comparatist
(kəmˈpærətɪst)
[f. comparative a. + -ist. Cf. F. comparatiste.]
One who uses comparative methods in studying language or literature; a student of comparative linguistics or comparative literature.
| 1933 Bloomfield Lang. xx. 364 The effect of sound change..as it presents itself to the comparatist, will be a set of regular phonemic correspondences. 1937 [see anti-historicist (anti-1 III. 5)]. 1946 R. Wellek in Knickerbocker 20th Cent. Eng. i. 72 The conception of ‘general literature’, as opposed to the isolated and isolating study of influences as practiced by the comparatists. 1951 Trans. Philol. Soc. 1950 181 Since there is a letter-by-letter transliteration in general use by comparatists, this has been utilized to represent the Armenian spelling. 1957 W. S. Allen Ling. Stud. Lang. 8 Mar. 1 The Geneva comparatist and general linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure. 1962 Malkiel in Householder & Saporta Probl. Lexicogr. 16 In practice one can hardly draw a sharp line of demarcation between isolationists and comparatists. |