Introducing English Linguistics

Change or evolution?
In their discussions of how languages develop over time, many linguists
have used the terms “change” and “evolution” interchangeably. This
reflects the fact that in common usage, these two words have become
roughly synonymous. When an ad proclaims that “Microsoft Office has
evolved,” the implication is not that earlier versions of this software pro-
gram had undergone “natural selection,” the notion in Darwinian theo-
ries of evolution that over time a species will pass on traits that will insure
its survival. Instead, the idea is that as this software has changed, it has
been improved in a kind of step-by-step progression. In this context, “evo-
lution” has become a metaphor and its meaning has been extended to
cover not just the development of a species but development in general.