Comparative method

:For the constant comparative method by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, see Grounded theory.

Related Topics:
Barney Glaser - Anselm Strauss - Grounded theory

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The comparative method (in linguistics) is a method used to detect genetic relationships between languages and to establish a consistent relationship hypothesis by reconstructing:

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• the common ancestor of the languages in question,
• a plausible sequence of regular changes by which the historically known languages can be derived from that common ancestor.

The comparative method is the "gold standard" by which mainstream linguists judge whether two languages are related; relation is deemed certain only if a reconstruction of the common ancestor (or at least a partial reconstruction) is feasible. Other approaches to the problem that have been proposed, such as Joseph Greenberg's "mass lexical comparison" method, are still considered too unreliable by most linguists.

Related Topics:
Joseph Greenberg - Mass lexical comparison

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Comparative method: Related languages ►