The Emergence of Evolutionary Thinking in Linguistics: Towards a New Conceptual Framework

语言学中进化思维的出现：走向新的概念框架

• 批准号: AH/F017677/1
• 负责人: Simon Kirby
• 金额: $ 21.53万
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FF017677%2F1
• 关键词: Emergence; Evolutionary; Thinking; Linguistics; Towards

Language evolution has traditionally been studied within the humanities; analogies with biological evolution have been few and far between and have generally been applicable to very specific linguistic phenomena. In the last fifteen years, however, the study of language evolution and change has been undergoing a significant shift. A number of studies have independently made similar proposals about the mechanisms of language evolution. They all share the use of explicit analogy between the elements and processes underlying linguistic and in biological evolution. The modern synthesis of Darwin's natural selection and population genetics provides a unified framework to understand the evolution and diversification of life. The basis of the linguistic analogies is the following: Units of evolution (genes) are copied faithfully generation after generation, but copying is not perfect, and some variants will be copied more than others. What the recent language evolution studies do not share is the way that linguistic elements and processes are matched with biological elements and processes; this has prevented effective dialogue between the different authors and has stagnated progress. This project will be asking questions about the precise implementation of evolutionary thinking in the target studies and its role in a wider context: What analogies are made between linguistic and biological evolution? What are the proposed units, processes and mechanisms involved in language evolution in the recent studies? What knowledge does a rigorous analysis of language dynamics contribute to cultural evolution and evolutionary epistemology? We propose to construct a framework of rigorously defined evolutionary concepts where different models of language evolution can be analyzed, compared and contrasted. This conceptual framework will provide a common vocabulary that will make it easy to formulate new research questions and it will help identify areas where more research is needed; it will allow checking existing models for self-consistency; it will inform future computational and experimental research in language change and evolution; finally, it will facilitate dialogue, collaboration and further development of the theories.The conceptual framework will be analyzed in the wider biological, anthropological and philosophical contexts of cultural evolution and evolutionary theory. This literature includes studies on the general mechanisms of evolution; on the evolution of social and cognitive prerequisites for culture and language; on the co-evolution of genes and culture; and on theories of cultural and of linguistic evolution, including memetics, the current most explicitly based on analogy between culture and biology, and its critics. We will investigate the implications of our framework for the relationships between language and culture, and between systems that can be explained by the same evolutionary processes.The proposed research will impact the fields of language evolution, historical lingusitics and language variation and change, not least by redefining the boundaries between them. It will also situate the study of language dynamics within the context of cultural and evolutionary studies.

传统上，语言进化是在人文学科中研究的。与生物进化的类比很少，而且通常适用于非常具体的语言现象。然而，在过去的十五年里，语言演变和变化的研究正在经历重大转变。许多研究独立地对语言进化机制提出了类似的建议。它们都在语言学和生物进化中的元素和过程之间使用明确的类比。达尔文自然选择和群体遗传学的现代综合为理解生命的进化和多样化提供了一个统一的框架。语言类比的基础如下：进化单位（基因）被一代又一代地忠实地复制，但复制并不完美，某些变体会比其他变体被复制得更多。最近的语言进化研究没有分享的是语言元素和过程与生物元素和过程相匹配的方式；这阻碍了不同作者之间的有效对话，并使进展停滞不前。该项目将提出有关目标研究中进化思维的精确实施及其在更广泛背景下的作用的问题：语言进化和生物进化之间有哪些类比？最近的研究提出了哪些涉及语言进化的单位、过程和机制？对语言动力学的严格分析对文化进化和进化认识论有何贡献？我们建议构建一个严格定义的进化概念框架，可以在其中分析、比较和对比不同的语言进化模型。这个概念框架将提供一个通用词汇，使提出新的研究问题变得容易，并将有助于确定需要更多研究的领域；它将允许检查现有模型的自我一致性；它将为未来语言变化和进化的计算和实验研究提供信息；最后，它将促进理论的对话、合作和进一步发展。概念框架将在文化进化和进化理论的更广泛的生物学、人类学和哲学背景下进行分析。这些文献包括对进化一般机制的研究；关于文化和语言的社会和认知先决条件的演变；关于基因和文化的共同进化；以及文化和语言进化理论，包括模因论，当前最明确地基于文化和生物学之间的类比及其批评者。我们将研究我们的框架对语言和文化之间以及可以通过相同进化过程解释的系统之间关系的影响。拟议的研究将影响语言进化、历史语言学以及语言变异和变化领域，尤其是重新定义它们之间的界限。它还将语言动力学的研究置于文化和进化研究的背景下。

项目成果

Culture and biology in the origins of linguistic structure.

• DOI: 10.3758/s13423-016-1166-7
• 发表时间: 2017-02
• 期刊: Psychonomic bulletin & review
• 影响因子: 3.5
• 作者: Kirby S

Linguistic structure is an evolutionary trade-off between simplicity and expressivity

语言结构是简单性和表达性之间的进化权衡

• 发表时间: 2013
• 期刊: Proceedings of Cogsci 2013
• 作者: Smith, K

The Language Phenomenon - Human Communication from Milliseconds to Millennia

语言现象——从毫秒到千年的人类交流

• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-36086-2_6
• 发表时间: 2013
• 作者: Kirby S

The Cambridge Handbook of Biolinguistics

剑桥生物语言学手册

• 发表时间: 2013
• 作者: Kirby, S

The role of practice and literacy in the evolution of linguistic structure

实践和读写能力在语言结构演变中的作用

• 期刊: 8th International Conference on the Evolution of Language
• 作者: Monica Tamariz (Author)