Studies of nonhuman primate communication are often motivated by the desire to shed light on the evolution of speech. In contrast to human speech, the vocal repertoires of nonhuman primates are evolutionarily highly conserved. Within species-specific constraints, calls may vary in relation to the internal state of the caller or social experience. Receivers can use signalers’ calls to predict upcoming events or behavioral dispositions. Yet nonhuman primates do not appear to express or comprehend communicative or informative intent. Signalers are sensitive to the relation between their own actions and receivers’ responses, and thus, signaling behavior can be conceived as goal directed. Receivers’ ability to integrate information from multiple sources renders the system flexible and powerful. Researchers who take a linguistic or biological perspective on nonhuman primate communication should be aware of the strengths and limitations of their approaches. Both benefit from a focus on the mechanisms that underpin signaling and responses to signals.

非人类灵长类动物交​​流的研究通常是出于对语音进化的了解。与人类的语音相反，非人类的灵长类动物的声音结构在进化上是高度保守的。在特定于物种的限制内，呼叫可能会因呼叫者的内部状态或社交经历而异。接收者可以使用信号员的呼叫来预测即将发生的事件或行为倾向。然而，非人类的灵长类动物似乎没有表达或理解交流或信息的意图。信号发送者对自己的行为和接收者的响应之间的关系很敏感，因此，可以将信号发送行为视为目标导向。接收者集成来自多个来源的信息的能力使系统变得灵活而强大。对非人灵长类动物交​​流采取语言或生物学观点的研究人员应意识到其研究方法的优势和局限性。两者都受益于专注于支持信号和信号响应的机制。