Embodied variation in the sequential greetings of the (dairy) cow

This paper explores the potential contributions of sociolinguistics to the expanding field of intraspecies and interspecies studies of nonhuman animals. The study focuses on variation in successive greeting activities displayed by cows during social interactions with either another cow or a human. The research question examines whether embodied variation, including vocalization, in a cow’s social encounters serves as a resource for social meaning-making. Ethnographic fieldwork findings indicate that individual cows consistently monitor their interaction partners — through gaze, ear position, vocalizations and/or head nods — before collaboratively proceeding to the next step in the opening stages of an encounter. • A dairy cow may produce a nasal-like ‘mmmm’ sound initiating intraspecies/interspecies greeting. •‘Mmmm’ acknowledges any newcomer in the barn, but only a familiar human in the meadow. •Individual cows go to the next steps in the opening stages of an encounter only after a reciprocated greeting token. •Individual cows in their social encounter continuously check the interactional participant before moving to the next step collaboratively.