Whale song shows language-like statistical structure

Science, Journal Year: 2025, Volume and Issue: 387(6734), P. 649 - 653

Published: Feb. 6, 2025

Humpback whale song is a culturally transmitted behavior. Human language, which also transmitted, has statistically coherent parts whose frequency distribution follows power law. These properties facilitate learning and may therefore arise because of their contribution to the faithful transmission language over multiple cultural generations. If so, we would expect find them in other systems. In this study, applied methods based on infant speech segmentation 8 years humpback recordings, uncovering same statistical structure that hallmark human language. This commonality, two evolutionarily distant species, points role emergence thought be unique

Language: Английский

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Language-like efficiency in whale communication

Science Advances, Journal Year: 2025, Volume and Issue: 11(6)

Published: Feb. 5, 2025

Vocal communication systems in humans and other animals experience selection for efficiency—optimizing the benefits they convey relative to costs of producing them. Two hallmarks efficiency, Menzerath’s law Zipf’s abbreviation, predict that longer sequences will consist shorter elements more frequent be shorter, respectively. Here, we assessed evidence both laws cetaceans by analyzing vocal from 16 baleen toothed whale species comparing them 51 human languages. Eleven exhibit law, sometimes with greater effect sizes than speech. five categorized element types abbreviation. On average, whales also tend shorten intervals toward end sequences, although this varies species. Overall, results study suggest vocalizations many cetacean have undergone compression increased efficiency time.

Language: Английский

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Convergent evolution in whale and human vocal cultures

Science, Journal Year: 2025, Volume and Issue: 387(6734), P. 581 - 582

Published: Feb. 6, 2025

The complex songs of humpback whales conform to fundamental laws language

Language: Английский

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Nonadjacent dependencies and sequential structure of chimpanzee action during a natural tool-use task

PeerJ, Journal Year: 2024, Volume and Issue: 12, P. e18484 - e18484

Published: Dec. 5, 2024

Many of the complex behaviours humans involve production nonadjacent dependencies between sequence elements, which in part can be generated through hierarchical organization sequences. To understand how these structural properties human evolved, we gain valuable insight from studying sequential nonhuman animals. Among apes, tool use has been hypothesised to a domain behaviour likely involves organization, and may therefore possess actions. However thus far, evidence supporting great-ape comes methodologies have criticised their objectivity. Additionally, extent appear primate action sequences during not formally investigated. We used estimations mutual information (MI)—a measure dependency strength elements—to evaluate both wild chimpanzees produce naturalistic tool-use task (nut cracking), as well actions are organized use. Half adult produced at significantly greater distances than comparable, nonhierarchical Markov models once repeated had accounted for. for majority chimpanzees, MI decay with increasing distance included power-law relationship, is key indicator that by entail some degree organization. Our analysis offered greatest support system where short subroutines (2–8 long) hierarchically arranged into longer sequences—a finding consistent previous qualitative descriptions ape behaviours. Interindividual variability was detected within our maximum were detected, most structuring mechanism discuss results light possible interindividual variation systems use, addition methodological considerations applications Moreover, main findings alongside hypotheses coevolution syntax language tool-action across hominin evolutionary history.

Language: Английский

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Inter-call intervals, but not call durations, adhere to Menzerath’s Law in the submissive vocal bouts of meerkats

Royal Society Open Science, Journal Year: 2024, Volume and Issue: 11(12)

Published: Dec. 1, 2024

Diverse information encoding systems, including human language, the vocal and gestural systems of non-human animals structure DNA proteins, have been found to conform 'Menzerath's Law'-a negative relationship between number units composing a sequence, size those units. Here, we test for presence Menzerath's Law in bouts produced submissive context by meerkats (

Language: Английский

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