Lingua 77. 1989. p. 101-112.
All 19th century linguists were interested in some sense or other in the history and change of language(s). Influenced by the success of biological sciences, the terms 'transformation', 'evolution' or "growth' were widely used and misused. After 1859, when Darwin published his book on the Origin of Species, linguists became even more fascinated by the biological metaphor. But although the term "evolution' changed its meaning in biological sciences, being now connected with the terms 'variation' and "selection", most of the linguists continued to use it in a pre-Darwinian way Linguists did not participate in the Darwinian revolution. What was missing, and is still missing, is a sound application of the theory of variation, selection and adaptation in theories of language evolution and change. In this article 1 want to indicate some routes a Darwinian revolution could take in the linguistics of the 20th century
