INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

Nonverbal Communication
WEEK 15 ASSIGNMENT

LECTURER :
Prof. Dr.M. ZaimM. Hum.

Created by :

FEBY RAHMAYANTI
20018060

PENDIDIKAN BAHASA INGGRIS

FAKULTAS BAHASA DAN SENI
UNIVERSITAS NEGERI PADANG
2021
Summary :

Human communication is a symphony of continuously altering states. Such images graphically illustrate
that the entire body, not just the vocal channel, is used in communication. Fifty years ago, a single
chapter might have been sufficient to review what was known of nonverbal communication. Although
the Greeks made some comments on nonverbal communication and Charles Darwin published a book on
the subject in 1872, the modern study of nonverbal communication is basically a development of the
1950s.

In fact, it was not until 1956 that the term nonverbal communication was used in the title of a
book . Today, the study of nonverbal communication is a dynamic and expanding field. There is even a
US television program, Lie to Me, about the usefulness of the analysis of nonverbal cues in criminal
investigation. Nonverbal communication is any communication that occurs between people, usually
within each other’s presence, by means other than spoken or written words or the signs of a sign
language.

Although there are other forms of nonverbal behavior, we will explore the form and function of only
eight types in this chapter. They are kinesic behavior, affect displays, eye movements, physical
appearance, touching behavior, paralanguage, proxemics, and the effect of the physical environment on
communication. A person may shift posture when changing topics and the listener might imitate
this. Emblems are nonverbal acts that have very specific meanings.

Because they are least dependent on speech com pared to other nonverbal behaviors, emblems are also
called speech-independent gestures or autonomous gestures. The number and types of emblems differ
from culture to culture. 2 In American culture, the head is nodded forward, or forward and backward, in
an emblematic expression of assent. Various configurations of the body, in a standardized way, indicate
the emotional state of the person displaying them.

Movements of the body that tell us about the emotional state a person is experiencing or faking are called
affect displays. Although their expressions can have several differences, generally speaking, children
who are congenitally blind produce spontaneous facial expressions that are not significantly different
from those of seeing children. Because these children could not have learned the expressions from
observation, it is assumed from these studies that facial expressions have a genetic component. A fourth
line of evidence comes from brain-imaging studies, which show that the emotions that lead to various
facial expressions are processed in the same areas of the brain for most people, and that different
emotions are processed in different areas of the brain.

10 Facial expressions that seem to have a dictionary definition, in the sense that their mean ing can be
easily «read,» are sometimes called facial emblems. Facial emblems, like nonfacial emblems, are
generally speech-independent gestures. Although the six primary facial expressions are universally
understood, there is cultural variation in how and when certain facial expressions, such as a smile, are
used. In the late 1950s, psychologist Eckhard Hess began to study the communication effects of pupil
movement in the eyes.

Criminologists thought that they could detect whether someone was lying from fi lming or taping the
person’s eyes when the person was being questioned. Gaze patterns change, depending on whether a
person is talking about factual things or reflecting on an abstract or complex concept. Each of the six
basic emotions discussed in the section on facial expressions has its own universally produced and
recognized eye configuration. Unless our culture has socialized us otherwise, we tend to look at things
and people who are more interesting to us.

Although it might be unlikely to observe the following contrast, a person might react very differently to a
woman wearing a burka or the same woman wearing a scanty bathing suit. Physical appearance is a
powerful form of communication that influences mate selection, job potential, social and professional
status, the ability to persuade others, and virtually all other human interactions. People react differently
to a person dressed in a police officer’s clothes than to a person dressed as a nurse or priest. A person
interviewing for a job at a business firm who dresses in old wrinkled clothes and sandals might convey to
the interviewer a message of carelessness or of low social status.
Amish culture puts a negative value on vanity, and Amish clothes symbolize this concept. Scars on the
back of young men of the Kpelle culture of Liberia indicate that they are no longer children, but
adults. What is considered attractive varies greatly from culture to culture. The meaning of a person’s
weight is relative to the specific culture.

A person with a more bilaterally symmetrical face is usually perceived as more attractive than a person
who is more asymmetrical. Because of developmental differences, iden tical twins often show
differences in facial symmetry. The skin, like a cloak, covers us all over, the oldest and the most
sensitive of our organs, our fi rst medium of communication, and our most effi cient of protectors. One
person touching another person’s skin or clothes can have either a positive or negative effect.

Haptic research shows that this type of communication is much more important to humans than was
previously thought. Anthropologist Ashley Montagu saw tactile communication as essential to the
normal development of the individual. 19 The amount of touching varies greatly from culture to
culture. Paralanguage is the system of nonverbal but vocal cues that accompany or replace language.

A person walks into a restaurant and looks for a place at the counter. On the basis of age, sex, cultural
background, and various other factors, this person will find a seat in a place that is psycholog ically
comfortable. This could include stepping back to reestablish the 18 inches, taking a defensive body
posture, or actually pushing the other person out of the way. So, travelers to a foreign culture need to be
careful about how they wrap a present, what color fl owers they give a local host, or what color clothes
they wear.

Sounds in the environment affect the communication that occurs in that environment. Asking intimate
questions of a casual acquaintance in a dimly lit room can cause considerable anxiety for the person
being questioned. 29 Objects in a room can also affect communication. A person might react differently
in a room that is perceived as being plain and ordinary than in one that has numerous paintings of
demonic characters.

Face-to-face communication perhaps is the most meaningful form of communication in that the verbal
channel and all of the nonverbal channels can be working simultaneously. Some research indicates that
the ability to think of others as real is important to meaningful and intimate communication. A robot that
looks like a human and displays the nonverbal cues of a human is often depicted as human. At
first, online communication was conceived mostly to convey verbal messages.

However, as texting, emailing, instant messaging, tweeting, and the use of other social media became
increasing popular and increasingly the way people accomplished much of their daily com
munication, cyber communicating was seen as lacking in its ability to express affect and other nonverbal
messages, and therefore to lack the same depth of meaning as face-to-face com munication. So, as time
passed, more and more ways to add nonverbal-type information was employed in cyber
communication. Today, graphic methods of communication such as emoticons, emoji, GIF images, and
videos are used to give a feeling of affect and other nonverbal messages. In order for graphic methods of
communication to be effective they have to be understood by those who are viewing them.

Face-to-face communication is still more effective in accurately conveying a variety of information

simultaneously in a person-to-person interaction.
 Review of terms and concepts: nonverbal communication

1. Nonverbal communication is any communication that occurs between people, usually within each
others presence, by means other than speech writing, or the signs of a sign language.
2. The study of communicating with body movements is called kinesics.
3. When we say there is a communicative “dance” that takes place, we mean that there is highly
patterned synchrony exists between an individuals own movements and speech and that of those
who the person is communicating.
4. Holding a finger up to the mouth to sign to someone to be silent is an example of what type of
kinesic behavior? Emblem.
5. Describing a big fish that you had just caught by extending your arms out in front of your body is an
example of a(n) illustrator.
6. Repeatedly tapping yourself with a pencil is a nonverbal act called a(n) adaptor.
7. The nonverbal behavior of shrugging the shoulders is a(n) emblem.
8. A smile would be called a(n) affect display, and facial emblem.
9. The primary site for conveying emotion is the face.
10. There are four lines of evidence that point to the innateness of the production of and reaction to
basic facial expressions. They are cross cultural studies, blind children studies, nonhuman primates
studies, and brain imaging studies.
11. Nonverbal behaviors that modulate the back-and-forth nature of speaking and listening are called
regulators.
12. Adaptors are movements that function to satisfy personal needs.
13. The six basic emotions expressed by the face are happiness, fear, sadness, surprise, anger,
disgust/contempt (Harry fought sophia so a dog could).
14. What are the five functions of gaze and mutual gaze that we discussed in this chapter? Regulating
the flow of communication, monitoring feedback, reflecting cognitive activity, expressing emotion,
and communicating the nature of the interpersonal relationship.
15. Of the five types of kinesic behavior discussed in the text, the type produced most consciously is
emblems, adaptors and the type produced most subconsciously is .
16. Grooming functions to remove material from the fur or hair and to communicate reassurance and
affection. In nonhuman primates, it also figures in dominate patterns.
17. The system of nonverbal, but vocal, cues that accompany or replace language is called
paralingusitics.
18. The study of the use of space in human interactions is called proxemics.
19. Among the group of Americans that Edward T. Hall studied, people got fidgety if strangers came,
on average, closer than 18 inch. The space from the person’s body to this distance is called intimate
space and the area extending all the way around the individual at this distance is called that
individual’s invisible wall.
20. We discussed the fact that some of the factors that determine what we think is attractive are learned
though the socialization process. What are some factors that determine our judgment of beauty that
are innate and the result of millions of years of biological evolution? Full lips, unblemished and
smooth skin, lustrous hair, waist to hip ratio, body symmetry in both genders.
21. Some factors of the physical or social environment that affect communication are: color, sound,
lighting, objects, and the placement of objects in the room.