such, it represents a noteworthy Chinese attempt to build an autonomous knowledge system in linguistics and contributes to strengthening China’s scholarly voice in international academic discourse.

The success of Digital Chinese development ultimately depends on whether its users, researchers, and creators possess the necessary core competencies. Large Language Model (LLM) constitutes a critical technological domain and a strategic priority in this new stage of development. Research among student populations reveals key characteristics and structural issues in LLM literacy, including a significant “inversion” between high-frequency usage and systematic learning, which points to a structural imbalance; generally low self-assessment of literacy, limited confidence and insufficient advanced application skills; and a tendency toward superficial application across broad yet shallow scenarios. Digital Chinese emphasizes the integration of language and technology, centrality of data, comprehensive empowerment, and commitment to standardization and safety. Grounded in these core principles, this study constructs a “Five-Dimension, Three-Level” LLM literacy framework. It identifies cognition and understanding as the foundational element, ethics and responsibility as the guiding principle, interaction and collaboration as the methodological core, learning and innovation as the developmental pathway, and career and entrepreneurship as the ultimate objective. The framework proposes a continuum comprising general foundational literacy, specialized integrative literacy, and leading developmental literacy. Finally, it outlines a holistic “Five-in-One” cultivation pathway: oriented by needs, driven by collaborative innovation, centered on curriculum and instruction, guided by assessment reform, and supported by faculty development.

Across its long intellectual history, from prescriptivism and descriptivism to structuralism and generative grammar, linguistics has the ultimate goal of modelling the internal language faculty of the human mind. Despite the accumulation of extensive body of micro-level findings, a substantial gap persists between such fragmented insights and the construction of a holistic model of human language as a cognitive system. Since the 1950s, the dominant paradigm trajectory in artificial intelligence has evolved from symbolism through empiricism to connectionism. Although contemporary large language models (LLMs), powered by leveraging massive computation and vast datasets, can model human language at unprecedented computational power, they remain limited in capturing the deep cognitive regularities that are not fully encoded in surface distributions and therefore still fall short of native-speaker competence in extracting and internalizing deeper cognitive and semantic regularities that are weakly expressed in surface distributions alone. In this context, it opens a critical space for collaboration. Linguists, drawing on their theoretical sensitivity to subtle semantic, pragmatic, and structural phenomena, can contribute by leveraging domain-specific insight to uncover the deep semantic issues embedded in micro-level linguistic phenomena and to transform linguistic knowledge into high-quality, structured data for improving AI’s linguistic capabilities. At the same time, AI offers linguistics the possibility of moving beyond observational, descriptive, and explanatory adequacy toward generative adequacy. Consequently, the automated transformation of theoretical research into interactive linguistic data—evolving from manual to fully autonomous processes—constitutes a central challenge for linguists in the AI era, and addressing this challenge is essential if linguistics is to play a constitutive role in the next stage of language modelling.

新法推进国家通用语言文字事业高质量发展 / 王 锋

新法强化语言在国家治理中的制度性要素作用 / 方小兵

新法为语言文字信息化建设提供坚实法治保障 / 张日培

新法对我国民族地区语言生活的影响 / 黄 行

依法管理网络语言生活成为新法亮点 / 汪 磊

新法为两岸语言文字事业指明了方向 / 戴红亮

新法明确中文传播以国家通用语言文字为主 / 张天伟
世界语言立法的中国方案 / 赵蓉晖

依法强化语言文字工作体制机制建设 / 袁 伟

In the past two decades, many scholars have adopted various methods and perspectives to examine the language practices of multilingual communities at different levels. However, little research has been conducted on the language practice of foreign-funded companies in China. To fill this gap, this paper explores the characteristics of multilingual communities of European- and American-funded companies in China, with a focus on the automobile manufacturing industry characterized by similar systems of management and organizational discourse. Five automobile manufacturing companies were chosen as the research sites of this study. Through analysis of translanguaging in their display boards for management and interviews with their employees about translanguaging in the display boards, this study finds four types of translanguaging. Through employee training and daily management, English and its acronyms have become parts of the enterprise culture. In addition, specialized language, corporate-speech, various semiotic resources, together with Chinese and English, constitute the repertoires of translanguaging, while employees at different levels, such as operators, supervisors, and managers, use different language resources in interviews, showing different characteristics of monolinguals, novice multilinguals, and skilled multilinguals. Based on the observations and interviews, this study suggests that multinational companies should adopt different language policies according to the shared language resources of their employees.

This study analyzes the development of Putonghua proficiency testing products in Hong Kong over the past three decades, focusing on testing product composition, supply entities, and demand drivers. The evolution of these products can be divided into three distinct phases: the early market exploration phase (1988–1997), the policy-led diversification phase (1997–2006), and the market-driven innovation phase (2006–present). The trajectory is marked by a unique “dual-track evolution”—on one hand, collaborative development shaped by market forces, policy interventions, and technological advancements; on the other, the emergence of a tiered development system. Currently this system is dual-tiered, comprising “foundational” and “distinctive” products that align national standards with local characteristics. Looking ahead, further progress can be achieved by advancing to a three-tiered framework: “foundational”, “distinctive”, and “international”. Through differentiated design, the interactions and resource allocations among market, policy, and technology can be dynamically adjusted for each tier. This approach allows testing products to address Putonghua learning and certification needs of various target groups, ultimately integrating foundational popularization, regional adaptability, and international compatibility.

描写主义的描写不是漫无目的的，而是在描写工作开始之前，就已经有了一个科学研究目标。描写是围绕着科学研究目标进行的。科学研究是为了解开未解之谜，回答没有答案的问题，探求事物的普遍规律。而要开展这些工作，首先需要提出一个可以验证的科学假说。新描写主义认为，对语言事实或现象的描写、刻画和分析，需要以科学假说为驱动，因为只有在科学假说的驱动下，描写才有可能深入到不易探察的细节，深入到难以辨识的微观世界，进而发现隐性的事实或规律，从而不断逼近问题的答案，并揭示事实背后的真相。

International Chinese Language Education (ICLE) is entering an era of diversity featuring the coexistence of three groups of learners, i.e., native speakers, heritage language speakers, and foreign language learners. According to surveys and estimates, Chinese-origin native and heritage language speakers account for approximately 70% of all learners, while non-Chinese-origin foreign language learners are split roughly equally between adults and young learners at around 15% for each. Previous research on ICLE has focused heavily on adult foreign language learners and failed to fully reflect its global landscape. There is an urgent need to adjust research directions to adapt to this new situation. Currently, research on native speakers remains extremely scarce and is in urgent need of comprehensive development. Studies on heritage language speakers are relatively more numerous, yet they focus primarily on heritage language maintenance, to the neglect of heritage language acquisition. In the past, research on foreign language learners has paid little attention to the growing number of young learners. Meanwhile, research on the needs for Chinese in professional and technical learning is also inadequate. Future research directions should be adjusted to focus on seven major areas: studies on the learning needs of the “three groups of learners”, studies on learning patterns, research on learning content, investigations into learning interaction, as well as the supporting research in language assessment, teacher development, and the coupling between the “symbiosis of three types of people” and the “three groups of learners”. It is necessary to proceed from reality and redefine ICLE in light of the diverse landscape of Chinese language learning. To support the adjustment of research directions, efforts should be made to promote the development of a global database of Chinese language learners for in-depth and refined research.

In recent years, scholars have explored digital Chinese from various perspectives. This study focuses on digital Chinese ecosystem and its pathways for educational empowerment. Driven by digital technologies, the digital Chinese ecosystem is flourishing with three prominent features: the multimodal leap and asset transition of Chinese language resources, intelligent collaboration and mass co-creation in production logic, and precise adaptation with global connectivity in service systems. The digital Chinese ecosystem also demonstrates three major development trends: increasingly diverse application scenarios, gradual refinement of the industrial ecosystem, and growing internationalization of service recipients. However, the digital Chinese ecosystem currently remains peripheral to the core domain of educational empowerment. This study proposes three pathways for educational empowerment along three dimensions of the digital Chinese ecosystem: resource carriers, learning models, and competency reconstruction. These pathways include the promotion of the multimodal transition of Chinese teaching resources, the reconfiguration of adaptive and inquiry-based learning models, and the expansion of the competency dimensions of Chinese teaching and learning. The core logic of educational empowerment possesses dual attributes: language technology and platform ecosystem. The former provides multimodal and interactive carriers for learning, while the latter supports dynamic resource updating and personalized matching. They enable large-scale personalized education, which represents the key empowering value that distinguishes digital Chinese from traditional Chinese forms.

拉波夫是一位伟大的演化语言学家 / 潘悟云

语法研究也要重视拉波夫 / 沈家煊

拉波夫社会语言学思想在中国“语保工程”中的应用 / 李宇明

拉波夫对语言学动态研究范式的影响有待更高评价 / 徐大明

致敬脚踏实地的拉波夫 / 史有为

我的恩师比尔·拉波夫 / 冯胜利

导夫先路：拉波夫的有序异质语言观 / 汪 锋

拉波夫让我看到语言研究有趣的那一面 / 曹 文

拉波夫之问：语言学为谁研究，为何研究？ / 孙金华

恒坚持，常为新：我心中的拉波夫教授 / 袁家宏

译读拉波夫《语言变化原理》的五大感悟 / 石 锋

China’s visa-free transit policy has undergone a stepwise expansion from 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, 144 hours, to 240 hours. Correspondingly, the language service policy has shown a development trend of systematic connection and continuous evolution. The forms and contents of language services for foreign nationales have become increasingly rich, and the coverage scenarios have been continuously expanded and have become progressively diversified. In current practice, the emphasis of language service practice for the pre-arrival stage is placed on the local implementation and targeted promotion of relevant policies; for the transit stage, efforts are made to promote multilingualism, differentiated services, and the integration of technological empowerment; however, for the post-departure stage, the continuity of services remains relatively limited. Based on this assessment, the following language service optimization paths are proposed: for the pre-arrival stage of foreign nationals, strengthen the precise publicity and introduction of relevant policies, and smooth the channels of information exchange between China and foreign countries; for the transit stage, a multi-level and multi-dimensional language service system should be established to enhance visitors’ overall transit experience in China; for the post-departure stage, language and culture should serve as key links to jointly build an interconnected and shared discourse framework, thereby precisely exert efforts to cultivate positive word-of-mouth effects, and enhance international understanding of and support for China.

A clear and accurate professional positioning is crucial for improving both the quality of academic program development and talent cultivation in higher education. Focusing on the positioning of undergraduate programs in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages within the framework of the “Double Ten-Thousand Plan”, this study investigates 24 national-level program construction sites through their official program information forms, as well as interviews with program directors or department heads from 13 of these institutions. A thematic analysis of the texts and interview data reveals that program positioning should be based on the needs of three main stakeholders: society, universities, and students, and include five key themes—talent cultivation, professional development planning, professional roles, serving regional and national needs, and strengths and unique features—each corresponding to one of five guiding orientations for program development. Based on the combinations of these themes, ten types of professional positioning can be identified. The characteristics of these positionings include: talent cultivation as the core element, a focus on the program’s practical and international dimensions, and increased attention to development planning goals. However, the study finds that most construction sites still face key challenges: their positioning is not well aligned with the requirements of the “Double Ten-Thousand Plan”; their understanding of professional positioning remains unclear; they lack a strong sense of their own advantages and unique features; and their approach to talent cultivation is not keeping up with contemporary trends. In the future, it is necessary to clarify the foundational role of undergraduate education within the overall talent cultivation system of international Chinese language education, specify the key elements of professional positioning, place emphasis on “social” and “distinctive” orientations, and address both graduate career pathways and societal needs.

This paper adopts the scientific perspective of “Logical Certainty” (Li Bi) derived from the Qian-Jia School to explore pathways to construct an autonomous knowledge system for Chinese language and script. Through a comprehensive analysis of four key relationships—namely, period-specific graphonomy and small seal script structure (the necessity of principled intentionality in the strokes of Chinese characters), metrical-tonal syllables and phonological stress (the necessity of relative prominence and F0-Unifunction Principle), prosodic grammar and relative prominence (the necessity of binary structure and bio-prosody), and register grammar and communicative distance (the necessity of Form-Function Cogenesis Principle)—this paper demonstrates the universality and explanatory power of the Logical Certainty across various linguistic and script-related dimensions. It is proposed that the Logical Certainty constitutes the intellectual core of the Qian-Jia School, serving not only as a methodological foundation for constructing a knowledge system rooted in Chinese scholarly tradition but also as a robust academic framework capable of integrating Chinese and Western perspectives and synthesizing multiple linguistic levels. This approach aims to advance Chinese linguistics from a “land of materials” to a “land of theories”, thereby facilitating the modern construction of an autonomous knowledge system.

Modern Chinese dialect studies originated from the nationwide Folk Song Collection Campaign launched by Peking University in 1918. An examination of articles on dialect issues published in the Folk Song Weekly reveals that these studies have evolved from verifying dialectal pronunciations and vocabulary for collected folk songs to developing phonetic symbols for dialects, as well as from focusing on the textual research of sounds and meanings to advocating field investigations. Through the efforts of scholars such as Shen Jianshi, Wei Jiangong, Zhou Zuoren, Dong Zuobin, Qian Xuantong, Rong Zhaozu, and Lin Yutang, dialects have evolved from a subsidiary issue in folk song collation into an independent research topic. This has promoted the establishment of the Dialect Investigation Society and eventually secured an independent status for dialect studies. Discourses during the campaign on the definition of dialects, survey methods, recording tools, and research content have largely become consensus in modern academia. The discussions on dialects during the campaign have also promoted the “external study” of dialects, thus laying the foundation for disciplines such as Chinese ethnolinguistics and cultural linguistics.

大多文字学家都认为，甲骨文、金文和战国竹简文字证明，有不少小篆字的构形并不符合这些字的原始构形；并根据这一事实得出结论：这类小篆字的构形是错误的。有的学者还进而质疑：以存在着错误小篆的系统为基础而得出的规律，如何能够具备有积极性的学术意义？