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Review
. 2018 Jun 13;285(1880):20180598.
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2018.0598.

Taking turns: bridging the gap between human and animal communication

Simone Pika  1   2 , Ray Wilkinson  3 , Kobin H Kendrick  4 , Sonja C Vernes  5   6
Affiliations
Review

Taking turns: bridging the gap between human and animal communication

Simone Pika et al. Proc Biol Sci. .

Abstract

Language, humans' most distinctive trait, still remains a 'mystery' for evolutionary theory. It is underpinned by a universal infrastructure-cooperative turn-taking-which has been suggested as an ancient mechanism bridging the existing gap between the articulate human species and their inarticulate primate cousins. However, we know remarkably little about turn-taking systems of non-human animals, and methodological confounds have often prevented meaningful cross-species comparisons. Thus, the extent to which cooperative turn-taking is uniquely human or represents a homologous and/or analogous trait is currently unknown. The present paper draws attention to this promising research avenue by providing an overview of the state of the art of turn-taking in four animal taxa-birds, mammals, insects and anurans. It concludes with a new comparative framework to spur more research into this research domain and to test which elements of the human turn-taking system are shared across species and taxa.

Keywords: animal communication; antiphony; duets; human language; language evolution; turn-taking.

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Conflict of interest statement

We declare we have no competing interests.

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