syntax comparative method concerning syntax comparative method understand correctly amr ares cs wayne edu name apparently believes certain circumstances one indeed use syntax part comparative method cites among things case neuter plural classical greek old iranian used verb singular possible implications similar structure proto language theory believe particular construction indeed survive ravages time give us clues syntax earlier levels must always last criterium apply almost never used sort proof unless course believe scott de lancey mentioned sure show example ergative case endings believe example tibeto burman traced back common form morphology reconstructed aughter languages conclusively points case ergative mother language otherwise john cowan seems summed best citing robbin burling book man many voices every language one point another borrows lexemes another langauge literally thousands examples langauges borrowing syntactic constructions languages whether substrats even english good share borrowings forget extremely large portion world population necessity bi trilingual many even read native language mention kind linguistic training sensiti vity would therefore pay much attention language particular construction comes also famous sprachbunds balkan area certain extent south asia everyday necessity large part population speaks least two langauges shown case village along maharastra mysore boundary mentioned john cowan one translate wordfor word one language another although languages strictly speaking related case though nt even seem make sense speak language families opinion possible connection language contact sprachbund maybe part problem related languages anyway must also remember process undoubtedly going ever since people could speak would nt difficult propose going back starting point theoretical language contact area greek iranian example georgian least modern language uses plural verb humans although objects appear plural verb appears singular always greek colonies throughout region one could well assume kind sprachbund whole region time would even easier know little prehistoric era region making difficult disprove even today certain areal characteristics evidential perfects many languages one point split ergative region stretching nepal caucusus etc seen light cant really speak oddity construction neutral plural taking verb singular way opinion least certain semantic justification means odd concerning indo aryan comparative method applied syntax would certainly give us wrong conclusion vedic sanskrit splitergative language modern indo aryan languages except standard oriya begali assamese either ergative split ergative languages many dialects three langauges also splitergative languages several hundred ia langauges would nt forced assume goes back parent language also problem traditional method large extent cognate endings ergative case nt vedic splitergative language gone back far split ergativity part parent language presumably found middle indic language family know next nothing would certainly lead tremendous errors seems although indeed useful insights gained looking syntax stated earlier always last criterium used arguing kind genetic relationship written history peoples area little way documented sound changes etc simply say anything yet syntactic structure protolanguage undoubtedly come course time one many features none alone prove anything except perhaps contact enough unlikely correspondences e ist sind est sunt one speak relative security genetic relationship whatever exactly means john peterson kiel germany