1. linguistic typology

LECTURE – 8.COMPARATIVE TYPOLOGY AND ITS MAJOR DISTINCTIVE FEATURES
PLAN
1. COMPARATIVE TYPOLOGY AND ITS PARAMETERS.
2. COMPARATIVE TYPOLOGY AND LEXICOGRAPHY.
1. COMPARATIVE TYPOLOGY AND ITS PARAMETERS
Comparative typology is an independent branch of General Linguistic typology. It deals with comparison of languages irrespectively of their genetic or structural identity. Comparative typology operates with a limited number of languages and the minimum number of these languages maybe as little as two.
Comparative typology cannot reveal linguistic universals but it does contribute to the Structural typology with the results of its comparative studies of concrete languages for further elaboration of linguistic universals. In its turn the Structural ty­pology contributes to comparative typological studies while identifying correspon­dences in diverse languages.
One of the major differences between the Structural and Comparative typology is that the latter operates with cross-level units of the languages while the former (the Structural typology) utilizes mainly the level isolation/one level approach.
In Comparative typology the cross-level, cross-class units of expression are ini­tially identified in each of compared languages separately. On the second stage of the typological operation the cross-language equivalents and cross-level correspondents are identified, isomorphic and allomorphic features are revealed.
The existence of Comparative typology became possible due to the possibility of comparison of sub-systems of different languages.
The major principle of Comparative typology is binarity: thus initially two ge­netically and/or structurally different languages are compared as the representatives of their genetic /structural groups. Further, the number of compared languages can be increased but still with the observation of the binary principle. For example,
English – Uzbek.
English – a group of Turkic languages, etc.
The major tool or etalon language of comparison in Comparative typology is the Typological Category.
As an independent branch of Linguistic typology the Comparative typology is characterized by the following features:

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  indifference to system identity;
  
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  indifference to genetic identity;
  
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  areal non-limitation of compared languages; -maximum quantitative limitation;
  
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  indifference toward etic/emic identity;
  
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  indifference toward deep and surface identity;
  
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  content approach to comparison;
  
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  cross-level approach to comparison;
  
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  limited etalon language (the typological category);
  
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  possibility of a complete typological operation.
  

Characterology is a sub-branch of linguistics dealing with comparative study of separate language phenomena in the systems of limited number of genetically re­lated and non-related languages. The scholars who dealt with characterology were V.Mathesius, B. Uspenskiy, Yu. Rojdestvenskiy, V. Skalichka.