Dog words – or, How to think without language

Abstract

This article is situated in the context of debates about animals and language, and animal–human relations. It is informed by the argument that words are neither the exclusive property of language, nor the exclusive property of humans. The article illustrates this point by exploring how some companion dogs make ‘dog words’ with their bodies and, further, how they are able/can be enabled to transform the meanings of these words by inventing and/or participating in word encounters. In the spirit of Lev Vygotsky, the article argues that such encounters are a way of thinking with words in ‘complexes’. Through a series of concrete examples, it shows how intimacy is integral to such thinking, in its every aspect. The ethically optimistic dimension of this analysis, however, simultaneously draws attention to how fragile are the relations between dogs, humans and words, and how proximate intimacy is to ‘other kinds of relations’. With this in mind, the article addresses three ‘other kinds of relations’ that potentially limit animal–human ‘talking’ and thinking: scientific behaviourism, speciesism and ‘languagism’.

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