The infochemical core

Vocalizations, and less often gestures, have been the object of linguistic research for decades. However, the development of a general theory of communication with human language as a particular case requires a clear understanding of the organization of communication through other means. Infochemicals are chemical compounds that carry information and are employed by small organisms that cannot emit acoustic signals of an optimal frequency to achieve successful communication. Here, we investigate the distribution of infochemicals across species when they are ranked by their degree or the number of species with which they are associated (because they produce them or are sensitive to them). We evaluate the quality of the fit of different functions to the dependency between degree and rank by means of a penalty for the number of parameters of the function. Surprisingly, a double Zipf (a Zipf distribution with two regimes, each with a different exponent) is the model yielding the best fit although it is the function with the largest number of parameters. This suggests that the worldwide repertoire of infochemicals contains a core which is shared by many species and is reminiscent of the core vocabularies found for human language in dictionaries or large corpora.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Algorithmic complexity for psychology: A user-friendly implementation of the coding theorem method

Kolmogorov-Chaitin complexity has long been believed to be impossible to approximate when it comes to short sequences (e.g. of length 5-50). However, with the newly developed \emph{coding theorem method} the complexity of strings of length 2-11 can now be numerically estimated. We present the theoretical basis of algorithmic complexity for short strings (ACSS) and describe an R-package providing functions based on ACSS that will cover psychologists' needs and improve upon previous methods in three ways: (1) ACSS is now available not only for binary strings, but for strings based on up to 9 different symbols, (2) ACSS no longer requires time-consuming computing, and (3) a new approach based on ACSS gives access to an estimation of the complexity of strings of any length. Finally, three illustrative examples show how these tools can be applied to psychology.Comment: to appear in "Behavioral Research Methods", 14 pages in journal format, R package at http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/acss/index.htm

concepts - methods - visualization

While Darwin’s grand view of evolution has undergone many changes and shown up in many facets, there remains one outstanding common feature in its 150-year history: since the very beginning, branching trees have been the dominant scheme for representing evolutionary processes. Only recently, network models have gained ground reflecting contact-induced mixing or hybridization in evolutionary scenarios. In biology, research on prokaryote evolution indicates that lateral gene transfer is a major feature in the evolution of bacteria. In the field of linguistics, the mutual lexical and morphosyntactic borrowing between languages seems to be much more central for language evolution than the family tree model is likely to concede. In the humanities, networks are employed as an alternative to established phylogenetic models, to express the hybridization of cultural phenomena, concepts or the social structure of science. However, an interdisciplinary display of network analyses for evolutionary processes remains lacking. Therefore, this volume includes approaches studying the evolutionary dynamics of science, languages and genomes, all of which were based on methods incorporating network approaches

Methods in Contemporary Linguistics

The present volume is a broad overview of methods and methodologies in linguistics, illustrated with examples from concrete research. It collects insights gained from a broad range of linguistic sub-disciplines, ranging from core disciplines to topics in cross-linguistic and language-internal diversity or to contributions towards language, space and society. Given its critical and innovative nature, the volume is a valuable source for students and researchers of a broad range of linguistic interests

Methods in Contemporary Linguistics

The present volume is a broad overview of methods and methodologies in linguistics, illustrated with examples from concrete research. It collects insights gained from a broad range of linguistic sub-disciplines, ranging from core disciplines to topics in cross-linguistic and language-internal diversity or to contributions towards language, space and society. Given its critical and innovative nature, the volume is a valuable source for students and researchers of a broad range of linguistic interests

Methods in Contemporary Linguistics

The present volume is a broad overview of methods and methodologies in linguistics, illustrated with examples from concrete research. It collects insights gained from a broad range of linguistic sub-disciplines, ranging from core disciplines to topics in cross-linguistic and language-internal diversity or to contributions towards language, space and society. Given its critical and innovative nature, the volume is a valuable source for students and researchers of a broad range of linguistic interests

Dogs, Chickens and Ants: Investigating the reliability of modern maternal genetic data in retracing early dispersals

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been used extensively in the past few decades to investigate the phylogeny and phylogeography of domesticates but numerous episodes of homogenisation between populations caused by human agency have no doubt obscured past genetic signals. This research statistically tests for mtDNA genetic structure and variation within modern dog, ancient dog and modern chicken populations on a global scale using Wright's F-statistics and analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA). It also investigates the potential of the tramp ant Tapinoma melanocephalum (ghost ant) to be used as a new proxy for human dispersals in Oceania. Based on extensive datasets combining primary analyses and secondary sources, the statistical analyses reveal differing results according to species. A distinct lack of maternal genetic structure and variation between global populations of modern indigenous dogs is observed. The analyses conducted on 88 ancient dog specimens dating prior to the 15th century, however, reveal mtDNA structure and variation between continents. Thus, it is concluded that the genetic homogenisation observed within modern dogs but absent in ancient populations most likely results from the European colonial expansion and the development of transoceanic travel. In contrast, modern maternal genetic structure was observed between chicken populations from across the world, and allowed for hypotheses to be formulated regarding the early dispersals of chickens. These studies support the fact that mtDNA fragments from modern dog populations cannot reliably infer their origin and early dispersals while analyses conducted on mtDNA fragments of modern chicken populations allow for the investigation of the origin and past migrations of chickens. Looking at the ghost ant which has been widely but unintentionally dispersed, its phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses reveal two potential introductions of this tramp species into Oceania. While the timing of their introduction cannot yet be deciphered due to the lack of working samples, the correlation between the results and historical records infer potential trading routes, revealing Tapinoma melanocephalum as a potential proxy to trace past human migrations

Investigating the role of demography and selection in genome scale patterns of common and rare variant diversity in humans

In the last decade, an unprecedented increase in the availability of whole genome sequence (WGS) data has reshaped the field of human evolutionary genomics. However, many earlier sequencing projects like the HapMap and 1000 Genomes panels focussed on a limited set of populations. Therefore, more research has been required to better characterise genetic diversity in understudied regions, such as Island Southeast Asia and Siberia. This thesis contributes to this ongoing effort in the form of three partially related subprojects. Firstly, population structure and local adaptations in Southeast Asia were investigated using novel autosomal 730,000 SNP data from 146 individuals in the context of a larger worldwide panel of 1,825 humans. The Kankanaey Igorot from the highlands of the Philippine Mountain Province were highlighted as the closest living representatives of the source population that may have given rise to the Austronesian expansion. Furthermore, consistent with archaeological, cultural and linguistic evidence of Indian influence in Southeast Asia starting from 2.5 kya South Asian admixture in the region was estimated to date back to the last couple of thousand years. To provide an unbiased high-resolution picture of the patterns of functional and rare variants worldwide high coverage WGS data from 483 individuals (including 379 novel genomes) were analysed. Ingenuity Variant Analysis and the Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor were applied to a subset of these genomes (n = 382) to create a repository of functional and deleterious variants. Evidence for purifying selection in genes involved in pigmentation and immune defence against viruses was detected in African populations. The most differentiated sites across continental groups were integrated with haplotype-based selection tests and annotations from functional databases to pinpoint disease and metabolism-related candidate loci. A subset of the WGS dataset, designed to maximise coverage of diverse ethnic groups (n = 447), was screened for variants occurring exclusively in two individuals in a heterozygous state (f2 variants). It was shown that f2 sharing correlates well with the results of CHROMOPAINTER, a state-of-the-art method to detect recent gene flow, and, allows for the detection of cryptic relatedness among distant populations. This was demonstrated by an example of a previously undetected low-scale African ancestry component in the South American Calchaquíes putatively related to the transatlantic slave trade

A General Theory Of Composition: Cross-modal Perception, Sound, Synergy and Meaning in contemporary composition practice.

Music extends beyond audibility. We perceive a performance – the work-on-stage – not only sonically but also visually and physically. Bridging science, phenomenology, eastern philosophy and music, A General Theory of Composition explores cross-modal perception and new synergies between musical and non-musical modes of creative expression through the media of sound, composition as a whole, and interdisciplinary research by posing the key-questions: What is SOUND? Where does SOUND begin, and where does it end? A General Theory of Composition, as a phenomenological investigation, reconfirms that the nature of both artistic practice and our sensory perception is holistic and reciprocally cross-modal. ‘Multi-sensory fluidity’ (Coessens), ‘sonic sensibility’ (Voegelin), ‘sensory substitution’ (McGann), naturally embedded in our modes of perception, suggest that our perception is always ‘embodied’ (Johnson) within its complex interdisciplinary Gestalt – composition as a whole. From this perspective the multisensory human body can be seen to engage meaningfully with the world via cross-modal listening, that promotes multi-sensory, psychosomatic reciprocal exchange between audible-visual-physical modes of perception. From the observation of my own artistic praxis, the holistic perspective of my theory brings forward the view on musical and/or any practice as a ‘lived experience’ (Stein) through theories of The Empathy Theory (Stein), Spheres of Human Essence (Walther), and The Speech Act Theory (Austin). It shares insights that: 1) sound/music, as language, is a phenomenon rooted in the philosophical domain; 2) there is no pure medium – all media are multi-modal, inter-subjective and reciprocally interconnected; 3) through the mode of ‘active listening’, as a means of communication, sound naturally crosses into other domains; 4) our perceptual modes intertwine, synthesise, and co-exist in a synergetic relationship within the complex chamber of our multi-sensory, psychosomatic, physical bodies. The exegesis is accompanied by two creative works, LIBERATO and SKETCHES, presented in three contextual subdivisions that collectively illustrate the workings of my theory and creative practice: the work-on-stage; cross-modal perception; expanded musical notation