On Constructing a Research Model for Historical Cognitive Linguistics (HCL): Some Theoretical Considerations

This talk examines how historical cognitive linguistics can benefit methodologically through the application of the notion of language as a complex adaptive system. A historical perspective of the ways that the concept of ‘language’ has changed over time is provided, starting with the formulations in the 18th and 19th centuries and then 20th century theories are treated. The idea that ‘language’ should be viewed as complex adaptive systems (CAS) was introduced initially in computational evolutionary linguistics, a discipline inspired by biological, systems-theoretical approaches to the evolution of life. The way that the CAS approach serves to replace older historical linguistic notions of ‘language’ as an ‘organism’ and languages conceived as ‘species’ and ‘races’ is explained as well as how the CAS approach can be generalized.