Scott-Phillips T C
Language Evolution and Computation Research Unit, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
J Evol Biol. 2008 Mar;21(2):387-95. doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2007.01497.x. Epub 2008 Jan 17.
Communication is ubiquitous in biology, and agreement on terms essential for scientific progress. Yet there is no agreed definition of biological communication. Definitions couched in terms of adaptation are often used, but there is significant variability in exactly which criteria are invoked. An alternative is to define communication in terms of information transfer. This article reviews the merits of these approaches, and argues that the former is to be preferred, so long as we demand that both the signal and the response be adaptive, rather than just one or the other, as is common. Specific concerns with the definition are addressed, and it is then explained why an account of communication predicated on information transfer is necessarily derivative upon such an approach. Other alternatives and some variants of the adaptationist definition are also briefly discussed.
交流在生物学中无处不在，对于科学进步至关重要的术语也达成了共识。然而，对于生物交流并没有公认的定义。常常用基于适应性的定义，但在究竟援引哪些标准方面存在很大差异。另一种方法是根据信息传递来定义交流。本文回顾了这些方法的优点，并认为只要我们要求信号和反应都是适应性的，而不是像通常那样只要求其中一个是适应性的，那么前者更可取。文中讨论了对该定义的具体关注点，然后解释了为什么基于信息传递的交流解释必然依赖于这种方法。还简要讨论了其他替代方法以及适应主义定义的一些变体。
