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Comparative syntax investigates structural similarities and differences across languages or varieties. It asks which proposed grammatical relationships generalize, which vary, and whether apparently different constructions realize a shared organization. Comparable meanings, contexts and data-collection methods are needed before a difference can be assigned to grammar.^[ref]

For an original toy example, suppose one grammar expresses “A acts on B” with order A V B, while another uses A B V. Reversing the participants changes the intended meaning, whereas changing the position of V follows the grammatical template. This separates word order from the participants' thematic roles. Actual comparison examines more than one translated sentence: questions, embedded clauses and other environments can distinguish a superficial ordering similarity from a general structural account.

Julianne Doner is a linguist working on comparative syntax and the organization of clauses. Her author homepage describes a dissertation comparing data from more than two dozen languages in more than ten language families, asking which grammatical properties occur together and how to account for their differences.^[ref]

The comparison distinguishes a proposed universal pattern from a pattern found only in a narrow sample of related languages. Her account also considers whether structural organization can follow from more general principles rather than being stipulated independently for each case. She completed her doctorate in 2019 and is a coauthor of Essentials of Linguistics (2nd edition) by Catherine Anderson and others.