Recently, Annual Conference of Tianjin Linguistics Society (TLS) was held at Peiyang Park Campus, Tianjin University (TJU). Organized by TLS, this annual conference was hosted by School of Foreign Languages and Literature (SFLL) of Tianjin University, and Research Center for Linguistic Sciences (RCLS) of Tianjin University.

Liu Dongzhi，deputy party secretary and vice-president of TJU, and Zeng Xiaoyu, chair of TLS, professor of Nankai University(NKU) attended and addressed the opening ceremony. Gu Gang, deputy chair of TLS and professor of Tianjin Normal University (TNU), Meng Guo, professor of TNU, Li Bing, Wang Hongqi and Ran Qibin, professors of NKU, also attended the ceremony. Over 130 faculty members and students from universities and colleges in Tianjin and Beijing participated, and 87 papers were accepted.

The annual conference was presided over by Professor Li Xu, Dean of SFLL of TJU. At the opening ceremony, Liu Dongzhi, vice-president of TJU, delivered a brief introduction to Tianjin University, one of the “Double First-Rate” universities in China. With the endeavor to build a world-class university with Chinese characteristics, TJU will continually enhance the development in education and research, especially in the development of the studies of social sciences and humanities.

In the morning session of the conference, four keynote speakers were invited to present the latest findings of their research. Feng Shengli, professor in Chinese University of Hong Kong and distinguished professor of RCLS of TJU, gave a lecture on the register property of phonology in the case of phonological contrast between formal and informal styles. Gu Gang shared some scientific research methodologies on the proper applications of data and evidence from the perspective of formal linguistics. Johann-Mattis List, senior scientist in the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution of the Max Planck Institute for Science of Human History, introduced his newly developed tools for computer-assisted language comparison. Shi Xiangdong, professor of NKU and distinguished professor of RCLS of TJU, analyzed the ancient Chinese rhymes from the perspectives of rhymes, morphemes, phonemes and the similarities and disparities between cardinal vowels in ancient Chinese and other languages. These academic lectures aroused great interest and generated heated discussion among the audience.

In the afternoon session, the attendance gave reports on their research in parallel sessions, focusing on syntax, phonetics, phonology, semantics, exegesis, dialectology, language teaching, and translation respectively.

At the closing ceremony, Gu Gang summarized the sessions and awarded certificates to the authors of best papers. Ran Qibin, on behalf of NKU, briefed the audience that the Annual Conference of TLS in 2018 will be held in NKU.

By: School of Foreign Languages and Literature

Editors: Qin Mian and Keith Harrington