This essay first relates some basic facts about primate communication and then attempts to identify both commonalities and differences with the human case. The focus is on pragmatics, which means that there is a special emphasis on those aspects of primate communication that show some flexibility of use — as there can be no question of pragmatics if the individual is innately programmed to behave in a particular way in a particular circumstance with no choice of when, where, and how to use a communicative signal. But the pragmatics of primate communication seem rather meager.