ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the potential of evolutionary thinking in language studies by discussing selection of problems in evolutionary linguistics that may be of particular relevance to the field of pragmatics. The aim of this survey is thus to show how some central linguistic questions pose themselves when they are approached in evolutionary terms, and what perspectives evolutionary theorising opens for dealing with them. The chapter discusses what is important about scenario just outlined is that it accounts coherently for emergence of a trustworthy communication system without having to leave safe ground of Darwinian theory. It demonstrates how emergence of linguistic communication can be accounted for within general framework of contemporary evolutionary theory. In particular, it has tried to argue that there is nothing miraculous about the existence of language and that it is possible to formulate hypotheses about its origin that violate none of principles which explain why even only remotely language-like communication systems are rarely found among animal species.
