Roll ja kommunikatsioon: zoosemiootiline käsitlus
Role and Communication: A Zoosemiotic Perspective

Summary/Abstract: The concept of role is widespread in social sciences. It is also used in ethology but only to describe social structure when existent in species under observation. This paper is an attempt to utilize the concept of role in order to analyze cases of social communication in animals. To reach this goal, the meaning of the term 'role' is revisited to see its different applications in social sciences. Also, a synopsis of role concept usage in ethology is presented and social role is re-conceptualized in a way that permits it to be applied with consideration to other species' communicative abilities to describe interaction. Zoosemiotic communication theory is adapted to include role concept as a tool for analyzing social interaction between participants, whereby it is revealed that role analysis binds zoopragmatics closely to zoosemantics. By concentrating on the act of social communication the inter-dependent nature of social relationship, dependent on roles, becomes evident. Social roles are created and manifested only in the act of communication and social roles in turn shape the act of communication. In order for social communication dependent on roles to take place, it is crucial for interacting animals to recognize the context of commu-nication and the other communicative party. To affirm latter, situations which can be described by terms 'role conflict' and 'role change' are considered in order to see their effect on communicating animals and on the act of communication itself.

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