Editing Evolutionary linguistics (section)

==History==

===1863–1945: social Darwinism===

Although pre-Darwinian theorists had compared languages to living organisms as a [[metaphor]], the comparison was first taken literally in 1863 by the [[Historical linguistics|historical linguist]] [[August Schleicher]] who was inspired by [[Charles Darwin|Charles Darwin's]] ''[[On the Origin of Species]]''.<ref name=Stamos_2006>{{cite book |last=Stamos|first=David N. |title=Darwin and the Nature of Species|publisher=SUNY Press |year=2006 |pages=55 | url=https://www.academia.edu/877914 | access-date=2020-03-03 |isbn= 9780791480885}}</ref> 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]].<ref name=Aronoff_2017>{{cite book |last=Aronoff|first=Mark |editor-last1=Bowern | editor-last2=Horn | editor-last3=Zanuttini |title=On Looking into Words (and Beyond): Structures, Relations, Analyses|publisher=SUNY Press |year=2017|pages=443–456 |chapter=20 Darwinism tested by the science of language | url=https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/151| access-date=2020-03-03 |isbn= 978-3-946234-92-0}}</ref> A review of Schleicher's book ''Darwinism as Tested by the Science of Language'' appeared in the first issue of ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' journal in 1870.<ref name=Müller_1870>{{cite journal |last=Müller |first=Max |date=1870 |title=Darwinism tested by the science of language (review). |url= https://zenodo.org/record/1763482|journal=Nature |volume=1 |pages=256–259 |doi=10.1038/001256a0 |s2cid=176892155 |hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-002C-5EFD-E |hdl-access=free }}</ref> 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 call]]s.<ref name=Darwin_1871>{{cite book |last=Darwin|first=Charles |title=The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex|publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1981 |orig-year=1871 |pages=59–61 | url=https://teoriaevolutiva.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/darwin-c-the-descent-of-man-and-selection-in-relation-to-sex.pdf | access-date=2020-03-03 |isbn=0-691-08278-2}}</ref> Darwinists considered the concept of language creation as unscientific.<ref name=Darwin_1863>{{cite book |last=Schleicher|first=August |title=Darwinism Tested by the Science of Language, English translation|publisher=John Camden Hotten |year=1869 |orig-year=1863 | url=https://archive.org/details/darwinismtestedb69schl/page/5/mode/2up| access-date=2020-03-03 |isbn=0-691-08278-2}}</ref>

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.<ref name=Richards_2002>{{cite book |last=Richards |first=Robert J. |date=2002|editor-last=Doerres |editor-first=M. | title=The Experimenting in Tongues: Studies in Science and Language | publisher=Stanford University Press |chapter=The linguistic creation of man: Charles Darwin, August Schleicher, Ernst Haeckel, and themissing link in 19th century evolutionary theory |pages=21–48 |isbn=1-57607-653-9 }}</ref><ref name=Aronoff_2017 /> Similar ideas became later advocated by politicians who wanted to appeal to [[working class]] voters, not least by the [[National socialism|national socialists]] who subsequently included the concept of struggle for living space in their agenda.<ref name=Richards_2013>{{cite book |last=Richards |first=R. J. |year=2013| title=Was Hitler a Darwinian?: Disputed Questions in the History of Evolutionary Theory | publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-05893-1 }}</ref> 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.<ref name=Aronoff_2017 />

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 [[Société Linguistique de Paris|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 [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] as an international centrepoint of humanistic thinking.

===From 1959 onwards: genetic determinism===
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|Louis Hjelmslev's]] formal structuralist theory, claiming that [[syntactic structure]]s are [[Innatism|innate]]. An active figure in peace demonstrations in the 1950s and 1960s, Chomsky rose to academic political power following Spring 1968 at the MIT.<ref name=Smith_2002>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Neil |year=2002| title=Chomsky: Ideas and Ideals. | edition=2nd |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn= 0-521-47517-1 }}</ref>

Chomsky became an influential opponent of the French intellectuals during the following decades, and his supporters successfully confronted the [[Post-structuralism|post-structuralists]]  in the ''[[Science Wars]]'' of the late 1990s.<ref name=Bricmont&Franck_2010>{{cite book |last1=Bricmont |first1=jean |last2=Franck | first2=Julie |editor-last1=Bricmont |editor-first1=jean |editor-last2=Franck | editor-first2=Julie|year=2010| title=Chomsky Notebook  |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn= 9780231144759 }}</ref> The shift of the century saw a new academic funding policy where interdisciplinary research became favoured, effectively directing research funds to biological humanities.<ref name=Rhoten_2016>{{cite journal |last=Rhoten |first=Diana |date=July 19, 2016 |title=Interdisciplinary research: trend or transition? |url=https://items.ssrc.org/from-our-archives/interdisciplinary-research-trend-or-transition/ |journal=Language Sciences |access-date=2020-03-03}}</ref> The decline of structuralism was evident by 2015 with Sorbonne having lost its former spirit.<ref name=Hazareesingh_2015>{{cite journal |last=Hazareesingh |first=Sudhir |date=September 19, 2015 |title=The decline of the French intellectual |url=https://www.politico.eu/article/decline-of-french-intellectual-culture-literature-art-philosophy-history/ |journal=Politico |access-date=2020-03-03}}</ref>

Chomsky eventually claimed that syntactic structures are caused by a random [[mutation]] in the human [[genome]],<ref name=Berwick&Chomsky_2015/> proposing a similar explanation for other human faculties such as [[ethics]].<ref name=Smith_2002 /> But [[Steven Pinker]] argued in 1990 that they are the outcome of evolutionary [[adaptation]]s.<ref name="Pinker Bloom 2011">{{cite journal|last1=Pinker|first1=Steven|last2=Bloom|first2=Paul|title=Natural language and natural selection|journal=Behavioral and Brain Sciences|volume=13|issue=4|year=2011|pages=707–727|doi=10.1017/S0140525X00081061|url=http://www.phonetik.uni-muenchen.de/~hoole/kurse/hs_evolution/pinkerbloom_bbs_13_4_1990.pdf|citeseerx=10.1.1.116.4044|s2cid=6167614|access-date=2017-10-24|archive-date=2007-07-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070711071004/http://www.phonetik.uni-muenchen.de/~hoole/kurse/hs_evolution/pinkerbloom_bbs_13_4_1990.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===From 1976 onwards: Neo-Darwinism===
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 models of language|usage-based linguistics]]'';<ref name=DeBot_2015>{{cite book |last=de Bot |first=Kees |year=2015| title=A History of Applied Linguistics: From 1980 to the Present |publisher=Routledge |isbn= 9781138820654 }}</ref> a derivative of [[Richard Dawkins|Richard Dawkins's]] [[memetics]].<ref name=Boesch&Tomasello_1998>{{cite journal |last1=Boesch |first1=Christoophe |last2=Tomasello|first2=Michael|date=1998 |title=Chimpanzee and human cultures (with a comment from James D. Paterson) |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233820547 |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=39 |issue=5 |pages=591–614 |doi=10.1086/204785 |s2cid=55562574 |access-date=2020-03-03}}</ref> It is a concept of linguistic units as [[Replicator (evolution unit)|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#Cognitive Linguistics (linguistics framework)|Cognitive Linguistics]] (with capitalised initials), and 'functional' (adaptational) linguistics (not to be confused with [[Functional theories of grammar|functional linguistics]]) to confront both Chomsky and the humanists.<ref name=Croft_1993 /> 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]].