Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39665093›Full record

ArticleRoyal Society open science2024

Inter-call intervals, but not call durations, adhere to Menzerath's Law in the submissive vocal bouts of meerkats.

Stuart Kyle Watson, Mara Zali, Nikola Falk, Paul Widmer, Marta B Manser

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Royal Society open science, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Stuart Kyle WatsonDepartment of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, Zurich 8057, Switzerland.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1150-6288
Mara ZaliDepartment of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, Zurich 8057, Switzerland.
Nikola FalkDepartment of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, Zurich 8057, Switzerland.
Paul WidmerCenter for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
Marta B ManserDepartment of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, Zurich 8057, Switzerland.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Diverse information encoding systems, including human language, the vocal and gestural systems of non-human animals and the structure of DNA and proteins, have been found to conform to 'Menzerath's Law'-a negative relationship between the number of units composing a sequence, and the size of those units. Here, we test for the presence of Menzerath's Law in the vocal bouts produced in a submissive context by meerkats (

Indexed as

animal communicationMenzerath’s Lawquantitative linguisticsvocal behaviour

Identifiers

PMID39665093
PMCPMC11631456

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.