Editing Evolutionary linguistics (section)

===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.