Lecture No 1-2 Topic: Comparative Linguistics: subject matter, types, tasks, approaches

Linguistics possesses two characters: contrastive and typological.
Comparative linguistics consists of three areas: 
1) comparative historical linguistics, deals with the research of genetic linguistic communities,

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2) comparative typological linguistics, which studies the types of language structure, regardless of 
the cultural-historical affiliation of languages,
3) theoretical linguistics, forming the philosophy of the language within linguistics and giving the 
beginning to the theory of general linguistics dealing with general linguistic systematization 
(taxonomy) based on descriptive and comparative studies.
Contrastive character may be found out in comparison of two concrete related or non-related 
languages. While typological character is the result of finding out the specific peculiarities of the 
given language with regard to the common means of expression.
So, Comparative Linguistics is the junction of two sciences: Linguistic Typology and 
Contrastive Linguistics.
Thus, all types of typologies differ from each other concerning not only their purpose and tasks 
of investigation, but their methods of investigation too. But anyway they have one similar feature: 
all of them are based on cross-language comparison. Increasing the number of compared languages 
reinforces typological character of investigation and prepares primary facts for typology.
Let’s see differences between Comparative-Historical Linguistics and Comparative 
Linguistics. They are as follows: 
 Comparative-Historical Linguistics deals with the genetically related languages, while 
Comparative Linguistics deals with both genetically related and non-related languages in 
comparison;
 The object of Comparative-Historical Linguistics is comparison of ethic (or concrete) 
elements or units, while Comparative Linguistics deals with comparison of both ethic and 
emic units;
 In Comparative-Historical Linguistics languages are compared from diachronical 
viewpoint, while in Comparative Linguistics – from synchronical viewpoint;
 Tasks of Comparative-Historical Linguistics are purely theoretical, while
 Comparative Linguistics has both theoretical and practical tasks (practical tasks means for 
teaching process).
Theoretical tasks of Comparative Linguistics are: 
 Revealing similarities and differences of compared languages;
 studying the system of each language for comparison separately in order to find out 
specific features of a concrete language;
 defining inter language correspondence or non-correspondence within the systems of 
compared languages;
 finding out reasons of similarities and differences of compared languages;
 defining the facts of interaction and enrichment of compared languages (взаимодействие 
и взаимообогащение).
Practical tasks of Comparative Linguistics are: 
 defining difficult points of a foreign language in the process of studying; the ability of 
revealing similar and distinctive features of compared languages in teaching a foreign 
language;
 establishing language interference;
 defining relevant (уместный, относящийся к делу) systematic or methodic similarities 
and distinctive features of compared languages.
As for Linguistic Typology its subject matter is still a disputable problem, because different 
scholars have their own understanding of this problem. That’s why there are several approaches 
towards this problem. They are as follows: 
 Linguistic Typology is a separate branch of science including all kinds of comparison. It is 
a broad sense;
 Linguistic Typology is a part of a comparative linguistics which is opposed to traditional 
comparativistics, characterology and areal linguistics. In this case it is identified with 
structural typology;

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 Linguistic Typology is a self-dependent science or a branch of general linguistics which 
was developed on the base of comparative-historical philology.
 The principle significance of Linguistic Typology is that the latter operates with the 
limitation of the number of compared languages. There are different viewpoints to this 
problem.
 One group of linguists thinks that the number of languages under comparison shouldn’t 
be limited. In this case researchers deal with language universals.
 Another group of scholars suggest that the number of compared languages should be 
limited by related languages only.
Tasks of Linguistic Typology are: 
 clearing up (выяснение) the types of compared languages; exposing (выявление) relevant 
features of this or that language with respect to others belonging to one family group;
 exposing relevant features of languages belonging to one family group;
 showing up: 
 universal features (concerning all languages of the world);
 dominant features (the majority of languages); 
 frequent (фреквенталии) features (the minority of languages); 
 unique features (only one language). [William Croft,2003,, 75] 
General typology deals with the problems of taxonomy which studies the theory of 
classification and systematization with the help of a comparative method. This method is 
used not only in linguistics but in other branches of science, too. Thus, according to its object of 
comparison, general typology is divided into: linguistic typology and non-linguistic typology. 
Non-linguistic typology serves as a method of comparison in all sciences besides linguistics, 
such as history, mathematics, chemistry, art, economy and others. 
Comparative Linguistics studies the language systems in comparison. Some linguists 
consider that linguistic typology is a branch of general linguistics, other consider that it is a self-
dependent science about the language. But it has its own subject matter, its own methods, branches and 
history development. 
There are different viewpoints in defining the aim, the parts and types of linguistic 
typology. It is an independent science, and has its own structure and methods of research There are 
two approaches to language description: 1) Internal; 2) External. 
The first approach deals with the system of any concrete national language. 
The second approach deals with the cross language description, i.e. English-Uzbek, 
English-Russian and so on. 
Typology may compare language systems panchronically though they are living or 
dead, besides, it may compare language systems synchronically and diachronically. 
Diachronic approach is a stative study of a certain period. Synchronic approach is a 
dynamic one. Thus, Comparative Linguistics is a linguistic approach non-limited in time. 
Comparative Linguistics studies the systems of geneticall y related and non-related 
languages in comparison. 
Comparison may be substantial and non -substantial. Under substantial comparison 
we mean comparison of some concrete things or objects. Under non-substantial comparison 
we mean comparison of systems and their elements. For example, we can compare the 
grammatical structure of different languages. 
Comparative Linguistics became a self-dependent science or a branch of general 
linguistics on the base of a Comparative – Historical philology. Yu.V. Rojdestvensky writes that 
languages are considered to be related or non-related according to their correspondence in 
substance [Рождественский, 1969,38]. 
There are some famous linguists nowadays who study the l anguage s ys tems in 
com paris on. The y are: B.A. Uspensky, V.G. Gak, G.P. Melnikov, J.B. Buranov, U.K. 
Yusupov and others. 

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The subject matter of Comparative Linguistics is still a disputable problem, because 
different scholars had their own understanding of this problem. That’s why there are two 
approaches towards this problem. 
The first: Comparative Linguistics is a separate branch of science including all kinds 
of comparison. It is a broad sense. 
The second: Comparative Linguistics is a part of Comparative Typology which is opposed 
to traditional comparativistics, characterology and areal linguistics. In this case it is identified 
with structural typology. 
The principal significance of Comparative Linguistics is that the latter operates with the 
limitation of the number of compared languages. The first group of linguists think that the 
number of languages under comparison should be unlimited. In such cases we deal with language 
universals. The second group of scholars suggest that the number of compared languages 
should be limited by related languages. The third group of linguists think that the number of 
compared languages can be even two including related or non-related languages.