Mar 12, 2017 11:33
7 yrs ago
7 viewers *
English term
evolution vs. development
English
Science
Printing & Publishing
Scientific Journal editing/proofing
When reviewing scientific or technical articles prior to publication, I notice that a lot of authors, particularly Spanish ones in my case, tend to use "evolve/evolution" when I often feel they really mean "develop/development". I'd like some feedback from native English speakers about this. I'm a bit of a traditionalist and prefer keeping evolve/evolution for the Darwin-type phenomenon we all know and love, rather than simply to describe the progress (development) of figures, but I'd be interested to hear some opinions.
The sentence that prompted this posting right now is as follows:
"This model generalizes the proposal of Mayer et al. (2012) in the sense that the new model is able to describe the evolution of weight distribution throughout an entire production cycle, which could be a powerful tool for fish farm management. "
The sentence that prompted this posting right now is as follows:
"This model generalizes the proposal of Mayer et al. (2012) in the sense that the new model is able to describe the evolution of weight distribution throughout an entire production cycle, which could be a powerful tool for fish farm management. "
Responses
| 3 +1 | positive spin |
Mark Nathan
|
Responses
+1
23 mins
Selected
positive spin
Hi,
Yes, I have though this too - I try to follow the idea that "evolve" (in English) usually implies a more advanced state, whereas "develop" could refer to any sort of change.
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Note added at 24 mins (2017-03-12 11:57:48 GMT)
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"thought"
Yes, I have though this too - I try to follow the idea that "evolve" (in English) usually implies a more advanced state, whereas "develop" could refer to any sort of change.
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Note added at 24 mins (2017-03-12 11:57:48 GMT)
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"thought"
Note from asker:
| Interesting. The paper the sample is from uses "evolution" about twenty times throughout the text and each time I get to it I have to do a double take... |
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thanks to everyone for the comments! :-)"
Discussion
Early 17th century: from Latin evolutio(n-) ‘unrolling’, from the verb evolvere (see evolve). Early senses related to movement, first recorded in describing a ‘wheeling’ manoeuvre in the realignment of troops or ships. Current senses stem from a notion of ‘opening out’, giving rise to the sense ‘development’. (UNQUOTE) Being a Spanish native, I get your point. The Spaniards traditionalists tend to complain about the very many English terms and expressions "invading" the Spanish, but I'd think that there is a reciprocal influence that goes both ways...
The link above may be useful.