Darwin-L Message Log 5:170 (January 1994)

Academic Discussion on the History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

This is one message from the Archives of Darwin-L (1993–1997), a professional discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.

Note: Additional publications on evolution and the historical sciences by the Darwin-L list owner are available on SSRN.

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<5:170>From peter@usenix.org  Thu Jan 27 07:14:03 1994

Date: Thu, 27 Jan 94 05:21:48 PST
From: peter@usenix.org (Peter H. Salus)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: RE: History of "adaptation" in historical linguistics

In a negative sense, Condillac (Essai sur l'Origine des Conoissances
Humaines... [Amsterdam 1746], p. 201; chap. xv) specifically
states that the climate isn't the basis of language.  In the
article on Onomatopoeia in the Encyclopedie, de Brosses
attributes the oldest divergences among languages to the
difference in climate.  This may be the first instance.

Peter

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