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Evolutionary Epistemology, Language and Culture pp 121–147Cite as

Darwinism, traditional linguistics and the new Palaeolithic Continuity Theory of language evolution

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Part of the book series: Theory and Decision Library A: ((TDLA,volume 39))

Abstract

As the author has shown in previous work, although linguistics as a science was born in Darwin’s century, Darwinism’s influence on it was superficial and produced the mystifying, but still current, view that language is a living organism, and language change an organic law. Language is, instead, a social artefact with an interface with nature, which is governed by the law of conservation and changes only exceptionally. Since language is innate—as claimed by Chomsky and now demonstrated by natural sciences—and Homo was thus born loquens, the evolution of language—and all world languages, including Indo-European (IE)—must be mapped onto the entire course of human cultural evolution, in the new framework provided by the Palaeolithic Continuity Theory (PCT).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Mario Alinei (Professor Emeritus)

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  1. Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

    Nathalie Gontier (Research Assistant of the Research Foundation Flanders), Jean Paul Van Bendegem  & Diederik Aerts (Research Assistant of the Research Foundation Flanders),  & 

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Alinei, M. (2006). Darwinism, traditional linguistics and the new Palaeolithic Continuity Theory of language evolution. In: Gontier, N., Van Bendegem, J.P., Aerts, D. (eds) Evolutionary Epistemology, Language and Culture. Theory and Decision Library A:, vol 39. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3395-8_7

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