PARALANGUAGE AND WRITING

Rizki Ashariah Sarwin

Universitas Hasanuddin

PARALANGUAGE

Paralanguage (vocalics) is a part of non-verbal communication. It’s not about what you
say, but how you say it. The study of paralanguage is Paralinguistic. However paralanguage is
more closely connected with verbal communication than, for example, nonverbal gestures. While
gestural, proxemics, and other modes of nonverbal communication can be used to transmit
messages independently of language, paralanguage is communication which always occurs
simultaneously with verbal messages (Notd, 1995:248). There is also a verbal communication in
Indonesian tradition. Some oral traditions are still maintained within modern society in South
Sulawesi, such as ritual speeches, annual traditional celebrations including the ‘maulid’
ceremony and traditional festivals (Rahman, 2017). Nonverbal communication such as literary
text can provide more knowledge to the reader as Rahman stated in his journal article that
literature is a source of learning and entertainment for readers. (Rahman, Amir P., & Tammasse,
2019).

Trager (1958) in Noth (1985) define typology of paralanguage, namely:

- Voice Set
- Voice Quality
- Vocalizations

• Voice Set

Voice set is the idiosyncratic background of speech. It comprises the permanent or quasi-
permanent voice characteristics which are due to the speaker’s physiology (age, sex, health, etc),
e.g. timbre, natural pitch height, or volume of the voice (Notd, 1995:250).

- Voice Quality
 Voice qualities are characteristics of the sound of the words being communicated that
have to do with how the word(s) should be spoken. This type of paralanguage represents auditory
properties and incorporates aspects such as emphasis, pitch, and rhythm (Webb, et all. 2017:6).
Traget classifies voice quality into some types:

- pitch range and control (spread or narrowed [as in monotone speech])

- vocal lip control (from hoarseness to openness)
- glottis control (sharp or smooth transitions)
- articulatory control (forceful vs. relaxed speech)
- rhythm control (smooth or jerky)
- resonance (from resonant to thin)
- tempo (increased or decreased)

- Vocalizations

Trager define vocalizations into three kinds:

1. Vocal characterizers, such as laughing, crying, yelling, whispering, moaning, etc.

2. Vocal qualifiers, i.e., variations of intensity (overloud, oversoft), pitch height (overhigh,
overlow), and extent (drawl, clipping);
3. Vocal segregates, segmental sounds, such as English "uhuh" for negation, "uh-
huh'' for affirmation, or the "uh" of hesitation.

Moreover in other sources there are other types of paralanguage, for instance this video
of Harry Potter Movie from Francisco Guzman Youtube channel.

• The types are:

- Pitch
- Inflection
- Tone
- Sarcasms
- Volume
Beyond Paralanguage

Not all vocal signals beyond language belong to paralanguage. For example, sneezing, ya
wning, coughing, and snoring are vocal signals that are usually excluded fromparalinguistics. Th
ese vocal signals are defined as "vocal reflexes" because they are usually uncontrolled and physi
ologically determined.

WRITING

Except for its historical dimension, the study of writing has been a neglected field of lang
uage studies. Etymologically, the terms language and linguistics are related only to spoken
language. Within a semiotic framework, the specific features of writing in relation to other signs
and the semiotic structures of writing systems have to be determined. The semiotics of writing
has further dimensions of interest to philosophy, cultural anthropology, and (mass) media
studies. Based on Rahman (2020) literature is an identity is referred ethno-literature. In another
research about cultural preservation, Rahman stated that Language is a medium of
communication to acquire the information of culture and others (Rahman & Slamatin Letlora,
2018). Most of Shakespeare’s writing is more interesting to analyze as Rahman & Weda (2019)
revealed the linguistics deviation and rhetoric figures in Shakespeare’s selected plays.
Furthermore, the earliest precursors of writing are iconic and symbolic signs designating
individual concepts of a specialized vocabulary or giving a holistic pictorial representation of a
scene of social life (Noth, 1995:251).

- Object Signs and Earliest Precursors of Writing

These early counting stones represent numerals or objects, such as cow, wool, granary, or
oil. Their shape is very similar to the characters of Sumerian writing which were developed later,
toward the end of forth millennium B.C. Schmandt-Besserat points out that a large proportion of
these early counting stones are not iconic. From this observation, she derives the theory that
writing had symbolic elements from its very beginning.

- Pictograms

Examples of twodimensional precursors of writing are paleolithic petrograms (rock painti

ngs), petroglyphs (rock engravings), pictographs, and pictograms.
https://saffroninteractive.com/a-brief-history-
of-pictograms-and-ideograms

This the example of pictograms today. It represent the things that picture in the sign.

- Writing System

• Pleremic Writing
- Pictography
Pictographs are iconic characters. They represent pictures of visible objects or actions.
- Ideography
In the history of writing, ideographs are those graphemes which symbolize elements of
content.

• Cenemic Writing
- Syllabic Writing
Writing systems whose graphemes represent syllables are called syllabaries.
- Alphabetic Writing
The ideal of an alphabetic writing system is to represent each phoneme by one grapheme.
But every language has its own phonemic system.
 References

Francisco Guzman, Paralanguage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O3nPzuNIPo

Nöth, W. (1995). Handbook of semiotics. Indiana University Press.

Rahman, F. (2017). The Revival of Local Fairy Tales for Children Education. Theory and
Practice in Language Studies, 7(5), 336. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0705.02

Rahman, F. (2020). Literature of the Minority in South Sulawesi Endangered. (April 2018).

Rahman, F., Amir P., M., & Tammasse. (2019). Trends in reading literary fiction in print and
cyber media undergraduate students of hasanuddin university by. International Journal of
Education and Practice, 7(2), 66–77. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.61.2019.72.66.77

Rahman, F., & Slamatin Letlora, P. (2018). Cultural Preservation: Rediscovering the Endangered
Oral Tradition of Maluku (A Case Study on Kapata of Central Maluku). Advances in
Language and Literary Studies, 9(2), 91. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.9n.2p.91

Rahman, F., & Weda, S. (2019). Linguistic Deviation and The Rhetoric Figures In Shakepeare’s
Selected Plays. XLinguae, 12(1), 37–52.