A Theoretical Account of Whale Song Syntax: A New Perspective for Understanding Human Language Structure Open Access

Abstract

It is a common belief among linguists that the use of language is a species-specific phenomenon belonging only to humans. However, there is no doubt that there are non-human communication systems within the animal kingdom that are amazingly complex and share certain properties with human language (Berwick et al., 2011). The current thesis calls to attention the intricacy of one such system used among humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) communities, where recent debates among biologists and acousticians have established an unpredictable sequence of bidirectional egressive and ingressive sounds in whale song but question whether it utilizes the same hierarchical framework observed in human language (Mercado & Perazio, 2021). Modern linguistic theories do not currently present models for representing paralanguage or certain syntactic anomalies, but whale songs have the potential to reveal information about these phenomena that could be insightful and more relevant than other non-human communication systems. Drawing from recent literature about animal communication at large, whale singing behavior, and bidirectional sound production, I propose a theoretical, two-channel mechanism for the acoustic and structural nature of whale song. Using the two-channel mechanism, I further present a catalog of possibilities surrounding the potential for whale song compositionality to establish parallels with human language and ultimately argue a structural context for issues surrounding the modeling of paralinguistic computation, syntactic amalgams, and parentheticals. 

Table of Contents

1 An Introduction............................................................................................................................ 1

1.1 A Disclaimer............................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Research Motivation and a Consideration for Discovery............................................................... 1

1.3 Thesis Statement and Objectives................................................................................................ 4

1.4 Navigation................................................................................................................................. 4

2 Language Structure and Animal Communication............................................................................. 6

2.1 A Basis for Understanding Language Structure............................................................................ 6

2.2 Aspects of Language in Animal Communication........................................................................... 13

2.2.1 Phonological Structure without Meaning.................................................................................. 14

2.2.2 Meaning without Phonological Structure.................................................................................. 17

2.3 Human Language Uniqueness.................................................................................................... 20

2.3.1 Evolution of Human Syntax and Communication in the Animal Kingdom.................................... 24

3 The Anomaly of Whale Song.......................................................................................................... 29

3.1 Structure of Whale Song............................................................................................................. 30

3.2 Culture of Whale Song................................................................................................................ 32

3.3 An Argument from the Unconvinced........................................................................................... 34

3.4 A Debate for Song Analysis......................................................................................................... 37

3.4.1 Hierarchy or Heterarchy?......................................................................................................... 39

3.4.2 The Physiology of Whale Song Production................................................................................ 40

3.4.3 Importance of Ingressive and Egressive Sounds in Whale Song.................................................. 42

3.4.4 Two Channels of Communication............................................................................................. 45

4 Parallelisms of Song and Language Structure.................................................................................. 49

4.1 Whale Song is Meaningless........................................................................................................ 51

4.2 Whale Song is Meaningful......................................................................................................... 52

4.2.1 Egressive Compositionality...................................................................................................... 53

4.2.2 Egressive and Ingressive Compositionality................................................................................ 55

4.3 Limits of Human Language.......................................................................................................... 72

5 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................... 74

5.1 A Summary of Remarks.............................................................................................................. 74

5.2 Future Directions....................................................................................................................... 75

References..................................................................................................................................... 76

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Linguistics
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Language, Linguistics
Keyword	Syntax Animal Communication
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Marjorie Pak, Emory University
Committee Members	Brenda Harmon, Emory University Yun Kim, Emory University Donald Noble, Emory University

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