"Marginal play" describes the spilling over of play in games or sport beyond the normal regulatory boundaries that constitute them as play frames. This paper presents a variety of examples of marginal play in sport, and provides a theoretical model of sport-regulation to account for them. To make sense of marginal play, the paper distinguishes three levels at which play is regulated: constitutive rules, procedural rules and strategic plans. This framework makes possible a distinction among three sources of marginal play: normative liminality, empathic engagement and frame violation.
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