Presidential Faculty Fellow

我们现存的近亲类人猿在野外表现出非凡的认知和社交能力，但目前还不清楚它们是否表现出相应的高级发声技能。为了解决这一问题，本提案是第一次对大猩猩语音交流进行比较实地研究。实地观察和实验将被用来研究类人猿叫声的个体发育、语义和功能。这项研究有望澄清人类和动物语音交流的异同，并有助于我们理解语言的进化。

Our closest living relatives, the apes, reveal remarkable cognitive and social abilities in the wild, but it is unclear whether they show correspondingly advanced vocal skills. To resolve this issue, this proposal is the first comparative field study of great ape vocal communication. Field observations and experiments will be used to investigate the ontogeny, semantics and function of ape calls. The research promises to clarify the similarities and differences between human and animal vocal communication and to contribute to our understanding of the evolution of speech.