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Article In:
Interaction Studies
Vol. 25:2 (2024) ► pp.190–217

Studying the detailed work of play using conversation analysis

Three case studies of pig interaction in industrial‑rearing settings

ORCID logo | Radboud University
 | Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen | Maastricht University
This paper seeks to explore what happens when research methods predominantly reserved for the human animal are applied to study behavior of other animals. Specifically, we apply conversation analysis to investigate play fighting behavior of piglets in intensive rearing conditions through three case studies. The analysis shows how play fighting is a mutually and continually (re-)established activity that relies on monitoring the other party’s continued willingness to engage. We show this orientation to continued willingness distinguishes the activity from more serious fighting. Maintaining mutual willingness is sequentially achieved through mutually constructed opening and closing sequences, floor yielding, and locally negotiating the rules for play. The head toss, a known play marker for pigs, was used flexibly by these piglets. These findings add to or reframe findings from behavioral studies of pig play. In conclusion, applying conversation analysis to pig interaction proves not only possible but fruitful as an additional approach to methods in the field of animal communication.
Keywords: pig interaction, conversation analysis, play fighting, piglet play, production animals
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The conversation analytic approach
    • 1.2Conversation analysis and animal communication
    • 1.3Play behavior
    • 1.4Pig play behavior
    • 1.5Pig play fighting
  • 2.Data and method
    • 2.1Farms
    • 2.2Data collection and analysis
    • 2.3Transcriptions
    • 2.4Additional conventions current study
    • 2.5Ethics statement
  • 3.Analysis
    • Case study 1: Opening and closing the activity together
    • Case study 2: Role-reversals and (not) yielding the floor
    • Case study 3: Negotiating the rules of play
  • 4.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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