Viaţa cuvintelor şi selecţia lor naturală

(sau despre influenţa biologiei asupra lingvisticii)

Abstract

In the history of linguistics influenced from an ideological point of view by the science of nature in general and especially by biology, one can distinguish two periods: a pre-Darwinist (starting with Franz  Bopp) and a Darwinist one (owed mostly to August Schleicher). After having briefly characterized the two
periods originating from positivism, we will also try to determine (following theoreticians such as W.D. Whitney, B.P. Hasdeu, Hermann Paul, F. de Saussure, E. Coseriu, Lucia Wald etc.) to what extent we can deal with an identification of language as an organism or simply with an analogy useful to the description of
the subject-matter in question. Apart from this epistemological introduction, the main purpose of our paper is searching the use, benefits and the impact of some metaphors such as “life of words” and “natural selection of words” (frequently used in the XIXth century, found at Darmesteter, for instance) in some linguists’ language and way of thinking (including Romanian ones: Iorgu Iordan, Marius Sala et alii).