>Gerry: Actually when you look at the biological evolution of a species and
the evolution of language (both of language families and of individuals)
there seems to be an inherent similarity. I still haven't nailed why this is
so, but I'm working on it.
There are similarities & differences. Some ideas. Both species & languages
are the result of evolutionary processes: every ancestor was viable & suited
to its job. Selection & adaptation are more important in biological
evolution; in linguistic evolution, chance is even more important (eg,
arbitrary meaning of words) than in biological evolution. Horizontal
transfer is probably a lot more important (at least today) in linguistic
(eg, foreign words) than in biological evolution (eg, viruses). Linguistic
evolution is a lot faster. Memes vs genes. Other?
Marc