New Parameters in Historical Linguistics, Philology, and Culture History

The Comparative Method in historical linguistics may in favorable circumstances be extended to comparative historical poetics and comparative historical ethnosemanticsthe 'new comparative philology'. The vocabulary of some cases is examined in the texts: 'custom' from 'own (*swelo-) established usage' and its pragmatic linkage to reciprocal interpersonal relations in Indo-European society. Examination of new facts in this light motivates the inclusion of Hittite in the same Indo-European ideology. Linguistic comparison may extend to higher units than sounds and forms; several are proposed which permit the reconstruction of formulaic phrases, whole complex sentences, and even proto-texts or text fragments. The new parameters of poetics and ethnosemantics permit a precision in historical linguistics hitherto impossible.*