Contrastive linguistics compares and explains two languages, listing their differences and similarities. It studies how languages developed and their historical relationships. It has subdivisions such as general and specialized comparative linguistics, and examines language contact theory. It looks at vocabulary, syntax, grammar, phonology, and culture. It was developed in the 1950s to help teach foreign languages and follows four basic procedures.
Contrastive linguistics seeks to study and explain any two languages. This includes listing the differences and similarities between them. Contrastive linguistics has also been called differential linguistics and is a separate subsection of comparative linguistics from the study of only two languages at a time.
This area studies languages to discern how they developed and with what other languages they are historically related. For example, comparative linguistic studies of Hungarian show its early ties to Chinese and Korean, then how it was influenced by Mongolian, Turkish, and other languages as the Magyars moved west through Siberia and eventually into Europe. Such studies have also shown how and when Hungarian separated from its closest linguistic partner, Finnish-Estonian.
There are many subdivisions of comparative linguistics and, therefore, also of contrastive linguistics as they use similar techniques. The discipline is traditionally divided into two main groups: general comparative linguistics and specialized comparative linguistics. General comparative linguistics is divided into descriptive, typological, and historical linguistics, while specialized comparative linguistics is divided into generic comparative, language contact theory, and areal linguistics.
The theory of language contact becomes more important during contrastive language studies. Examine the relationship of two languages. Not all languages studied in contrastive linguistics are related or have had contact with each other, but it allows the linguist to look at possible changes that one language has affected in another such as transfers and interferences. This is known as the bilingualism theory and includes the creation of creoles and translation.
Both comparative and contrastive linguistics look at similar areas of a language. This includes the vocabulary or words used by the language and how those words are affected when they are pluralized or inflected. They also examine how a language uses syntax to form sentences, grammar to organize words and sentences, phonology, and also how culture creates idioms.
Contrastive linguistics was first developed in the 1950s. It was based on the ideas of linguistic structuralism and was initially aimed not at language studies, but at helping teachers of foreign languages. This goal was intended to make learning a second language easier to understand and more effective way to teach it. Contrastive linguistics led to large-scale language projects across Europe in the 1970s before moving into academia.
The study of contrastive linguistics follows four basic procedures. The first is to identify the two languages studied. The second requires a complete description of the characteristics of each language. Third, the scholar seeks juxtaposition; links between the two languages. In the fourth the scholar compares the two languages to see how they correspond to each other.
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