Manual of comparative linguistics

Alexander Akulov

The book is about precise typological methods of comparative linguistics: Prefixation Ability Index and Verbal Grammar Correlation Index. These two methods allow us to detect very distant relationship of languages by direct comparison of their structures and without making reconstructions.

Manual of comparative linguistics

Prefixation Ability Index (PAI) and Verbal Grammar Correlation Index (VGCI)

Alexander Akulov

Dedicated to the memory

of Prof. Alexander B. Valiotti

© Alexander Akulov, 2015

Created with intellectual publishing system Ridero

1. Why typology but not lexis should be the base of genetic classification of languages

In contemporary linguistics can be seen an obsession of proving relationship of certain languages by comparison of lexis and an obsession to separate typology from comparative linguistics. The main problem of all such hypotheses is that they are not based on any firmly testable methods but just on certain particular points of view and on “artist sees so” principle. Tendency to think that typology should be separated from historical linguistics was inspired by Joseph Greenberg in the West and by Segrei Starostin and Nostratic tradition in USSR/Russia. Despite followers of Nostractics insist that their methods differ from those of Greenberg actually their methods are almost the same: they take word lists, find some look-alike lexemes[1 - Also nobody actually cares that sometimes certain lexemes can look alike just by coincidence: the shorter certain lexeme is the more is probability that it can look alike some random lexemes of other languages.] and on the base of these facts conclude about genetic relationship of certain languages. Followers of Greenberg and Starostin consider typological studies as rather useless “glass beads game”. Typological items are never considered as a system by adepts of megalocomparison[2 - Megalocomparison is term invented by J. Matisoff (Matisoff 1990) specially to denote attempts to prove distant genetic relationship basing on comparison of lexis, i.e.: attempts to prove genetic relationship of certain languages in Greenberg style of so called “mass comparison”.]; usually some randomly chosen typological items are taken outside of their appropriate contexts. For instance, active or ergative typology, or the fact of so called isolating or polysintetic typology (i.e.: items that are not usual for native languages of researchers and that shock researchers’ minds) are considered as interesting exotic items, while no attention is paid to holistic and systematic analysis of language structures. Such approach makes typology be a “curiosity store” but not a tool of comparative linguistics, however, initially, according to founding-fathers of linguistics, it is typology that should be the main tool of comparative linguistics. According to the mythology created by adepts of megalocomparison comparative linguistics has actually little connection with typology and makes its statements with use of lexicostatistical “hoodoo”. Megalocomparativists often object on this critics saying that they also pay attention to structural issues and they also compare morphemes beside lexis. However, we know very well what actually means megalocomparative comparison of morphemes: it means analysis in a lexical way, i.e.: only material components are compared so there is no difference between such comparison of material components of morphemes and comparison of lexemes. The cause of it is the fact that megalocomparativists ignore that any morpheme consists of three components: meaning, position and material expression and reduce morpheme to their material implementation. Almost no attention is paid to the fact that grammar is first of all positional distribution of certain meanings. There is a presupposition that genetic relationship of two languages can be proved by discovering of look-alike lexemes of so called basic vocabulary and by detecting certain “regular phonetic correspondence”. However, yet Atoine Meillet pointed on the fact t