Evolutionary Frameworks for Language Change: The Price Equation Approach

Models and concepts from biology have informed the study of language change for several centuries. In this article, I take a comparative look across the disciplines of historical linguistics and evolutionary biology and ask if an evolutionary perspective on language change drawing on Darwin's theory of adaptation through natural selection can contribute in a substantive way to theorizing within the study of language change. This article discusses a framework for language change that borrows concepts from evolutionary theory, the framework presented in Mufwene (2008). Building on Ja

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: LLC
• Authors: Brady Clark
• Keywords: Evolutionary, Language Change, LLC 2010, Programming Languages, Selection