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The use of Zipf’s law in animal communication analysis (2003)
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BibTeX
@MISC{Suzuki03theuse,
author = {Ryuji Suzuki and Johnr. Buck and Peter L. Tyack},
title = {The use of Zipf’s law in animal communication analysis},
year = {2003}
}
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Abstract
nformation theory has been discussed as a technique to analyse communicative processes or sequential behaviour of nonhuman animals, as in MacKay (1972), Slater (1973) and Bradbury & Vehrencamp (1998, chapters 13–15) among others. Recently, McCowan et al. (1999) proposed the use of information theory for their study of bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, whistles. They discussed several aspects of their analysis techniques. Although we agree about the effectiveness of information theory to analyse unknown sources, we would like to further the discussion of one analysis method used in McCowan et al. (1999). Specifically, we wish to illustrate that Zipf’s law is of little use in the analysis of communication signals. The presence or absence in dolphins and other animals of some features of human language remain intriguing and open questions (Tyack 1999). However, we assert that a Zipf-based technique is methodologically inappropriate to address these questions. McCowan et al. (1999, page 410) noted that ‘Few investigators of animal behaviour have examined the use of first-order entropic analysis known as Zipf’s law or statistic’. In fact, Zipf’s law has been discarded as a linguistic tool, strongly criticized by Miller (1957), Miller & Chomsky (1963) and more thoroughly by Rapoport (1982). McCowan et al. (1999, page 411) also cite the application of Zipf’s law to DNA sequences by Mantegna et al. (1994) ‘with varying interpretations and reliability
Keyphrases
zipf law animal communication analysis information theory bradbury vehrencamp communication signal tursiops truncatus open question analysis technique first-order entropic analysis miller chomsky nonhuman animal unknown source nformation theory sequential behaviour bottlenose dolphin linguistic tool zipf-based technique human language animal behaviour communicative process dna sequence several aspect little use analysis method
