@amiloradovsky @tfb
Decent metaphor, but natural language is a lot fuzzier.

There's been a shitload of philosophy on paradigm shifts and the evolution of concepts, categories, and terminology.

Also, post-Tractatus Wittgenstein has great insights on the nature of language and its evolution.

Bourdieu's sociology can also be applied to the status games behind the choice of "official" terminology.

@amiloradovsky @tfb

There's also recent studies that point to scientific paradigm shifts being tied to the death of prominent researchers, as in life they tend to gum up the whole field by creating academic neofeudal domains that absorb resources and talent, starving new ideas at birth.