进入查看：2022-2023学年英语周报七年级第25期答案及试题

 

The other rule, known as the Menzerath-Altmann law, says that the longer a word or phrase is, the shorter its component syllables are, while shorter words are more likely to have longer syllables. The word “onomatopoeia,” for example, is made of six very short syllables, while “couch” is made of one longer one. Previous studies have shown that nonhuman primates (灵长类动物) follow both these rules when they communicate with each other but what about jackass penguins?

The researchers in the new study found that, yes, the songs of the male jackass penguin conform to both Zipf’s and Menzerath-Altmann’s laws. The shortest calls tended to be the most common, and the longest phrases were made up of the shortest syllables. This jackass study provided the first nonprimate evidence that these common linguistic patterns extend into the animal kingdom, the authors wrote, and that’s nothing to hem and haw at.