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Abstract Abstract: This article gives a general review of the achievements scored by China’s contrastive studies since 1977, when Professor LǚShu-xiang delivered his well-known speech “Study Grammar through Comparison”, and offers some considerations on the major problems with the contrastive studies of Chinese and foreign languages. The author holds that a great progress has been made in China’s contrastive studies over the past 40 years, which is chiefly manifested in (1) discipline construction, (2) research quality, and (3) the exploration of the fundamental differences between Chinese and foreign languages, notably Western Languages. However, two problems are especially noteworthy: one is tertium comparationis, and the other is the lack of persuasiveness in the comparison. To solve these problems, the author proposes that researchers should make tremendous effort to explore language universals through comparison between Chinese and foreign languages, and in the meanwhile to optimize their knowledge structure.
Key words: contrastive studies; tertium comparationis; language universals
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