TY - JOUR
T1 - Male gibbon loud morning calls conform to Zipf's law of brevity and Menzerath's law
T2 - insights into the origin of human language
AU - Huang, Mingpan
AU - Ma, Haigang
AU - Ma, Changyong
AU - Garber, Paul A.
AU - Fan, Pengfei
N1 - Funding Information:
This study is funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 31770421 , no. 31822049 ), the National Young Top-notch Talent Program of China and Sun Yat-Sen University . Data collection in the field was strongly supported by Wuliang Mountain National Nature Reserve in Jingdong, Yunnan province and Bangliang Gibbon National Nature Reserve in Guangxi province. We also thank the local guides for their help in the field. P.A.G. wishes to acknowledge Chrissie, Sara and Jenni for their love and support. Appendix A
Funding Information:
This study is funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 31770421, no. 31822049), the National Young Top-notch Talent Program of China and Sun Yat-Sen University. Data collection in the field was strongly supported by Wuliang Mountain National Nature Reserve in Jingdong, Yunnan province and Bangliang Gibbon National Nature Reserve in Guangxi province. We also thank the local guides for their help in the field. P.A.G. wishes to acknowledge Chrissie, Sara and Jenni for their love and support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
PY - 2020/2
Y1 - 2020/2
N2 - The study of vocal communication in nonhuman primates, especially apes, offers critical insight into the origins of human language. Although human language represents a highly derived and complex form of communication, researchers have found that the organization of language follows a series of common statistical patterns, known as ‘linguistic laws’. Zipf's law of brevity and Menzerath's law are pervasive across human languages, and these laws have been identified in the communication of a small number of primate species. What remains less clear is whether these two laws also affect long-distance vocal communication in primates. Here, we provide evidence that the long-distance morning calls of male gibbons (cao vit gibbon, Nomascus nasutus, and western black-crested gibbon, Nomascus concolor) follow both Zipf's law of brevity and Menzerath's law. We found that notes of male gibbon calls conform to Zipf's law of brevity, with the most common notes being shortest in duration. Similarly, longer sequences are made up of shorter calls on average, consistent with Menzerath's law; we also found a shortening of specific note type duration and an increase in proportion of shorter call types in longer sequences, which may underpin the emergence of this law. Our findings support the generality of these two linguistic laws beyond human language and provide evidence for compression at two levels of organizations (how frequently different note types are used, and how vocal sequences are constructed) in a long-range communication system.
AB - The study of vocal communication in nonhuman primates, especially apes, offers critical insight into the origins of human language. Although human language represents a highly derived and complex form of communication, researchers have found that the organization of language follows a series of common statistical patterns, known as ‘linguistic laws’. Zipf's law of brevity and Menzerath's law are pervasive across human languages, and these laws have been identified in the communication of a small number of primate species. What remains less clear is whether these two laws also affect long-distance vocal communication in primates. Here, we provide evidence that the long-distance morning calls of male gibbons (cao vit gibbon, Nomascus nasutus, and western black-crested gibbon, Nomascus concolor) follow both Zipf's law of brevity and Menzerath's law. We found that notes of male gibbon calls conform to Zipf's law of brevity, with the most common notes being shortest in duration. Similarly, longer sequences are made up of shorter calls on average, consistent with Menzerath's law; we also found a shortening of specific note type duration and an increase in proportion of shorter call types in longer sequences, which may underpin the emergence of this law. Our findings support the generality of these two linguistic laws beyond human language and provide evidence for compression at two levels of organizations (how frequently different note types are used, and how vocal sequences are constructed) in a long-range communication system.
KW - communication efficiency
KW - gibbon
KW - linguistic laws
KW - vocal communication
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U2 - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.11.017
DO - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.11.017
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85078060687
SN - 0003-3472
VL - 160
SP - 145
EP - 155
JO - Animal Behaviour
JF - Animal Behaviour
ER -