Cognition comes through comparison.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Chapter 1. Typology as a method of scientific research
§1. The notion of typology in science
Main notions of the paragraph:
1.
Typology as a method of scientific research
2.
Non-linguistic typology
3.
Linguistic typology
4.
the types of linguistic comparison
Typology is the systematic classification of objects or notions according to
their common characteristics. It may refer to any field of science being
characteristic of all branches of knowledge, because taxonomic description,
classification and comparison of various objects are used both in linguistic and
non-linguistic disciplines such as medicine, psychology, chemistry, biology,
geography, sociology, etc.
Being a method of scientific cognition, general typology combines a non-
linguistic and linguistic typology, because both of them have common tasks and
similar principles for identifying both isomorphic and allomorphic properties of
notions, phenomena, facts, relationships, events united by the principle of
dialectical unity. It classifies them according to special criterion
taking into
account similarities and differences, commonality and separateness, generality
and specificity, stability and instability.
The range of
non-linguistic typology
application is very wide and can serve
as a comparative method for many sciences. Comparison is one of the logical
methods of convincing the world which is made on the basis of general and
unique features of notions or objects. Science which studies this notions and
objects operates with typological method to find unknown features of notion or
object being investigated. For some sciences, however comparison stands out as
a main instrument of research. For instance, comparative medicine (… is a
distinct discipline of experimental medicine that uses animal models of human
and animal disease in translational and biomedical research. In other words, it
relates and leverages biological similarities and differences among species to
better understand the mechanism of human and animal disease. It has also been
defined as a study of similarities and differences between human and veterinary
medicine
1
), comparative biochemistry (studies evolutionary relationships
between organisms by comparing similarities and differences in genes of DNA),
comparative literature (studies various national literatures, stressing their
influence one upon another, their use of similar forms, their treatment of similar
themes
2
), comparative pedagogy (studies the general and distinctive features and
trends of the development of pedagogical theories and practical training and
education in the modern world, revealing their economic, socio-political and
philosophical foundations, as well as national characteristics), etc.
The presence of approximately similar operations and similar methods of
approach to comparison in various fields of knowledge indicates that general
typology is a unified science that has specific sections, similar methods and
principles of analysis and classification of facts, events in different areas of
human activity. All types of comparison can be attributed to typology and
consider the general typology as a single science of comparison.
Linguistic typology
is a section of linguistics that deals with the grouping
of basic, essential characteristics, attributes and the derivation of patterns
observed in a number of languages; the study of the types of languages and the
types of linguistic structure. It has its own subject, its own methods, sections and
history, which determines its independence among other sections of linguistics.
1
Jensen-Jarolim, E. (2013). Comparative Medicine: Anatomy and Physiology. Springer Science &
Business Media. ISBN 9783709115596. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_medicine
2
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/comparative-literature
As V.D.Arakin states, there are different opinions on the definition of the
subject of linguistic typology: some linguists excessively expand the scope of the
science of typology (Meshaninov I.I., Uspenskiy B.A.), while others, on the
contrary, understand typology as a very narrow area of research (Katsnelson S.D.,
Lomtev T.P.). He mentions that the most common and earliest time of its
occurrence value refers to the name of a whole section of science – linguistic
typology, or typology of languages. Most linguists agree on the understanding of
typology in linguistics as the doctrine of the types of languages that are studied
by comparing, or juxtaposing, both individual levels, sublevels and
microsystems, and systems of individual languages in general and groups of
languages
3
.
Some linguists state that linguistic typology is also called cross-linguistic
typology that deals with the analysis, comparison, and classification of languages
according to their common structural features and forms
4
. Dictionaries give
another definition: “typology studies the structural similarities between
languages, regardless of their history, as part of an attempt to establish a
satisfactory classification, or typology, of languages”
5
. Generally, typological
studies are related to various terms conventionally assigned to certain sections of
the typology: “typology”, “structural typology”, “comparative typology”, “areal
linguistics”, “characterology”, “contrastive linguistics”, “confrontational
linguistics”, “language universals”, “translational grammar”, “comparative
typological linguistics”, “comparative historical method”, “comparative
philology”, “contrastive linguistics”, etc.
The terms “compare”, “contrast” and “comparative method”, “contrastive
method” were usually used synonymously. Such a scatter in terms indicates the
unstable nature of the linguistic typology as a science. In linguistics there is not
3
Аракин В.Д. Сравнительная типология английского и русского языков / В. Д. Аракин. – Л.:
Просвещение, 1979.
4
Richard Nordquist https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-linguistic-typology-1691129
5
Crystal D. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Sixth Edition. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2008
enough material to determine the subject of each section and type of linguistic
typology to contrast the comparative and typological methods, the typological
study of related and unrelated languages, the structural and typological
description of languages, characterological and uncharacterological research, etc.
However, with the development of comparative study of languages, the terms
“comparative method” and “contrastive method” become separate notions. Now
comparative method is considered to be an instrument of comparative historical
study of related languages, and under the contrastive method, a comparison of
both related and unrelated languages in a synchronic aspect is understood.
Depending on a purpose of analysis the number of languages being
compared is of fundamental importance in typology. The number of languages is
unlimited when analysis considers the establishment of universals. The number
of languages is limited when related languages are analyzed. Sometimes it can be
a single language when typological analysis serves as a principle of organizing
language material of one specific language.
According to Dj.Buranov, for all the variety of existing definitions,
typology refers to various types of comparison of language systems
6
. Genetic,
typological and areal comparisons comprise three sides of a single process of
comparison. These methods do not compete with each other, but complement
each other. So, the types of linguistic comparison can be represented as follows:
1) comparative-genealogical comparison (reconstruction of the common
ancestors of related languages);
2) typological comparison of systems and subsystems of languages: a)
related, b) unrelated - one-system or multi-system languages. The division into
closely related and long-distance languages, since in the course of historical
development distant languages, structural differences can become so significant
that their “kinship” can persist as a historical factor;
6
Буранов Дж. Сравнительная
типология
английского и тюркских языков: Учеб. пособие для пед. ин-тов.
–М.: 1983. – 267 с.
3) areal linguistics, for which is characterized by a comparison of language
systems of a certain geographical proximity.
Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that сomparison of language
structures shows their extreme diversity. Linguistic typology designed to provide
an answer to the question, what is the degree and where are the boundaries of this
diversity, how languages can generally differ – or should contain some common
features in their structure.
1.
What does linguistic typology study?
2.
What is the object of linguistic typology?
3.
What is the difference between comparative and contrastive methods?
4.
According to Dj.Buranov what are the types of linguistic comparison?
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