СРАВНИТЕЛЬНЫЙ МЕТОД

Comparative Method

A method of investigating and explaining cultural phenomena; infers genetic kinship, that is, common origin, by ascertaining similarity in form. The comparative method reproduces and compares the oldest elements common to various spheres of material culture and knowledge. Wilhelm von Humboldt and, particularly, Auguste Comte were chiefly responsible for the development of the comparative method.

The comparative method was developed further by the 19th century protagonists of comparative philology, Jacob Grimm, August Friedrich Pott, August Schleicher (Germany), Ferdinand de Saussure (Switzerland) and the Russian linguists I. A. Boduin de Courteney, A. N. Veselovsky, A. K. Vostokov, F. F. Fortunatov, etc. The comparative method advanced linguistics and ethnography and prompted deep-going studies of myths and legends.

However, the comparative method concentrated on the outward resemblances of cultural and ideological forms, while neglecting the material social relations that caused their appearance. This is one of the limitations of the comparative method. In modern historical research, the comparative method is employed as an auxiliary to various methods of substantive interpretation of the history of culture.

Сравнительно-исторический метод

В языкознании, система исследовательских приемов, применяющихся в целях установления родства языков и изучения развития родственных языков. См. Сравнительно-историческое языкознание.