Marlou Rasenberg, Sterre Leufkens & Marjo van Koppen: Meaning-making beyond the human

Meaning-making beyond the human: linguistic approaches to the study of cat-human interactions

By Marlou Rasenberg, Sterre Leufkens & Marjo van Koppen

Discussion led by Silvia Terenghi & Tessa van Charldorp

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Human and non-human animals draw on a range of embodied resources to constitute social actions: vocalizations (speech), gesture, gaze, body postures, touch and movements. As researchers with a linguistic background, we take inspiration from different linguistic approaches to study the structure of embodied interactions between domestic cats and humans. Drawing on video recordings of everyday cat-human interactions, we show how cats initiate deictic interactions and how humans use speech to construe the behavior of cats as meaningful interactional turns. With this species-inclusive approach we push the boundaries of linguistic inquiry and offer new insights into interactive meaning-making.

Tielezaal

The room can be found by entering the library building from Drift, passing through the security gates and continuing until the hallway at the end (where there is a flight of stairs going down). Follow the signs going up the stairs until you hit the Tielezaal door.