#bonobos #linguistics
"Bonobos combine their calls in a complex way that forms distinct phrases, a sign that this type of syntax is more evolutionarily ancient than previously thought.
Human language, often described as the hallmark of our species, is made up of many different building blocks. One core block is syntax, where meaningful units are combined into longer sequences, like words into sentences. This is made possible through compositionality, where the meaning of the whole is derived from the meaning of the parts.
Compositionality in itself isn’t unique to humans. For example, chimpanzees combine calls to warn others of snakes. But, so far, only 'trivial compositionality' has been identified in non-human animals, whereby each unit adds independently to the meaning of the whole. For example, the phrase 'blonde dancer' has two independent units: a blonde person who is also a dancer. Humans were thought to be unique in also having 'non-trivial compositionality', where the words in a combination means something different to what they mean individually. For example, the phrase 'bad dancer' doesn’t mean a bad person who also dances.
The issue was that biologists didn’t have the tools to assign a clear meaning to animal vocalisations, says Mélissa Berthet at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, so they couldn’t be certain if a combination was trivial or non-trivial.
(. . .)
This finding doesn’t mean that bonobos have language, though, because language is the human communication system, says Berthet. 'But we’re showing that they have a very complex communication system that shares parallels with human language.'"
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2474993-bonobos-use-a-kind-of-syntax-once-thought-to-be-unique-to-humans/
Matthias Wiesmann 
Intelligent, sensitive and complex they are endangered by 
️ @palmoildetect 
serve as a model of non-violent conflict resolution. Yet humans are sending them 
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