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CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
Svetlana Kurtes


1. Historical perspective and its raison dtre

Contrastive analysis, traditionally defined, is a linguistic branch whose
main aim is to help the analyst to ascertain in which aspects the two
languages are alike and in which they differ (cf. Filipovi 1975). It includes
two main processes description and comparison (cf. James1980), set up in
four basic steps: a) assembling the data, b) formulating the description, c)
supplementing the data as required, and d) formulating the contrasts
(James 1980). Although the term contrastive analysis is widely accepted and
commonly used, the problem of terminological diversity was very present in
the relevant linguistic literature throughout the 20
th
century. Thus, this
discipline was also referred to as parallel description (Fries 1945),
differential studies (Lee 1974), differential description (Mackey 1965),
dialinguistic analysis (Nemser 1971), analytical confrontation (ibid.),
analytical comparison (Mathesius 1964), interlingual comparison (Filipovi
1975c), as well as comparative descriptive linguistics (Halliday-McIntosh-
Strevents 1964), or descriptive comparison (Catford 1968). The very term
contrastive linguistics was actually coined by American linguist and
anthropologist Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941) in his article Languages
and logic published in 1941, where he drew the distinction between
comparative and contrastive linguistics, maintaining that the latter was of
even greater importance for the future technology of thought (1967: 240),
and defining it as a discipline which plots the outstanding differences
among tongues in grammar, logic, and general analysis of experience
(ibid.).
It is important to notice a semantic dichotomy regarding the term
contrastive analysis. Namely, it is a systematic scientific method in its own
right and the most prominent branch of contrastive linguistics, together
with theory of translation and error analysis. Its main aim is, thus, to
explicitly define similarities and differences between the observed languages
based on a systematic comparison of their description. American linguist
and EFL methodologist Robert Lado (1915-1995) is unanimously regarded
as the founder of contrastive analysis and 1957, the year in which he
published his seminal book Linguistics across cultures, as the moment the
discipline was officially constituted as a scientific study field. But basic
ideas expressed here are certainly not unknown to scholars of the previous
historic periods, which is why it is customary to talk about the (1)
traditional, (2) classical and (3) modern period of contrastive studies. Here
are some major defining characteristics of each.
(1) The end of the 19
th
century and the beginning of the 20
th
century,
marked predominantly by typological studies, was generally recognized as
the traditional period of contrastive studies. It yielded some titles relevant to
the history of contrastive linguistics, such as German and English Sounds by
Charles H Grandgent (1892), Elemente der Phonetik des Deutschen,
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Englischen und Franzsischen by Wilhelm Vitor (1894), Petite phontique
compare des principales langues europennes by Paul Passy (1906), etc.
Some outstanding linguistic scholars of that period also emphasized the
relevance of the contrastive approach to linguistic research, Leonard
Bloomfield (1887-1949) being among the most prominent names. In
particular, Bloomfield (1933) emphasized the importance of interlingual
comparison to the study of language universals, claiming it to be the main
task for linguistics in the future. Linguists of the Prague School, most
notably Vilm Mathesius (1882-1945) emphasized the advantages of parallel
linguistic comparison of two or more languages for a better and more
profound understanding of each of those languages, and, in a broader sense
of the term, for the advancement of typological studies (Mathesius1964).
(2) The period between the end of the Second World War and 1965, also
known as the classical period of contrastive studies, is of particular
relevance. It was the time when contrastive analysis was finally recognized
and fully established as a scientific, pragmatic and academic discipline able
to yield numerous results which were subsequently successfully applied to
studies of bilingualism, teaching methodology, translation studies, language
planning, etc. Among the most prominent names of this period were Charles
Fries, Robert Lado, Kenneth Pike, Uriel Weinreich and others. In particular,
Fries (1887-1967) published his highly influential book Teaching and
Learning English as a Foreign Language in 1945, expressing his well-known
standpoint that the most effective materials are those that are based upon
a scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared
with a parallel description of the native language of the learner(1945: 9).
The Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington organized the first
contrastive studies project the result of which were ten studies, Contrastive
Studies Series, published between 1962 and 1965. Series presented the
results of the phonological and grammatical contrastive analysis between
English and five other languages commonly taught as foreign languages in
America German, Russian, French, Spanish and Italian.
(3) The modern period of contrastive studies was introduced by a huge
number of contrastive projects being carried out in many academic centres
all over the world, further elaboration and advancement of theoretical issues
and application of modern approaches, better communication between
contrastivists on the international scale, etc. This was also the period when
some of the basic theoretical issues expressed during the previous periods
started to be severely criticized (cf. Hamp 1968). As a result, two major
international conferences were organized to address the issues raised and
offer some clarification 19
th
Annual Round Table: Contrastive Linguistics
and Its Pedagogical Implications in Georgetown in 1968 and Honolulu-Hawaii
Pacific Conference on Contrastive Linguistics and Language Universals in
1971. On the European continent, however, this was the time of some major
contrastive projects, the most important ones certainly were the Yugoslav
Serbo-Croatian-English Contrastive Project in Zagreb, The Pozna Polish-
English Contrastive Project, Projekt fr angewandte kontrastive
Sprachwissenschaft in Stuttgart, The Finnish-English Contrastive Project in
Jyvskyl, The Romanian-English Language Project in Bucharest, English-
Hungarian Contrastive Project in Budapest, Swedish-English Contrastive
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Studies in Lund, etc. Several international conferences gathering European
contrastivists were also successfully organized: in Zagreb (1970), Bucharest
(1975), Trier and Saarbrcken (1978), Charzykowy (1980), Jyvskyl (1982),
etc. This was also a period when contrastive analysis became established as
an academic discipline at various universities throughout the world, as the
wider scholarly community acknowledged not only its applied and
theoretical aspects, but also granted it full academic status.
The last couple of decades of the 20
th
century were also quite prolific for
contrastive studies and it is to be hoped that the methods developed and
results achieved so far will attract attention of new generations of
researchers and inspire their confidence in the discipline. Modern linguistic
approaches as well as modern technology have opened new horizons for
contrastive analysis and the new direction into which it strives can now be
recognized quite clearly. More precisely, cognitive linguistics, pragmatics,
corpus linguistics, etc. have all offered precious new theoretical frameworks
and methodology that have been incorporated into recent contrastive
studies, thus laying the foundation of contrastive analysis of the 21
st

century
1
(cf. Kurte 2005).
Contrastivists have long been aware of the fact that contrastive
analysis, being a branch of contrastive linguistics, can be considered to be
both theoretical and applied discipline. Nonetheless, the discussion whether
it belongs to pure or applied science have yielded three main clearly
distinguishable standpoints: (1) contrastive analysis is a method of
contrastive linguistics, which is a branch of theoretical linguistics, and its
results are relevant to both pure (e.g. typological studies) and applied
linguistics (e.g. language teaching methodology, translation studies, etc.); (2)
being a branch of applied linguistics, the results of contrastive analysis are
primarily relevant to foreign language teaching methodology; (3) there is no
justifiable reason to insist on the distinction between the two; instead the
term contrastive studies should be used to cover both (cf. Filipovi 1971;
Slama Cazacu 1971; Fisiak-Lipiska Grzegorek-Zabrocki 1978). Its
openness and adaptability to new approaches, methodologies and
techniques, the versatility of its interests and ability to address the relevant
issues at all levels of language structure should grant it a special status
among other disciplines.


2. Theoretical and methodological considerations


1
There are a few projects currently underway which are certainly worth mentioning in this context. One such project is the
COLLATE research network, based in Ghent University in Belgium (http://bank.rug.ac.be/contragram/collate.html).
Contrastive Linguistics and Language Typology in Europe COLLATE for short is an international research
network set up in 1996 in order to bring together, promote and co-ordinate fragmented research efforts in the field of
contrastive linguistics. Among other things, one of the most comprehensive bibliographies on contrastive linguistics
is to be found on their web-site. Participating research units (such as CONTRAGRAM) and other partners (e.g. The
Corpus Linguistics Group of Birmingham University, or the INTERSECT Project of Brighton University) all
contribute to the quality of the research results of the network. Another important research project is underway at the
University of Murcia in Spain, lead by Dr Antonio Barcelona and his associates Dr Javier Valenzuela and Dr Ana
Rojo. The project focuses on the systematic English-Spanish contrastive analysis of the conceptualisation and lexico-
grammatical symbolization of four emotional domains. For preliminary results of the analysis cf. Barcelona 2001.
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The central theoretical issue and the ultimate goal of contrastive studies
is the question of establishing similarities and differences and,
consequently, their quantification. Chesterman (1998), in addressing this
issue, makes a useful distinction between similarity-as-trigger, defining it
as the notion of a particular relation existing between entities in the world,
a relation that impinges upon human perception, from matter to mind
(ibid., 7) and similarity-as-attribution, which goes in the opposite direction,
from mind to matter. It is essentially a subjective, cognitive process that
perceives two entities as being similar (ibid.). Similarity judgements, in turn,
are () ways of organizing and clarifying ones mental representations of
the world (ibid., 8). They are also bound to be relative, variable and culture
dependent (Goodman 1972).

2.1. Comparability criterion and tertium comparationis

The comparability criterion, one of the major theoretical concepts of
contrastive studies, has to be established prior to any analysis itself.
Effectively, the analyst is supposed to answer the question what can be
compared in the observed languages. Traditionally, there are three main
ways of dealing with the problem of comparability. Originally, it used to be
established either at the semantic or formal/grammatical levels. The third
way of establishing comparability criterion assumes defining the relations of
equivalence, similarity and difference in the observed languages
2
. What
exactly do they refer to?
The notion of equivalence was originally taken from theory of translation
and it involved the concept of translation equivalence (cf. Ivir 1969). More
specifically, equivalence in contrastive studies assumes that there is a
universal feature, a common platform of reference, tertium comparationis,
representing the starting point of any comparison. The actual realization of
that universal feature in the two languages is what the contrastivist is
interested in. In other words, equivalence is one of the key issues of
contrastive analysis, and the basic working law of the discipline can be
presented graphically as a triangle, interrelating the contrasted features in
the observed languages by means of tertium comparationis (cf. Fig. 1 below;
Djordjevi 1987: 58).

C


A B

Fig. 1 Equivalence and tertium comparationis

Similarities and differences, on the other hand, are to be observed in
the form, meaning and distribution of the relevant language segments.

2
In the classical period of contrastive analysis comparability criterion involved two basic relations, namely similarities and
differences, and they were observed at three separate levels: in form, meaning and distribution. This standpoint was
originally proposed by Lado (1957).
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Following that standpoint, contrasted elements can be similar in form, but
different in meaning and distribution, etc.
The introduction of the notion of contrast refined the contrastive
analytical process further, defining differences among the observed language
in more precise terms. Namely, the relation of contrast is to be seen in the
so-called convergent and divergent relations between the analyzed linguistic
segments, while the relation of difference was now observed in the so-called
zero relations. Let us briefly have a closer look at each of these notions.
Convergent relations between the observed language segments can be
established in the situation when two or more symbols in language A are
confronted with only one symbol in language B representing the same
segment of reality. These relations can be observed at both grammatical and
lexical levels. Consequently, divergent relations are to be established in the
situation when one particular symbol in language A is confronted with two
or more symbols in language B representing the same segment of reality.
Again, these relations can be observed at both grammatical and lexical
levels.
Finally, the notion of difference in contrastive studies is represented by
zero relations (cf. Carroll 1963). These relations can be spotted in a
situation when there is a symbol in language A labeling a certain segment of
reality and the corresponding symbol in language B cannot be found. Again,
zero relations can be observed at both grammatical and lexical levels.
Fig. 2 below summarizes these basic contrastive analytical relations
fundamental in establishing the comparability criteria (cf. also Whitman
1970; Djordjevi 1987; Kurte 1991).

Language A Language B Type of relation
features features
Equivalence +/- +/- 1:1
Similarity +++ ++- all
Contrast ++++ ++-- all
Difference +/- -/+ 1:0/0:1

Fig. 2 Basic contrastive relations

2.2. Methodological innovations and new perspectives

As mentioned previously, traditional contrastive methodology subsumed two
basic processes description and comparison. Krzeszowski (1990), however,
speaks about three main steps in classical contrastive studies description,
juxtaposition and comparison.
Modern contrastive analysis introduces some methodological
innovations into its analytical framework (Chesterman 1998), essentially
drawing from Poppers view expressed in his philosophy of science (Popper
1972). According to this view, objective knowledge is gained through an
endless process of problem solving, basically consisting of suggesting,
testing and refuting initial hypotheses, which are revised and tested again,
etc. Following this line of argument, a new methodological framework is
proposed, its main stages being the following:
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1) Collecting primary data against which hypotheses are to be tested.
Primary data involve all instances of language use, utterances that
speakers of the languages in question produce.
2) Establishing comparability criterion based on a perceived similarity of
any kind.
3) Defining the nature of similarity and formulating the initial
hypothesis.
4) Hypothesis testing: determining the conditions under which the initial
hypothesis can be accepted or rejected. This process will normally
include selection of a theoretical framework, selection of primary and
additional data and use of corpora, appeal to ones own intuition or
other bilingual informants, even the results of error analysis of non-
native usage.
5) Formulating the revised hypothesis.
6) Testing of the revised hypothesis, and so on.

These contrastive formulations can be successfully tested by finding
them in a corpus or checking the behaviour of speakers. The real task for
the contrastivist is to specify the conditions under which the formulations
are valid, which is essentially in traditional contrastive studies known as the
contrastive rule. Depending on the comparability criterion, these
conditions can be syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, stylistic, contextual, etc.
(Chesterman 1998).


3. Ways forward

Let us finally conclude by addressing the issue of the relevance of
contrastive linguistics and its proper place in 21
st
century linguistics. Why
contrastive analysis? Can its relevance in a wider linguistic context be
justified at all?
The vitality of the discipline has been confirmed not only by its vast
research potentialities that resulted in numerous contrastive research
projects and successful application of their results in the whole spectrum of
study fields, such as language teaching methodology, theory of translation,
studies of bilingualism, language policy, etc, but also by its openness and
adaptability to new methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches.
Moreover, contrastive linguistics should see its significant chance to take a
much more prominent place in 21
st
century linguistics. The 20
th
century
witnessed the creation of some very opposing models of linguistic analysis,
such as relativist vs. universalist, synchronic vs. diachronic, psychological
vs. social, to name but a few, that almost obliterated the common ground
defining linguistic as an integral study field. Contrastive linguistics,
however, has a unique opportunity to fill in this gap and give a new impact
on the development of linguistic thought. In particular, its capability to draw
on and analyse data from all levels and perspectives of linguistic or
interdisciplinary analysis, such as phonology, morphology, syntax,
semantics, pragmatics, discourse, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, etc,
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should grant it a central place and integrating role among linguistic studies
at the beginning of the new millennium (Kurte 2005).

References:

Barcelona, Antonio. On the systematic contrastive analysis of conceptual
metaphors: case studies and proposed methodology. In Ptz, Martin,
Susanne Niemeier, and Ren Dirven (eds) Applied cognitive linguistics II :
language pedagogy. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2001, 117-146.

Bloomfield, Leonard. Language. New York: Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1933.

Carroll, John B. Linguistic relativity, contrastive linguistics and language
learning. In IRAL, 1.1, 1963: 1-19.

Catford, John C. Contrastive analysis and language teaching. In James E
Alatis (ed) Contrastive linguistics and its pedagogical implications. Report of
the 19
th
Annual Round Table Meeting on linguistics and language studies,
Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 1968: 159-173.

Chesterman, Andrew. Contrastive functional analysis. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins, 1998.

Djordjevi, Radmila. Uvod u kontrastiranje jezika [An introduction to
contrasting languages]. Beograd: Nauna knjiga, 1987.

Filipovi, Rudolf (ed). B. Studies, 3. Zagreb, Washington DC: Institute of
Linguistics Center for Applied Linguistics, Yugoslav Serbo-Croatian -
English Contrastive Project, 1971.

Filipovi, Rudolf. Contrastive analysis of English and Serbo-Croatian, Vol .
Zagreb: Institute of Linguistics, 1975.

Fisiak, Jacek, M Lipiska-Grzegorek, W Zabrocki. An introductory English-
Polish contrastive grammar. Warszawa: Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe,
1978.

Fries, Charles C. Teaching and learning English as a foreign language. Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1945.

Goodman, Nelson. Seven structures on similarity. In Nelson Goodman (ed).
Problems and projects. Indianapolis, In.: Bobbs-Merrill, 1972: 437-447.

Grandgent, Charles H. German and English sounds. Boston: Ginn, 1892.

Halliday, Michael A K, Angus McIntosh, Peter Strevents. The linguistic
sciences and language teaching. London: Longmans, 1964.

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Hamp, Eric P. What a contrastive grammar is not, if it is. In James E Alatis
(ed) Contrastive linguistics and its pedagogical implications: reports of the 19
th

Annual Round Table Meeting on Linguistics and Language Studies.
Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1968: 137-150.

Ivir, Vladimir. Contrasting via translation: formal correspondence vs.
translation equivalence. In Rudolf Filipovi (ed). B. Studies, 1. Zagreb:
Institute of Linguistics, 1969: 12-25.

James, Carl. Contrastive analysis. London: Longman, 1980.

Krzeszowski, Tomasz P. Contrasting languages: the scope of contrastive
linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1990.

Lado, Robert. Linguistics across cultures. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, 1957.

Lee, R W. The contribution of contrastive linguistics to the preparation of
language-teaching materials. In Gerhard Nickel (ed). Proceedings of the 3
rd

AILA Congress, Copenhagen 1972, V. 1: Applied contrastive linguistics.
Heidelberg: Julius Groos Verlag, 1974: 135-142.

Kurte, Svetlana. Kontrastiranje kultura na primeru engleskog i
srpskohrvatkog jezika [Contrasting cultural patterns embedded in language
structure; with reference to English and Serbo-Croat], MA thesis. Belgrade:
Department of English, Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, 1991.

_____________. Contrastive linguistics: a 21
st
century perspective. In
Marmaridou, Sophia, et al (eds).Reviewing linguistic thought: converging
trends for the 21
st
century. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2005: page numbers
not known yet.

Mackey, William F. Language teaching analysis. London: Longman, 1965.

Mathesius, Vilm. On linguistic characterology with illustrations from
Modern English. In Josef Vachek (ed). A Prague School Reader in
Linguistics. Bloomington (Indiana): Indiana University Press, 1964: 59-67.

Nemser, William. Recent Center activities in contrastive linguistics. In
Rudolf Filipovi (ed) B. Studies, 4, Zagreb Conference on English Contrastive
Projects, 7-9 December 1970. Papers and Discussions. Zagreb: Institute of
Linguistics, 1971: 11-30.

Passy, Paul E. Petite phontique compare des principales langues
europennes. Leipzig: Teubner, 1906.

Popper, Karl. Objective knowledge. An evolutionary approach. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1972.

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Slama Cazacu, T. Psycholinguistics and contrastive studies. In R Filipovi
(ed) 1971: 188-206.

Vitor, Wilhelm. Elemente der Phonetik des Deutschen, Englischen und
Franzsischen. Leipzig: Reisland, 1894.

Whitman, Randal L. Contrastive analysis: problems and procedures. In
Language learning, 20.2, 1970: 191-197.

Whorf, Benjamin L. Language and logic. In Carroll, John B (ed). Language,
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Topics for discussion and further consideration:

1. Benjamin Lee Whorf (1967) defines contrastive linguistics as a discipline
that plots the outstanding differences among tongues in grammar, logic,
and general analysis of experience. Can you see it applied to modern
language learning and teaching?

2. Can you think of appropriate examples that would illustrate the basic
contrastive relations equivalence, similarity, contrast and difference
taking English and an indigenous language of Nigeria of your choice as a
contrasted language pair.

3. Is, in your opinion, contrastive analysis part of pure or applied
linguistics? Please justify your position.

4. Contrastive linguistics in the 21
st
century how important it is/can be for
the future technology of thought (Whorf 1967)? Where exactly do you see
its place?


Glossary:

Comparability criterion: the starting point in the contrastive analytical
process which subsumes establishing what is comparable in the two
languages.

Contrast: a contrastive relation referring to a relative low degree of likeness
between the analysed grammatical segments of the two languages. This is
observed in the so-called divergent and convergent relations.

Contrastive analysis: a branch of theoretical linguistics and a principle of
applied linguistics whose aim is to ascertain in which aspect the observed
languages are alike and which they differ, based on a systematic comparison
of their grammatical structures.

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Difference: a contrastive relation referring to the situation in which there is
no corresponding category in language B for the category found in language
A. This is also known as a zero relation.

Equivalence: a contrastive relation referring to the relative sameness in
meaning.

Similarity: a contrastive relation referring to a relative high degree of
likeness between the analysed grammatical segments of the two languages.

Tertium comparationis: a common platform of reference enabling the
process of contrastive analysis.