From: Chris Taylor (christ@ebi.ac.uk)
Date: Fri 13 Feb 2004 - 13:33:16 GMT
Chuck D is _so_ the man :)
derek gatherer wrote:
> Here's a passage from Darwin's Descent of Man 2nd Ed.
> Chaper 3:
>
> "The formation of different languages and of distinct
> species, and the proofs that both have been developed
> through a gradual process, are curiously parallel.[Sir
> C. Lyell in The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity
> of Man, 1863, chap. xxiii] But we can trace the
> formation of many words further back than that of
> species, for we can perceive how they actually arose
> from the imitation of various sounds. We find in
> distinct languages striking homologies due to
> community of descent, and analogies due to a similar
> process of formation. The manner in which certain
> letters or sounds change when others change is very
> like correlated growth. We have in both cases the
> re-duplication of parts, the effects of long-continued
> use, and so forth. The frequent presence of rudiments,
> both in languages and in species, is still more
> remarkable. The letter m in the word am, means I; so
> that in the expression I am, a superfluous and useless
> rudiment has been retained. In the spelling also of
> words, letters often remain as the rudiments of
> ancient forms of pronunciation. Languages, like
> organic beings, can be classed in groups under groups;
> and they can be classed either naturally according to
> descent, or artificially by other characters. Dominant
> languages and dialects spread widely, and lead to the
> gradual extinction of other tongues. A language, like
> a species, when once extinct, never, as Sir C. Lyell
> remarks, reappears. The same language never has two
> birth-places. Distinct languages may be crossed or
> blended together.[Rev. F. W. Farrar, in an interesting
> article, entitled Philology and Darwinism," in Nature,
> March 24, 1870, p. 528] We see variability in every
> tongue, and new words are continually cropping up; but
> as there is a limit to the powers of the memory,
> single words, like whole languages, gradually become
> extinct. As Max Muller[Nature, January 6, 1870, p.
> 257.] has well remarked:- "A struggle for life is
> constantly going on amongst the words and grammatical
> forms in each language. The better, the shorter, the
> easier forms are constantly gaining the upper hand,
> and they owe their success to their own inherent
> virtue." To these more important causes of the
> survival of certain words, mere novelty and fashion
> may be added; for there is in the mind of man a strong
> love for slight changes in all things. The survival or
> preservation of certain favoured words in the struggle
> for existence is natural selection.
>
>
>
>
>
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-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chris Taylor (christ@ebi.ac.uk) MIAPE Project -- psidev.sf.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ =============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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