ABSTRACT
Historical linguistics is currently undergoing something of a renaissance. This chapter examines the extent to which historical linguistics has a general theory of change, and whether such a theory is either possible or desirable. Language is also a tool for investigating the mind and historical linguistics provides useful data here too. The debates about the applicability of evolutionary ideas outside of biology are not by any means con ned to language and historical linguistics. We see similar debates within anthropology, archaeology, and other social sciences. What is an ‘evolutionary’ conception of language change? We consider the evolutionary view of historical linguistics to involve variants in an individual which undergo selectional pressures at the population level. More broadly, evolutionary views of historical linguistics can be indented by their approaches to problem solving. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
