A linguistic-pragmatic analysis of cat-induced deixis in cat-human interactions

L. Cornips; M. van Koppen; Sterre Leufkens; Ronja van Zijverden; Kristin Melum Eide

doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2023.09.002

A linguistic-pragmatic analysis of cat-induced deixis in cat-human interactions

L. Cornips, M. van Koppen, Sterre Leufkens, Ronja van Zijverden, Kristin Melum Eide

Research output: Contribution to journal/periodical › Article › Scientific › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

94 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The present paper contributes to the emerging field of embodied interaction. It reports on research into deictic interactions between a human and a non-human, specifically a cat, interlocutor, applying a pragmatic framework developed for human–human communicative interactions. We analyse video recordings of interactions where a cat is a deictic agent pointing the human interlocutor either to the door or the food bowl. We show that these interactions show triadic pointing, hence, focusing joint attention on a common object as a proxy for the event i.e., providing food in the bowl and opening the door. We show that the cat also checks whether the human understands her intentions and that she confirms the human's interpretation. We do not restrict ourselves to vocal communication - as is often done in human language studies -, but we examine how in cat-human communication the cat and human bodies are used to express deixis. Thus, we conceptualize deixis as an embodied interpersonal i.e., interspecies phenomenon. We show that the cat interlocutor uses her body, e.g. eyes/body/tail/ears, as well as her voice, meowing/purring, within this complex deictic interaction.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	52-68
Journal	Journal of Pragmatics
Volume	217
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2023.09.002
Publication status	Published - Sept 2023

Access to Document

10.1016/j.pragma.2023.09.002Licence: Unspecified

cat-induced deixisFinal published version, 2.89 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{c4804ba821254e1d8c557a97887f2daa,

title = "A linguistic-pragmatic analysis of cat-induced deixis in cat-human interactions",

abstract = "The present paper contributes to the emerging field of embodied interaction. It reports on research into deictic interactions between a human and a non-human, specifically a cat, interlocutor, applying a pragmatic framework developed for human–human communicative interactions. We analyse video recordings of interactions where a cat is a deictic agent pointing the human interlocutor either to the door or the food bowl. We show that these interactions show triadic pointing, hence, focusing joint attention on a common object as a proxy for the event i.e., providing food in the bowl and opening the door. We show that the cat also checks whether the human understands her intentions and that she confirms the human's interpretation. We do not restrict ourselves to vocal communication - as is often done in human language studies -, but we examine how in cat-human communication the cat and human bodies are used to express deixis. Thus, we conceptualize deixis as an embodied interpersonal i.e., interspecies phenomenon. We show that the cat interlocutor uses her body, e.g. eyes/body/tail/ears, as well as her voice, meowing/purring, within this complex deictic interaction.",

author = "L. Cornips and {van Koppen}, M. and Sterre Leufkens and {van Zijverden}, Ronja and {Melum Eide}, Kristin",

year = "2023",

month = sep,

doi = "10.1016/j.pragma.2023.09.002",

language = "English",

volume = "217",

pages = "52--68",

journal = "Journal of Pragmatics",

issn = "1879-1387",

publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - A linguistic-pragmatic analysis of cat-induced deixis in cat-human interactions

AU - Cornips, L.

AU - van Koppen, M.

AU - Leufkens, Sterre

AU - van Zijverden, Ronja

AU - Melum Eide, Kristin

PY - 2023/9

Y1 - 2023/9

N2 - The present paper contributes to the emerging field of embodied interaction. It reports on research into deictic interactions between a human and a non-human, specifically a cat, interlocutor, applying a pragmatic framework developed for human–human communicative interactions. We analyse video recordings of interactions where a cat is a deictic agent pointing the human interlocutor either to the door or the food bowl. We show that these interactions show triadic pointing, hence, focusing joint attention on a common object as a proxy for the event i.e., providing food in the bowl and opening the door. We show that the cat also checks whether the human understands her intentions and that she confirms the human's interpretation. We do not restrict ourselves to vocal communication - as is often done in human language studies -, but we examine how in cat-human communication the cat and human bodies are used to express deixis. Thus, we conceptualize deixis as an embodied interpersonal i.e., interspecies phenomenon. We show that the cat interlocutor uses her body, e.g. eyes/body/tail/ears, as well as her voice, meowing/purring, within this complex deictic interaction.

AB - The present paper contributes to the emerging field of embodied interaction. It reports on research into deictic interactions between a human and a non-human, specifically a cat, interlocutor, applying a pragmatic framework developed for human–human communicative interactions. We analyse video recordings of interactions where a cat is a deictic agent pointing the human interlocutor either to the door or the food bowl. We show that these interactions show triadic pointing, hence, focusing joint attention on a common object as a proxy for the event i.e., providing food in the bowl and opening the door. We show that the cat also checks whether the human understands her intentions and that she confirms the human's interpretation. We do not restrict ourselves to vocal communication - as is often done in human language studies -, but we examine how in cat-human communication the cat and human bodies are used to express deixis. Thus, we conceptualize deixis as an embodied interpersonal i.e., interspecies phenomenon. We show that the cat interlocutor uses her body, e.g. eyes/body/tail/ears, as well as her voice, meowing/purring, within this complex deictic interaction.

U2 - 10.1016/j.pragma.2023.09.002

DO - 10.1016/j.pragma.2023.09.002

M3 - Article

SN - 1879-1387

VL - 217

SP - 52

EP - 68

JO - Journal of Pragmatics

JF - Journal of Pragmatics

ER -

A linguistic-pragmatic analysis of cat-induced deixis in cat-human interactions

Abstract

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this