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Part of
Intersubjectivity in Action: Studies in language and social interaction
Edited by Jan Lindström, Ritva Laury, Anssi Peräkylä and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 326] 2021
► pp. 397–

Interactional reciprocity in human–dog interaction

| University of Helsinki
| University of Helsinki

This chapter explores the potential existence of interactional reciprocity in human–dog interactions by analyzing experimental data on situations where dog owners fail to produce reciprocally modified actions for two minutes. We found that their dogs soon realized the strangeness of the situation. While they pursued missing feedback with touch, gaze and vocalizations, they also addressed other humans and requested their attention. Therefore, the dogs oriented to the lack of reciprocity and attempted to repair it. We demonstrate that interactional reciprocity in human–dog interactions can be breached, thus proving its existence. Moreover, we show that it also returned when the experiment ended. The findings are compared with mother–infant experiments where evidence of interactional reciprocity has also been found.

Keywords: conversation analysis, dogs, experiment, Finnish, high-pitch vocalizations, intersubjectivity, interspecies interaction, reciprocity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The Still-Face Paradigm
    • 1.2The Strange Situation Paradigm
  • 2.The setting and methods
  • 3.Research questions
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1The Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever and the passive owner
      • 4.1.1The dog sets a new project
      • 4.1.2The dog requests help from the owner and others
      • 4.1.3Once contact is restored, the dog engages in play
    • 4.2The Saluki and its passive owner
    • 4.3Summary of the analysis
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 17 November 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.326.18sim
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