May 19,2006,SIS
From May 13th to 15th, the fourth national cognitive linguistics symposium was held in Nanjing Teachers College. It received about
250 abstracts and had nearly 300 representatives from the whole country. The theme of this symposium was “Theoretical
Developing Trend and Application of Cognitive Linguistics”. Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, originators of mental spaces
theory and conceptual integration theory, each made a keynote speech and hosted the discussions in the evening. 18 Chinese experts, including Shen Jiaxuan, Xu Shenghuan, Xu Yulong, Xiong Xueliang, Shi Yumin and so on, made important speeches on the
theme. The symposium set aside two half days for group discussions on 12 special topics, which made the attendants realize the
rapid development and great achievements of cognitive linguistics in China.
Another focal point of this symposium is to declare founding of the National Cognitive Linguistics Institute, announcing the
regulations and members. The institute had Shu Dingfang as president, Shen Jiaxuan as honorary president, Xu Shenghuan
as adviser. Prof. Zhan Jianli of School of International Studies was elected standing director. The standing committee
decided by voting that the following symposium of national cognitive linguistics would be held in Hunan University in 2007.
Zhang Jianli, He Wenzhong and Wang Xiaolu of SIS attended the symposium.
