ヒトの子供と同様に自発的に言葉を獲得した最初の類人猿であるカンジとの研究は、1993年に"Monographs of Society for Research in Child Development"(子供発達研究学会(英語版)の論文誌)で発表された"Language Comprehension in Ape and Child"(類人猿と子供の言語理解)に詳述されている。この論文は、1991年にミネソタ大学認知科学センターが発表した「ミレニアム・プロジェクト」で、20世紀の認知科学の中で最も影響力のある研究トップ100に選ばれた。
「言語はヒトに限られたものではなく、他の類人猿でも学習可能である」というサベージ=ランボーの言語に対する見方は、言語学、心理学、その他の脳や精神に関する科学の研究者からは一般的に批判されており、受け入れられていない。例えば、認知科学者のスティーブン・ピンカーは"The Language Instinct"(日本語訳『言語を生みだす本能(英語版)』)の中でサベージ=ランボーらの立場を強く批判し、カンジを始めとする非ヒト霊長類は言語の基礎を把握できていないと主張した。
Terrace et al (1979)の分析"Can An Ape Create a Sentence"(類人猿は文章を作れるか)によれば、類人猿は文章を作成しない。類人猿は模倣の段階から進んだり、平均文の長さが長くなるにつれて複雑さを増した文章を作り始めたりすることはない。意味があるように見える創造的な組み合わせも、分析すると、より単純な非言語的特性によって説明できる。ThompsonとChurchによる"An Explanation of the Language of a Chimpanzee" (1980)では、動物による文章様のものの生成の説明として、連想対(英語版)学習とその後の強化を指摘している。
Savage-Rumbaugh, E.S., Stuart G. Shanker, and Talbot J. Taylor. 2001. Apes, Language, and the Human Mind. Oxford. ISBN0-19-514712-X
Lyn, H., Greenfield, P. M., Savage-Rumbaugh, S., Gillespie-Lynch, K., & Hopkins, W. D. (2011). Nonhuman primates do declare! A comparison of declarative symbol and gesture use in two children, two bonobos, and a chimpanzee. Language and Communication, 31, 63-74. doi:10.1016/j.langcom.2010.11.001
"The Foundations of Primate Intelligence and Language," Duane M. Rumbaugh, E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, James E. King and Jared P. Taglialatela. The Human Brain Evolving: Paleoneurological Studies in Honor of Ralph L. Holloway, Stone Age Institute Press (2011).
Gillespie-Lynch, K., Greenfield, P. M., Lyn, H., & Savage-Rumbaugh, S. (in press). The role of dialogue in the ontogeny and phylogeny of early word combinations. First Language.
Savage-Rumbaugh, S. (2010) Human Language-Human Consciousness, On the Human, a project of the National Humanities Center
Savage-Rumbaugh, E.S., Rumbaugh, D.M., & Fields, W.M. (2009) "Empirical Kanzi: The ape language debate revisited".The Skeptic.
Lyn, H., Franks, B., and Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. (2008) Precursors of morality in the use of the symbols "good" and "bad" in two bonobos (Pan paniscus) and a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Language and Communication 28(3) 213-224 doi:10.1016/j.langcom.2008.01.006.
Greenfield, P. M., Lyn, H., & Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. (2008). Protolanguage in ontogeny and phylogeny: combining deixis and representation. Interaction Studies, 9(1), 34-50.
Rumbaugh, D. M., Washburn, D. A., King, J. E., Beran, M. J. Gould, K., & Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. (2008). Why some apes imitate and/or emulate observed behavior and others do not: Fact, theory, and implications for our kind. Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology, 7, (1), 101 -110.
Savage-Rumbaugh, S. & Fields, W.M. (2007) Rules and Tools: Beyond Anthropomorphism: A qualitative report on the stone tool manufacture and use by captive bonobos Kanzi and Panbanisha. In N. Toth's Craft Institute Oldowan Technologies 1(1).
Fields, W.M., Segerdahl, P., & Savage-Rumbaugh, E.S. (2007) "The Material Practices of Ape Language." In J. Valsiner & Alberto Rosa (Eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Socio-Cultural Psychology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rumbaugh, D. M., E. S. Savage-Rumbaugh, & Taglialatela, J. (2007). (L. Squire, ed.) Language Nonhuman Animals. The New Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. New York: Elsevier.
Savage-Rumbaugh, S., Rumbaugh, D.M. & W.M. Fields. (2006) "Language as a Window on the Cultural Mind." In S. Hurley (Ed.) Rational Animals, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lyn, H., Greenfield, P. G., and Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. (2006) The development of pretend play in chimpanzees and bonobos: evolutionary implications, pretense, and the role of interspecies communication, Cognitive Development, 21, 199-213.
Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Kanzi Wamba, Panbanisha Wamba and Nyota Wamba. (2007) "Welfare of Apes in Captive Environments: Comments On, and By, a Specific Group of Apes." Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science.
Savage-Rumbaugh, E.S., Segerdahl, P., Fields, W.M. (2005) "Individual Differences in Language Competencies in Apes Resulting from Unique Rearing Conditions Imposed by Different First Epistemologies."n L.L. Namy & S.R. Waxman (Eds.)
Segerdahl, P., Fields, W.M., & Savage-Rumbaugh, E.S. (2005) Kanzi's Primal Language: The Cultural Initiation of Apes Into Language. London: Palgrave/Macmillan.
Savage-Rumbaugh, S., Fields, W.M., & T. Spircu. (2004). The Emergence of Knapping and Vocal Expression Embedded in a Pan/Homo Culture. Journal of Biology and Philosophy (19).
Fields, W.M., & Savage-Rumbaugh, S. (2003). [Review of the book A Mind So Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness]. Contemporary Psychology 48(8).
Savage-Rumbaugh, S., Fields, W. (2002) "Hacias el control de nuevas realidades," Quark (25), 20-26.
Savage-Rumbaugh, S., Fields, W.M. & Taglialetela, J. (2001) "Language, Speech, Tools and Writing: A cultural imperative." In Thompson, E. (Ed.), Between Ourselves: Second-person issues in the study of consciousness, (pp. 273–292) Exeter, UK: Imprint Academic.
Savage-Rumbuagh, E.S. & Fields, W.M. (2000) "Linguistic, Cultural and Cognitive Capabilities of Bonobos (Pan paniscus)." Culture & Psychology 6(2), 131-153.
"Perception of Personality Traits and Semantic Learning in Evolving Hominids." The Descent of Mind: Psychological Perspectives on Hominid Evolution" (pages 98–115), Oxford University Press, 1999.
"Ape Communication: Between a Rock and a Hard Place." Origins of Language: What Non-Human Primates Can Tell Us" School of American Research Press, 1999.
"Continuing Investigations into the Stone Tool-Making and Tool-Using Capabilities of Bonobo (Pan paniscus)" in Journal of Archaeological Science, 26 (pages 821-832), 1999.
"Language, Comprehension in Ape and Child" (Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development) Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Jeannine Murphy, Rose A. Sevcik, Karen E. Brakke, Shelly L. Williams and Duane M. Rumbaugh; University Of Chicago Press (July 1993)