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. 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 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 (пастбище) — the pasture green (Byron), зелене пасовисько — пасовисько зелене. Rarer, though quite possible, are also ANd or DANd patterns word-groups, eg: dear lady mine, very dear lady mine; дорога сестро моя, сестро дуже дорога моя.

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. These results had been obtained by the preceding researchers long ago and are simply taken from the corresponding phonetics by everybody interested in the nature of vowel sounds in the mentioned languages.

The transformational method is widely employed. 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.

The indexes method helps identify the quantitative co-occurrence or frequency of some feature or phenomenon in the contrasted languages. J. Green-berg 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 (сращивание) (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 lettered 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.