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Beyond bigrams: call sequencing in the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) vocal system

Bosshard, Alexandra B; Burkart, Judith M; Merlo, Paola; Cathcart, Chundra; Townsend, Simon W; Bickel, Balthasar (2024). Beyond bigrams: call sequencing in the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) vocal system. Royal Society Open Science, 11(11):218-240.

Abstract

Over the last two decades, an emerging body of research has demonstrated that non-human animals exhibit the ability to combine context-specific calls into larger sequences. These structures have frequently been compared with language’s syntax, whereby linguistic units are combined to form larger structures, and leveraged to argue that syntax might not be unique to language. Currently, however, the overwhelming majority of examples of call combinations are limited to simple sequences comprising just two calls which differ dramatically from the open-ended hierarchical structuring of the syntax found in language. We revisit this issue by taking a whole-repertoire approach to investigate combinatoriality in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). We use Markov chain models to quantify the vocal sequences produced by marmosets providing evidence for structures beyond the bigram, including three-call and even combinations of up to eight or nine calls. Our analyses of these longer vocal sequences are suggestive of potential further internal organization, including some amount of recombination, nestedness and non-adjacent dependencies. We argue that data-driven, whole-repertoire analyses are fundamental to uncovering the combinatorial complexity of non-human animals and will further facilitate meaningful comparisons with language’s combinatoriality.

Additional indexing

Item Type:Journal Article, refereed, original work
Communities & Collections:06 Faculty of Arts > Department of Comparative Language Science
07 Faculty of Science > Department of Evolutionary Anthropology
06 Faculty of Arts > Zurich Center for Linguistics
Dewey Decimal Classification:490 Other languages
890 Other literatures
410 Linguistics
Scopus Subject Areas:Health Sciences > Multidisciplinary
Language:English
Date:1 November 2024
Deposited On:10 Dec 2024 10:06
Last Modified:31 Jan 2025 02:41
Publisher:Royal Society Publishing
ISSN:2054-5703
OA Status:Gold
Free access at:Publisher DOI. An embargo period may apply.
Publisher DOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.240218
Project Information:
  • Funder: SNSF
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  • Funder: Universität Zürich
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  • Funder: National Centre of Competence in Research Evolving Language
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  • Funder: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
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  • Content: Published Version
  • Language: English
  • Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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