Practical Aims and Tasks of Contrastive Typology
The results obtained in any branch of typological investigation can be usefully employed both in theoretical linguistics and in teaching practices. Thus, the all-embracing final results of universal and general typologies could help to successfully perform a scientifically substantiated general classification of languages. The results of structural and sublevel/aspect typologies could usefully help in creating scientifically well-grounded theoretical as well as practical phonetics/phonologies, grammars, lexicologies, stylistics and dictionaries of various languages.
The study of charactereological and partial (aspects) typology would acquaint the student with the fundamentals of this modern branch of linguistics in general and with some of its principal methods of analysis in particular. A contrastive typological treatment of the main phonetical/phonological, lexical and grammatical features/ phenomena, available or unavailable in the corresponding systems of the foreign language/languages and in the native tongue, will provide the students not only with the linguistic results necessary for their successful methodological work at school, but also with the understanding of a systemic organisation of all languages.
Contrastive typology as a branch of linguistics employs some terms and notions of its own. The principal and the most often occurrant of them are as follows:
1. Absolute universals (абсолютні/повні універсала) i.e. features or phenomena of a language level pertaining to any language of the world (cf. vowels and consonants, word stress and utterance stress, intonation sentences, parts of the sentence, parts of speech, etc.).
2. Near universals (неповні/часткові універсалії) i.e. features or phenomena common in many or some languages under typological investigation.
3. Metalanguage (метамова), as has been mentioned already, is the language in which the actual presentation/analysis of different features/ phenomena of the contrasted languages is carried out.
4. Typologically dominant features (типологічні домінанти) are features or phenomena dominating at a language level or in the structure of one/some of the contrasted languages. Dominant in present-day English are known to be analytical means: rigid word order in wordgroups and sentences, the prominent role of prepositions and placement as means of connection and expression of case relations and syntactic functions (cf. books for my friend, books to my friends, books by my friends; a nice flower-nice flowers, Peter came - Mary came), etc. The change of placement of the part of the sentence may completely change its sense. Cf. The hunter killed the hare - The hare killed the hunter. In Ukrainian the change of placement of the main parts of the sentence usually does not change the meaning of the sentence, as in this same sentence: Мисливець застрілив зайця or: Зайця застрілив мисливець. In Ukrainian everything is just on the contrary: case, gender and number categories are expressed by means of inflexions: братові книжки, братових книжок; він співав - вона співала, дитя співало; червона квітка - червоні квітки; перший крок - перші кроки, перша зміна. There is abundance of synthetic and analytical or synthetic and analytical government (кликати Марію/Петра; кликати до вечері/до столу; зроблено Петром/будь-ким (будь для кого), etc. Consequently, the dominant (and typical) features of a language predetermine its structural type as analytical, synthetic, agglutinative,
etc.
5. Typologically recessive features/phenomena (типологічне рецесивні, втрачаючі колишню активну роль) are those losing their former dominant role as, for instance, case forms in English or the dual number forms of some nouns in present-day Ukrainian.
6. Isomorphic features/phenomena (ізоморфні риси/явища) as was mentioned already, are common features/phenomena in languages under Contrastive analysis. Isomorphic in English and Ukrainian is, for example, the existence of consonants and vowels, assimilation, and the categories of number, person, tense, as well as parts of speech, the existence of sentences, etc.
7. Allomorphic features/phenomena (аломорфні риси/явища) are observed in one language and missing in the other. For example: palatalization of practically all consonants or the dual number in Ukrainian, the gerund or the diphthongs and analytical verb forms in English, which are missing (allomorphic) in Ukrainian.
An exhaustive list of isomorphic and allomorphic features/ phenomena of a foreign language and of the native tongue can constitute a reliable basis for charactereological typology. Its main aim, as in our case, should be to teach students to identify, select and group the isomorphic and allomorphic features/phenomena in English and in Ukrainian and to use the obtained results for methodological purposes in their future teaching and as well as in their translating
practices.
8. The etalon language is a hypothetic language created by typologists for the sake of contrasting any languages. This "language" is supposed to contain exhaustive quantitative and qualitative data or characteristics concerning all existing language units and phenomena. For example, the quantity and quality of sounds (vowels, consonants) and syllables, morphemes, parts of speech and their morphological
categories, the correlation of the means of grammatical connection,
etc.
4. Методи порівняльно-типологічного вивчення мов. Види типологічних досліджень.
Methods of Investigation in Contrastive Typology
Contrastive typological investigations are carried out with the help of several methods. The main one is the comparative method, which is also employed in historical and comparative linguistics. Nevertheless, the final aims of Contrastive typological linguistics and of historical and comparative linguistics differ greatly. The latter aims at establishing the parent language and the former at establishing the isomorphic (alongside of allomorphic) features, the dominant features and on their basis the establishment of structural types of languages under Contrastive
investigation.
Comparing of isomorphic features and phenomena can very often be performed both with the help of the deductive and the inductive methods. The deductive method is based on logical computation/ calculation which suggests all admissive variants of realisation of a certain feature/ phenomenon in speech of one or of some contrasted languages. For example, the existence of the attributive AN and NA structure word-group patterns in English and Ukrainian is indisputable.
Cf. : the green pasture — the pasture green (Byron), зелене пасовисько — пасовисько зелене. Common are also the dAN and the DAN patterns in English and Ukrainian (eg: that nice book, that very interesting book — та гарна книжка, та дуже гарна книжка).
Rarer, though quite possible, are also ANd or DANd patterns wordgroups, eg: dear lady mine, very dear lady mine; дорога сестро моя, сестро дуже дорога моя.
Ukrainian word-groups of both these patterns regularly occur in speech. Cf. гарна книжка ця, дуже гарна книжка ця. The deductive computation helps find some other transforms of the ANd pattern with the post-positional pronoun determiner as in the word-group "nice young sisters of his" or "a brave deed of hers" which are impossible in Ukrainian, where a prepositional pronoun or noun displays a strong objective relation (Cf. гарна книжка ця від мене/була для дітей, добра звістка така найшла тоді його в шпиталі).
Consequently, the deductive method of analysis can be rather helpful in Contrastive typological investigations, and not only when contrasting syntactic level units or phenomena.
Much more often employed in Contrastive typology is the inductive method which needs no verification whatsoever, since the investigated feature/phenomenon was proved already by the preceding generations of researcher linguists. Due to this the reliability of the results or data provided by the inductive method is indisputable. An example of thus obtained results may be the qualitative characteristics of vowels in some European languages (Table 1). These results had been obtained
by the preceding researchers long ago and are simply taken from the corresponding phonetics bona fide by everybody interested in the nature of vowel sounds in the mentioned languages.
3. The transformational method is more often employed than the ICs method. Also it is more helpful when identifying the nature of some language unit in a contrasted language. Its reliability is clearly proved through translation, which is always the best transformation of any language unit. In short, any transformation is a form of expressing some definite meaning. The simplest transformation is transcoding
(перекодування іншими буквами). Cf. in English: Leeds, Liverpool (in Latin letters) and Лідс, Ліверпуль in Cyrillic or any other letters.
The transformational method is employed: a) to identify the nature of a language unit in the source language or in the target language. Thus, the type of the Ukrainian sentence Знаю, прийду, may be understood and treated differently: 1) as a definite personal sentence with two homogeneous predicates; 2) as a definite personal main sentence (why shall I come?) because (I know it) or 3) as two co-ordinate definite personal clauses with the causal implicit meaning. When translated into English (i.e. transformed), this sentence acquires the following structural form: / know it and I shall come. Therefore, the original Ukrainian
variant Знаю, прийду, may be identified as a definite personal sentence
with two homogeneous i.e. co-ordinate clauses corresponding to
(Я) знаю and (і я) прийду. b) Transformation may reveal the difference in the form of expression in the contrasted languages. Cf. Вас запрошують взяти участь
у науковій конференції (an indefinite personal sentence, active voice), which has for its equivalent in English You are invited to take part in the scientific conference (i.e. a definite personal sentence with a passive voice verbal predicate). Transformation may often be required by the peculiarity of the syntactic structure of the source language (or the target language) unit. Cf. The lesson over, all students went to the reading-hall. Після того, як заняття закінчилися (Оскільки заняття закінчилися...) or into a prepositional noun, expressing time: Після закінчення занять студенти пішли... The nominative absolute participial construction The lesson over (i.e. being or having been over) has to be substituted i.e. transformed into an adverbial clause of time or cause (Після того, як заняття закінчилися/ Оскільки заняття закінчилися, всі студенти пішли до читальні).
Transformation may also be lexical, as in the following sentences: He is not unlike his father Він схожий на свого батька; or Dick was running in the yard in his shirt sleeves Дік бігав на подвір'ї без піджака (в одній верхній сорочці).
Apart from these some other methods of analysis are helpful for the establishment of structural or semantic isomorphisms and allomorphisms in the contrasted languages. Among these is also the Contrastive linguistic method, which is usually employed to investigate a restricted number of genealogically related or non-related languages.
The object of Contrastive linguistics in general is the meaning, form and functioning of certain language units, their features or phenomena. Unlike Contrastive typology, Contrastive linguistics does not treat language features or phenomena with the aim of establishing isomorphic or allomorphic features and universals. Divergent features and phenomena in the languages under Contrastive linguistic investigation are considered to be irregularities or exceptions to some general rules. The aim of Contrastive linguistics has never been to establish systemic relations on a global scale, or to establish universal features. Despite all this, the Contrastive linguistic method, when employed both synchronically and diachronically, provides the establishment of valuable theoretical and practical results providing the reliable data on various aspects of languages under investigation. Contrastive linguistics contributes greatly both to the aspect and charactereological typologies of the investigated languages.
Some purely typological methods of Contrastive investigation have recently been suggested as well. Among the best known is the indexes method by the American linguist Joseph Greenberg. The method helps identify the quantitative co-occurrence or frequency of some feature or phenomenon in the contrasted languages. J. Greenberg selected some passages, among them one English and one Russian, each containing one hundred notional words and subjected them
to various typologically relevant analyses. The parameters of his computations
were as follows:
1. The degree of synthesis in the words. Thus, when the morphemes are lettered as M and the number of words in the passage as W, the M/W- ratio will express the synthetic structure index, which is in English between 1.62 to 1.68.
2. The second parameter constitute the ways in which various morphemes are joined in English notional words. Since one of the main ways in English is agglutination (lettered as A), it gives in relation to this kind of juncture (lettered J) an A/J ratio reflecting the degree of cohesion between the morphemes in these notional words. It goes without saying that the higher the index, the greater the role of agglutination and the lower their fusion (i.e. synthetism) in any language.
3. The productivity degree of the form-building morphemes constitutes the third parameter. When the number of root morphemes is letter d as R, the number of words in the text as W, the R/W ratio will express the index of derivation. This index proves that the higher the number of root morphemes making the notionals, the lower is the degree of form-building in the system of words in the contrasted language.
4. The quantity of derivational morphemes (D) in direct relation to the number of words (W) in the text gives the D/W ratio indicating the word- forming capacity of a language.
5. The fifth parameter characterises the correlation of affixal morphemes in their relation to the number of words. So, the P/W ratio constitutes the index of prefixation and indicates the correlation between the number of prefixes and the number of words in the text.
6. Similarly, the S/W ratio with the letter S standing for suffixal morphemes will be the index of suffixation in the words of the text.
7. Finally when accidence, i. e. genuine form-building is lettered as Pi, then the Pi/N- ratio will designate the index characterising the form-building capacity of words in the language.
8. Consequently, when the synthetic agreement is lettered as Co (concord), the Co/N ratio will represent the index of concord i.e. grammatical agreement in the selected by the researcher passage/text. It should be added in conclusion that J. Greenberg's indexes have been analysed and proved to be true by different linguists in some European countries. Some linguistics as V. Kroopa in Slovakia have even further elaborated and improved the method by substituting the lettered
indexes for the digital gradation from zero (0.3, 0.5 etc.) up to 1(one).