58th Annual Meeting of the SLE Workshop - The Comparative Method: a universal heuristic across time and space

Date: 26-Aug-2025 - 29-Aug-2025
Location: Université Bordeaux Montaigne, France
Contact: Simon Fries
Contact Email: [email protected]
Meeting URL: https://sites.google.com/view/comparative-method-sle58

Linguistic Field(s): Genetic Classification; Historical Linguistics; Typology

Meeting Description:

This workshop seeks to unite all scholars interested in language history who either deal with or wish to better understand the workings of the comparative method as it applies across various periods, continents, and language families.

The workshop will be structured into two sections:
1. The exposition and demonstration of the comparative method with the help of clear case studies, preferably beyond well-known handbook data.
2. The exposition and discussion of problematic cases or data where further input is desired from the community, or of suggestions to systematically and fruitfully augment the existing heuristic inventory of the comparative method.

We invite interested participants to submit an initial 300-word abstract by November 13th, 2024, specifying which of the above sections is concerned. Talks which expose particular difficulties in applying the comparative method, or which demonstrate the success of the method where others had deemed it improbable are particularly welcome.

The comparative method is a set of techniques developed in the 19th century and refined ever since involving the methodical comparison of linguistic data and the identification of regularities and systematic differences. The comparative method allows for the positioning of linguistic entities in history and the recovery of linguistic structures of earlier, often unattested stages in the historical development of a particular language or language family. It has thus traditionally served as the fundamental tool for uncovering and describing language history.

However, both the rise of quantitative and statistical methods reflecting a principally probabilistic word-view and reduced access to training in the traditional comparative method have led some scholars to call for fundamentally new methodologies in order to account for the multifaceted and complex historical development of languages. Controversies revolving around the comparative method have pertained to:
• Regularity in sound change, including questions about how sound change proceeds, how it is actuated and implemented, whether it is “natural”, where it is located, how it spreads, and what constraints govern its interaction with other linguistic phenomena.
• Changes in morphology, syntax and the lexicon and to what extent they follow the same principles as sound change, especially with regard to the role of analogy, language contact and social selection, and the extent to which they proceed in a regular fashion.
• The most adequate means to map language change and the relations between archaic and innovative forms, i.e. whether linguistic innovation can be represented in a Stammbaum-like manner, in waves, in networks, or whether these approaches complement each other.

Since its rise in the 19th century, the comparative method has been fruitfully applied to languages beyond the well-studied Indo-European and Uralic families and – either consciously or unconsciously – has shed light on local language histories across continents such as Africa, East-Asia, Inner Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas.

As new initiatives arise to study language history in alternative or more varied manners, it seems advisable that experienced practitioners of the comparative method, would-be practitioners, the curious and sceptics come together to reflect upon its application and good scientific practice, and candidly address challenging issues to energize a venerable knowledge-creating tradition.

Organizers:
Fabian Zuk (CNRS), [email protected]
Simon Fries (University of Cologne), [email protected]
Svenja Bonmann (University of Cologne), [email protected]

Please visit the conference website for more information.