My work in linguistics started in the structuralist framework in the early
60's but turned to the generative trend in the late 60's. In the mid-70's,
I began to work in the theory of case grammar and, as a result, became more interested in the functional theory, which seems to be better suited for
the analysis of the Chinese language. My research took the natural course
from functional syntax to discourse grammar. For the past 20 years or so,
I have thus been working in both of those models, incorporating cognitive
principles of language. My research efforts in those areas have resulted
in three recent books and several dozen journal articles and book
chapters. I also tried other interests such as language teaching and
historical syntax. For about fifteen years, my research activities were
equally divided between synchronic and diachronic studies of Chinese. That
diversion resulted in the publication of a book on historical syntax (in
English) in 1987, which was later translated into Chinese and published in
Beijing.

For teaching, language courses have occupied about a half of my
work load. The other half has been in various courses such as "Introduction
to Chinese Culture" from the early stage of my career to "Structure of
Chinese" and "Calligraphy" in the recent years. I have also taught for the
Graduate Program in Linguistics such courses as phonology, syntactic
theory, semantics and historical linguistics in the earlier years and
discourse grammar and functional syntax in the more recent years.