THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE IN LIVING LANGUAGES

Аннотация

Language is not static but continuously evolving. This article examines the evolution of language as a characteristic process of all living languages, integrating theoretical and empirical perspectives. We begin with key linguistic theories – Noam Chomsky’s generative grammar, Ferdinand de Saussure’s structuralism, and William Labov’s sociolinguistics – outlining how each framework accounts for language structure and change. We then compare the historical evolution of English and Uzbek, providing insights from Old English through Modern English, and from Chagatai Turkic to contemporary Uzbek. Special attention is given to the evolution of spoken language in contrast to written language, highlighting how pronunciation and usage shift more rapidly in speech while written forms often preserve older conventions. We incorporate corpus-based evidence of phonological, grammatical, and lexical changes over time in both English and Uzbek, illustrating these changes with concrete examples (such as sound shifts, morphological simplification, and vocabulary expansion). The analysis underscores that all living languages undergo constant change, shaped by social, cognitive, and historical forces. By understanding these processes – through theory, historical comparison, and corpus data – we gain insight into why languages today are both connected to and different from their past forms.