4 ms·

From what I've heard, language is unambiguously unique to humans, if you consider grammar an integral part of languages. You can teach chimpanzees hand signs,

From what I've heard, language is unambiguously unique to humans, if you consider grammar an integral part of languages. You can teach chimpanzees hand signs, but they could never make the leap to stringing them together under a coherent rule: something like the difference between "Mom give me cookies" vs "I give mom cookies." (I'm no expert, so take that with a grain of salt.)

timschmidt 1y ago
Cetacean communication obeys Zipf's law: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11797547/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11797547/ As does house finches: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2024.0250 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.202... Sperm whale codas exhibit contextual and combinatorial structure: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47221-8 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47221-8 Ants have developed symbolic language: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10093743/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10093743/ Everywhere we look close enough, we find life doing smart things.
- andsoitis 1y ago
  Those are interesting examples. Do you know of a species where ALL of those properties (and more) exist?
  - timschmidt 1y ago
    Likely all of the ones named, and more. These are just a sampling of papers and not at all exhaustive.
adgjlsfhk1 1y ago
proto-grammers are fairly common. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot) for example shows that parrots are capable of understanding English word order to some extent.
rishav_sharan 1y ago
Don't think so. Whales and dolphins seem to have a fairly sophisticated language with regional dialects and accents.
nylonstrung 1y ago
Bee "dance" communication is remarkably sophisticated and precise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waggle_dance?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waggle_dance?wprov=sfla1
whimsicalism 1y ago
Unique to modern humans, maybe. But that's only because we outcompeted/killed all of our sibling species that also spoke language. Denisovans likely had language as well.

timschmidt 1y ago

Cetacean communication obeys Zipf's law: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11797547/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11797547/ As does house finches: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2024.0250 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.202... Sperm whale codas exhibit contextual and combinatorial structure: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47221-8 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47221-8 Ants have developed symbolic language: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10093743/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10093743/ Everywhere we look close enough, we find life doing smart things.

andsoitis 1y ago
Those are interesting examples. Do you know of a species where ALL of those properties (and more) exist?
- timschmidt 1y ago
  Likely all of the ones named, and more. These are just a sampling of papers and not at all exhaustive.

adgjlsfhk1 1y ago

proto-grammers are fairly common. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot) for example shows that parrots are capable of understanding English word order to some extent.

rishav_sharan 1y ago

Don't think so. Whales and dolphins seem to have a fairly sophisticated language with regional dialects and accents.

nylonstrung 1y ago

Bee "dance" communication is remarkably sophisticated and precise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waggle_dance?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waggle_dance?wprov=sfla1

whimsicalism 1y ago

Unique to modern humans, maybe. But that's only because we outcompeted/killed all of our sibling species that also spoke language. Denisovans likely had language as well.