Joël Fagot – Website

Recherches et engagements

Language - 22 articles

Testing semantic compositionality in baboons (papio papio) through relearning and generalization

Reboul A, Claidière N, Dautriche I, Fagot J (2025) Testing semantic compositionality in baboons (Papio papio) through relearning and generalization. PLoS One 20(11): e0334726. This study investigates whether baboons are capable of semantic compositionality, specifically, whether they can apply compositional rules to new situations (generalization). In language, semantic compositionality is linked to productivity, the generalization […]

Agent preference in chasing interactions in guinea baboons ( papio papio ): uncovering the roots of subject–object order in language

Floor Meewis, Joël Fagot, Nicolas Claidière, Isabelle Dautriche. Agent Preference in Chasing Interactions in Guinea Baboons ( Papio papio ): Uncovering the Roots of Subject–Object Order in Language. Psychological Science, 2025, 36 (6), pp.465-477. ff10.1177/09567976251344581ff. ffhal-05169637f Languages tend to describe “who is doing what to whom” by placing subjects before objects. This may reflect […]

Humans (homo sapiens) but not baboons (papio papio) demonstrate crossmodal pitch-luminance correspondence

Margiotoudi, K., Fagot, J., Meguerditchian, A. & Dautriche, I. (2024). Humans (Homo sapiens) but not baboons (Papio papio) demonstrate crossmodal pitch-luminance correspondence. American Journal of Primatology, 86(5). Humans spontaneously and consistently map information coming from different sensory modalities. Surprisingly, the phylogenetic origin of such cross-modal correspondences has been under-investigated. A notable exception is the […]

Detection and classification of vocal productions in large scale audio recordings

Guillem Bonafos, Pierre Pudlo, Jean-Marc Freyermuth, Thierry Legou, Joël Fagot, et al. Detection and classification of vocal productions in large scale audio recordings. 2023. ffhal-04264454 We propose an automatic data processing pipeline to extract vocal productions from large-scale natural audio recordings and classify these vocal productions. The pipeline is based on a deep neural […]

Evidence for compositionality in baboons (papio papio) through the test case of negation

Dautriche, I., Buccola, B., Berthet, M. et al. Evidence for compositionality in baboons (Papio papio) through the test case of negation. Sci Rep 12, 19181 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21143-1 Abstract – Can non-human animals combine abstract representations much like humans do with language? In particular, can they entertain a compositional representation such as ‘not blue’? Across […]

Baboons process a context-free but not a context-sensitive grammar

Malassis, R., Dehaene, S. & Fagot, J. Baboons (Papio papio) Process a Context-Free but Not a Context-Sensitive Grammar. Sci Rep 10, 7381 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64244-53 Abstract – Language processing involves the ability to master supra-regular grammars, that go beyond the level of complexity of regular grammars. This ability has been hypothesized to be a uniquely […]

Human language as a (unique) combination of inherited (and shared) domain-general cognitive abilities

Marie Montant, Raphaelle Malassis, Tiphaine Medam and Joel Fagot. Human language as a (unique) combination of inherited (and shared) domain-general cognitive abilities. Proceedings of the Evolang Conference, Bruxelles, 2020 Here we underline the role of domain-general functions on the emergence of language and speech.

Penser dans langage : approche expérimentale chez le babouin

Fagot, J. (2020). Penser dans langage : Approche expérimentale chez le babouin. Edition Odile Jacob Abstract – La recherche sur l’animal est une voie privilégiée pour aborder la question des relations entre pensée et langage. Le primate non-humain, qui n’a pas notre langage, présente une multitude de comportements dont la complexité laisse supposer l’existence […]

Which way to the dawn of speech?: reanalyzing half a century of debates and data in light of speech science.

Boë, L.J., Sawallis, T.R., Fagot, J., Badin, P., Barbier, G., Captier, G., Ménard, L., Heim, J.L., Schwartz, J.L. (2019). Which Way to the Dawn of Speech?: Reanalyzing Half a Century of Debates and Data in light of Speech Science. Science Advances, 5 (12), eaaw3916. Abstract – Recent articles on primate articulatory abilities are revolutionary […]

Constraints on the lexicons of human languages have cognitive roots present in baboons (papio papio)

Chemla, Dautriche, Buccola & Fagot (2019). Constraints on the lexicons of human languages have cognitive roots present in baboons (Papio papio). PNAS. ww.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.19070231163 Abstract – Universals in language are hard to come by, yet one candidate is that words across the lexicons of the world’s languages are, by and large, connected: When a word […]

Regularity extraction across species: associative learning mechanisms shared by humans and non-human primates.

Rey, M., Minier, L., Malassis, R., Bogeart, L. & Fagot, J. (2018). Regularity extraction across species: Associative learning mechanisms shared by humans and non-human primates. Topics in Cognitive Science. First published: 21 May 201. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/tops.123433 Abstract – Extracting the regularities of our environment is a core cognitive ability in human and non‐human primates. Comparative […]

Comparing human and nonhuman animals performance on domain-general functions: towards a multiple bottleneck scenario of language evolution?

Fagot, J., Malassis, R., Medam, T., Montant, M. (2017). Comparing human and nonhuman animals performance on domain-general functions: Towards a multiple bottleneck scenario of language evolution? in Boe, L.J., Fagot, J. Perrier, P., & Schwartz, J.L. (eds.). Origins of human language: continuities and splits with nonhuman primates. Peter Lang (pp. 329-365) Abstract – How […]

What’s up with wahoo? exploring baboon vocalizations with speech science techniques

Berthomier, F., Sawallis, T., Fagot, J., & Boë, L.J. (2017). What’s up with Wahoo? Exploring Baboon Vocalizations with Speech Science Techniques. in Boe, J.L., Fagot, J., Perrier, P. & Schwartz, J.L. (eds.). Origins of human language: continuities and splits with nonhuman primates. Peter Lang (101-136). Astract – The baboon repertoire includes around fifteen vocalizations. […]

Book – origins of human language: continuities and splits with nonhuman primates (open-access)

Boë, L.J., Fagot, J., Perrier, P. & Schwartz, J.L. (Eds., 2017). Origins of human language: continuities and splits with nonhuman primates. Oxford : Peter Lang Abstract – This book proposes a detailed picture of the continuities and ruptures between communication in primates and language in humans. It explores a diversity of perspectives on […]