October 2009

CONTRASTING
WHO?
WHAT?
WHEN?
WHY?

Definition and scope
Speakers intuitively compare the
languages which they use;
they find differences and similarities ;
They establish relative difficulty and the
problems caused by the similarities and
differences between the languages ;
They even tend to explain the differences .
BASICALLY , ALL SPEAKERS OF AT
LEAST TWO LANGUAGES CONTRAST
NON-STOP

Although sometimes conscious, such
contrastive efforts are intuitive and non-
systematic.
Contrastive linguistics is the systematic
comparison of two or more languages ,
with the aim of describing their similarities
and differences (Johansson: 2000)
Contrastive linguistics is not a unified field
of study
Contrastive linguistics comprises three
approaches, or rather three subdisciplines :

Contrastive analysis: systematic,
synchronic comparison of two languages
aiming at establishing explicit similarities
and differences expressed in terms of
correspondence and equivalence between
the elements of those languages .
Theory of translation: systematic
establishing of equivalence between two
texts
Error analysis: identifies errors in FL
students linguistic output and aims at
providing explanation for their occurrence.
All three disciplines are complementary:
CL
TT
CA
EA
Contrastive analysis is probably the most
comprehensive of all three, owing to its
applied, pedagocical aims;
By identifiying similarities and differences,
CA PREDICTS possible points of difficulty
for the FL learner;
Relative to the process of learning, the
order of disciplines differs - CA takes
place BEFORE (a priori) and the EA
AFTER (a posteriori) the learning process
CA and other linguistic
disciplines
Depending on the approach to language
research and the interest for language as
phenomenon we may distinguish betwee:
Micro disciplines
Language is viewed in isolation, per se;
Macro disciplines
Language is viewed relative to its surrounding
realities (social, psychological, cultural, neural,
cognitive, etc): sociolinguistics,
psycholinguistics, ethnolinguistics,
neurolinguistics, cognitive linguistics.
CA and other linguistic
disciplines
Number of
languages under
research
Synchrony Diachrony
1 Descriptive linguistics Historical linguistics
2 + Contrastive linguistics Comparative
linguistics
Many all General linguistics
Feedback relation between disciplines:
General linguistics provides linguistic
theories and models which are applied in
descriptive linguistics
Descriptive linguistics provides language
descriptions, necessary for contrastive
analyses
Contrastive analysis provides data
otherwise hardly available; contributes
back to the theory of language universals
and linguistic typology, i.e. general
linguistics