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Darwin’s Biosemiotics: The Linguistic Rubicon in the Descent of Man

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Biosemiotic Perspectives on Language and Linguistics

Part of the book series: Biosemiotics ((BSEM,volume 13))

Abstract

In this essay I shall attempt to show how Darwin’s work on, and contribution to, linguistics has often charted a proto-biosemiotic trajectory of thought. While modern linguistic studies have tended to explore Darwin’s contribution to linguistics adopting a Saussurean view I argue that such views undermine Darwin’s notion of continuity between animals and humans and I propose to look at Darwin’s theory of language, which stems from the Romantic thought, by adopting a biosemiotic perspective which clarifies Darwin’s own ideas on the origin of language and animal evolution as well as their inter-relations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Alter 1999; Herbert 2001; Winter 2009.

  2. 2.

    Winter 2009.

  3. 3.

    Aarsleff 1983, p. 7.

  4. 4.

    Aarsleff 1976.

  5. 5.

    Beer 1996.

  6. 6.

    Monboddo 1779.

  7. 7.

    Beer notes that etymology was the oldest form in which linguistic change was recorded, however it didn’t allow to establish an authoritative sequence of change, since it was possible to produce more than one convincing etymology for one word (Beer 1996, p. 109).

  8. 8.

    Aarsleff 1983, p. 73.

  9. 9.

    Locke 1690 [1975], Book III, p. 405.

  10. 10.

    Ibid., p. 477.

  11. 11.

    Ibid., Book IV, p. 720.

  12. 12.

    Ibid.

  13. 13.

    Cf. Losonsky 2007 for an in-depth discussion of Locke’s essay.

  14. 14.

    Condillac 1746 [2001].

  15. 15.

    Ibid., p. 51.

  16. 16.

    Aarsleff 1982.

  17. 17.

    Darwin 1871 [1981, p. 87].

  18. 18.

    Darwin ’s notebooks represent an important testimony to the development of his thought and theories. According to Jonathan Hodge (2009) they have helped in transforming the understanding of Darwin’s entire life and work since 1960s. They reveal the vast range of Darwin’s readings which contributed to his elaboration of the origin of species, his theory of the origin of moral sense in man from ancestral animal instinct, as well as language theory. The notebooks were written between 1831 and 1839. He started recording his observations during his voyage on the Beagle in the Field Notebooks which were followed by the Red Notebook. Darwin labelled each notebook with a letter. For instance, notebook A was written in July 1837 and was devoted to geology whereas notebook B was headed Zoonomia and was devoted to the laws of life. By July 1838 he had filled notebook C devoted to transmutation which was followed by notebook D on the same subject. In 1838 he started filling notebooks M and N on metaphysics and moral expression. For a detailed commentary and Darwin’s notebooks cf. Barrett et al. 1987.

  19. 19.

    Darwin , Notebook M, p. 84e, quoted in Wyhe 2002.

  20. 20.

    Darwin , quoted in Degler 1991, p. 7.

  21. 21.

    Monboddo 1774, pp. 187–189.

  22. 22.

    Ibid., p. 481.

  23. 23.

    Bowie 2003.

  24. 24.

    Ibid., p. 46.

  25. 25.

    Herder 1767 [1985, p. 441].

  26. 26.

    It is important to highlight, that Herder was familiar with Condillac’s work, specifically with the part that deals with the origin of language and that his ideas may have influenced the writing of Herder’s essay Über den Ursprung der Sparche (1772) or On the Origin of Language (Aarsleff 1982).

  27. 27.

    Burrow 1967, p. 189.

  28. 28.

    Cf. Aarsleff 1983.

  29. 29.

    Jones 1799, p. 26.

  30. 30.

    Hoenigswald 1963, p. 7. Hoenigswald notes, however, that term comparative as used in the eighteenth century does not refer to comparison at large, but to a process whereby original features can be separated from recent ones and where the aim of classification is subordinated to the aim of reconstruction (cf., e.g., his argument in Hoenigswald 1963).

  31. 31.

    Linda Dowling argues that Englishmen have contributed relatively little to the development of this new science, so much so, that when M. Müller arrived in England in 1846, he believed to have set foot in a country rich of philological resources, yet relatively poor in philological achievements (cf. for instance Dowling 1982).

  32. 32.

    Humboldt 1820 [1986, p. 100].

  33. 33.

    Mueller-Vollmer 2011.

  34. 34.

    Ibid.

  35. 35.

    Ibid.

  36. 36.

    Ibid.

  37. 37.

    Mueller-Vollmer 1989.

  38. 38.

    Mueller-Vollmer 2011.

  39. 39.

    Richards 2002, p. 26.

  40. 40.

    Gamkrelidze and Ivanov 1990, p. 111.

  41. 41.

    Aarsleff 1983, p. 160.

  42. 42.

    Beer 1996, p. 103.

  43. 43.

    Richards 2002, p. 31.

  44. 44.

    Schleicher, quoted in Richards 2009b, p. 126.

  45. 45.

    Ibid., p. 30.

  46. 46.

    Beer 1996.

  47. 47.

    Brougham 1839, vol. 2, pp. 195–196.

  48. 48.

    Darwin 1871 [1981, p. 64].

  49. 49.

    Beer 1996.

  50. 50.

    Darwin 1871 [1981, p. 68].

  51. 51.

    Richards 2009a, p. 109.

  52. 52.

    Nöth 1995, p. 163.

  53. 53.

    Sebeok 2001.

  54. 54.

    Cf., e.g., Martinelli 2010; Sebeok 1990 and 1972.

  55. 55.

    Sebeok 1994.

  56. 56.

    Ibid.

  57. 57.

    Darwin 1871 [1981, p. 59].

  58. 58.

    Ibid., p. 55.

  59. 59.

    Ibid.

  60. 60.

    Winter 2009, p. 128.

  61. 61.

    Müller 1861 [1862, p. 354].

  62. 62.

    Deely 2010.

  63. 63.

    Ibid., p. 20.

  64. 64.

    Ibid., p. 21.

  65. 65.

    Winter 2009.

  66. 66.

    Ibid, p. 131.

  67. 67.

    Ibid.

  68. 68.

    Ibid., p. 156.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. London Metropolitan University, London, UK

    Deana Neubauer

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  1. Deana Neubauer
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Correspondence to Deana Neubauer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Slavic and South Asian Studies, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Ekaterina Velmezova

  2. Professor in biosemiotics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Kalevi Kull

  3. Dept. of Language and Communication, University of Southern Denmark, Slagelse, Denmark

    Stephen J. Cowley

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Neubauer, D. (2015). Darwin’s Biosemiotics: The Linguistic Rubicon in the Descent of Man . In: Velmezova, E., Kull, K., Cowley, S. (eds) Biosemiotic Perspectives on Language and Linguistics. Biosemiotics, vol 13. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20663-9_14

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