On May 19, Professor Shi Yuzhi from NationalUniversity of Singapore Visited the School of Foreign Studies and gave alecture entitled “Differences in Verb Conceptual System between Chinese andEnglish and Their Influence on Grammar” in Room 5A402 of the School. Thelecture was hosted by Professor Li Zhanxi.

Professor Shi specializes in FunctionalGrammar, and has been productive in grammaticalization theory, historicalsyntax morphology of Chinese, relation between language and literature,comparative study of Chinese and English etc.

In his lecture, Professor Shi introducedthe differences between Chinese and English in conceptual structure with theword YANG (sheep) in New Year wishes given by British PM and American presidentas an example. He indicated that the mode of conceptualization determined theholistic view of grammar and that semantics and grammar restricted each other.

Professor Li Zhanxi summarized the lectureand expressed sincere gratitude to Professor Shi.

(Reportby Qin Jianhua  Picture by Cen Haoxian)