Studies in comparison of languages

Document Type : research article

Author

Associate Professor, Department of German Language and Literature, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Tehran, Tehran Iran

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to find the difference between descriptive and research analysis in studies for comparing and contrasting languages. Comparison of languages is a linguistic approach for comparing languages with each other based on certain criteria and purposes. In other words, the comparison of languages is the analysis of two or more languages that are similar or different in terms of some criteria. In general, it is carried out in three different ways and with certain goals: 1- The purpose of the historical and comparative linguistics is to identify the language families, i.e. the group of historically relatedness languages, which are derived from a common proto-language. 2- The purpose of language typology is to classify the different languages according to the same grammatical structure and determine the pattern structure. Sometimes, the result of a comparing shows that languages do not differ from one another according to some criteria, which is interpreted in the framework of language universals. 3- The goal of contrastive linguistics is to contrast the structural differences between two or more languages, which can affect the teaching of foreign languages. Languages could be also compared in terms of diachronic (historical) and synchronic (structural) approach. Just only the historical and comparative linguistics is a diachronic study. Finally, the present paper provides a totally research-based approach to language comparisons.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Foreign Language Research
Volume 11, Issue 1
June 2021
Pages 1-10

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