Why is combinatorial communication rare in the natural world, and why is language an exception to this trend?

How do communication systems emerge?

(2012) T. C. Scott-Phillips et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

The gestural repertoire of the wild chimpanzee

(2011) Catherine Hobaiter et al.   ANIMAL COGNITION

Call combinations in monkeys: Compositional or idiomatic expressions?

(2011) Kate Arnold et al.   BRAIN AND LANGUAGE

Social Cognition and the Evolution of Language: Constructing Cognitive Phylogenies

(2010) W. Tecumseh Fitch et al.   NEURON

Campbell's monkeys concatenate vocalizations into context-specific call sequences

(2009) K. Ouattara et al.   PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Meaningful call combinations in a non-human primate

(2008) Kate Arnold et al.   CURRENT BIOLOGY

Defining biological communication

(2008) T. C. SCOTT-PHILLIPS   JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

Evolutionary stability conditions for signaling games with costly signals

(2008) Gerhard Jäger   JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY