Since the beginning of the study of both historical linguistics and evolutionary biology, it was recognised in both fields that the principles driving language change and biological evolution have much in common. However, during the following decades the similarities mainly remained a curiosity, without wider repercussions in research. It was only in the second half of the 20th century that attempts were made at creating a theoretical framework encompassing both biological evolution and language change. However, the role of linguistic structures as evolving objects has remained unclear, and...