The individual and the species in the cultural evolution of language

• The origin of language is a problem involving complex interactions between a number of different evolving systems. Language per se, regarded as a cultural/memetic entity, is one of the evolving systems, and its evolution is of major importance in the origin of modern human language. Possible structural parallels between language evolution and biological evolution are discussed. Genes, organisms, and species are key concepts in biology, and an understanding of the corresponding levels in language is needed for any fruitful linguistic application of theoretical tools from evolutionary biology. I identify candidate linguistic ’genes’, ’organisms’ and ’species’, and discuss implications for language evolution.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Language evolution

cultural evolution

idiolect

species

Publication and Content Type

pop (subject category)

kon (subject category)