Psychologist Tim Gentner from the University of California, San Diego, has reached this conclusion after conducting 15,000 experiments to uncover the secrets hidden within the language of birds.
This research indicates that simple grammatical points and language skills can be found in bird songs. For example, the Eurasian Skylark can learn to differentiate between a regular “song” and a “song” containing clauses or longer sequences of notes. They can recognize the recursive structure of language, which involves inserting a group of words within sentences.
However, complex sentences containing explanatory clauses that humans can grasp remain beyond the current understanding of these animals.
The vocalizations of animals in general, and birds in particular, will serve as a key for researchers to explore language skills and, importantly, the fundamental grammatical issues of animals in the future.
