All Entries Tagged With: "human nature"
Monkeys Might Have Syntax
What can monkey communication tell us about human nature?
Beyond the displays of fairness and empathy, described in the last article, what makes for a successful society? Communication is needed to make social organization possible, especially more complex societies. Even though it’s not necessarily a good thing, the more complex a civilization becomes, the more complex the communication is likely to be. The more advanced communication becomes, the more advanced is the level of syntax.
It’s interesting to note the probability that humans are not the only primate with syntax. Syntax describes the rules governing the order in which signals are given. A form of phonological syntax refers to ways that signals are built onto one another to create bigger signals (as in “sing” vs. “singers”). Phonological syntax is commonly observed in studies of animal signal systems.
Lexical syntax is a more interesting form of syntax because it’s so characteristic of our own languages and evidence for it in nonhuman animals is rare. Lexical syntax refers to the rules of using signals in conjunction with one another to convey a new message, independent of the meanings of the component signals. For example, “The man is tall.” can be turned into “Is the man tall?”. A more complex example might be “In the corner. The man is tall.” can be turned into “Is the tall man in the corner?”. The structure and position of the words gives them different purposes and conveys a different meaning.
