It gives me pleasure to have the Chinese translation of the fourth and final edition of my Short History of Linguistics.
Since this books was first published in 1967, the history of linguistics has grown in interest and popularity among general linguistics, with several specialists, societies, and journals in Europe, America, and other parts of the world.
China has now joined the Permanent International Committee of Linguistics and is playing a full part in its activities. Earlier Chinese scholars have done much work on the structure and history of their own language, and this has contributed greatly to European and now world linguistics since Europeans began to make effective contacts with China and the Chinese language from the sixteenth century on.
I very much hope that what I have written in this book will be of interest and assistance to the growing numbers of teachers and students of linguistics in China.