Birdsong Learning and Culture: Analogies with Human Spoken Language

Author:

Hyland Bruno Julia1,Jarvis Erich D.23,Liberman Mark4,Tchernichovski Ofer5

Affiliation:

1. Center for Science and Society, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA

2. Laboratory of Neurogenetics of Language, Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10065, USA

3. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815, USA

4. Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA

5. Department of Psychology, City University of New York–Hunter College, New York, NY 10065, USA;

Abstract

Unlike many species, song learning birds and humans have independently evolved the ability to communicate via learned vocalizations. Both birdsong and spoken language are culturally transmitted across generations, within species-specific constraints that leave room for considerable variation. We review the commonalities and differences between vocal learning bird species and humans, across behavioral, developmental, neuroanatomical, physiological, and genetic levels. We propose that cultural transmission of vocal repertoires is a natural consequence of the evolution of vocal learning and that at least some species-specific universals, as well as species differences in cultural transmission, are due to differences in vocal learning phenotypes, which are shaped by genetic constraints. We suggest that it is the balance between these constraints and features of the social environment that allows cultural learning to propagate. We describe new opportunities for exploring meaningful comparisons of birdsong and human vocal culture.

Publisher

Annual Reviews

Subject

Linguistics and Language,Language and Linguistics

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