Theorizing Language Evolution Using NCT and Conlangs: An Etiological Study
Menon Swathi Sivakumar and Vinod Balakrishnan
Abstract
An extensive amount of scholarly work has displaced traditional and positivist assumptions of the separation of the cognitive and cultural domains as two separate entities. Notably, the interventions of scholars prominent in linguistics, and hence those such as Bouchard, Arbib, and Odling-Smee, have effectively positioned or displaced this older and more archaic thinking.
In this paper, we posit that the propensity for constructivism in human languages has not been sufficiently studied. We propose a framework with which to address this gap. We also juxtapose natlangs (natural languages) with conlangs (constructed languages), in order to clarify the effectiveness of each. To facilitate this discussion, we propose the following points: Conlang origins are well-known, the study of conlangs has tangible evidence of manipulation of language, and the study of conlangs can further our understanding of natlangs. We thus draw on multiple fields to effect this anthropological study.
The literature in this paper has invited a use of Bouchard’s concept of Offline Base Systems to respond to questions of the characteristics and mechanics of language vis-à-vis ethnological work. For this, we turn to issues of embodiment and ideology, to then extend this to other consequences of and motives for developing conlangs, and hence language evolution, such as language disabilities and impairments, a field which is still in its infancy. A focus on language construction using conlangs to test OBS suggests a new potent avenue for the exploration of language evolution.
Keywords: Conlangs, language evolution, natlangs, niche construction theory, linguistic
anthropology