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Introduction:Anoverviewofcurrenttrends…
lexicalstudies(e.g.,Weigand1998;AltenbergandGranger2002;Ebelingand
Ebeling2013).Theuseofcorpusdataandwebdatainfluencedinvestigations
incontrastiveandcross-linguisticword-formation(e.g.,Hüning2010;Götzsche
2016),thoughthisareaofcontrastivestudiesisstillunderresearched(asnoted
byLefer2011).
Theimpactofadvancesintheoreticallinguisticsonthedevelopmentof
contrastivestudieswillbediscussedbelow.
First,letusmentionsomeproblemsfacedbyanyonewhoisengagedin
contrastivestudies.Theseincludetheestablishmentoftertiumcomparationis
andidentificationofthe(levelof)equivalencebetweenelementsfromtwo(or
more)languagesundercomparison.
Tertiumcomparationisisdefinedas“somekindofconstantservingasthe
backgroundofsamenessagainstwhichthedifferencesaretobemeasured”
(Ringbom1994:738).Krzeszowski(1990)arguesthatitisnecessarytomake
thetertiumcomparationisexplicitinrigorouscontrastivestudies.Hepoints
outthatapartfromrecognizingformalcorrespondence,semanticequivalence,
ortranslationequivalenceaspotentialtertiacomparationis,itispossibleto
treatpragmatic(orfunctional)equivalenceasabasisforcontrastivestudies.
Dependingonthesubjectofcontrastiveresearchtobecarriedout(e.g.,the
studyofphonologicalsegments,idiomaticexpressions,ordiscourse),adiffer-
entkindofequivalencemaybemoreappropriatetomotivatetheselectionof
itemstobecompared.
AsobservedbyBrdar-SzabóandBrdar(2003),therelianceonaparticular
typeofequivalenceisalsorelatedtothedifferencebetweenverticalcontrastive
studiesandtraditionalhorizontalcontrastivestudies.Inhorizontalcontrastive
studies,linguistsrelyontranslationequivalence,sincethestartingpointof
analysisisaparticularconstructionorphenomenoninonelanguage,whichis
thenjuxtaposedwithitsformal,semantic,orfunctionalequivalentsinanother
language.Inverticalcontrastivestudies,aresearcherstartsfromauniversalcat-
egoryorconstructionandinvestigatesitsrealizationsintwoormorelanguages.
Thedifficultyofdeterminingtertiumcomparationisinword-formationisdem-
onstratedatlengthbyLefer(2011).Thefuzzinessofsomeputativelyuniversal
concepts(e.g.,theconceptofacompound)andtheusefulnessoftranslationin
identifyingcross-linguisticcorrespondencesinmorphologicalstudiesareem-
phasizedbytenHacken(2013).Theproblemofselectinganappropriatetertium
comparationisandestablishingequivalencebetweenverb-prepositionunitsin
threelanguages(i.e.,Croatian,English,andFrench)isconsideredcarefullyby
KatunarandRaffaelli(thisvolume).
Theoreticallinguisticsandcontrastivelinguisticscancross-fertilizeeach
other.Theoreticallinguisticscanprovidetheappropriatetertiacomparationis
(byprovidingasetofcategoriesandconcepts,definedinalanguage-independ-
entmanner),whilecontrastivestudiescanbeemployedtosupportorfalsify
