Sociobiological approaches to linguistics
Evolutionary linguistics
or
Darwinian linguistics
is a
sociobiological
approach to the study of
language
.
[1]
[2]
Evolutionary linguists consider linguistics as a subfield of
sociobiology
and
evolutionary psychology
. The approach is also closely linked with
evolutionary anthropology
,
cognitive linguistics
and
biolinguistics
. Studying languages as the products of
nature
, it is interested in the biological
origin
and development of language.
[3]
Evolutionary linguistics is contrasted with
humanistic
approaches, especially
structural linguistics
.
[4]
A main challenge in this research is the lack of empirical data: there are no
archaeological
traces of early human language.
Computational biological modelling
and
clinical research
with
artificial languages
have been employed to fill in gaps of knowledge. Although biology is understood to shape the
brain
, which
processes language
, there is no clear link between biology and specific human language structures or
linguistic universals
.
[5]
For lack of a breakthrough in the field, there have been numerous debates about what kind of natural phenomenon language might be. Some researchers focus on the
innate aspects of language
. It is suggested that grammar has emerged adaptationally from the human genome, bringing about a language
instinct
;
[6]
or that it depends on a single mutation
[7]
which has caused a
language organ
to appear in the human brain.
[8]
This is hypothesized to result in a
crystalline
[9]
grammatical structure underlying all human languages. Others suggest language is not crystallized, but fluid and ever-changing.
[10]
Others, yet, liken languages to living
organisms
.
[11]
Languages are considered analogous to a
parasite
[12]
or
populations
of
mind-viruses
. There is so far little
scientific evidence
for any of these claims, and some of them have been labelled as
pseudoscience
.
[13]
[14]
History
[
edit
]
1863?1945: social Darwinism
[
edit
]
Although pre-Darwinian theorists had compared languages to living organisms as a
metaphor
, the comparison was first taken literally in 1863 by the
historical linguist
August Schleicher
who was inspired by
Charles Darwin's
On the Origin of Species
.
[15]
At the time there was not enough evidence to prove that Darwin's theory of
natural selection
was correct. Schleicher proposed that linguistics could be used as a testing ground for the study of the evolution of
species
.
[16]
A review of Schleicher's book
Darwinism as Tested by the Science of Language
appeared in the first issue of
Nature
journal in 1870.
[17]
Darwin reiterated Schleicher's proposition in his 1871 book
The Descent of Man
, claiming that languages are comparable to species, and that
language change
occurs through
natural selection
as words 'struggle for life'. Darwin believed that languages had evolved from animal
mating calls
.
[18]
Darwinists considered the concept of language creation as unscientific.
[19]
August Schleicher and his friend
Ernst Haeckel
were keen gardeners and regarded the study of cultures as a type of
botany
, with different species competing for the same living space.
[20]
[16]
Similar ideas became later advocated by politicians who wanted to appeal to
working class
voters, not least by the
national socialists
who subsequently included the concept of struggle for living space in their agenda.
[21]
Highly influential until the end of
World War II
,
social Darwinism
was eventually banished from human sciences, leading to a strict separation of natural and sociocultural studies.
[16]
This gave rise to the dominance of structural linguistics in Europe. There had long been a dispute between the Darwinists and the French intellectuals with the topic of language evolution famously having been banned by the
Paris Linguistic Society
as early as in 1866.
Ferdinand de Saussure
proposed
structuralism
to replace evolutionary linguistics in his
Course in General Linguistics
, published posthumously in 1916. The structuralists rose to academic political power in human and social sciences in the aftermath of the student revolts of Spring 1968, establishing
Sorbonne
as an international centrepoint of humanistic thinking.
From 1959 onwards: genetic determinism
[
edit
]
In the
United States
, structuralism was however fended off by the advocates of
behavioural psychology
; a linguistics framework nicknamed as 'American structuralism'. It was eventually replaced by the approach of
Noam Chomsky
who published a modification of
Louis Hjelmslev's
formal structuralist theory, claiming that
syntactic structures
are
innate
. An active figure in peace demonstrations in the 1950s and 1960s, Chomsky rose to academic political power following Spring 1968 at the MIT.
[22]
Chomsky became an influential opponent of the French intellectuals during the following decades, and his supporters successfully confronted the
post-structuralists
in the
Science Wars
of the late 1990s.
[23]
The shift of the century saw a new academic funding policy where interdisciplinary research became favoured, effectively directing research funds to biological humanities.
[24]
The decline of structuralism was evident by 2015 with Sorbonne having lost its former spirit.
[25]
Chomsky eventually claimed that syntactic structures are caused by a random
mutation
in the human
genome
,
[7]
proposing a similar explanation for other human faculties such as
ethics
.
[22]
But
Steven Pinker
argued in 1990 that they are the outcome of evolutionary
adaptations
.
[26]
From 1976 onwards: Neo-Darwinism
[
edit
]
At the same time when the Chomskyan paradigm of
biological determinism
defeated
humanism
, it was losing its own clout within sociobiology. It was reported likewise in 2015 that
generative grammar
was under fire in
applied linguistics
and in the process of being replaced with
usage-based linguistics
;
[27]
a derivative of
Richard Dawkins's
memetics
.
[28]
It is a concept of linguistic units as
replicators
. Following the publication of memetics in Dawkins's 1976 nonfiction bestseller
The Selfish Gene
, many biologically inclined linguists, frustrated with the lack of evidence for Chomsky's
Universal Grammar
, grouped under different brands including a framework called
Cognitive Linguistics
(with capitalised initials), and 'functional' (adaptational) linguistics (not to be confused with
functional linguistics
) to confront both Chomsky and the humanists.
[4]
The replicator approach is today dominant in evolutionary linguistics, applied linguistics, cognitive linguistics and
linguistic typology
; while the generative approach has maintained its position in general linguistics, especially
syntax
; and in
computational linguistics
.
View of linguistics
[
edit
]
Evolutionary linguistics is part of a wider framework of
Universal Darwinism
. In this view, linguistics is seen as an
ecological
environment for research traditions struggling for the same resources.
[4]
According to
David Hull
, these traditions correspond to species in biology. Relationships between research traditions can be
symbiotic
,
competitive
or
parasitic
. An adaptation of Hull's theory in linguistics is proposed by
William Croft
.
[3]
He argues that the Darwinian method is more advantageous than linguistic models based on
physics
,
structuralist sociology
, or
hermeneutics
.
[4]
Approaches
[
edit
]
Evolutionary linguistics is often divided into
functionalism
and
formalism
,
[29]
concepts which are not to be confused with
functionalism
and
formalism
in the humanistic reference.
[30]
Functional evolutionary linguistics considers languages as
adaptations
to human mind. The formalist view regards them as crystallised or non-adaptational.
[29]
Functionalism (adaptationism)
[
edit
]
The adaptational view of language is advocated by various frameworks of cognitive and evolutionary linguistics, with the terms 'functionalism' and 'Cognitive Linguistics' often being equated.
[31]
It is hypothesised that the evolution of the animal brain provides humans with a mechanism of abstract reasoning which is a 'metaphorical' version of image-based reasoning.
[32]
Language is not considered as a separate area of
cognition
, but as coinciding with general cognitive capacities, such as
perception
,
attention
,
motor skills
, and spatial and
visual processing
. It is argued to function according to the same principles as these.
[33]
[34]
It is thought that the brain links action schemes to form?meaning pairs which are called
constructions
.
[35]
Cognitive linguistic approaches to syntax are called
cognitive
and
construction grammar
.
[33]
Also deriving from memetics and other cultural replicator theories,
[3]
these can study the natural or
social selection
and adaptation of linguistic units. Adaptational models reject a formal systemic view of language and consider language as a population of linguistic units.
The bad reputation of social Darwinism and memetics has been discussed in the literature, and recommendations for new terminology have been given.
[36]
What correspond to replicators or mind-viruses in memetics are called
linguemes
in Croft's
theory of Utterance Selection
(TUS),
[37]
and likewise linguemes or constructions in construction grammar and
usage-based linguistics
;
[38]
[39]
and
metaphors
,
[40]
frames
[41]
or
schemas
[42]
in cognitive and construction grammar. The reference of memetics has been largely replaced with that of a
Complex Adaptive System
.
[43]
In current linguistics, this term covers a wide range of evolutionary notions while maintaining the
Neo-Darwinian
concepts of replication and replicator population.
[44]
Functional evolutionary linguistics is not to be confused with
functional humanistic linguistics
.
Formalism (structuralism)
[
edit
]
Advocates of formal evolutionary explanation in linguistics argue that linguistic structures are crystallised. Inspired by 19th century advances in
crystallography
, Schleicher argued that different types of languages are like plants, animals and crystals.
[45]
The idea of linguistic structures as frozen drops was revived in
tagmemics
,
[46]
an approach to linguistics with the goal to uncover divine symmetries underlying all languages, as if caused by
the Creation
.
[47]
In modern
biolinguistics
,
the X-bar tree
is argued to be like natural systems such as
ferromagnetic droplets
and botanic forms.
[48]
Generative grammar considers syntactic structures similar to
snowflakes
.
[9]
It is hypothesised that such patterns are caused by a
mutation
in humans.
[7]
The formal?structural evolutionary aspect of linguistics is not to be confused with
structural linguistics
.
Evidence
[
edit
]
There was some hope of a breakthrough at the discovery of the
FOXP2
gene
.
[49]
[50]
There is little support, however, for the idea that
FOXP2
is 'the grammar gene' or that it had much to do with the relatively recent emergence of syntactical speech.
[51]
There is no evidence that people have a language instinct.
[52]
Memetics is widely discredited as
pseudoscience
[14]
and neurological claims made by evolutionary cognitive linguists have been likened to pseudoscience.
[13]
All in all, there does not appear to be any evidence for the basic tenets of evolutionary linguistics beyond the fact that language is processed by the brain, and brain structures are shaped by genes.
[5]
Criticism
[
edit
]
Evolutionary linguistics has been criticised by advocates of (humanistic) structural and functional linguistics.
Ferdinand de Saussure
commented on 19th century evolutionary linguistics:
"Language was considered a specific sphere, a fourth natural kingdom; this led to methods of reasoning which would have caused astonishment in other sciences. Today one cannot read a dozen lines written at that time without being struck by absurdities of reasoning and by the terminology used to justify these absurdities”
[53]
Mark Aronoff
, however, argues that historical linguistics had its golden age during the time of Schleicher and his supporters, enjoying a place among the hard sciences, and considers the return of Darwinian linguistics as a positive development.
Esa Itkonen
nonetheless deems the revival of Darwinism as a hopeless enterprise:
"There is ... an application of intelligence in linguistic change which is absent in biological evolution; and this suffices to make the two domains totally disanalogous ... [Grammaticalisation depends on] cognitive processes, ultimately serving the goal of problem solving, which intelligent entities like humans must perform all the time, but which biological entities like genes cannot perform. Trying to eliminate this basic difference leads to confusion.”
[54]
Itkonen also points out that the principles of natural selection are not applicable because language innovation and acceptance have the same source which is the speech community. In biological evolution, mutation and selection have different sources. This makes it possible for people to change their languages, but not their
genotype
.
[55]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
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Further reading
[
edit
]
- Atkinson QD, Meade A, Venditti C, Greenhill SJ, Pagel M (2008). "Languages evolve in punctuational bursts".
Science
.
319
(5863): 588.
doi
:
10.1126/science.1149683
.
hdl
:
1885/33371
.
PMID
18239118
.
S2CID
29740420
.
- Botha, R; Knight, C., eds. (2009).
The Cradle of Language
. Oxford Series in the Evolution of Language. Oxford.:
Oxford University Press
.
ISBN
978-0-19-954586-5
.
OCLC
804498749
.
- Diller, Karl C.; Cann, Rebecca L. (2009). Rudolf Botha; Chris Knight (eds.).
Evidence Against a Genetic-Based Revolution in Language 50,000 Years Ago
. Oxford Series in the Evolution of Language. Oxford.: Oxford University Press. pp. 135?149.
ISBN
978-0-19-954586-5
.
OCLC
804498749
.
- Power, Camilla (2009). Rudolf Botha; Chris Knight (eds.).
Sexual Selection Models for the Emergence of Symbolic Communication: Why They Should be Reversed
. Oxford Series in the Evolution of Language. Oxford.: Oxford University Press. pp. 257?280.
ISBN
978-0-19-954586-5
.
OCLC
804498749
.
- Watts, Ian (2009). Rudolf Botha; Chris Knight (eds.).
Red Ochre, Body Painting, and Language: Interpreting the Blombos Ochre
. Oxford Series in the Evolution of Language. Oxford.: Oxford University Press. pp. 62?92.
ISBN
978-0-19-954586-5
.
OCLC
804498749
.
- Cangelosi, A.;
Harnad, S.
(2001).
"The adaptive advantage of symbolic theft over sensorimotor toil: Grounding language in perceptual categories"
.
Evolution of Communication
.
4
(1): 117?142.
doi
:
10.1075/eoc.4.1.07can
.
hdl
:
10026.1/3619
.
- Carstairs-McCarthy, Andrew (2007). "Language evolution: What linguists can contribute".
Lingua
.
117
(3): 503?509.
doi
:
10.1016/j.lingua.2005.07.004
.
- Christiansen, Morten H.
(2013). Rudolf P Botha; Martin Everaert (eds.).
Language has evolved to depend on multiple-cue integration
. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-965484-0
.
OCLC
828055639
.
- Christiansen, Morten H.; Kirby, Simon. (2003).
Language evolution
. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-924484-3
.
OCLC
51235137
.
- Bickerton, Derek (2003). Morten H. Christiansen; Simon Kirby (eds.).
Symbol and Structure: A Comprehensive Framework for Language Evolution
. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 77?93.
ISBN
978-0-19-924484-3
.
OCLC
51235137
.
- Hurford, James R. (2003). Morten H. Christiansen; Simon Kirby (eds.).
The Language Mosaic and Its Evolution
. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 38?57.
ISBN
978-0-19-924484-3
.
OCLC
51235137
.
- Lieberman, Philip (2003). Morten H. Christiansen; Simon Kirby (eds.).
Motor Control, Speech, and the Evolution of Language
. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 252?271.
ISBN
978-0-19-924484-3
.
OCLC
51235137
.
- Deacon, Terrence William
(1997).
The symbolic species : the co-evolution of language and the brain
. New York: W.W. Norton.
ISBN
978-0-393-03838-5
.
OCLC
490308871
.
- Dor, Daniel; Jablonka, Eva (2001). Jurgen Trabant; Sean Ward (eds.).
How language changed the genes: toward an explicit account of the evolution of language
(PDF)
. Berlin; N.Y.: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 149?175.
ISBN
978-3-11-017025-2
.
OCLC
46935997
.
- Dor, Daniel; Jablonka, Eva (2000).
"From Cultural Selection to Genetic Selection: A Framework for the Evolution of Language"
(PDF)
. Selection 1
. Retrieved
10 December
2013
.
- Elvira, Javier (2009).
Evolucion linguistica y cambio sintactico
. Fondo Hispanico de Linguistica y Filologia. Bern et al.: Peter Lang.
ISBN
978-3-0343-0323-1
.
OCLC
475438932
.
- Fitch, W. Tecumseh (2010).
The Evolution of Language
. Cambridge: Cambridge.
ISBN
978-0-521-67736-3
.
OCLC
428024376
.
- Gabri? P (2021).
"Book Review: Neanderthal Language: Demystifying the Linguistic Powers of Our Extinct Cousins"
.
Frontiers in Psychology
.
12
702361: 702361.
doi
:
10.3389/fpsyg.2021.702361
.
PMC
8194866
.
- Gabri? P (2021).
"Differentiation between agents and patients in the putative two-word stage of language evolution"
.
Frontiers in Psychology
.
12
684022: 684022.
doi
:
10.3389/fpsyg.2021.684022
.
PMC
8385233
.
PMID
34456797
.
- Gabri? P (2022).
"Overlooked evidence for semantic compositionality and signal reduction in wild chimpanzees (
Pan troglodytes
)"
.
Animal Cognition
.
25
(3): 631?643.
doi
:
10.1007/s10071-021-01584-3
.
PMC
9107436
.
PMID
34822011
.
- Hauser, Marc D. (1996).
The evolution of communication
. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
ISBN
978-0-262-08250-1
.
OCLC
750525164
.
- Harnad, Stevan R.
; Steklis, Horst D.; Lancaster, Jane, eds. (1976).
Origins and Evolution of Language and Speech
. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, v. 280. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.
ISBN
978-0-89072-026-4
.
OCLC
2493424
.
- Hauser MD, Chomsky N, Fitch WT (2002).
"The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?"
(PDF)
.
Science
.
298
(5598): 1569?79.
doi
:
10.1126/science.298.5598.1569
.
PMID
12446899
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2007-09-26
. Retrieved
2007-09-09
.
- Heine, Bernd; Kuteva, Tania (2007).
The genesis of grammar : a reconstructio
. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-922777-8
.
OCLC
849464326
.
- Hurford, James R. (2007).
The origins of meaning
. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-920785-5
.
OCLC
263645256
.
- Jackendoff, Ray (2002).
Foundations of language : brain, meaning, grammar, evolution
. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-827012-6
.
OCLC
48053881
.
- Johanson, Donald C.; Edgar, Blake (2006).
From Lucy to Language
(Revised, updated, and expanded ed.). New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
ISBN
978-0-7432-8064-8
.
OCLC
72440476
.
- Johansson, Sverker (2005).
Origins of language : constraints on hypothese
. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub.
ISBN
978-90-272-3891-7
.
OCLC
803876944
.
- Kenneally, Christine (2007).
The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language
. New York, NY: Viking.
ISBN
978-0-670-03490-1
.
OCLC
80460757
.
- Knight, Chris (2010). Ulrich J Frey; Charlotte Stormer; Kai P Willfuhr (eds.).
The origins of symbolic culture
(PDF)
. Berlin; New York: Springer. pp. 193?211.
ISBN
978-3-642-12141-8
.
OCLC
639461749
.
- Komarova, Natalia L.
(2006). Leonid Grinin; Victor C. de Munck; Andrey Korotayev (eds.).
Language and Mathematics: An evolutionary model of grammatical communication
. [Moskva]: URSS. pp.
164?179
.
ISBN
978-5-484-01001-1
.
OCLC
182730511
.
- Mithen, Steven J. (2005).
The singing Neanderthals : the origins of music, language, mind and body
. London: Weidenfeld Nicolson.
ISBN
978-0-297-64317-3
.
OCLC
58052344
.
- Niyogi, Partha
(2006).
The computational nature of language learning and evolution
. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
ISBN
978-0-262-14094-2
.
OCLC
704652476
.
- Nowak, M.A.;
Komarova, N.L.
(2001). "Towards an evolutionary theory of language".
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
.
5
(7): 288?295.
doi
:
10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01683-1
.
PMID
11425617
.
S2CID
1358838
.
- Pinker, Steven
(1994).
The language instinct
. New York: W. Morrow and Co.
ISBN
978-0-688-12141-9
.
OCLC
28723210
.
- Pinker, S.; Bloom, P. (1990).
"Natural language and natural selection"
.
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
.
13
(4): 707?784.
CiteSeerX
10.1.1.116.4044
.
doi
:
10.1017/S0140525X00081061
.
S2CID
6167614
. Archived from
the original
on 2005-11-23
. Retrieved
2005-12-20
.
- Sampson, Geoffrey
(1996).
Evolutionary language understanding
. London; New York: Cassell.
ISBN
978-0-304-33650-0
.
OCLC
832369870
.
- Steels, Luc
(2002). Angelo Cangelosi; Domenico Parisi (eds.).
Grounding symbols through evolutionary language games
. London; New York: Springer.
ISBN
978-1-85233-428-4
.
OCLC
47824669
.
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