Editing Mass comparison (section)

== Relation to the comparative method ==

As a tool for identifying [[Genetic relationship (linguistics)|genetic relationships]] between languages, mass comparison is an alternative to the [[comparative method (linguistics)|comparative method]]. Proponents of mass comparison, such as Greenberg, claim that the comparative method is unnecessary to identify genetic relationships; furthermore, they claim that it can only be used once relationships are identified using mass comparison, making mass comparison the "first step" in determining relationships (1957:44). This contrasts with mainstream [[comparative linguistics]], which relies on the comparative method to aid in identifying genetic relationships; specifically, it involves comparing data from two or more languages. If sets of recurrent sound correspondences are found, the languages are most likely related; if further investigation confirms the potential relationship, [[Linguistic reconstruction|reconstructed ancestral forms]] can be set up using the collated sound correspondences.<ref name="Campbell and Poser 2008"/>

However, Greenberg did not entirely disavow the comparative method; he stated that "once we have a well-established stock I go about comparing and reconstructing just like anyone else, as can be seen in my various contributions to historical linguistics" (1990, quoted in Ruhlen 1994:285) and accused mainstream linguists of spreading "the strange and widely disseminated notion that I seek to replace the comparative method with a new and strange invention of my own" (2002:2). Earlier in his career, before he fully developed mass comparison, he even stated that his methodology did not "conflict in any fashion with the traditional comparative method" (1957:44). However, Greenberg sees the comparative method as playing no role in determining relationships, significantly reducing its importance compared to traditional methods of linguistic comparison. In effect, his approach of mass comparison sidelined the comparative method with a "new and strange invention of his own".<ref name="Campbell and Poser 2008"/>

Reflecting the methodological [[empiricism]] also present in his [[linguistic typology|typological]] work, he viewed facts as of greater weight than their interpretations, stating (1957:45):

:[R]econstruction of an original sound system has the status of an explanatory theory to account for etymologies already strong on other grounds. Between the *''vaida'' of Bopp and the *''γwoidxe'' of Sturtevant lie more than a hundred years of the intensive development of Indo-European phonological reconstruction. What has remained constant has been the validity of the etymologic relationship among Sanskrit ''veda'', Greek ''woida'', Gothic ''wita'', all meaning "I know", and many other unshakable etymologies both of root and of non-root morphemes recognized at the outset. And who will be bold enough to conjecture from what original the Indo-Europeanist one hundred years from now will derive these same forms?