Vocalizing Behavior in Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) – an Evolutionary Account
In this thesis, we compare human language, as defined by Noam Chomsky in his biolinguistic account of language, with killer whale (Orcinus orca) vocalizations and what we call the orca vocalization and orca symbolic vocalization systems. We postulate hypothetical orca counterparts of the elements of language described in Chomsky’s account and trace out the relevant contingencies of such counterparts. We ask whether they might allow orcas to achieve what the faculty of language allows humans to achieve—such things as thinking, planning, interpreting and creativity—and whether an orca counterpart to the faculty of language in the narrow sense that Chomsky postulates, needs to rest upon a functionally recursive operator. Taking an ecological, evolutionary, developmental approach, we discuss the possible evolutionary and developmental trajectories of the species-specific orca expression of the type of cognitive system that makes abstract symbolic representations possible for an organism.
Meistaraprófsritgerðir, Vatnalíffræði, Tungumál, Háhyrningur, Vitsmunir, Aquatic biology, Orcinus orca, Vocalization systems
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations