Table Of ContentNonverbal Communication
across Disciplines
Volume I: Culture, sensory interaction,
speech, conversation
Fernando Poyatos
University of New Brunswick
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam/Philadelphia
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Poyatos, Fernando
Nonverbal communication across disciplines / Fernando Poyatos.
v. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contens: v. 1. Culture, sensory interaction, speech, conversation — v. 2. Paralanguage, kinesics,
silence, personal and environmental interaction — v. 3. Narrative literature, theater, cinema,
translation.
1. Nonverbal communication. 2. Communication and culture. 3. Oral communication.
I. Title.
P99.5.P694 2002
302.2’22—dc2l 2001052813
isbn 9027221847(set)-ISBN902722181 2(v.l) — isbn90 27221820(v.2) -isbn90 27221839(v.3) (Eur.)/
isbn 1-55619-756-X (set) - isbn 1-55619-753-5 (v. 1) - isbn 1-55619-754-3 (v.2) - isbn 1-55619-755-1 (v.3) (US)
© 2002 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other
means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O. Box 36224 • 1020 me Amsterdam • The Netherlands
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Volume I
To Thomas A. Sebeok, who personally
and through his always inspiring work
encouraged my thirst for interdisciplinarity
Table of contents
Preface XIII
Acknowledgements XIV
Introduction XV
Chapter 1
Culture, communication, and cultural fluency 1
1.1 On defining culture l
1.2 Culture as a communication continuum: Active and passive, interactive and
noninteractive forms 3
1.3 Inherited habits and learned habits through time and space 5
1.4 Sensible and intelligible systems in a culture 8
1.5 The systematic analysis of a culture: The interdisciplinary model of
culturemes 10
1.6 Relationships among sensible and intelligible, somatic, extrasomatic and
environmental systems 15
1.7 The barriers of intercultural communication: The case of Tom 17
1.8 Linguistic fluency and verbal and nonverbal cultural fluency:
Behavioral alternatives and fluency quotient 19
1.9 Verbal and nonverbal cultural fluency from within:
Acculturation, epistolary communication, literary translation 21
1.10 On the concept of verbal and nonverbal usage 22
1.11 The semiotic-communicative processes of language and nonverbal systems
in intercultural interaction 24
1.12 Conclusion 27
1.13 Topics for interdisciplinary research 28
VIII Table of contents
Chapter 2
Language in the total communicative context of its interbodily
and environmental systems 31
2.1 Intersomatic communication in its cultural and environmental context 31
2.2 The channels of intersomatic emission and perception in interaction:
Direct and synesthesial perception of dynamic and static signs 32
2.3 Light as an external agent for our interactive perception 47
2.4 The importance of synesthesia and language among the other somatic systems
in human and animals 48
2.5 External somatic communication 49
2.6 The communicative possibilities of body movements 49
2.7 The concept of interactive articulations: Single and multiple 52
2.8 Coding and interrelationships of verbal and nonverbal behaviors
in interaction 53
2.9 The basic interrelationships among nonverbal systems and language 55
2.10 Toward a revision of the concept of redundancy 59
2.11 Conclusion 60
2.12 Topics for interdisciplinary research 61
Chapter 3
The audiovisual reality of interactive discourse: the speaking face 63
3.1 The audiovisual production of speech: Permanent, changing, dynamic and
artificial signs in the speaking face 63
3.2 Breathing and communication: Lungs and bronchi 74
3.3 The esophagus 76
3.4 The larynx 76
3.5 The pharynx 78
3.6 The alveolar-palatal areas 79
3.7 The dental areas 81
3.8 The labial areas and the cheeks 82
3.9 The tongue 89
3.10 The mandible and the chin 93
3.11 The nasal cavities 95
3.12 The vowel sounds as degrees in tongue and lip position:
Sound and gesture 99
3.13 Conclusion 100
3.14 Topics for interdisciplinary research 100
Table of contents IX
Chapter 4
Language-paralanguage-kinesics 103
4.1 The basic triple structure of discourse: Language-paralanguage-kinesics 103
4.2 The semiotic-expressive limitations of spoken words and the verbal-nonverbal
expression of the ineffable 104
4.3 The written word and the feasible ‘orality’ of writing 108
4.4 Lexicality and grammaticality of paralanguage and kinesics
and the other sensible systems 110
4.5 New information, communicative economy, verbal deficiency, anticipation,
and formal and semantic congruence 111
4.6 The precarious reality of read discourse 113
4.7 A brief introduction to verbal language, paralanguage and kinesics 114
4.8 On intonation as communication 117
4.9 Segmentable and nonsegmentable elements in the triple structure 118
4.10 The ten realizations and mutual combinations of language,
paralanguage and kinesics 119
4.11 Ontogenetic and social development, spatial and temporal transmission,
and balance and pathology in the triple structure 121
4.12 The total conditioning background of the triple structure
and of communication in general 123
4.13 Conclusion 130
4.14 Topics for interdisciplinary research 130
Chapter 5
Two applications of the basic triple structure model 133
I. THE TRANSCRIPTION OF INTERACTIVE DISCOURSE
5.1 The need for a realistic transcription of speech 133
5.2 On the relevance of the registered signs and the risks of their omission
5.3 Two background models for the exhaustive organization of a transcription:
Interaction and conversation 135
5.4 The transcription of a conversational corpus 139
II. NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION IN FOREIGN-LANGUAGE TEACHING
5.5 The unrealistic classroom acquisition of a foreign language and the academic
target of verbal-nonverbal fluency 143
5.6 The acquisition of linguistic and cultural repertoires:
Native learner versus foreign learner 145
5.7 The presentation of paralinguistic material 148
5.8 Illustration and drilling for paralinguistic instruction 154
5.9 Distribution of the kinesic material 155
5.10 The order of presentation of gestures, manners and postures 156
x Table of contents
5.11 Illustration and description of the kinesic material 157
5.12 Classroom drills, tests, and course projects 159
5.13 Beyond language acquisition: A course on ‘Intercultural Awareness’ 160
5.14 Conclusion 162
5.15 Topics for interdisciplinary research 163
Chapter 6
Nonverbal categories as personal and sociocultural identifiers 165
6.1 The need to classify and label behaviors 165
6.2 Emblems: Gestures for words 167
6.3 Speech markers: The movements of our speaking 171
6.4 Space markers: Pointing at what is present or absent 177
6.5 Time markers: Past, present, future 178
6.6 Deictics: Pointing at people, things and concepts 179
6.7 Pictographs: Drawing with gestures 183
6.8 Echoics: Imitating what sounds 184
6.9 Kinetographs: Imitating what moves 185
6.10 Kinephonographs: Imitating movement and sound 186
6.11 Ideographs: Giving visual form to thoughts 187
6.12 Event tracers: How things happened 188
6.13 Identifiers: Giving visual form to concepts 188
6.14 Externalizers: Our reactions made visual 189
6.15 Self-adaptors: Contacting ourselves 198
6.16 Alter-adaptors: Contacting others 204
6.17 Body-adaptors: The intimates of our body 211
6.18 Object-adaptors: Contacting objects 219
6.19 Conclusion 224
6.20 Topics for interdisciplinary research 224
Chapter 7
The structure of conversation 227
7.1 The study of conversation: The configuration of the encounter
and its interpersonal relationships 227
7.2 Speaker’s and auditor’s initial behaviors 233
7.3 Basic speaker-auditor turn-change behaviors 234
7.4 Secondary turn-change bevahiors 237
7.5 Listener-to-speaker behaviors I: Feedback 240
7.6 Listener-to-Speaker behaviors II: Listener’s secondary activities 243
7.7 Speaker’s secondary behaviors 246
7.8 Interlistener behaviors 248
Table of contents XI
7.9 Coinciding activities: Simultaneous behaviors and crossed
conversations 249
7.10 Acoustic and visual pauses or breaks 253
7.11 Conversational fluency, ontogenetic development, reduced interaction,
chronemics, and naturalness 266
7.12 Conclusion 268
7.13 Topics for interdisciplinary research 269
Chapter 8
Nonverbal communication in interpretation 271
8.1 The total communicative approach to simultaneous and consecutive
interpretation 271
8.2 The verbal and nonverbal components in the interpretation situation:
Basic systems 272
8.3 The fate of nonverbal systems in interpretation 275
8.4 The fate of the basic structure language-paralanguage-kinesics in
interpretation 278
8.5 Interpretation in the total context of personal and environmental
interaction 279
8.6 The relationships between verbal and nonverbal in interpretation 281
8.7 Chronemics of interpretation 284
8.8 Silence and stillness in the interpretation situation 284
8.9 The exchange of nonverbal visual behaviors in interpretation 285
8.10 The structure of conversation in interpretation 288
8.11 Reduced interaction situations and the interpreter’s responsibility 292
8.12 Conclusion 294
8.13 Topics for interdisciplinary research 295
Appendix 297
Notes 305
List of illustrations 319
Scientific references 321
Literary references 347
Index of literary authors and works cited 355
Name index 359
Subject index 365
Tables of Contents, Volumes II and III 370
Preface
This is the first of the three volumes which, while enlarging upon different aspects and
adding new topics and perspectives, cover the majority of the topics in nonverbal
communication and interaction through which I believe I have contributed to
nonverbal communication studies in the last thirty-some years. They have appeared as
books and articles mainly within semiotics, linguistics, cultural anthropology,
sociology, social psychology, and literature. In those publications, in the many
symposiums I endeavored to organize over the years and in my lectures, I tried, and
still do so, to foster the interdisciplinary approach so needed today in many domains.
At the same time, speaking on these topics in over twenty countries, and the interna
tional variety of students I always had in my Canadian courses, have provided me with
much cross-cultural material and opportunities to witness the growing interest in
nonverbal communication within the academic world, while being a great incentive to
explore ever new perspectives in this field.
Fernando Poyatos
Fredericton, 1998
Algeciras, 2001
Acknowledgements
To my University of New Brunswick for its continued support of thirty-three years.
To my nonverbal communication students in my anthropology, sociology and
psychology courses of twenty years, for their interest and response, with my best
personal memories.
To those who by applying my work in their research encourage me to pursue my
own, and to those I may never meet personally but whose comments or consultation
I always find stimulating.
To the many colleagues around the world, for their hospitality and friendship.
To John and Claire Benjamins and their staff — especially Yola de Lussenet, editor
of my first book with the company, and above all Bertie Kaal, editor of the last three
and this trilogy — for our excellent twelve-year relationship.
