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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Am 15.11.2017 um 10:53 schrieb Martin
Haspelmath:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:5A0C0E84.3080200@shh.mpg.de">Christian
Lehmann's paper on concepts and categories can be read as
supporting the idea that comparative concepts can also be used for
describing languages, but in a recent extended exchange with him,
I understood that he actually supports the idea that structural
descriptions and tertia comparationis (= comparative concepts) are
on a different level.
<br>
</blockquote>
Any sound methodology of comparison requires that the tertium
comparationis have a status different from the primum and secundum
comparationis. Tertia comparationis in comparative linguistics are
parameters defined independently of the properties of particular
languages and are typically not "hybrid", as Bill would say, but
typically purely cognitive/communicative or purely formal/structural
or phonetic (thus, related to linguistic substance, as Martin would
say).<br>
<br>
However, this does not entail that concepts of "structural
description" - let's say: the concepts which we use in the
description of the grammar of languages - are specific of each
language. Quite on the contrary, the primum and the secundum
comparationis can only be compared if there is something that they
share but in which they differ, at the same time. If there is
nothing that they share, we would be comparing pears with apples.
Although it may sound trivial after so much discussion: If we want
to compare two languages with respect to the properties of their
passive, or of their nominal classes, or of their words, it
presupposes that they <b>have</b> these things (while, of course,
other languages may lack them). If the nominal classes of L1 are
matched by a concept X, while the nominal classes of L2 are matched
by a concept Y, where there is no relation between X and Y, no
comparison w.r.t. nominal classes is possible and no basis for
comparing X and Y exists. This is why I insist that "descriptive
categories" are <b>not</b> language-specific. They are
interlingual, i.e. defined in such a way that we can determine
whether a given language possesses such a category or not.<br>
<br>
Given this, the terms 'comparative concept' vs. 'descriptive
concept' are potentially misleading, since they might be understood
to indicate that descriptive concepts (like most of our grammatical
categories and relations) cannot be primum and secundum
comparationis in a comparison.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
<p>Christian<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<p style="font-size:90%">Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann<br>
Seminar für Sprachwissenschaft<br>
Universität Erfurt<br>
Postf. 900221<br>
99105 Erfurt<br>
<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Deutschland</span></p>
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<td>Tel.:</td>
<td>+49/361/737-4200 (Sekr.)</td>
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<td>Fax:</td>
<td>+49/361/737-4209</td>
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<td>E-Post:</td>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Christian.Lehmann@Uni-Erfurt.De">Christian.Lehmann@Uni-Erfurt.De</a></td>
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<td>Web:</td>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.christianlehmann.eu">http://www.christianlehmann.eu</a></td>
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