1　Introduction

This paper reviews the development history of the connotation construction of foreign language disciplines, sorts out the conceptual connotation of the autonomous knowledge system of foreign language disciplines, and attempts to explore its construction paths and methods, aiming to provide reference for the new paradigm of talent cultivation in this discipline.

2　Rethinking the Connotation of Foreign Language Disciplines

This section reviews the four stages of foreign language professional education development in New China: from the founding of New China to the mid-1980s, focusing on language skills training; from the mid-1980s to around 2005, shifting toward interdisciplinary and instrumental talent cultivation; from 2005 to 2019, presenting diversified reform explorations; and from 2019 to the present, entering the stage of new liberal arts construction with proposals such as "returning to humanities education." On this basis, it proposes that the connotation of foreign language disciplines should be reconstructed from five dimensions: in the value dimension, serving national strategies and cultivating interdisciplinary compound talents; in the conceptual dimension, establishing the idea of a "grand foreign language" discipline cluster and promoting the integration of liberal arts and sciences with technology empowerment; in the content dimension, consolidating traditional foundations such as linguistics and literature to avoid instrumentalization; in the ideological dimension, integrating curriculum-based ideological and political education to cultivate patriotism and the ability to tell China's stories well; and in the path dimension, encouraging various universities to form differentiated and characteristic development based on regional and industry needs.

3　Conceptual Connotation and Core Appeals of the Autonomous Knowledge System of Foreign Language Disciplines

This section systematically explains the connotation of the autonomous knowledge system of foreign language disciplines from three levels: conceptual tracing, construction dimensions, and core appeals. In the conceptual tracing part, it deeply analyzes the three key terms "autonomous," "knowledge," and "system," emphasizing that knowledge needs to transcend empirical contingency, reveal universal necessity, and possess truth, systematicity, and social-historical nature, with its construction logic covering three levels: subjective-objective foundation, generation and existence, and value orientation. In the construction dimensions part, it summarizes the essence of this system as a systematic knowledge system that takes the unique research objects of foreign language disciplines as its carrier, reveals the laws of language activities and mutual learning among civilizations, and serves Chinese modernization and new forms of human civilization, specifically embodying three dimensions: subjective-objective unity, historical generativity, and value orientation. In the core appeals part, it focuses on the three-layer meaning of "autonomous"—originality, ownership, and self-use—emphasizing that "Chinese consciousness" is the prerequisite for construction, requiring that from knowledge production, discipline construction to value mission, all should be based on China's concrete realities. Through the spiral practice of "deconstructing Western discourse—constructing Chinese narrative—dialoguing with global civilization," it achieves the integration of local practical foundations and international innovative vision, ultimately providing discourse support for Chinese modernization and building a knowledge bridge for constructing a community with a shared future for mankind.

4　Overall Framework for Constructing the Autonomous Knowledge System of Foreign Language Disciplines

This section systematically discusses the construction framework of the autonomous knowledge system of foreign language disciplines from three levels: field scope, target principles, and development paths. At the field scope level, knowledge system construction needs to be guided by the combination of language law exploration and mutual learning practice among civilizations, promoting the theoretical expression and international communication of Chinese experience; academic and discourse system construction should break through Western discourse hegemony, enhance international discourse power through critical translation, terminology reconstruction, and "self-oriented" academic evaluation standards, and innovate research methods with big data and artificial intelligence technology to establish a regional research paradigm of "Chinese perspective"; talent cultivation needs to reverse the tendency of "emphasizing skills while neglecting ideas," build an integrated education system of "trinity" of language ability, professional literacy, and patriotism, cultivate international strategic talents with cultural confidence who can "integrate knowledge and action," and give full play to the role of foreign language disciplines in global talent cultivation and aggregation. At the target principles level, it emphasizes taking serving national development strategies as the orientation, making the small logic of talent cultivation subordinate to the big logic of national strategic needs, and cultivating compound talents with global vision and cultural confidence; it also pays attention to the principle of practical effectiveness, promoting the discipline from knowledge stock competition to solution supply, building a dynamic knowledge production mechanism of "problem identification—knowledge creation—effect verification," and making foreign language disciplines become the "linguistic infrastructure" of national strategic capacity building. At the development path level, it advocates that foreign language disciplines actively embrace the transdisciplinary paradigm, promote mutual learning among liberal arts, intersection of liberal arts and sciences, and integration of liberal arts and engineering, and explore the reform of "foreign language+" compound talent cultivation; at the same time, it conforms to the development trend of artificial intelligence, actively grasps the opportunities of technology empowerment, and promotes the high-quality development of foreign language education in universities.

5　Conclusion

This section discusses that foreign language disciplines possess the triple attributes of "strategic instrumentality," "knowledge originality," and "systematic constructiveness," and that their autonomous knowledge system is deeply embedded in China's autonomous knowledge system, serving the rise of great powers and civilizational dialogue through the cycle of "discourse production—knowledge transformation—technology empowerment"; it emphasizes that discipline connotation construction and autonomous knowledge system construction complement each other, and proposes a preliminary framework based on the sorting of conceptual connotation; it points out that foreign language disciplines are leaping from "peripheral interface" to "core hub," and are in a critical period of transformation from "heteronomy" to "self-acting." In the future, it is necessary to balance the multiple relationships between internationalization and localization, technology empowerment and humanistic care, and discipline differentiation and interdisciplinary integration, so as to form an autonomous knowledge system with Chinese characteristics and world influence.