Languages are constantly changing. New words are added to the English language every year, either borrowed or coined, and there is often railing against the 'decline' of the language by public figures. Some languages, such as French and Finnish, have academies to protect them against foreign imports. Yet languages are species-like constructs, which evolve naturally over time. Migration, imperialism, and globalization have blurred boundaries between many of them, producing new ones (such as creoles) and driving some to extinction.This book examines the processes by which languages change, from the macroecological perspective of competition and natural selection. In a series of chapters, Salikoko Mufwene examines such themes as: natural selection in language; the actuation question and the invisible hand that drives evolution; multilingualism and language contact; language birth and language death; the emergence of Creoles and Pidgins; and the varying impacts of colonization and globalization on language vitality.This comprehensive examination of the organic evolution of language will be essential reading for graduate and senior undergraduate students, and for researchers on the social dynamics of language variation and change, language vitality and death, and even the origins of linguistic diversity.

一扇了解语言器官、破解语法基因、进入人类心智的大门； 一个关于语言问题最权威的答案； 一些令人信服、生动有趣的例证； 一场常识对谬论的彻底胜利。

《温州话字林》收国际标准ISO-10646，即国家标准GB-13000所含的所有汉字字形，剔除了其中的日韩字、废字、讹字后，有效汉字字形约在17000左右。由于汉字一字多音多义的现象较为普遍，《温州话字林》实收有效字头20463个。对电脑大字库（20902字）作如此全面的梳理，国内至今似乎还没有人做过。 《温州话字林》并尝试以四声八调排列，同一声调的字头依普通话音序排序。这对于学习语言学很有好处，同时对于文献整理来说也很有意义，至少可以知道在温州话中有多少入声字，有多少仄声字，它们是哪些字，一目了然。