RULE RECOGNITION AND SOCIAL COMPETENCE: THE CASE OF CHILDREN'S PLAY AND GAMES.

The article examines the interactional construction of game openings as a particular form of social competence--the accomplishment and recognition of rule substitutions in everyday life guided by conversational preference orders. The article considered the following issues: (1) the problem of defining play/games as a social form; (2) the characteristics of game opening moves; and (3) the claim that there is a conversational preference which operates as a general interpretive resource and explains the recognizability of game opening moves. It has been argued that utterances can be heard for their game relevance without depending upon explicit markers, affect, or shared personal knowledge, (other than, of course, a shared knowledge of language and general conversational expectations). While these may be present in some game openings, they cannot account for the general recognizability of utterances as game-opening moves. The preference order provides for rule shifts that not only constitute the recognizability of play/games, but are important to the development of the competence to manage problematic behavior in everyday life. The article also serves as an illustration of how a methodological focus on the detailed analysis of utterances can provide insights into social competency and social forms both in the play/game setting and in other more serious social settings.