<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Dolphins exhibit striking similarities with humans. Here we review them with the help of quantitative linguistics and information theory. Various statistical laws of language that are well-known in quantitative linguistics, i.e. Zipf’s law for word frequencies, the law of meaning distribution, the law of abbreviation and Menzerath’s, law have been found in dolphin vocal or gestural behavior. The information theory of these laws suggests that humans and dolphins share cost-cutting principles of organization.</p>
</abstract>

Dolphins exhibit striking similarities with humans. Here we review them with the help of quantitative linguistics and information theory. Various statistical laws of language that are well-known in quantitative linguistics, i.e. Zipf’s law for word frequencies, the law of meaning distribution, the law of abbreviation and Menzerath’s, law have been found in dolphin vocal or gestural behavior. The information theory of these laws suggests that humans and dolphins share cost-cutting principles of organization.

Parallels of human language in the behavior of bottlenose dolphins

Complexity and Quantitative Linguistics Lab. LARCA Research Group

Departament de Ciències de la Computació

Linguistic Frontiers

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Parallels of human language in the behavior of bottlenose dolphins"}

Dolphins exhibit striking similarities with humans. Here we review them with the help of quantitative linguistics and information theory. Various statistical...

Parallels of human language in the behavior of bottlenose dolphins

Published Online: Jul 09, 2022

Page range: 5 - 11

Received: Jan 01, 2022

Accepted: Mar 01, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/lf-2022-0002

Keywords
linguistic laws, quantitative linguistics, information theory, dolphins

© 2022 Ramon Ferrer-i-Cancho et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Parallels of human language in the behavior of bottlenose dolphins

Published Online: Jul 09, 2022

Page range: 5 - 11

Received: Jan 01, 2022

Accepted: Mar 01, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/lf-2022-0002

Keywordslinguistic laws, quantitative linguistics, information theory, dolphins

© 2022 Ramon Ferrer-i-Cancho et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
linguistic laws, quantitative linguistics, information theory, dolphins