Abstract
Human language has evolved on a biological substrate with phylogenetic roots deep in the primate lineage. Here, we describe a functional analogy to a common morphological process in human speech, affixation, in the alarm calls of free-ranging adult Campbell's monkeys (Cercopithecus campbelli campbelli). We found that male alarm calls are composed of an acoustically variable stem, which can be followed by an acoustically invariable suffix. Using long-term observations and predator simulation experiments, we show that suffixation in this species functions to broaden the calls' meaning by transforming a highly specific eagle alarm to a general arboreal disturbance call or by transforming a highly specific leopard alarm call to a general alert call. We concluded that, when referring to specific external events, non-human primates can generate meaningful acoustic variation during call production that is functionally equivalent to suffixation in human language.
Highlights
Questions about the origins of human language and its potential precursors in animal communication remain controversial [1,2]
Human language is highly complex and numerous characteristics appear to have no equivalent counterparts in animal communication systems
One such qualitative difference concerns the morpho-syntactic organisation of language, that is, the fact that morphological and syntactic elements are governed by a set of language-specific rules, the source of much of the generative power of human language [5,6]
Summary
Questions about the origins of human language and its potential precursors in animal communication remain controversial [1,2]. Human language is highly complex and numerous characteristics appear to have no equivalent counterparts in animal communication systems. Birdsong in particular tends to have hierarchical and non-random transitional structure, and experimental change to its composition, rhythm, or component order tends to interfere with its communicative function [15,16,17,18,19]. Despite these examples of combinatorial signalling, there are no good examples in animal communication studies of individuals acoustically modifying individual calls in patterned ways to produce structurally altered vocalisations with novel meanings. Non-human primates are able to discriminate between subtle acoustic changes in human speech signals [20], it is unknown whether they produce such acoustic patterns as part of their natural communication
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