2023-05-05 18:34:50
DECRYPTION – Researchers have shown that the association of two distinct vocalizations produces a “sentence” whose meaning exceeds the sum of each of them.
Syntax, which makes it possible to combine words to produce a virtually unlimited number of messages, has long been seen as a human specificity. But scientists are beginning to uncover this characteristic feature of language in other species of the animal kingdom.
A study published Thursday, May 4 in Nature communications brings proof of this for the first time in chimpanzees: these close cousins of man also have the ability to express a precise message through the association of vocalizations.
« To alert their congeners to the presence of a snake, chimpanzees use two specific vocalizations from their repertoire : the cry of alarm “this one”, expressing surprise ; and cry for help “it is”, says Maël Leroux, researcher in the department of comparative sciences of language, at the university of Zurich, in Switzerland. This combination is indeed a rudimentary syntactic structure. »
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To show this, the scientist spent nearly two years recording…
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#Syntax #rudiments #identified #chimpanzees