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in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in various districts of
Europe and other parts of the world developed with the accumulation
of research materials on related languages, paving the way for the
emergence of comparative linguistics.
The comparative method is historical linguistics concerned with
the reconstruction of an earlier state of a language on the basis of a
comparison of related words and expressions in different languages or
dialects derived from it. Comparative method was developed in the
course of the 19
th
century for the reconstruction
of Proto- Indo-
European and was subsequently applied to the study of other language
families. Neogrammarians by the end of the 19
th
century had made the
orthodox approach to historical linguistics. Changes in the
phonological systems of languages through time were accounted in
terms of sound laws. The most famous law is Grim’s law.
The emergence of comparative-historical linguistics, first of all its
comparative-historical grammar, is generally considered to be
connected with the acquaintance of European linguists with Sanskrit in
the late eighteenth century [for example, the German scholar F.
Schlegel'swork (1808), the English scholar W. Jones' views on the
relationship between Sanskrit and " classical languages " (Greek and
Latin), and others. Basically, the major works on the basis of
comparative linguistics appeared in the first quarter of the 19th century.
German linguist F. Bopp's work on the
system of Sanskrit and its
comparison with the system of Greek, Latin, Persian and German
(1816) and 3 volumes of Sanskrit, Zand (Avesto), Armenian, Greek,
Latin, Lithuanian, Old Slavic, Goth and Comparative Grammar of the
Germanic Languages ”(1833-52) and the Danish scholar R.K. Rusk's “
Research in the Ancient Northern Language or the Origin of the
Icelandic Language ” ( 1818) are the first serious studies in the field of
comparative linguistics. It should be noted that F.Bopp and R.K. Rusk,
unaware of each other’s research, independently lay the foundation for
comparative linguistics. The German linguist J. Grimm, with his four-
volume German Grammar (1819-37) and
two-volume History of the
German Language (1848), made a significant contribution in
comparative linguistics and introduced the concept of history into
linguistic methodology.
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Typology may compare language systems panchronically though
they are living or dead, besides, it may compare language systems
synchronically and diachronically.
When the linguist studies the language diachronically he deals with
a certain period. Synchronic approach is a dynamic one. Linguisic
typology is the analysis of languages not-limited in time. Linguistic
typology compares the systems of genetically related and non-related
languages. Linguistic typology is based
on comparative historical
philology which became a science or a branch of general linguistics.
Yu. V. Rozhdestvensky says that languages should be considered as
related or non-related according to their essence.
The contributions of well-known linguists in the field of linguistic
typology, such as Yu.V. Rozhdestvensky, B. A. Uspensky, V. G. Gak,
G. P. Melnikov, J. B. Buranov, U. K. Yusupov, who have studied
linguistic systems by comparison, are invaluable.
Comparison may be substantial and non-substantial. Substantial
comparison is a comparison of some concrete things of objects. Non-
substantial comparison is a comparison of systems and their elements.
For example, we can compare the grammatical structure of different
languages.
Linguistic typology became a self-dependent science or a branch
of general linguistics on the basis of Comparative Historical Philology.
Yu. V. Rozdestvensky writes that languages are considered to be related
or non-related according to their correspondence in substance .
The linguists who studied the language systems in comparison are
Yu. V. Rozdestvensky, B. A. Uspensky, V. G. Gak, G. P. Melnikov, J.
B. Buranov, U. K. Yusupov and others.
The subject matter of linguistic typology is still a disputable
problem, because different scholars have
their own understanding in
this branch of linguistics. That's why there are several approaches
towards this problem.
The first: linguistic typology is a separate branch of science
including all kinds of comparison. It is in broad sense. The second:
linguistic typology is a part of linguistics, which is opposed to
traditional comparativistics, characterology and areal linguistics. In this
case it is identified with structural typology.
The principal significance of linguistic typology is that the latter
operates with the limitation of the number of compared languages. The
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first group of linguists thinks that the number of languages under
comparison should be unlimited. In such cases we deal with Linguistic
Universals. The second group of scholars suggests that the number of
compared languages should be limited by related languages. The third
group of linguists thinks that the number of compared languages can be
even two, including related or non-related languages.
Linguistic typology may be classified according to the following
criteria:
1) according to the subject of comparison it consists of
a. genetic typology
b.
areal typology
c. comparative typology
d. structural
typology
(typological
theory,
typological
classification, etalon language, language universals).
2) according to the levels of language hierarchy linguistic
typology consists of
a. theoretical typology
b. phonological typology
c. morphological typology
d.
syntactic typology
e. lexical typology
3) according to two plans of the language it consists of
a. formal typology
b. semantic typology
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