Evolution, and 'functional' + 'social'

[Tahir Wood]

>>> Bill Croft <w.croft at MAN.AC.UK> 11/29/02 06:56PM >>>
      One must distinguish between the evolution of language
and the evolution of languages. The former is the evolution
of human cognition and social behavior that permitted the
rise of modern human language. This is of course an
instance of biological evolution, of human beings. The
latter is the process by which linguistic elements change
over time. This is an evolutionary process, that is it
involves change by replication; but it is not the same
evolutionary process as biological evolution. 

I prefer to refer to the former as evolution and the latter as history. Less confusing, and less likely to give the impression that the social aspect of language change is absent in favour of some kind of biological determinism: e.g. Africans have 'less developed languages' because they are racially/biologically 'less developed'.
Tahir
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