Forschung

Segments in Animal Vocalizations (SEGVOC)

Description

The primary goal of the SEGVOC project is to explore the level of the segment in non-human animals. Because segment research is central to our understanding of human language, any comparative claims about the uniqueness of humans must, at least, consider this unit level in non-humans. Because segments have been largely ignored in animal acoustic communication, the SEGVOC project has great potential for novel research insights and projects. Within this project, the vocalizations of multiple species will be analyzed in order to assess how well segmental models fit animal communication systems. We will also delve deeper into the vocalizations of the budgerigar – a species where we have already fit a segmental model – in order to assess how much explanatory power we have gained and to address questions related to non-human animal phonology (the rules, patterns, production, and perception of segments).

Animal vocalizations have typically been studied using silence as a marker between units. This makes sense for many species. For example, a single dog bark would be considered one unit of sound. However, we humans can say entire sentences without pausing to take a breath. Because we often produce sentences we've never said before in our entire life, we could consider human vocalizations "unstereotyped". Budgerigars also produce long complex "unstereotyped" notes (see A). Just like human language, these are long bursts of vocalization without pauses that are often different than before. By using what we know about human sounds, we broke down budgie vocalizations into component parts, known as "segments", much like consonants and vowels in human speech. B shows a budgie consonant-like and vowel-like sound, and C shows the same type of sounds in humans. This work could be the key to understanding whether any other species produce something akin to language. Figure in: Mann, D. C., Fitch, W. T., Tu, H.-W., & Hoeschele, M. (2021). Universal principles underlying segmental structures in parrot song and human speech. Scientific Reports, 11(776), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80340-y

Team

Funding

ERC Marie Curie