Archive for Animal communication

Bibliographical cornucopia for linguists, part 1

Bibliographical cornucopia for linguists, part 1

Since we have such an abundance of interesting articles for this fortnight, I will divide the collection into two parts, and provide each entry with an abstract or paragraph length quotation.

A fundamental question in word learning is how, given only evidence about what objects a word has previously referred to, children are able to generalize to the correct class. How does a learner end up knowing that “poodle” only picks out a specific subset of dogs rather than the broader class and vice versa? Numerous phenomena have been identified in guiding learner behavior such as the “suspicious coincidence effect” (SCE)—that an increase in the sample size of training objects facilitates more narrow (subordinate) word meanings. While SCE seems to support a class of models based in statistical inference, such rational behavior is, in fact, consistent with a range of algorithmic processes. Notably, the broadness of semantic generalizations is further affected by the temporal manner in which objects are presented—either simultaneously or sequentially. First, I evaluate the experimental evidence on the factors influencing generalization in word learning. A reanalysis of existing data demonstrates that both the number of training objects and their presentation-timing independently affect learning. This independent effect has been obscured by prior literature’s focus on possible interactions between the two. Second, I present a computational model for learning that accounts for both sets of phenomena in a unified way. The Naïve Generalization Model (NGM) offers an explanation of word learning phenomena grounded in category formation. Under the NGM, learning is local and incremental, without the need to perform a global optimization over pre-specified hypotheses. This computational model is tested against human behavior on seven different experimental conditions for word learning, varying over presentation-timing, number, and hierarchical relation between training items. Looking both at qualitative parameter-independent behavior and quantitative parameter-tuned output, these results support the NGM and suggest that rational learning behavior may arise from local, mechanistic processes rather than global statistical inference.

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Animal calls are not comparable to human speech

But can they still tell us something useful about language?  Here are two new papers that address that question:

I.

"What the Hidden Rhythms of Orangutan Calls Can Tell Us about Language – New Research." De Gregorio, Chiara. The Conversation, May 27, 2025.

In the dense forests of Indonesia, you can hear strange and haunting sounds. At first, these calls may seem like a random collection of noises – but my rhythmic analyses reveal a different story.

Those noises are the calls of Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii), used to warn others about the presence of predators. Orangutans belong to our animal family – we’re both great apes. That means we share a common ancestor – a species that lived millions of years ago, from which we both evolved.

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The implications of chimpanzee call combinations for the origins of language

The origins of language
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (May 9, 2025)

Summary:

    Wild chimpanzees alter the meaning of single calls when embedding them into diverse call combinations, mirroring linguistic operations in human language. Human language, however, allows an infinite generation of meaning by combining phonemes into words and words into sentences. This contrasts with the very few meaningful combinations reported in animals, leaving the mystery of human language evolution unresolved. 

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The origin of human language: cognition and communication

We touched upon this question recently in "Chicken or egg; grammar or language" (1/15/25), where we examined Daniel Everett's thesis as propounded in How Language Began:  The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention.  In that volume, Everett argues that language is learned / acquired / developed, not hard-wired in the human brain.  He holds that our ancient ancestors, Homo erectus, had the biological and mental equipment for speech 1,500,000 years ago, 10 times earlier than the conventional wisdom that language originated with Homo sapiens 150,000 years ago, and that it was the result of a "language instinct". 

Now we come back to the lower date with this new research as presented in:

Shigeru Miyagawa, Rob DeSalle, Vitor Augusto Nóbrega, Remo Nitschke, Mercedes Okumura, Ian Tattersall. Linguistic capacity was present in the Homo sapiens population 135 thousand years ago. Frontiers in Psychology, 2025; 16 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1503900

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Phonemic analysis of animal sounds as spelled in various popular languages

This is something I've been waiting for for decades:

"Onomatopoeia Odyssey:  How do animals sound across languages?", by Vivian Li, The Pudding (March, 2025)

For many, our first memories of learning animal sounds include the song “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” The song has been translated into at least 25 languages, and a curious finding reveals itself when we compare these translations: English cows go “moo”, while French cows go “meuh”, and Korean cows go “음메”. These differences raise the question: how can cultures hear the same physical sounds yet translate them into language so differently? Analyzing animal onomatopoeia across languages can demystify how we shape sound into meaning.

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Cognition, culture, … and communication?

An interesting recent review article (Wooster et al., "Animal cognition and culture mediate predator–prey interactions", Trends in Ecology & Evolution 2024) argues for bridging the academic silos of "predator-prey ecology" and "animal cognition and culture":

Abstract: Predator–prey ecology and the study of animal cognition and culture have emerged as independent disciplines. Research combining these disciplines suggests that both animal cognition and culture can shape the outcomes of predator–prey interactions and their influence on ecosystems. We review the growing body of work that weaves animal cognition or culture into predator–prey ecology, and argue that both cognition and culture are significant but poorly understood mechanisms mediating how predators structure ecosystems. We present a framework exploring how previous experiences with the predation process creates feedback loops that alter the predation sequence. Cognitive and cultural predator–prey ecology offers ecologists new lenses through which to understand species interactions, their ecological consequences, and novel methods to conserve wildlife in a changing world.

Oddly, there's nothing in the article about communication, which would seem to be a relevant aspect of "culture", and relevant to studies of "cognition" as well.

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Birdtalk

As is wont for The New Yorker, this article is long, and it is particularly fascinating, so it is hard to resist quoting many of its more breathtaking revelations:

"How Scientists Started to Decode Birdsong:  Language is said to make us human. What if birds talk, too?"  By Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker (October 14, 2024)

Of course, we've been through the business of animal communication countless times on Language Log, but where this article differs from previous discussions is that it concentrates on content and consciousness rather than vocables and sounds.

On a drizzly day in Grünau im Almtal, Austria, a gaggle of greylag geese shared a peaceful moment on a grassy field near a stream. One goose, named Edes, was preening quietly; others were resting with their beaks pointed tailward, nestled into their feathers. Then a camouflaged speaker that scientists had placed nearby started to play. First came a recorded honk from an unpartnered male goose named Joshua. Edes went on with his preening. Next came a honk that was lower in pitch than the first, with a slight bray. Edes looked up. As the other geese remained tucked in their warm positions, incurious, Edes scanned the field. He had just heard a recorded “distance call” from his life partner, a female goose whom scientists had named Bon Jovi.

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Povinelli et al. on "Reinterpretation"

In yesterday's "AI deception?" post, I proposed that we ought to apply to AI an analogy to the philosophical evaluation of "theory of mind" issues in animals. And one of the clearest presentations of that evaluation is in Daniel Povinelli,  Jesse Bering, and Steve Giambrone, "Toward a science of other minds: Escaping the argument by analogy" (2000). You should read the whole thing — and maybe look through some of the many works that have cited it. But today I'll just present some illustrative quoted passages.

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AI deception?

Noor Al-Sibai, "AI Systems Are Learning to Lie and Deceive, Scientists Find", Futurism 6/7/2024:

AI models are, apparently, getting better at lying on purpose.

Two recent studies — one published this week in the journal PNAS and the other last month in the journal Patterns — reveal some jarring findings about large language models (LLMs) and their ability to lie to or deceive human observers on purpose.

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Gecko noises and human anxieties

Sino-Platonic Papers is pleased to announce the publication of its three-hundred-and-forty-sixth issue: "The Imagery of House Geckos and Tokay Geckos in Imperial Era Chinese Literature," by Olivia Anna Rovsing Milburn.

Keywords: House geckos; Tokay geckos; Chinese literature; virginity tests; magic; rain-making

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A new look at sperm whale communication

For as long as I can remember, I've been aware that whales, dolphins, porpoises, and other large mammals of the seas (the cetaceans) make whistles, clicks, calls, groans, songs, and other sounds / noises.  These vocalizations are manifestly complex and nuanced, leading people to believe that they are communicating content, emotions, and so forth.  What exactly they are conveying and how they do it have remained a mystery, but researchers never stop trying to figure out cetacean "language".  A new study at MIT claims to have made progress in analyzing sperm whale sound systems.

Scientists document remarkable sperm whale 'phonetic alphabet'
By Will Dunham, Reuters (May 7, 2024)
[with 2:58 video]

I was hesitant to read this article at all because of the mention of a "phonetic alphabet".  Even with the quotation marks around it, attributing this ability to sperm whales was a bit much for me.

Yet, since it was "scientists" doing the documenting, I forced myself to read the first two paragraphs:

The various species of whales inhabiting Earth's oceans employ different types of vocalizations to communicate. Sperm whales, the largest of the toothed whales, communicate using bursts of clicking noises – called codas – sounding a bit like Morse code.
 
A new analysis of years of vocalizations by sperm whales in the eastern Caribbean has found that their system of communication is more sophisticated than previously known, exhibiting a complex internal structure replete with a "phonetic alphabet." The researchers identified similarities to aspects of other animal communication systems – and even human language.

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The call / name of the gecko

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The cry of the cicada

Get ready!  They're coming, and they will make a huge amount of shrill, raucous NOISE.  They are most prevalent in the eastern half of the United States on a rolling basis for different regions, but this year, they will be positively overwhelming in the corridor from Northern Illinois to Arkansas and thence along the Southeast mountainous band stretching up to Virginia.

"Where billions of cicadas will emerge this spring (and over the next decade), in one map:  Cicadas will hear the call of spring. And then you’ll hear their mating calls, too."  By Brian Resnick, Vox.com (1/23/24)

For 17 years, cicadas do very little. They hang out in the ground, sucking sugar out of tree roots. Then, following this absurdly long hibernation, they emerge from the ground, sprout wings, make a ton of noise, have sex, and die within a few weeks. Then, their orphan progeny return to the ground and live the next 17 years in silence. Rarer are the 13-year cicadas, which do the same, but in a little more of a hurry — spending just 13 years underground.

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