Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 23 4 2025 Assessing flexibility in meaning and context in non-human communication. Fröhlich M, Aychet J, Clark PR, Crockford C, Dezecache G, Rebout N, van Schaik CP, Graham KE
The concept of flexibility in communication is central to reconstructing the evolutionary history of language, and grappling with "contextual flexibility" in particular is pivotal to address implications for pragmatics-first accounts of language evolution. Despite significant advances in the field, research is hindered by definitional inconsistencies and methodological gaps across modalities. We build on recent frameworks to propose further, detailed methods for studying contextual and functional variability, incorporating modality-agnostic and standardised terminology to facilitate cross-species comparisons. Our approach includes a detailed classification of communicative contexts and outcomes, offering practical methods to disentangle context from function and meaning. By integrating insights across behavioural ecology and comparative psychology, we aim to enhance the comparability of findings and provide a robust foundation for exploring the evolutionary trajectory of communicative flexibility and pragmatics.
