Box 1.

Definitions.

general definition of phenomenon	term	context of term	example
a distinct measurable aspect of a system, which can be measured independently of other aspects	component	ethology	frequency or duration of a signal; an intellectual instance determining behaviour
	component	mathematics; electronic engineering (EE)	partial at frequency x; regions of energy concentration
	feature	EE; computer science (CS)	spectral centroid; signal onset/offset; duration of a signal
	feature	music; current paper	pitch; fundamental frequency; rhythm; harmony
unitary communication event X which is informative about state of affairs Y to a receiver (1) and/or producer (2)	cue (1)	ethology	size of an animal, not intentionally communicated
	natural signs (1)	(Peircian) semiotics	footsteps in the sand, not intentionally communicated
	sign (1 and 2)	(Peircian) semiotics; current paper	word or gesture, intentionally communicated; understood in a three place relation of sign, referential target, and the user of the sign
sensory and/or effector communication channel conventionally treated as functionally separable from others	modality	neuroscience; current paper	specific neural ensembles associated with processing of a specific sensory channel or structure
	modality	psycholinguistics; psychomusicology; ethology; current paper	audition; vision; touch (usually ascribed to senses of the receiver — the receiver processes light signals via the sense of vision)
	mode	movement science; current paper	whispering, phonating; in-phase, anti-phase synchrony; resonance; punching, kicking
a measurable aspect of a producing system, changing in time, which is used by a receiver system	signal	mathematics; EE; CS; current paper	frequency, voltage, amplitude
	signal	ethology	a (sequence of) vocalization(s), or movement(s), etc intentionally produced for a receiver, e.g. a specific mating call
informational, temporal, and/or mechanical coupling between two or more measurable aspects, the coupling of which benefits communicative purposes; the benefit can be for the recipient (1) and/or the producer (2)	multimodal cue (1)	ethology; current paper	information about body movement or size from vocal patterning; indexical cues
	multimodal signal (1 and 2)	ethology; psycholinguistics; current paper	sonic communication with facial and/or manual gesture
	multi-component signal (1 and 2)	ethology	combined vocal and visual signalling
	coordination of modes (1 and/or 2)	movement science; current paper	entrainment of neural ensembles for sensory integration; coordination of respiratory, jaw, and articulatory modes for speaking; gesture (person 1) and speech (person 2) interactions