Humans can easily talk about an infinite number of subjects by connecting words from neuroscience to pink elephants. It’s thanks Composition: The ability to combine meaningful units into large structures which means the meaning of its units and the way it is combined.
For years, scientists believed that only humans used only mass structure. Animal communication was considered a random random classification of most of the calls, with only rare examples. However, Our new studyRecently published in Science Journal, otherwise says.
By researching the vocal communication of Bonobos in their natural habitat largely, Cocolopori community reserve In the Democratic Republic of Congo, we found that vocal communication between Bonobos – with our closest living relatives, with chimpanzee – like human language, depends largely on creativity.
A bonobo dictionary
To check the structure in animals, the first single call and their combinations need a strong understanding. It has long presented a challenge, as it is difficult to reach the brain of animals and decod the meaning of their call firmly.
To measure it, we developed a new way to determine the meaning of bonobo vocalization, and it used to determine the meaning of all their single calls and combinations.
We have assumed that a bonobo call may have different types of meanings. It can give an order (“run”), may announce future functions (“I will travel”), express the internal states (“I am afraid”) or refer to external events (“is a hunter”).
To firmly understand the meaning of each vocality while avoiding human prejudice, we described in great detail in the context of emissions of each vocality, using more than 300 relevant parameters. For example, we recorded the presence of external phenomena (such as another bonobo or monkey group appearance) and the behavior of the collar, such as it was feeding, traveling, resting, and so on.
We coded even after two minutes of production of a call, the collar and the audience started doing, started doing, and stopped doing. We used this highly detailed description of reference Meaning for call meansThe meaning is the relevant parameters associated with emission of this assertiveness. For example, if the collar always starts traveling after a particular call is emitted, the possibility of call means “I will travel”.
With this approach, we were able to create a complete list of Bonobo calls and their affiliated meaning: a type of Bonobo Dictionary. This dictionary represents an important step in understanding animal communication, as this is the first when researchers have systematically determined the meaning of all the calls of an animal.
Bonobo composition
In the second phase of our study, we developed a method to examine whether animal combinations are composed. We found several call combinations that mean the meaning of their parts – a major identity of the structure. In addition, some of these call combinations have a striking equality for more complex structural structures in human language.
In human language, creativity can take two forms. In its simple (or trivial) version, each element of combination contributes to the whole independent meaning, and the combination is interpreted by the sum of its parts. For example, the “blond dancer” refers to a person who is both blonde and a dancer. If this person is also a doctor, we can guess that he is also a blonde doctor.
In complex (or nontrivial) syntax, units in a combination do not contribute to independent meanings, but rather interact instead so that a part of the combination modifies the other. For example, the “bad dancer” does not refer to a bad person who is also a dancer. Actually, if this person is also a doctor, we cannot guess that they are a bad doctor. Here, “bad” is only associated with “dancer”.
Previous study in Birds And Primates It is displayed that animals can create trivial structures. However, the first animals have very clear evidence of nontrivial structure, strengthening the idea that this ability is uniquely human.
To determine if Bonobo calls were creative, we borrowed A view from linguistics It states that, to be considered creative, a combination must meet three criteria:
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Each of its elements has different meanings.
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The meaning of the combination is different from the meaning of its elements.
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The meaning of the combination is derived from the meaning of its elements.
Additionally, we evaluated whether a structure combination was nontrivial by determining whether it meant more than the sum of the meaning of its parts. To do this, we built a semantic location – a multidimensional representation of the bonobo call meanings – which allowed us to measure the relationship between single calls and meanings of combinations.
We used a method Distribution semanticsA linguistic approach that maps the words based on their meaning equality, with the idea that words with close meanings are used in equal contexts. For example, the words “shark” and “animals” are often used with similar words, such as “fish” and “hunter”, suggests that they have related meanings. In contrast, “animals” and “bank” are used in various contexts, they have less related meanings. This approach allows to reliably represent and measure the relationship between the meanings of different words.
By applying this method to bonobo vocalization, we mapped the meaning of call and call combinations within a semantic location based on their reference to their use. This eventually allowed us to determine which combinations fulfilled the three criteria for the structure and moreover, whether they display non -structures.
We identified four call combinations, which meant to be related to the meaning of their single parts, a major identity of the structure. Importantly, each call type appeared in at least one composition combination, similarly how each word can be in a phrase in human language. This suggests that, like human language, creativity is a fundamental feature of bonobo communication.
In addition, three of the call combinations bore a striking equality for the more complex nontrivial structures seen in human language. This suggests that the ability to combine call types in complex ways is not as unique to humans as we thought once, indicating that this capacity may contain deep evolutionary roots compared to already eclipse.
A bonobo emits a subtle tableaux, which means ‘I would like …’ before the whistle, which means ‘let’s live together’. In stressful social conditions, this combination means ‘Let’s relax’
Language development
An important implication of this research is the insight that the language creation provides in the evolutionary roots of nature. If our Bonobo cousins ​​rely in a big way on creativity, as we do, then there was also the possibility of our last common ancestors.
This suggests that the ability to build complex meanings from small vocal units was already present in our ancestors at least 7 million years ago, if not before. These new findings indicate that, away from being unique to the human language, there is a possibility of structure that humans existed long before.
,Author: Melissa birthtDoctors of biology specialized in animal behavior, University of zurich,
,disclosure statement: This research received money from Swiss National Science Foundation and Harvard University)
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