comparative (adj.)

A term used to characterize a major branch of LINGUISTICS, in which the primary concern is to make statements comparing the characteristics of different LANGUAGES (DIALECTS, VARIETIES, etc.), or different historical states of a language. During the nineteenth century, the concern for comparative analysis was exclusively historical, as scholars investigated the relationships between such FAMILIES of languages as Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, their hypothetical antecedents (i.e. the PROTO-language from which such families developed), and the subsequent processes which led to the formation of the language groups of the present day. This study became known as comparative philology (or simply PHILOLOGY) – sometimes as comparative grammar. The phrase comparative method refers to the standard comparative philological technique of comparing a set of forms taken from COGNATE languages in order to determine whether a historical relationship connects them. If there were such a relationship, this analysis would then be used to deduce the characteristics of the ancestor language from which they were assumed to have derived (a process of ‘comparative’ or ‘internal’ RECONSTRUCTION).

Early twentieth-century linguistics switched from a DIACHRONIC to a SYNCHRONIC emphasis in language analysis, and, while not excluding historical studies, comparative linguistics these days is generally taken up with the theoretical and practical analysis of the STRUCTURAL correspondences between living languages, regardless of their history, with the aim of establishing general types of language (‘TYPOLOGICAL comparison’, or ‘typological linguistics’) and ultimately the UNIVERSAL characteristics of human language.

A term used in the three-way GRAMMATICAL description of ADJECTIVES and ADVERBS into DEGREES (comparison), specifying the extent of their application; often abbreviated as comp. The comparative form is used for a comparison between two entities, and contrasts with SUPERLATIVE, for more than two, and POSITIVE, where no comparison is implied. In English, there is both an INFLECTION (-er) and a PERIPHRASTIC construction (more) to express this notion (e.g. nicer, more beautiful). The construction which may follow the use of a comparative is called a comparative clause or comparative sentence, e.g. He is bigger than I am.