Introduction to Evolutionary Linguistics

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Evolutionary linguistics (also known as Darwinian linguistics) is a significant development in the study of linguistics. Evolutionary linguists view Linguistics as a subsector of evolutionary psychology and sociobiology. It thus has a sociobiological approach to language studies. Bio-linguistics, cognitive linguistics, and evolutionary anthropology are also closely related to this approach. In the previous two decades, evolutionary models have become prevalent in a variety of language research fields. Historical linguistics and the study of language's origin both naturally make use of evolutionary models in many studies around. The present book attempts to shed light on these aspects of linguistics. However, the absence of data around the transition from our primate lineages to the arrival of modern human language in all societies hinders the application of evolutionary models in the latter scenario. Data from the archaeological records and comparisons of human and other animal social-cognitive capacities and communication systems, especially nonhuman primates, are all we have to research. This volume does not discuss the study of the origin of human language. However, due to the vastness and expansion of the subject matter, the review is limited to studies in which evolutionary biology's qualitative concepts and quantitative methodologies have been applied to the study of language, particularly, language change and phylogeny.