Little bird uses a linguistic rule thought to be unique to humans [View all]

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Source: Washington Post

Little bird uses a linguistic rule thought to be unique to humans

Originally published March 8, 2016 at 12:30 pm Updated March 8, 2016 at 12:57 pm

By Rachel Feltman
The Washington Post

When it comes to human language, syntax — the set of rules for arranging words and phrases to impart meaning — is important. People might understand what you meant if you declared “to the store I go must,” but your phrasing wouldn’t seem quite right. And saying “must store go the I to” wouldn’t get you anywhere at all, even though the same six short words were in play.

But sometimes we use syntax to impart complex combinations of ideas. “Careful, it’s dangerous” is a phrase that has meaning, and so is “come toward me.” When those two phrases are combined, they have a different meaning than they do on their own: They’re directing the receiver to act in a different way than either phrase would independently.

Until now, only humans seemed to use syntax this way. But a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications suggests that the Japanese great tit — a bird closely related to the North American chickadee — uses grammatical rules like these in its calls.

All language, human and otherwise, revolves around turning meaningless sounds into something more. It’s widely accepted that many nonhuman animals use what’s called referential communication — specific sounds mean specific things to the receiver. Beyond that, there are two kinds of syntax that make speech more complicated, but also more useful: phonological and compositional. Humans have both, and until this new study, nonhuman animals had only been shown to have the former.

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Read more: http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/little-bird-uses-a-linguistic-rule-thought-to-be-unique-to-humans/