Kinesics: Kinesics Ray L. Birdwhistell Kineme Phoneme

Kinesics
Kinesics is the study of body movements, facial expressions, and gestures. It was
developed by anthropologist Ray L. Birdwhistell in the 1950s. Kinesic behaviors
include mutual gaze, smiling, facial warmth or pleasantness, childlike behaviors,
direct body orientation, and the like.[6] Birdwhistell proposed the term kineme to
describe a minimal unit of visual expression, in analogy to a phoneme which is a
minimal unit of sound.
Posture
Posture can be used to determine a participant’s degree of attention or involvement,
the difference in status between communicators, and the level of fondness a person
has for the other communicator.[7] Studies investigating the impact of posture
on interpersonal relationships suggest that mirror-image congruent postures, where
one person’s left side is parallel to the other’s right side, leads to favorable
perception of communicators and positive speech; a person who displays a forward
lean or a decrease in a backwards lean also signify positive sentiment during
communication.[8] Posture is understood through such indicators as direction of lean,
body orientation, arm position, and body openness.
Gesture
A gesture is a non-vocal bodily movement intended to express meaning. They may
be articulated with the hands, arms or body, and also include movements of the
head, face and eyes, such as winking, nodding, or rolling ones' eyes. The boundary
between language and gesture, or verbal and nonverbal communication, can be
hard to identify.
According to Ottenheimer (2007), psychologists Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen

suggested that gestures could be categorised into five types: emblems, illustrators,
affect displays, regulators, and adaptors.
 Emblems are gestures with direct verbal translations, such as a goodbye

wave;
 illustrators are gestures that depict what is said verbally, such as turning
an imaginary steering wheel while talking about driving;
 an affect display is a gesture that conveys emotions, like a smile;
 regulators are gestures that control interaction;
 and finally, an adaptor is a gesture that facilitates the release of bodily
tension, such as quickly moving one's leg.[9]
Gestures can also be categorised as either speech-independent or speech-related.
Speech-independent gestures are dependent upon culturally accepted interpretation
and have a direct verbal translation.[10] A wave hello or a peace sign are examples of
speech-independent gestures. Speech related gestures are used in parallel with
verbal speech; this form of nonverbal communication is used to emphasize the
message that is being communicated. Speech related gestures are intended to
provide supplemental information to a verbal message such as pointing to an object
of discussion.
Gestures such as Mudra (Sanskrit) encode sophisticated information accessible to
initiates that are privy to the subtlety of elements encoded in their tradition.
Haptics
Haptics is the study of touching as nonverbal communication. Touches that can be
defined as communication include handshakes, holding hands, kissing (cheek, lips,
hand), back slapping, high fives, a pat on the shoulder, and brushing an arm.
Touching of oneself may include licking, picking, holding, and scratching.[10] These
behaviors are referred to as "adaptor" and may send messages that reveal the
intentions or feelings of a communicator. The meaning conveyed from touch is highly
dependent upon the context of the situation, the relationship between
communicators, and the manner of touch.[11]
Eye gaze
The study of the role of [eye contact]] in nonverbal communication is sometimes
referred to as "oculesics". Eye contact can indicate interest, attention, and
involvement.[11] Gaze comprises the actions of looking while talking, looking while
listening, amount of gaze, and frequency of glances, patterns of fixation, pupil
dilation, and blink rate.[12]
Proxemics
Proxemics is the study of how people use and perceive the physical space around
them. The space between the sender and the receiver of a message influences the
way the message is interpreted.
The perception and use of space varies significantly across cultures[3] and different
settings within cultures. Space in nonverbal communication may be divided into four
main categories: intimate, social, personal, and public space.(Scott Mclean, 1969)
The distance between communicators will also depend on sex, status, and social
role.
Proxemics was first developed by Edward T. Hall during the 1950s and 60s. Hall's
studies were inspired by earlier studies of how animals demonstrate territoriality.
Territoriality is an innate drive to take up and defend spaces. This drive is
shared by many creatures and entities, ranging from packs of animals to
individual humans to nations.
The term territoriality is still used in the study of proxemics to explain human
behavior regarding personal space.[4] Hargie & Dickson (2004, p. 69) identify 4 such
territories:
1. Primary territory: this refers to an area that is associated with someone
who has exclusive use of it. For example, a house that others cannot
enter without the owner’s permission.
2. Secondary territory: unlike the previous type, there is no “right” to
occupancy, but people may still feel some degree of ownership of a
particular space. For example, someone may sit in the same seat on
train every day and feel aggrieved if someone else sits there.
3. Public territory: this refers to an area that is available to all, but only for a
set period, such as a parking space or a seat in a library. Although
people have only a limited claim over that space, they often exceed that
claim. For example, it was found that people take longer to leave a
parking space when someone is waiting to take that space.
4. Interaction territory: this is space created by others when they are
interacting. For example, when a group is talking to each other on a
footpath, others will walk around the group rather than disturb it.
Paralanguage
Paralanguage (sometimes called vocalics) is the study of nonverbal cues of the
voice. Various acoustic properties of speech such as tone, pitch and accent,
collectively known as prosody, can all give off nonverbal cues. Paralanguage may
change the meaning of words.
The linguist George L. Trager developed a classification system which consists of
the voice set, voice qualities, and vocalization.[13]
 The voice set is the context in which the speaker is speaking. This can include
the situation, gender, mood, age and a person's culture.
 The voice qualities are volume, pitch, tempo, rhythm, articulation, resonance,
nasality, and accent. They give each individual a unique "voice print".
 Vocalization consists of three subsections: characterizers, qualifiers and
segregates. Characterizers are emotions expressed while speaking, such as
laughing, crying, and yawning. A voice qualifier is the style of delivering a
message - for example, yelling "Hey stop that!", as opposed to whispering "Hey
stop that". Vocal segregates such as "uh-huh" notify the speaker that the
listener is listening.

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Kinesics

According to Ottenheimer (2007), psychologists Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen

 Emblems are gestures with direct verbal translations, such as a goodbye

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