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Rethinking ambiguity across species.

Marlen Fröhlich1, Gerhard Jäger2, Asya Achimova3

  • 1Paleoanthropology Section, Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, Tübingen 72070, Germany; DFG Centre for Advanced Studies "Words, Bones, Genes, Tools", University of Tübingen, Rümelinstr. 23, Tübingen 72070, Germany.

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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Ambiguity in communication, found in both humans and animals like primates, is not a flaw but an evolved strategy. This adaptive trait balances signal efficiency, informativeness, and flexibility across species.

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Animal communicationContext sensitivityEvolutionary pragmaticsLanguage originsMultimodalityUnderspecificationVagueness

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Area of Science:

  • Comparative communication
  • Evolutionary linguistics
  • Primatology

Background:

  • Ambiguity, the capacity for multiple signal interpretations, is traditionally linked to human language.
  • Recent evidence reveals widespread ambiguity in non-human communication, particularly in primates.
  • Contextual disambiguation through social interaction is common in animal communication.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To challenge the view of ambiguity as a communicative flaw.
  • To propose ambiguity as an evolved, adaptive strategy across species.
  • To explore the adaptive benefits and cognitive underpinnings of ambiguity.

Main Methods:

  • Cross-species data analysis.
  • Probabilistic modeling of communication signals.
  • Comparative analysis of primate communication systems.

Main Results:

  • Ambiguity provides adaptive benefits by balancing signal cost, informativeness, and interpretive flexibility.
  • Pragmatic ambiguity resolution likely predates human language.
  • Shared cognitive capacities for social inference underpin ambiguity resolution.

Conclusions:

  • Ambiguity is a widespread, adaptive communication strategy, not unique to humans.
  • Understanding ambiguity as a comparative phenomenon reframes language evolution debates.
  • Recognizing shared adaptive pressures highlights commonalities in communication systems across species.