Language comparison
The language comparison is a procedure in general and in the historical linguistics to pursue, where languages are compared with each other according to certain criteria to specific goals. It is the occasion to summarize the relevant linguistic sub-areas under the umbrella term " Comparative Linguistics ".
Procedure of language comparison
The comparison of languages is carried out in different approaches with the following objectives:
- in Historical Linguistics with the aim families determine meaning groups historically related languages, which stems from a common original language have been developed;
- in diachrony , to describe the history of a language or dialect group;
- in language typology with the aim of developing language types , i.e. groups of languages with a similar grammatical structure, and uncovering the structural structure of languages;
- in the area typology with the aim of determining language groups ; These are groups of languages which are spatially adjacent and which have influenced each other in their grammatical structure due to long-term contact;
- in contrastive linguistics with the aim of working out the structural differences between mostly only two, sometimes more languages, among other things, so that these differences can be taken into account in language teaching.
The language comparison can also lead to the result that languages do not differ with regard to certain criteria. It then leads to the so-called language universals .
literature
- Helmut Glück (Ed.), With the collaboration of Friederike Schmöe : Metzler Lexikon Sprache. 3rd, revised edition. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2005, ISBN 3-476-02056-8 (keywords: universals, language comparison).
See also
Web links
Wiktionary: Language comparison - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
