Something interesting about the culture of species

Sperm Whales' 

Language Reveals 

Hints of Culture

These deep-diving whales off the Galápagos have their own dialects,
a sign that they have a culture
.

     By Jane J. Lee, 

National Geographic

   PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 8, 2015

Female sperm whales and their calves swim off 

the coast of Pinta Island in the Galápagos.

PHOTOGRAPH BY FLIP NICKLEN, MINDEN/CORBIS

New ways to grab dinner, the trick to 
using a tool, and learning the local 
dialect. These are behaviors that 
animals pick up from each other. 
Killer whales, chimpanzees, and birds
seem to have a cultural component to 
their lives. Now a new study suggests 
that sperm whales should be added to 
that list.

The ocean around the Galápagos 
Islands hosts thousands of female
sperm whales and their calves that have
organized into clans with their own dialects.
(Mature males congregate in colder waters near
the poles.) How these clans form
has been something of a mystery until now.

A study published Tuesday in the journal Nature 
Communication ssuggests that
culture—behaviors shared by group members—
keeps these sperm whale clans together. 
Specifically, these deep-diving whales have a 
distinct series of clicks called codas they use to 
communicate during social interactions.

Sperm whales with similar behaviors spend
time together, and they pick up vocalizations
from each other. Scientists call this social 
learning. Whales that "speak the same language" 
stick together, giving rise to the clans that 
researchers have observed for more than 30 years. 

Why It Matters

This is one more pillar of support for the idea that
animals have culture, says lead study author 
Mauricio Cantor, a marine biologist at
Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.

When Cantor and colleagues ran computer
simulations to determine the most likely way 
the clans formed, factors like genetic relatedness
or the transmission of information from mother
to offspring couldn't explain the pattern observed 
in the wild. The best explanation their analysis 
could find was a preference in how sperm whales
learned vocalizations. "Like-minded" individuals
learned from each other. 

The Big Picture

It's fascinating to see that animals like whales
display something that may seem uniquely human, 
Cantor says. But really, 
"we're not that different from them."

Killer whale pods have their own dialects,
humpback whales pass on new feeding behaviors 
via their social networks, and chimpanzees share 
the secrets of tool use with their compatriots.

Cantor hopes that by learning more and more
about animals, people will be moved to think 
about the environment and perhaps act on calls 
for conserving the planet.

What's Next

Cantor and colleagues plan to look back at
historic data on sperm whale clans from 
30 years ago and compare them
with clans today. "We want to know how their
[vocalizations have] changed over time."

First Language Acquisition

How come we acquire language, the most difficult thing in our life, at the age of five and

without any effort?

I strongly agree with Chomsky’s theory of innateness. Its main argument is that children are

creative with the language, so they do not learn it by imitation. Besides, Chomsky argues that

there must be a natural order to acquire the language in all human beings. Even though

language is a complex system, a child does not need to be formally taught to acquire it. Of

course it does not exist a way to prove how this “Black Box” works  because there is

 no technology to study the process that happens inside the mind; but the

theory has been proved by observing children acquiring their first Language.

Furthermore, it is very interesting to understand the arguments why Chomsky maintains the

existence of the Universal Grammar. We do not need extensive Input, just a few of it to trigger the

process because the things that are missing from the Input are added by the UG. As a result,

there can be many possible responses to only one stimulus (stimulus free). In other words,

Chomsky’s theory suggests:

The poverty of the stimulus argument:

• Children hear only a finite number of sentences.
• They are able to abstract the rules of a language.
• They produce an infinite number of sentences without any formal training.

In my opinion, this is the most engaging part of the Chapter because it explains Chomsky’s

theory in a deeper way. And it is interesting how Chomsky’s and Plato’s theories are

contrasted. Personally, I agree with Plato’s theory about previous lives, and I believe

Chomsky’s “black box” is part of our consciousness. Nowadays, scientists study memory

beyond death and the consciousness is being studied as an independent part of the brain, as if

it was part of the soul. However, I am aware that this is a very personal belief without any solid

scientific source.

To conclude, I think that there is no theory that can refuse Chomsky’s. Even though

there is no evidence on how U.G. works inside the brain, there are no doubts about all the

facts that have been studied about how humans acquire the language.

Macrofunction and Microfunction

Tasks	Macrofunction	Microfunction	Grammar
Watch a video about “Travel around the World” and ask your partner for interesting places to visit. Then tell your partner which of the places you visited were the best .	Exchanging goods and services	Asking for and giving directions	Wh- questions Yes/no questions