语言进化的本质研究——历史与展望

Researches on Language Evolution: History and Outlook

语言进化研究的历史可追溯至古埃及。经过对国内外相关语言进化研究史料的梳理,本研究发现,语言进化研究主要包括讲述祖先语言起源的相关故事或脚本、语言进化与大脑发育的关系以及鉴于猿猴等动物对人类语言学习推测祖先的语言能力等;21世纪以来,人类希望通过基因研究破解人类语言进化之谜。语言学与生物学、基因学、计算机科学、神经科学等跨学科联合是语言进化研究今后的必然之路。

The beginning of language evolution researches can be traced back to ancient Egypt. After a review of the researches, the article find that most of the ancient researches on language evolution are stories about the origination of language. In the 17-18 th centuries, some bio-linguists would explain language evolution by exploring the relationship between human brain and language development. While in the 19^th century, the scientists began to comparatively research the development of human language with animal language development. In the 21^st century, linguists try to unearth the language evolution by gene researches. In all, a combination of biology, genealogy, computer science and neuroscience will be needed in future researches on the language evolution.