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[Abstract:]

#1

Science / Re: Homo sapiens and Their Cou...

Last post by Recusant - May 11, 2025, 10:31:48 PM

The beginnings of language may have been possessed by our last common ancestor with chimpanzees and bonobos.

"The origins of language" | ScienceDaily

Chimpanzees are capable of complex communication: The human capacity for language may not be as unique as previously thought. Chimpanzees have a complex communication system that allows them to combine calls to create new meanings, similar to human language. Combining calls creatively: Chimpanzees use four ways to change meaning when combining single calls into two-call combinations, including compositional and non-compositional combinations, and they use a large variety of call combinations in a wide range of contexts.

[. . .]

Researchers from the Max Planck Institutes for Evolutionary Anthropology and for Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, and from the Cognitive Neuroscience Center Marc Jeannerod (CNRS/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1) and Neuroscience Research Center (CNRS/Inserm/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1) in Lyon, France recorded thousands of vocalisations from three groups of wild chimpanzees in the Taï National Park in Ivory Coast. They examined how the meanings of 12 different chimpanzee calls changed when they were combined into two-call combinations. "Generating new or combined meanings by combining words is a hallmark of human language, and it is crucial to investigate whether a similar capacity exists in our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, in order to decipher the origins of human language," says Catherine Crockford, senior author of the study. "Recording chimpanzee vocalisations over several years in their natural environment is essential in order to document their full communicative capabilities, a task that is becoming increasingly challenging due to growing human threats to wild chimpanzee populations," says Roman Wittig, co-author of the study and director of the Taï Chimpanzee Project.

The study reveals four ways in which chimpanzees alter meanings when combining single calls into 16 different two-call combinations, analogous to the key linguistic principles in human language. Chimpanzees used compositional combinations that added meaning (e.g., A = feeding, B = resting, AB = feeding + resting) and clarified meaning (e.g., A = feeding or travelling, B = aggression, AB = travelling). They also used non-compositional idiomatic combinations that created entirely new meanings (e.g., A = resting, B = affiliation, AB = nesting). Crucially, unlike previous studies which have mostly reported call combinations in limited situations such as predator encounters, the chimpanzees in this study expanded their meanings through the versatile combination of most of their single calls into a large diversity of call combinations used in a wide range of contexts.

"Our findings suggest a highly generative vocal communication system, unprecedented in the animal kingdom, which echoes recent findings in bonobos suggesting that complex combinatorial capacities were already present in the common ancestor of humans and these two great ape species," says Cédric Girard-Buttoz, first author on the study. He adds: "This changes the views of the last century which considered communication in the great apes to be fixed and linked to emotional states, and therefore unable to tell us anything about the evolution of language. Instead, we see clear indications here that most call types in the repertoire can shift or combine their meaning when combined with other call types. The complexity of this system suggests either that there is indeed something special about hominid communication -- that complex communication was already emerging in our last common ancestor, shared with our closest living relatives -- or that we have underestimated the complexity of communication in other animals as well, which requires further study."

[Link to full article.]

The paper is open access:

"Versatile use of chimpanzee call combinations promotes meaning expansion" | Science Advances

Abstract:

Language is a combinatorial communication system able to generate an infinite number of meanings. Nonhuman animals use several combinatorial mechanisms to expand meanings, but maximum one mechanism is reported per species, suggesting an evolutionary leap to human language.

We tested whether chimpanzees use several meaning-expanding mechanisms. We recorded 4323 utterances in 53 wild chimpanzees and compared the events in which chimpanzees emitted two-call vocal combinations (bigrams) with those eliciting the component calls. Examining 16 bigrams, we found four combinatorial mechanisms whereby bigram meanings were or were not derived from the meaning of their parts—compositional or noncompositional combinations, respectively.

Chimpanzees used each mechanism in several bigrams across a wide range of daily events. This combinatorial system allows encoding many more meanings than there are call types. Such a system in nonhuman animals has never been documented and may be transitional between rudimentary systems and open-ended systems like human language.

[Icarus]

#2

Introductions / Re: Hiya Hafers

Last post by Niya - May 11, 2025, 09:07:47 PM

Is Mag around, Amy, Oldgit, Icarus??? Sorry, I have no clue, so asking here just seemed more expedient.

Of those, only Icarus still posts here. A few new members but not many. A bit quieter these days but we're still chugging along.

So I have seen. This place used to be abuzz ten years ago when I first joined. Nostalgia for me...

#3

Laid Back Lounge / Re: where do you live?

Last post by Niya - May 11, 2025, 09:06:02 PM

Well India and Pakistan just fought a limited war for 88 hours. And from what I have learnt, if global powers hadn't stepped in, it would have gotten much worse. TBH, I did not sleep for two nights straight because of the threat of both States being nuclear...and nuts.

#4

Music / Re: What are you listening to?

Last post by Dark Lightning - May 11, 2025, 01:38:34 AM

^ I am afraid of a few Americans as well. Fortunately only a very few of them are a serious threat.

In the video the dude who was attempting to escape dropped his newspaper. He had a good weapon,if he had known how to use it............ Roll the paper as tight as possible......use it two handed as a spear, not a club. Thrust to the throat, eyes, or solar plexus will discourage the attacker rather effectively.  A magazine is also a useful instrument to inflict pain. rolled tightly it can also be used as a club but the spear technique is the fastest and most painful. . These are both innocent appearing, arouse no suspicion in public,  but useful as an offensive or defensive tool.

And a soft drink aluminum can works well as a slashing weapon, when appropriately opened. If you read any Terry Pratchett novels, his character Sam Vimes is always pointing out implements of pain and death to the populace.

The "extension of the fist" provided by a tightly rolled magazine or less effectively with newspaper was taught to me by Marines. When I was promoted to a non-commissioned officer rank (E-4 in the US Navy) I was required to stand Shore Patrol duty. The Marines had a field day showing us all how tough they were. Kind of interesting to see some of them getting their asses kicked, on occasion in Los Angeles.

#5

Music / Re: What are you listening to?

Last post by billy rubin - May 11, 2025, 01:31:30 AM

https://open.spotify.com/track/0qOpfOBwQsvNWT3vuQlP3g?si=4xqbx4hnRe-KyDSEgPS1Ww

#6

Music / Re: What are you listening to?

Last post by billy rubin - May 11, 2025, 01:31:03 AM

#7

Laid Back Lounge / Re: Age-related Health Issues

Last post by Recusant - May 10, 2025, 03:31:55 PM

Six weeks ago I was struck by another ailment that often appears later in life: shingles. The painful lesions on my ribs and back took about a month to heal and for the unpleasant skin sensitivity to disappear completely. It felt like bad sunburn, even on the surrounding skin that had no lesions. I only have myself to blame for not getting vaccinated against it; I recommend getting vaccinated against shingles, because it can be extremely uncomfortable.

Dang! Good to hear that you've apparently made a full recovery with no lingering symptoms.

#8

Laid Back Lounge / Re: Age-related Health Issues

Last post by Dark Lightning - May 10, 2025, 12:56:16 PM

I contracted shingles back in '99. On the side of my neck, go figure. I know your pain.

#9

Laid Back Lounge / Re: where do you live?

Last post by hermes2015 - May 10, 2025, 06:50:15 AM

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I am currently living in a war zone. 

I feel for you, since I also lived in a war zone, Beirut, for 3 years in the late seventies. Stay safe.

#10

Laid Back Lounge / Re: Age-related Health Issues

Last post by hermes2015 - May 10, 2025, 05:25:41 AM

Six weeks ago I was struck by another ailment that often appears later in life: shingles. The painful lesions on my ribs and back took about a month to heal and for the unpleasant skin sensitivity to disappear completely. It felt like bad sunburn, even on the surrounding skin that had no lesions. I only have myself to blame for not getting vaccinated against it; I recommend getting vaccinated against shingles, because it can be extremely uncomfortable.