Re: Is language development evolutionary, or designed by the culture?

Ken Shackleton wrote: 
In my original question, I was looking for the consensus view on how
language changes over time....not the origin of language per se.

I have read in several sources that language evolves....using precisely
the same mechanisms that have been observed in biological evolution.
This view makes perfect sense to me, but I was looking for other
opinions.


I am curious as to exactly what "mechanisms" were put forth.
Note well that biological evolution is governed by changes in the
genes, as distinctt from changes in the (other parts) of the body.
So while the body might store more fat when moved to a colder
climate, there is not yet any theory that says the body would
produce different genes in the sperms/eggs because of the
environment.  This directly contradicts fact that a person's
language changes in response to the environment -- in fact,
language is learned from the environment!

All in all, there are far more mysteries in biological evolution
than in language evolution.  For examples, there are far, far less
variations in genes in a species to make complex evolutionary
changes (e.g., the emergence of an organ that would produce a
chemical poisonous substance to other animals but not itself,
plus the modification of the tooth structure so as to be a mean
to deliver the substabce, etc) even plausible.

As someone here has suggested, language changes is more like fashion
changes; or brownian motion, or chaotic systems.

Tak
--
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Tak To                                            takto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
--------------------------------------------------------------------^^

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