Search Results - "Townsend, Simon W."
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1
Chimpanzee alarm call production meets key criteria for intentionality
Published in PloS one (16-10-2013)“…Determining the intentionality of primate communication is critical to understanding the evolution of human language. Although intentional signalling has been…”
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2
Meaningful call combinations and compositional processing in the southern pied babbler
Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS (24-05-2016)“…Language’s expressive power is largely attributable to its compositionality: meaningful words are combined into larger/higher-order structures with derived…”
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3
Vocal Learning in the Functionally Referential Food Grunts of Chimpanzees
Published in Current biology (16-02-2015)“…One standout feature of human language is our ability to reference external objects and events with socially learned symbols, or words. Exploring the…”
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4
Multimodal communication and language origins: integrating gestures and vocalizations
Published in Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (01-10-2019)“…ABSTRACT The presence of divergent and independent research traditions in the gestural and vocal domains of primate communication has resulted in major…”
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5
Compositionality in animals and humans
Published in PLoS biology (15-08-2018)“…A key step in understanding the evolution of human language involves unravelling the origins of language's syntactic structure. One approach seeks to reduce…”
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6
Functionally Referential Communication in Mammals: The Past, Present and the Future
Published in Ethology (01-01-2013)“…Whether animal vocalizations have the potential to communicate information regarding ongoing external events or objects has received considerable attention…”
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7
Language evolution: syntax before phonology?
Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences (07-08-2014)“…Phonology and syntax represent two layers of sound combination central to language's expressive power. Comparative animal studies represent one approach to…”
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8
Chimpanzee food calls are directed at specific individuals
Published in Animal behaviour (01-11-2013)“…If primates were capable of vocalizing to inform a receiver about an external entity, it would represent an important element of continuity with human…”
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The function and evolution of child-directed communication
Published in PLoS biology (06-05-2022)“…Humans communicate with small children in unusual and highly conspicuous ways (child-directed communication (CDC)), which enhance social bonding and facilitate…”
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Call combinations and compositional processing in wild chimpanzees
Published in Nature communications (04-05-2023)“…Through syntax, i.e., the combination of words into larger phrases, language can express a limitless number of messages. Data in great apes, our closest-living…”
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11
Wolf Howling Is Mediated by Relationship Quality Rather Than Underlying Emotional Stress
Published in Current biology (09-09-2013)“…While considerable research has addressed the function of animal vocalizations, the proximate mechanisms driving call production remain surprisingly unclear…”
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12
Communication: Animal Steps on the Road to Syntax?
Published in Current biology (07-08-2017)“…From tool use to teaching, proto-forms of ‘human traits’ are being discovered in animals. But what of language? New evidence suggests that a garden bird has…”
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An exploration of Menzerath's law in wild mountain gorilla vocal sequences
Published in Biology letters (2005) (01-10-2020)“…Menzerath's law, traditionally framed as a negative relationship between the size of a structure and its constituent parts (e.g. sentences with more clauses…”
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14
Experimental Evidence for Phonemic Contrasts in a Nonhuman Vocal System
Published in PLoS biology (01-06-2015)“…The ability to generate new meaning by rearranging combinations of meaningless sounds is a fundamental component of language. Although animal vocalizations…”
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15
The function of nonlinear phenomena in meerkat alarm calls
Published in Biology letters (2005) (23-02-2011)“…Nonlinear vocal phenomena are a ubiquitous feature of human and non-human animal vocalizations. Although we understand how these complex acoustic intrusions…”
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16
Beyond bigrams: call sequencing in the common marmoset ( Callithrix jacchus ) vocal system
Published in Royal Society open science (01-11-2024)“…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…”
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Female chimpanzees use copulation calls flexibly to prevent social competition
Published in PloS one (18-06-2008)“…The adaptive function of copulation calls in female primates has been debated for years. One influential idea is that copulation calls are a sexually selected…”
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A simple test of vocal individual recognition in wild meerkats
Published in Biology letters (2005) (23-04-2012)“…Individual recognition is thought to be a crucial ability facilitating the evolution of animal societies. Given its central importance, much research has…”
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All clear? Meerkats attend to contextual information in close calls to coordinate vigilance
Published in Behavioral ecology and sociobiology (01-10-2011)“…Socio-demographic factors, such as group size and their effect on predation vulnerability, have, in addition to intrinsic factors, dominated as explanations…”
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Why did the meerkat cross the road? Flexible adaptation of phylogenetically-old behavioural strategies to modern-day threats
Published in PloS one (18-02-2013)“…Risk-sensitive adaptive spatial organisation during group movement has been shown to efficiently minimise the risks associated with external ecological…”
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