The growth of evolutionary linguistics
l Not just the biologists who are interested in language
evolution…
l Pinker & Bloom (1990): Landmark paper linking linguistic and
evolutionary theory.
ˇ Decade before: 96 articles
ˇ Decade after: 1095 articles
l Evolutionary thinking in mainstream linguistics.
ˇ Jakendoff (2002), Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar,
Evolution
l Linguistic theory in the “big” science journals: Nature,
Science, etc.
l Computer science, robotics and AI communities actively
researching language evolution.