Menzerath's law, traditionally framed as a negative relationship between the size of a structure and its constituent parts (e.g. sentences with more clauses have shorter clauses), is widespread across information-coding systems ranging from human language and the vocal and gestural sequences of primates and birds, to the building blocks of DNA, genes and proteins. Here, we analysed an extensive dataset of ‘close-call' sequences produced by wild mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei, no. individuals = 10, no. sequences = 2189) to determine whether, in accordance with Menzerath's law, a negative relationship existed between the number of vocal units in a sequence and the duration of its constituent units. We initially found positive evidence for this but, on closer inspection, the negative relationship was driven entirely by the difference between single- and multi-unit (two to six unit) sequences. Once single-unit sequences were excluded from the analysis, we identified a relationship in the opposite direction, with longer sequences generally composed of longer units. The close-call sequences of mountain gorillas therefore represent an intriguing example of a non-human vocal system that only partially conforms to the predictions of Menzerath's law.

Menzerath 定律传统上被认为是结构大小与其组成部分之间的负相关关系（例如，子句较多的句子有较短的子句），它广泛存在于信息编码系统中，从人类语言到灵长类动物的声音和手势序列，以及鸟类，到 DNA、基因和蛋白质的组成部分。在这里，我们分析了野生山地大猩猩（Gorilla beringei beringei， 不。个人 = 10，没有。序列 = 2189) 以确定，根据 Menzerath 定律，序列中的语音单元数与其组成单元的持续时间之间是否存在负相关。我们最初发现了这方面的积极证据，但经过仔细检查，这种消极关系完全是由单单元和多单元（2 到 6 个单元）序列之间的差异驱动的。一旦从分析中排除了单单位序列，我们就确定了相反方向的关系，更长的序列通常由更长的单位组成。因此，山地大猩猩的近距离呼叫序列代表了非人类发声系统的一个有趣例子，该系统仅部分符合 Menzerath 定律的预测。