Comparative Methodology

[Rich Alderson]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
You wrote:

> Please note the distinction I make between 'phase' and 'step'.
> A phase is a stage in the implementation during which one or
> more (related) steps are performed, a step is a specific
> process conducted within a phase.

The distinction did not seem relevant at the time; my apologies.

> I also didn't include a phase that would cover situations where the
> languages compared split off the ancestral node at different times,
> such that reconstruction of one or more intermediary proto-languages
> might be necessary.  This phase would also require iteration of at
> least some of the preceding phases.

The comparative method in and of itself cannot give you this result,
which is rather a matter of the interpretation of the results.  CM
on its own yields a single flat proto-language for all the languages
compared; to obtain intermediate branchings, one must compare smaller
subsets of the entire set of comparanda, and determine whether the
result is significantly different from that of comparing the whole set.

                                                                Rich Alderson