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Linguistic Evolution

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Evolution of language; Language evolution; Language origins and evolution

Definition

The multidisciplinary study of linguistic evolution has two overarching goals. The first one is to understand the origins of language in humans; in order to do this, anthropologists, archaeologists, geneticists, and linguists examine the biological, cognitive, and technological evolution of our species. Additionally, comparative psychologists and biologists also gain knowledge by identifying similarities and differences between the communicative behavior of humans and other animal species. The second goal of evolutionary linguists is to learn about the origins of linguistic structure in human languages. Linguists and psychologists aim at explaining the distribution of linguistic elements and properties as the result of social and cultural evolutionary processes.

Introduction

The term language evolution, or linguistic evolution, is used in two distinct, although related, ways. First, it may...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

    Monica Tamariz

Authors
  1. Monica Tamariz
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

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Tamariz, M. (2016). Linguistic Evolution. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3350-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3350-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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