Definition of comparative method. : a method of investigation (as of ethnologic phenomena and relations) based on comparison.

comparative method. n. Comparison of the linguistic features of two or more languages with the goal of establishing their descent from a common ancestor or reconstructing the features of the ancestral language. American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.

Comparative method In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor, as opposed to the method of internal reconstruction, which analyzes the internal development of a single language over time.

Comparative method definition, a body of procedures and criteria used by linguists to determine whether and how two or more languages are related and to reconstruct forms of their hypothetical parent language. See more.

Comparative methods seek evidence for adaptive evolution by investigating how the characteristics of organisms, such as their size, shape, life histories, and behaviors, evolve together across species. They are one of evolutionary biology's most enduring approaches for testing hypotheses of adaptation.

Lijphart defines the comparative method as the analysis Of a small number of entailing at least two observations, yet too few to permit the application Of conventional statistical analysis. A central goal Of his article is to the comparative method in relation to three other methods—experimental, statistical, and case-

Comparative case analysis (CCA) is based on the notion of comparison, which is a fundamental technique used by many social science and scientific …

comparative method to gain insight into the research question. By insight, I mean evidence contributing to an understanding of a case or set of cases. As described in considerable detail in Chapter 5, common comparative methods used within comparative-historical analysis include narrative, Millian, Boolean, and statistical comparisons.