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Meaningful call combinations and compositional processing in the Southern Pied Babbler
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Engesser, Sabrina, Ridley, Amanda R. and Townsend, Simon W. (2016) Meaningful call combinations and compositional processing in the Southern Pied Babbler. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113 (21). pp. 5976-5981. doi:10.1073/pnas.1600970113 ISSN 0027-8424.
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WRAP_1472827-ps-060616-engesser_et_al_maintext_revision.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (744Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1600970113
Abstract
Language’s expressive power is largely attributable to its compositionality: meaningful words are combined into larger/higher-order structures with derived meaning. Despite its importance, little is known regarding the evolutionary origins and emergence of this syntactic ability. Whilst previous research has demonstrated a rudimentary capability to combine meaningful calls in primates, due to a scarcity of comparative data, it is unclear whether analogue forms might also exist outside of primates. Here we address this ambiguity and provide evidence for rudimentary compositionality in the discrete vocal system of a social passerine, the pied babbler (Turdoides bicolor). Natural observations and predator presentations revealed babblers produce acoustically distinct alert calls in response to close, low-urgency threats, and recruitment calls when recruiting group members during locomotion. Upon encountering terrestrial predators both vocalisations are combined into a ‘mobbing-sequence’, potentially to recruit group members in a dangerous situation. To investigate whether babblers process the sequence in a compositional way, we conducted systematic experiments, playing back the individual calls in isolation, as well as naturally occurring and artificial sequences. Babblers reacted most strongly to mobbing-sequence playbacks, showing a greater attentiveness and a quicker approach to the loudspeaker, compared to individual calls or control sequences. We conclude the sequence constitutes a compositional structure, communicating information on both the context and the requested action. Our work supports previous research suggesting combinatoriality as a viable mechanism to increase communicative output, and indicates that the ability to combine and process meaningful vocal structures, a basic syntax, may be more widespread than previously thought.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||
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Subjects: | Q Science > QL Zoology | ||||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology | ||||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Turdoides, Birds -- Vocalization, Historical linguistics | ||||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | ||||||||||
Publisher: | National Academy of Sciences | ||||||||||
ISSN: | 0027-8424 | ||||||||||
Official Date: | 24 May 2016 | ||||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 113 | ||||||||||
Number: | 21 | ||||||||||
Number of Pages: | 6 | ||||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 5976-5981 | ||||||||||
DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.1600970113 | ||||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 7 June 2016 | ||||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 7 June 2016 | ||||||||||
Funder: | Universität Zürich, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung [Swiss National Science Foundation] (SNSF) | ||||||||||
Grant number: | 57191601 (UZ), FK-14-077 (UZ), P1ZHP3_151648 (SNSF), 31003A_153065 (SNSF) |
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