Arnon I., Kirby S., Allen J. A., Garrigue Claire, Carroll E. L., Garland E. C. (2025). Whale song shows language-like statistical structure. Science, 387 (6734), p. 649-653 [+ erratum post date 03 avril 2025]. ISSN 0036-8075.
Titre du document
Whale song shows language-like statistical structure
Arnon I., Kirby S., Allen J. A., Garrigue Claire, Carroll E. L., Garland E. C.
Source
Science, 2025,
387 (6734), p. 649-653 [+ erratum post date 03 avril 2025] ISSN 0036-8075
Humpback whale song is a culturally transmitted behavior. Human language, which is also culturally transmitted, has statistically coherent parts whose frequency distribution follows a power law. These properties facilitate learning and may therefore arise because of their contribution to the faithful transmission of language over multiple cultural generations. If so, we would expect to find them in other culturally transmitted systems. In this study, we applied methods based on infant speech segmentation to 8 years of humpback recordings, uncovering in whale song the same statistical structure that is a hallmark of human language. This commonality, in two evolutionarily distant species, points to the role of learning and cultural transmission in the emergence of properties thought to be unique to human language.
Plan de classement
Sciences fondamentales / Techniques d'analyse et de recherche [020]
;
Limnologie biologique / Océanographie biologique [034]
