Research on language evolution is an established subject area yet permeated by terminological controversies about which topics should be considered pertinent to the field and which not. By consequence, scholars focusing on language evolution struggle in providing precise demarcations of the discipline, where even the very central notions of evolution and language are elusive. We aimed at providing a data-driven characterisation of language evolution as a field of research by relying on quantitative analysis of data drawn from 697 reviews on 255 submissions from the Joint Conference on Language Evolution 2022 (Kanazawa, Japan). Our results delineate a field characterized by a core of main research topics such as iconicity, sign language, multimodality. Despite being explored within the framework of language evolution research, only very recently these topics became popular in linguistics. As a result, language evolution has the potential to emerge as a forefront of linguistic research, bringing innovation to the study of language. We also see the emergence of more recent topics like rhythm, music, and vocal learning. Furthermore, the community identifies cognitive science, primatology, archaeology, palaeoanthropology, and genetics as key areas, encouraging empirical rather than theoretical work. With new themes, models, and methodologies emerging, our results depict an intrinsically multidisciplinary and evolving research field, likely adapting as language itself.

中文翻译：

---

划定语言进化研究领域


语言演化研究是一个既定的学科领域，但仍充斥着关于哪些主题应被视为与该领域相关、哪些主题不相关的术语争议。因此，专注于语言进化的学者很难提供该学科的精确划分，甚至进化和语言的核心概念也难以捉摸。我们的目标是通过对 2022 年语言进化联合会议（日本金泽）255 份提交材料的 697 篇评论中提取的数据进行定量分析，提供语言进化作为一个研究领域的数据驱动特征。我们的研究结果描绘了一个以象似性、手语、多模态等主要研究主题为核心的领域。尽管在语言演化研究的框架内进行了探索，但直到最近这些主题才在语言学中变得流行。因此，语言进化有可能成为语言研究的前沿，为语言研究带来创新。我们还看到了节奏、音乐和声乐学习等最新主题的出现。此外，该社区将认知科学、灵长类动物学、考古学、古人类学和遗传学确定为关键领域，鼓励实证研究而不是理论研究。随着新主题、模型和方法的出现，我们的结果描绘了一个本质上多学科且不断发展的研究领域，很可能会随着语言本身而适应。