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PDF Generated by Companion Website, Chapter 1, Text 1.1. In-depth Discussion, The Evolution of Language volutionary theory of linguistics dates back to the 18th century. ESchlegel (1772–1829) advocated an evolutionary approach to under- standing the development of language through comparative and internal reconstruction, techniques used to track and support the theory of the evolution of historic languages.1 In Darwin’s Origins (1859), observations about evolution in organisms were applied to language as well. Darwin proposed that “not only could the human pedigree serve as a model for tracing linguistic development; but reverse, as he also implied, could be the case as well: the descent of language might serve as a model for the descent of man, suggesting a similar genealogy for human beings and lan- guage.”2 These theories deduce that as humankind develops and evolves, so does language, and vice versa. The basic premise in Bichakjian’s Language in a Darwinian Perspective asserts that both language and writing are indeed better understood in the light of evolution. Bichakjian points to Jespersen’s work which con- cludes that languages become ever more efficient and progressive in nature.3 Bichakjian’s work advances the theory through an in-depth study that suggests that linguistic features have developed under two sets of selections or evolutionary pressures: the pressure to reduce the neuromus- cular cost, and the concomitant pressure to find ever-more streamlined and functional substitutes. Evolution into a more efficient being creates a more efficient language: Language evolution will therefore be a process that replaces an existing fea- ture with a new one that requires a smaller expenditure of energy while pro- viding at least equal and preferable better functional capabilities.4 Jespersen’s work supports the belief that language becomes more effi- cient as it evolves. As a sidebar, perhaps this explains why many modern performers decode the quarter note with one simple and efficient mean- ing: exactly one full beat in common time. Not so in the eighteenth cen- tury. That one symbol contained a variety of specific, possible meanings depending on context. The research supports the premise that whether examination involves a longitudinal study of a particular population segment or a cross sec- tion within a particular time between diverse cultures, language evolves.5 It is generally safe to say that the current accepted belief is that lan- guage evolves as does humankind. All languages, spoken or musical, are ever-changing, like a mobile hanging from the ceiling in constant move- ment. Return to the text to find a quick look at concrete evidence in two American dictionaries that illustrate the point. NOTES 1. Bernard Bichakjian, Language in a Darwinian Perspective (Bochum Publications in Evolutionary Cultural Semiotics, new series, vol. 3, Frankfurt: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2002), 59. 2. University of Chicago website (home.uchicago.edu/rjr6/articles/Schleicher— final.doc, June 26, 2014), Robert J. Richards, “The Linguistic Creation of Man: Charles Darwin, August Schleicher, Ernst Haeckel, and the Missing Link in Nineteenth-Century Evolutionary Theory,” 1999), 8–9. 3. Bichakjian, Language in a Darwinian Perspective, 64. 4. Ibid., 94. 5. Terrence W. Deacon, The Symbolic Species. The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1997), 109–10..
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