Evolutionary Linguistics

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2296619
AutoresWilliam Croft (0000-0003-0886-2652, University of New Mexico, autor de correspondencia)
Año2008
Volumen37
Número1
Páginas219-234
Fecha de publicación2008-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnnual Review of Anthropology (BOOK_SERIES)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0084-6570 • E-ISSN: 1545-4290
EditorialAnnual Reviews (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1146/annurev.anthro.37.081407.085156
OpenAlexW4236608768
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas28
Referencias citadas61

Both qualitative concepts and quantitative methods from evolutionary biology have been applied to linguistics. Many linguists have noted the similarity between biological evolution and language change, but usually have employed only selective analogies or metaphors. The development of generalized theories of evolutionary change (Dawkins and Hull) has spawned models of language change on the basis of such generalized theories. These models have led to the positing of new mechanisms of language change and new types of selection that may not have biological parallels. Quantitative methods have been applied to questions of language phylogeny in the past decade. Research has focused on widely accepted families with cognates already established by the comparative method (Indo-European, Bantu, Austronesian). Increasingly sophisticated phylogeny reconstruction models have been applied to these families to resolve questions of subgrouping, contact, and migration. Little progress has been made so far in analyzing sound correspondences in the cognates themselves

Applied linguistics · Bantu languages · Biology · Cognitive science · Comparative method · Epistemology · Historical linguistics · Language change · Linguistics · Parallels · Phylogenetics · Quantitative linguistics · Selection (genetic algorithm · Similarity (geometry · Sound change · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Language and cultural evolution · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation