here is a deeper (but concise) discussion of Zipfs law and its shortcomings http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~xanadu/talks/IT-dolphins-04-1-05.pdf http://www.ee.colu

here is a deeper (but concise) discussion of Zipfs law and its shortcomings http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~xanadu/talks/IT-dolphins-04-1-05.pdf http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~xanadu/talks/IT-dolphins-04-1-05... the shannon entropy of dolphin utterances is even more informative. this article discusses the application of shannon entropy to animal communication and using that measure to derive the number of syllables in a language https://www.technologyreview.com/s/518486/information-theory-reveals-size-of-whale-and-dolphin-communication-repertoires/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/518486/information-theory... Still I would like to see the database of utterances from which these researchers calculate these measures.