Comparative Grammar:
* Focus: Broad comparison of the structural features of two or more languages.
* Purpose: To identify similarities and differences in grammatical systems, often aiming to:
* Understand language universals: Identify common patterns and variations across languages.
* Discover language families: Group languages based on shared features.
* Develop theories of language change: Explain how languages evolve and diverge.
* Method: Analyzes a wide range of grammatical phenomena, including syntax, morphology, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics.
* Examples:
* Comparing the grammatical structures of English and French to identify differences in verb conjugation systems.
* Analyzing the evolution of vowel systems in Germanic languages.
Contrastive Grammar:
* Focus: Comparing two specific languages to highlight their differences for a particular practical purpose.
* Purpose: To aid in language learning and translation by identifying potential areas of difficulty or confusion.
* Method: Analyzes specific areas of grammar where the two languages differ, often focusing on:
* Vocabulary: Identifying cognates and false friends.
* Syntax: Comparing sentence structures and word order.
* Morphology: Analyzing differences in word formation.
* Examples:
* A contrastive analysis of English and Spanish prepositions to help Spanish speakers learn English.
* A contrastive study of English and Japanese sentence structure for translators.
In short:
* Comparative grammar is broader and seeks to understand how languages function and evolve, while contrastive grammar is more focused and aims to solve practical problems in language learning and translation.
Here's a helpful analogy:
* Comparative grammar is like comparing a car and a train to understand how they work and what makes them different.
* Contrastive grammar is like comparing a car and a train to understand how to safely travel in both vehicles.