Bonobos uses a kind of syntax that is thought to be unique to humans.

Bonobos combines the phone in a complex way of forming a clear phrase.

Often human language Features of our speciesIt consists of various building blocks. One key block is a syntax, and a meaningful unit is a sentence in a longer sequence, like a word. This is possible through the composition that the whole meaning is derived from the meaning of the part.

The composition itself is not unique to humans. for example, Chimpanzy combines calls I warn others to the snake. But so far, only animals have been confirmed in animals that are not humans, and each unit is added independently to the meaning of the whole. For example, there are two independent units in the phrase “blond dancer”. Humans also have a “minor composition”, which I thought it was unique, which means something different from what it means individually. For example, the phrase “bad dancer” does not mean a bad person who dances.

This problem is that biologists do not have a clear meaning to animal vocals. Mélissa berthet At the University of Zurich, Switzerland, I was not sure if the union was trivial or trivial.

Berthet and her colleagues spent several years in learning and adjusting methods in linguistics to find obvious evidence of trivial composition in our nearest living relatives. It spent five months in 30 adult Bonobos in Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve in Congo Democratic Republic, and almost 1000 cases when Bonobo sang. About half of these remarks were a combination of at least two different currency types quickly.

At a new stage, the researchers mentioned everything that happened in a few minutes at the time of the phone. They recorded more than 300 observations, including what happened in the work and the environment of the sender, and the behavior of the caller and the audience after the sender.

In order to reveal the meaning of each currency, we used linguistic skills to make clouds of ignition types to arrange vocals that occurred in similar situations. “We have established this dictionary.” We have a meaning and one meaning. “

If this meaning cloud occurs, I found that the individual call had a clear meaning of the combination, and I knew that the combination was close to the unit. They used this approach to identify four configuration calls, three of which were clearly not trivial, and the meaning did not overlap directly with the components. For example, “High-HOOT + Low-Hoot” combines a call that seems to mean “paying attention to me,” and says, “Please pay attention to me because you are in pain.” Bonobos is often used to request support when other individuals threaten them.

Berthlet was about adjusting this group of almost all bonobos. Team member Martin Seopec In Harvard University, I think this is because a small departure group can do its own because Bonobos has nuclear fusion fusion group dynamics.

“It is the first time that there is a clear evidence of minor phrases and minor compositions in all animal species. Maël Leroux At the French Lens University. “It is revolutionary. It is basically the cornerstone of the next 10 years of comparative linguistics and evolutionary linguistics.”

This discovery does not mean that Bonobos has a language because language is a human communication system, Berthet says. “But we show that they have a very complex communication system that shares sharing similar to human language.”

Now we have evidence that chimpanzees and bonobos have syntax, and this configuration is inherited from the last common ancestor, Leroux says. “They have clearly showed that this core building block is evolutionary ancient, at least 7 million years and is probably old.”