Nonverbal Communication Across Disciplines: Paralanguage, Kinesics, Silence, Personal and Environmental Interaction v.2

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines: Volume II: Paralanguage, kinesics, silence, personal and environmental interaction Fernando Poyatos

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines, Volume II Paralanguage, kinesics, silence, personal and environmental interaction

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines Volume II: Paralanguage, kinesics, silence, personal and environmental interaction

Fernando Poyatos University of New Brunswick

John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam
/
Philadelphia

8

TM

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.

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--dc21

2001052813

isbn 90 272 2184 7 (set) -- isbn 90 272 2181 2 (v.1) -- isbn 90 272 2182 0 (v.2) -- isbn 90 272 2183 9 (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 John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa

Volume II

In grateful memory of George A. Trager, Ray L. Birdwhsitell and Albert E. Scheflen, for with their pioneering work in paralanguage, kinesics and interaction, respectively, they encouraged me to always seek new perspectives

Table of contents

Preface Introduction

xiii xv

Chapter 1 Paralanguage, I: Primary qualities or basic personal voice features 1 1.1 The development of paralinguistic studies and the definition of paralanguage and its categories1 1.2 Primary Qualities: Personal voice features2 1.3 Timbre4 1.4 Resonance4 1.5 Loudness5 1.6 Tempo8 1.7 Pitch9 1.8 Intonation range14 1.9 Syllabic duration16 1.10 Rhythm20 1.11 The visual representation of primary qualities and other paralinguistic phenomena20 1.12 Conclusion21 1.13 Topics for interdisciplinary research21 Chapter 2 Paralanguage, II: Qualifiers or voice types 2.1 Introduction23 2.2 Breathing control26 2.3 Laryngeal control28 2.4 Esophageal control42 2.5 Pharyngeal control43 2.6 Velopharyngeal control45 2.7 Lingual control48

23

viii Table of contents

2.8 2.9 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16

Dental control49 Labial control49 Mandibular control50 Articulatory control52 Articulatory tension control53 Objectual control53 External control54 Conclusion55 Topics for interdisciplinary research55

Chapter 3 Paralanguage, III: Differentiators, our eloquent physiological and emotional reactions 3.1 Differentiators as a paralinguistic category, and their study57 3.2 Laughter59 3.3 Crying82 3.4 Shouting96 3.5 Sighing and gasping106 3.6 Panting117 3.7 Yawning118 3.8 Coughing and throat-clearing120 3.9 Spitting129 3.10 Belching135 3.11 Hiccuping136 3.12 Sneezing137 3.13 Conclusion139 3.14 Topics for interdisciplinary research140

57

Chapter 4 Paralanguage, IV: Alternants, our vocabulary beyond the dictionary 141 4.1 The nature and study of paralinguistic alternants141 4.2 Identified and unidentified alternants: Verbal and visual representation145 4.3 The inconsistency of written forms and the ambiguity of labels151 4.4 The paralanguage of comics: The challenge of soundgraphs and the communication problems and intercultural borrowings154 4.5 The categories of soundgraphs: Human, objectual, environmental, animal155 4.6 Phonetic classification of alternants and their paralinguistic and kinesic qualifiers159 4.7 Silent alternants164 4.8 Paralinguistic and kinesic qualifiers of alternants166

Table of contents

4.9 Functional classification of alternants for the preparation of cultural inventories171 4.10 The paralanguage of animal calling as an area of interdisciplinary research178 4.11 The communicative status of random alternants181 4.12 Conclusion182 4.13 Topics for interdisciplinary research182 Chapter 5 Kinesics: Gestures, manners and postures 185 5.1 Definition, nature, perception, functions, scope, and temporal dimension of kinesics185 5.2 The anatomical-communicative possibilities of body articulations: From zookinesics to anthropokinesics188 5.3 On the phylogenetic and ontogenetic development of kinesic repertoires and their evolution and social stratification192 5.4 Basic principles for kinesic research: Categories, morphology, parakinesic qualifiers and intrasystemic and intersystemic co-structuration195 5.5 Personal kinesic configuration203 5.6 Gestures, I: Phrasing, simultaneity, congruence-incongruence, inter-masking205 5.7 Gestures, II: Anticipatory, hidden, microkinesics, phonic, objectual208 5.8 The smile211 5.9 Manners: The style of our movements and positions and their perception and social norms cross-culturally213 5.10 Manners as research topics216 5.11 Postures: Our static and dynamic positions231 5.12 Gaze as kinesic behavior236 5.13 Touching people and things as kinesic behavior244 5.14 The methodology, limitations and problems of cultural and subcultural kinesic inventories246 5.15 Conclusion251 5.16 Topics for interdisciplinary research252 Chapter 6 The sound co-activities of language: From audible kinesics to environmental sounds 253 6.1 The need to study the sounds beyond speech: Bodily and environmental253 6.2 Audible kinesics or phonokinesics within interactive and noninteractive body movements, and the elaboration of a cultural inventory for each language254 6.3 The sound of self-adaptors: Hearing our contact with ourselves262 6.4 The sound of alter-adaptors: Hearing the contact between bodies263

ix

x

Table of contents

6.5 The sound of body-adaptors and their intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions265 6.6 The sound of object-adaptors: When things talk back to us as we touch them267 6.7 The sound of object-mediated activities: Audible body extensions269 6.8 The sounds of the environment as potential interaction components271 6.9 The echoic repertoires and the expressive richness of language272 6.10 The segmentality of audible movements274 6.11 Culture, history and ontogeny of audible corporal movements275 6.12 Conclusion278 6.13 Topics for interdisciplinary research278 Chapter 7 Silence, stillness and darkness as the communicative nonactivities opposed to sound, movement and light 281 7.1 Semiotic forms of silence and stillness in a culture and its environment281 7.2 Darkness and silence as opposed to light and sound293 7.3 Silence and stillness as an affirmation of culture296 7.4 The true status of silence and stillness in interaction297 7.5 The realistic approach to interactive pauses299 7.6 The coding of silence and stillness302 7.7 The functions of silence and stillness303 7.8 Qualifiers and intersystemic co-structuration of silence and stillness, and sound enhancement of silence310 7.9 Positive and negative functions of interactive silences316 7.10 Our attitude toward silence and cross-cultural differences and problems319 7.11 Conclusion321 7.12 Topics for interdisciplinary research322 Chapter 8 The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction: What happens or does not happen among people and between them and their environment 325 8.1 The gaps and risks in the study of communication and the need for a realistic approach to interaction325 8.2 The components of interaction: Internal and external, personal, objectual, and environmental327 8.3 Neutral function and effective function of interaction components341 8.4 Sensory channels, time, vision, and synesthesia342 8.5 The intellectual evaluation of sensible signs343 8.6 Free and bound interactive components346 8.7 Momentary and permanent interactive components349

Table of contents

xi

8.8 The qualifying features of interactive components: Location, intensity, duration350 8.9 The internal co-structurations of components with preceding, simultaneous and succeeding components352 8.10 The structure and depth of our daily mini-encounters358 8.11 Reduced interaction: Presence or absence of language, paralanguage, kinesics, and chemical systems361 8.12 Conclusion369 8.13 Topics for interdisciplinary research369 Notes

371

List of illustrations

391

Scientific references

393

Literary references

427

Index of literary authors and works cited

437

Name index

443

Subject index

451

Contents Volumes I and III

457

Preface

This is the second of the three volumes which, as I mentioned in the first, sums up, while enlarging upon different aspects and adding new topics and perspectives, most of the communication and interaction topics I treated in the last thirty years in books and articles, mainly within linguistics, cultural anthropology, sociology, social psychology, semiotics, and literature, besides some related areas. It is, therefore, a work not easy to classify in any one field, although linguistics seems to predominate in the first four chapters of this volume, while the rest fall within other areas of communication and interaction. At any rate, this volume continues to pursue the interdisciplinary approach I also sought when organizing symposiums and in other academic activities in many countries, which provided me with much cross-cultural material. If the readers are first acquainted with the first volume, they will profit more from this one, as they will appreciate better the new areas developed here. Fernando Poyatos Fredericton, 1998 Algeciras, 2001

Introduction

1.

Paralanguage and kinesics as basic areas for a personal and multidisciplinary study of communication Like Volumes I and III, this second one deals with many manifestations of communication and interaction. In Volume I — to whose introduction I refer the reader — I traced my personal work of thirty-some years on the nature of culture and intercultural problems, within which functions language itself with the audible and visual components of interactive speech, and the structure of conversation as the catalytic factor of all communicative elements. In this volume I maintain that integrative and interdisciplinary approach to communication as the only realistic avenue to follow in any type of study of communication.

1.1.

There are five main topics in this second volume which constitute five areas of study in themselves: paralanguage, the communicative sounds beyond paralanguage, silence, kinesics, and interaction. The importance of paralanguage as a component of the basic triple structure of speech, language-paralanguage-kinesics, incited me since the early 1970s to devote to it enough attention to contribute to its development — beyond several incomplete but pioneering papers which I cite with gratitude — while full attention was given to it by the phonetician John Laver, with whom I shared that area at the 8th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (Miami, 1977). For that congress I also organized a symposium on paralanguage, similar to the one I had had for the Northeast Modern Language Association (Boston, 1972), to which I invited (after sharing with him several activities at the 9th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences [Chicago, 1973]) the linguist Philip Lieberman, because of his work on the phylogenetic development of voice (Lieberman 1972, 1975). But it was at the Miami Phonetics congress that Konrad Koerner invited me to prepare a whole book on paralanguage (abridged here in four chapters) for his Current Issues on Linguistic Theory series. Being much too busy with other projets, and due to the variety of materials and areas I had to delve into, I did not began work on it until he asked me again in Japan in 1982, and was not completed until much later (Poyatos 1993a). At this point, it was indeed long due in the field of linguistics (and bound to be), as Mary Key wrote in her review, “the most amplified description of paralanguage available today” (Key 1995: 378), though still susceptible of elaboration.

xvi Introduction

1.2.

As for kinesics, it is of course much more popular, even at the level of observation and serious research — along with the person’s general immediate visual environment — (see the psychologicallly-oriented multidisciplinary collection of 48 Spanish papers on observation edited by Anguera (1999a, 1999b, 1999c, 1999d, 1999e), and her own work (Anguera 1978) — since, as will be seen, it is much more difficult to tackle paralanguage than gesture and other visual systems, regardless of how complex it can became too and how many difficulties may confront the researcher. That is why kinesics is the only thing many tend, erroneously so, to associate with the concept of ‘nonverbal,’ due above all to an abundant pseudoscientific literature dealing with “body language.” That my sole or main interest is not kinesics, as so many times I heard and read, should be quite evident, I hope, since it is only an integrative part of the whole array of communicative systems on which I have always based any study of discourse, intercultural and cross-cultural communication, social interaction, or the literary work. What is true is that from the beginning I realized the need to develop certain theoretical principles and certain perspectives without which kinesic research may ignore or neglect very important realities; and there is no doubt that both paralanguage and kinesics have been, in greater or lesser degree, areas I have tried to promote not only in writing (e.g. 1976a: Chapter 5, 1977a, 1983, 1993a; in Spanish, e.g. 1975c, 1986a, 1986b, 1994a, 1994b, 1994c), but also by organizing symposiums at international congresses of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (Chicago, 1973; New Delhi, 1978), of Linguists (Vienna, 1977; Tokyo, 1982) and Applied Linguistics (Sttutgart, 1975; Thessalonika, 1990), as well as in my own and in some guest courses (e.g. Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo de Santander, 1975, 1977; International Christian University, Tokyo, 1982; Murcia, 1984, 1991; Vaasa, 1991) and lectures (e.g. Linguistic Circle of Copenague, 1981; Hungary’s Linguistics Society, 1981; Universities of Lyon, Sorbonne, Mons (1989), and Heidelberg and Germersheim (both in 1987 and 1990), besides other international symposiums I organized in different disciplines and in different countries to promote nonverbal communication studies (e.g. sociology, psychology, anthropology, semiotics, linguistics, Hispanic Studies). The field of kinesics will take a great stride if, of all that is said in this volume on paralanguage and kinesics, the researcher responds specifically to the great need to elaborate cultural paralinguistic and kinesic inventories and atlases that would improve on most of the existing books on ‘gestures.’ But we should not neglect its multiple applications in social or clinical interviews, intercultural communication, literary recreation in reading, or their decisive role in the theater and the cinema.

1.3.

What here is included as sounds of interaction (Poyatos 1988b, 1993a:Chapter 1) and the discussion of interaction complement and complete the last chapter of Volume I, on conversation, as they both identify its broader context. As for personal and person-

Introduction

environment interaction, the importance of its many different components for the multidisciplinary development of communication and social interaction studies was rapidly unfolding before me as I identified the various nonverbal sign systems, first the bodily ones, later those intimately associated to it, and finally and unavoidably, the ones found in the environment surrounding the two. Besides devoting to the topic of interaction several symposiums at international congresses (e.g. Psychology [Leipzig, 1980], Applied Psychology [Edinburgh, 1982; Jerusalem, 1986; Madrid, 1994]), I have also dealt with it in some publications (e.g. Poyatos 1985b; in Spanish, 1986b, 1994b: Chapter 7) — sometimes applying it to specific areas (e.g. Poyatos 1997b, to interpretation) — and in faculties or departments of psychology (e.g. Barcelona, Valencia, Lubjiana, Amsterdam, Tilburg, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Istanbul), philology (e.g., Berlin, Essen, Murcia, Oviedo Alicante Seville), commerce (mainly Copenhagen and Jutland), information sciences (País Vasco), nursing (Barcelona), tourism and hotel (Istanbul), etc., all of which was providing me with much incentive to deepen my study of the more complex levels of interaction and with invaluable cultural and cross-cultural data.

2.

On Volume II

2.1.

After outlining in Chapter 1 the development of paralinguistic studies and identifying the primary qualities, that is, the basic components of our voice and their communicative and grammatical functions, Chapter 2 tries to make both specialized and average readers aware of the great number of voice types, or paralinguistic qualifiers, that operate normally as well as abnormally due to cultural, circumstantial and personal reasons. Chapter 3 acknowledges the communicative relevance of many physiological and emotional reactions traditionally regarded as mere curiosities, from laughter and crying to sighing and panting, shouting, coughing, yawning, hiccuping and spitting, maintaining the cross-cultural comparative approach that characterizes all three volumes. Chapter 4 offers the first systematic treatment of paralinguistic alternants, that veritable vocabulary mostly beyond the official dictionary, formed by so many nonverbal voice emissions, the majority of which lack both names and written representation; the latter a problem, for which reason comic books and strips constitute a most interesting challenge to our most logical inventiveness. Attention is then focused on kinesics in Chapter 5, which — limited to my own contribution due to the vastness of that area today — offers a series of basic principles (still basically ignored in cultural, psychological, clinical or literary research) and proposes a much needed elaboration of cultural and subcultural inventories of gestures, manners and postures and of what would be a kinesic atlas responding also to the reality of discourse as a kinesic-verbal-paralinguistic atlas. Having completed, therefore, the study of the two great verbal and nonverbal components of discourse, Chapter 6 directs the attention of

xvii

xviii Introduction

both the serious reader and the researcher toward a level sometimes hidden to consciousness in the flow of speech and of personal and environmental interaction: that of the sounds beyond language and paralanguage, produced or somehow conditioned by the body, by the objects we manipulate and by the totality of the environment, since they can act as eloquent components of an interaction due to their great communicative value. It is then, having identified in Volume I all those components and auxiliaries of speech that always occur within a given cultural frame, that Chapter 7 brings together all those areas of observation and research by presenting a theoretical, and therefore methodological, model of what truly constitutes our interaction with people and with whatever surrounds us; which, as with each of the other chapters, offers a great number of perspectives for any aspect of communication and interaction in any discipline or occupation dealing with sign exchanges and, therefore, with communication at any level, exploring the communicative problems that arise between persons naturally or pathologically lacking any of the transmitting or receiving channels.

3.

Editorial features of this volume Readers are asked to kindly peruse the more detailed comments made in Volume I regarding editorial features. As in the other two volumes, the Figures offer at a glance a visual illustration as a working model for the discussion and research of the different topics and areas. The Literary quotations in this Volume 1854 from 154 authors and 271 works (especially from narrative texts, but also the theater), offer again much cultural, subcultural and even regional and truly dialectal information, at times revealing the reasons for the development of paralinguistic and kinesic behaviors (e.g. etiquette, dress, furniture, certain tasks), as well as of quasiparalinguistic sounds evoked by the words, and of whatever qualifies as nonverbal in the characters’ environment, all of great importance within anthropology, sociology, psychology, social psychology, etc. A list of twenty-five suggested Topics for interdisciplinary research at different levels closes each chapter. The Scientific references — followed by their Name index — offer the more representative research, with no aim at exhaustibility. The Literary References list the authors and works quoted, while an additional Index of literary authors and works quoted or cited allows the reader to locate each instance. Finally, the Subject index identifies the many topics and subtopics and specific aspects either treated at length or merely suggested. I hope that, as with Volume I, the readers will continue to discover the multiple applications of nonverbal communication studies in each of their fields of specialization, as well as the need to create interdisciplinary university courses on nonverbal communication similar to the ones whose outlines appear As Appendix I in Volume I.

Chapter 1

Paralanguage, I Primary qualities or basic personal voice features

“It doesn’t matter,” Cyrus said […] and his tone said, “Shut your mouth. This is not your affair.” (Steinbeck, EE, III, IV) “Oh, it doesn’t matter,” she said, in a tone which suggested that it decidedly did matter (Lewis, B, VIII) as the The Primer Minister became the first Western leader to visit Moscow since the coup failed and then flew on to Beijhing, the London Times perceived “a different air” about Major, “a lower, more authoritative timbre to the voice, a slick smartness in the dress, an extra confidence in the demeanor.” (Time, 16 sept., 1991, 53)

1.1

The development of paralinguistic studies and the definition of paralanguage and its categories

1.1.1

Without going into details regarding the development of paralinguistic studies and my own efforts in this field — as I have done in the introduction of a monograph on paralanguage (Poyatos 1993a) — I must acknowledge with gratefulness, however, the incentive that were for me the first pioneers, not only for what they had done, but because of the many lacunas I was finding in both linguistics and phonetics and in other fields, particularly psychology, with respect to what was vaguely termed “tone of voice.”1 By contrast, I was doing much of my work in kinesics, but what we do about our voice in interaction appeared as something much less tangible and offered too many stumbling blocks. The two efforts carried out in psychiatry to transcribe the audible and visual data of the interviews, The First Five Minutes (Pittenger et al. 1960), and the still unpublished The Natural History of an Interview (McQuown et al. 1971),2 allowed me to recognize what the phonetician Abercrombie (1968) called the “unfortunate separation of the visible and the audible” (58), naturally agreeing with him that “fact-finding, not theorising, is what is wanted at this juncture” (58), which I understood as the need to identify our paralinguistic repertoires in any realistic and in-depth study of paralanguage and interpersonal communication.3

2

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Putting together the few audible phenomena recognized at that time beyond language and the many still unidentified ones, I defined paralanguage (and approached it this way since then) as: the nonverbal voice qualities, voice modifiers and independent utterances produced or conditioned in the areas covered by the supraglottal cavities (from the lips and the nares to the pharynx), the laryngeal cavity and the infraglottal cavities (lungs and esophagus), down to the abdominal muscles, as well as the intervening momentary silences, which we use consciously or unconsciously supporting, or contradicting the verbal, kinesic, chemical, dermal and thermal or proxemic messages, either simultaneously to or alternating with them, in both interaction and noninteraction (Poyatos 1993a: 6)

Based, then, on this realistic definition, I adopted the classification — which I have modified only slightly — shown in Fig. 1.1, ‘Paralanguage.’

1.2

Primary Qualities: Personal voice features

1.2.1

These are the voice characteristics that differentiate individuals: timbre, resonance, intensity or volume, tempo, pitch (level, intervals, range), intonation range, syllabic duration, and rhythm, which allow us to recognize a person without knowing what he or she is saying: the walls were too thick for the words to be heard but the pitch and timbre and intonation [of Mr. Schultz] came through clearly (Doctorow, BB, X)

These fundamental qualities are conditioned by different factors: biological (e.g. sex and age for timbre, due to vocal band size), physiological (e.g. certain long-term malfunctions or traumatized states, such as pitch disorders due to abnormal vocal-fold growth or hormonal therapy), psychological (mostly due to personality or long-term causes like the loudness of extroversion or the manic phase of manic-depression), sociocultural (e.g., the drawling of United States southerners), and occupational (e.g., the use of higher pitch by many nurses when talking to patients). Naturally, they also respond to the speaker’s attitude, for sometimes it is precisely because of them that someone, unable to pinpoint the reason for his judgement, can say, ‘It wasn’t what she said, but how she said it’: Something in the tone, even more than in the words, went straight to my heart. It was only after pausing a little first that I was able to go on (Collins, M, ‘Third Narrative,’ VII)

It is fascinating how some nonhuman sounds (discussed and amply illustrated in Chapter 6) can acquire human qualities when they evoke these paralinguistic primary qualities and some of the other paralinguistic utterances. It happens with certain natural sounds, musical instruments, sounds that are rhythmically repetitive or

Paralanguage, I

3

Categories

Forms

Interrelationships

Timbre Resonance Loudness Tempo

PRIMARY QUALITIES

Pitch Pitch Pitch Pitch Pitch

level range registers intervals

Intonation range Syllabic duration Rhythm

Nonsegmental

QUALIFIERS

Respiratory control Laryngeal control Esophageal control Pharyngeal control Velopharyngeal control Lingual control Labial control Mandibular control Articulatory control Articulatory tension control Objectual control

Laughter Crying Shouting Sighing Gasping DIFFERENTIATORS Panting Yawning Coughing, throat-clearing Spitting Belching Hiccupping Sneezing

Segmental

ALTERNANTS

Laryngeal Pharyngeal Conso- Labial nantal Lingual Dental Nasal/Narial

<

< <

< < <

Vocalic Silent

Figure 1.1.Paralanguage

mechanical sounds: the murmuring rivulet, the howling wind, the squeaking door hinges, the crumbling or crackling of some materials, etc.

4

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

a nondescript clatter and chatter — of china partly; […] sound of rain falling, and the gutters chuckling and burbling as they sucked up the water (Woolf, Y, 1880).

1.3

Timbre Timbre is the organically-determined permanent voice register or pitch that, as in musical instruments, sets individuals apart and allows us to distinguish them (‘Listen! That’s Henry next door!’). It is determined by the length and thickness of our vocal bands: the longer and thicker they are, the slower their vibrations or frequency (i.e. the lower the timbre, as happens in general with males), and the shorter and thinner they are, the greater their vibrations (i.e. the higher the timbre, as with females and children). There are also some geographic differences, for instance, in males: the lower timbre of Americans as compared to Spaniards, who in turn tend to have it lower than Latin-Americans, as do Spanish Castilian males as compared to Andalusians in the south; very high in the Fulani tribe of northern Nigeria and lower in the southern tribes, etc. We assume the man with a deep voice over the telephone to be of large build and strong because “there seems to be general correlation between a person’s size and physique and the size of the larynx and vocal tract” (Laver 1972: 196), but it often proves to be an ambiguous cue as to size, and even sex and age. Social perception of timbre, however, can assign negative connotations to a permanent register that contradicts our expectations when it may be due to abnormal social development, although in other cases it has no abnormal correlates, but can become a true stigma nevertheless. Accompanied by positive qualities (e.g. soft loudness and a balanced pitch variation), it can be perceived as definitely pleasant: La hizo hablar [doña Paula to Teresina] para apreciar el tono de la voz, como el timbre de una moneda (Alas, R, XI).

As a pitch disorder, the worst timbre types psychosocially are the chronically high ‘juvenile voice’ of the late adolescent or adult male (identified also as “mutational falsetto” [cf. Perelló and Salvá Miquel 1980: 1–27]) — due to organic causes like insufficient growth of the vocal folds or excessive approximation — as it suggests lack of masculinity; and the female’s abnormally masculine low pitch can be caused by organic factors or by male hormone therapy (cf. Moore 1971: 539–540).

1.4

Resonance Resonance can be pharyngeal, oral or nasal, depending on where the vibrations from the vocal bands find their greatest resonator according to the size and shape of the pharyngeal cavity, oral cavity or nasal cavity. Its social perception covers a wide range

Paralanguage, I

5

of assumed characteristics for which it can be also a very ambiguous cue. If it is very oral it produces a resounding or orotund voice (from Lat. ‘round mouth’), known also as resonant, strong and rich, easily associated to rather large body size if the speaker is not seen; it suggests positive male’s characteristics like masculinity, energy, good health, resourcefulness, etc., and some similar ones in women (cf. Addington 1968), the opposite being referred to as thin voice. Pharyngeal resonance, if interpreted as ‘throatiness’, suggests also positive traits in men (e.g., maturity, mature age), but some negative ones in women (e.g., mannish, more unemotional): However, a permanent nasal resonance does not seem to suggest any positive physical or personality features in anyone. Su voz [Mauricia’s] era bronca, más de hombre que de mujer (Galdós, FJ, II, VI). ‘Where have you come from?’/ ‘From the country,’ replied Possum, in a very low, yet fully resonant voice (Lawrence, WL, VI)

The two organic resonance disorders are nasality and its physiological opposite, denasality, discussed in Chapter 3, Volume I.

1.5

Loudness Loudness (i.e. intensity or volume) depends on articulatory muscular effort and it is, along with pitch, one of the most obvious ways of lending especial meaningful effects to words or paralinguistic word-like alternants (e.g. ‘Whew!’). Over stretches of speech (syllables, words, sentences, or more), we vary the degree of softness or loudness, passing from one to the other in a sudden (crescendo) or gradual (diminuendo) glide. Fig. 1.2, ‘Aspects and Functions of loudness’, shows its complexity and suggests a similar approach to other phenomena. Each of us has, besides a biophysiologically conditioned level of loudness, an habitual personal conversational level (e.g., ‘loud’, ‘soft’, ‘quiet’, or inconspicuous) related to personality, status (e.g., a superior speaking in a low volume to elicit close attention from a subordinate), occupation (in certain churches some preachers erroneously feel they must maintain a top-level loudness to teach the Gospel with power), situational context (e.g., out of social inhibition, some students speak very softly only in class), etc.: DOÑA S., d’une vox eteinte, à son oreille. Oh! tais-tois! (Hugo, H, III, iii)

Beyond this there can be a pathological level due to physical or mental illness, or the excessive loudness of the deaf and the ‘hard-of-hearing’ elderly. There is also a cultural standard level, higher, for instance, in public places in Hispanic countries, France, Italy and Arab cultures than in England or North America.

6

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Normal conversational level Biophysicopsychological Pathological level above/below normal level Cultural standard level Social situational norms Aspects of Loudness

above/below conversational standard level

Co-structuration with paralinguistic

Intonation functions and Grammatical functions

Personal Attitudinal functions

Stressed syllables Direct quotations Interpolations Final junctures Interactional Noninteractional

Orthographic representation

kinesic

behaviors

Punctuation and its modification

Figure 1.2.Aspects and functions of loudness

In Kenya and Ghana, shouting in the street and talking too loudly indoors is considered unacceptable, although Ghanaians criticize the loudness of Nigerians. High ‘loudness’ is certainly a noticeable cultural characteristic in, for instance, Spain or Italy, and once made a young Canadian woman visiting with us ask, “Anything wrong?” when we were just discussing something in Spanish. Key (1975a: 49) mentions how children in an American Indian school told her that the (white) teachers talked too loudly, in some cases interpreted as anger or meanness. In my first visit to a Finnish restaurant, the waitress brought my colleague and me some munchies only with our second beer (when she saw we were going to order dinner) because she had heard me talk too loud for Finland and thought she should not encourage me to further drinking, so I clarified the situation for her. At any rate, Austin (1965: 38) wrote that “Any minority or ‘out-group’ is characterized as ‘loud’ — Americans in Europe, Englishmen in America, and so on.” In addition, there are social situational norms prescribing certain levels below or above a standard one: as we enter a large office where people work quietly at their desks, in an exclusive lounge (particularly with an intimate low light level) or in a hospital’s quiet area; but usually high at a rather noisy party, where in a sudden lull we immediately adjust our voice loudness. But other environmental situations can force us to raise our voices, such as a noisy factory, traffic noise, going through a tunnel in an old type of train, or travelling on it:

Paralanguage, I

7

when they spoke [Myatt and Coral, on the train of the 1930s], instead of whispering, they had to utter the intimate words loudly and clearly (Greene, ST, III, III)

As for its grammatical functions (hardly differentiated from its attitudinal ones), it is higher with stressed syllables (e.g., ‘He’s an excellent student, I’m telling you’) — therefore also with higher pitch (e.g., ‘I1 know3!’)4–and with direct quotations (e.g., ‘Well2, he3 just said, “he3 ne4ver knew about it”, but1 of course I2 don’t believe it’, where we can roughly see the attitudinal variations, even on the most stressed syllable ne); it drops with interpolations, usually uttered in a slightly quicker tempo (e.g., ‘Tomorrow, if it doesn’t rain, we’ll go’), and coincides with pitch differences at final junctures (e.g., ‘He’s coming tomorrow’, as a statement of fact; ‘He’s coming tomorrow?’, as one of the forms of questions; ‘Why’s he coming tomorrow?’, meaning ‘Why tomorrow?’). Attitudinally, voice softness and loudness varies not only according to the interactive situations (in public speaking, conversational topic, relationship with the other participants, mood, an occupational type of encounter and according to status, etc.), but to the intentionality of a specific word or words: “Is there anything else you wouldn’t wish me to do?”/ “I wish you would have some kind of sympathy for my trials; you never have any feelings for me” (Beecher Stowe, UTC, XVI) he had stood for his wife having a lover […] By God if he, Sam Dodsworth, ever found his wife being too friendly with a man — (Lewis, D, VII)

Attitude, of course, is reflected also in noninteractive situations (e.g., in soliloquy, or perhaps talking to oneself). Although we should allow for circumstantial variations (perhaps witnessed by ourselves), for affect-blends and for variables like socioeducational level, personality, or sensitivity toward others, these were Davitz’ (1964) correlations in his test of emotional sensitivity: softness + slow rate (tempo) used to express affection and sadness; loud voice + fast rate, anger and joy; moderate-to-low + moderately slow, boredom; moderately high + moderately fast, cheerfulness; normal + moderately fast, impatience; and normal loudness and tempo, satisfaction; while Scherer (1979c) linked loud + fast to happiness and joy and confidence and anger, low + slow to boredom and grief and sadness, and loud + slow to contempt, correlating loudness with extraversion (Scherer 1978). But what anyone can recognize is the intimate relationship between loudness and the other paralinguistic behaviors (e.g., rasp, loud and high-pitched voice of annoyance), and above all, its correlation with kinesic behavior
: It must be nice to be famous”, said the girl softly (Dreiser, JG, I) –Oh! mais comme c’est ennuteux! dit la veille dame, d’une voix haute et fluté, et avec l’accent d’une convinction plus belle que nature: voix et accent qui, à eux seuls, lauraient trahie pour une personne du grand monde (Montherlant, C, VIII),

8

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

[…] he said in that abrupt, overloud tone that people so often use when they have made up their mind to speak (Wilson, ASA, I, I)

In addition, we also observe that cultures with predominantly loud speakers are also visually ‘loud’ in gestures (i.e. more conspicuously qualified by their intensity and range of movement), truly identifying ‘culturemes’ (Chapter 1, Volume I). As for disorders of voice loudness, they are mainly functional (except overloud voice due to hearing loss), most commonly weak voice (typically accompanied by breathiness), a respiratory-muscle defect that impedes enough vocal fold activation and affects social interactionand is “a source of irritation to both speakers and listeners” (Brackett 1971: 444).

1.6

Tempo Tempo or rate, including the duration of syllables, is understood here as the relative speed or slowness in the sequential delivery of words, sentences and the whole of a person’s speech, including, of course, paralinguistic alternants and pauses and silent breaks, all part of our individual basic style and voice set. Like loudness, tempo can perform certain grammatical functions like: the parenthetical comment mentioned above, generally said with accelerated speed (to then continue as before); a faster rate for correcting a morphological or syntactical mistake we have just made (typically, even in experienced speakers, with a quickened headshake and blinking). The average adult speaker develops a full repertoire of paralinguistic effects, mastering a whole array of often subtly differentiated attitudinal functions, in which tempo combines with other paralinguistic features like primary qualities and various types of voice. Apart from the ones coinciding with loudness, already mentioned, voluntary or involuntary slow tempo can denote, for instance: the emphasis we put on certain words or sentences to make them stand out, hesitation, uncertainty, warning about something, threatening (typically with almost unblinking fixed gaze and slow movements, if any), self- assurance, dominance, higher status (the latter three typically with overclear articulation). “Well, good-night, son,” said Eliza slowly, with gravity […] (Wolfe, LHA, XXXIV)

Fast tempo can indicate: willingness, a care-free attitude, gaiety, mastering of the situation, warning about something about to happen (e.g., ‘¡Watch out, you gonna fall!’), anger, annoyance, impatience, haste, urgency, dismissal of something said as unimportant, unpleasant, etc. (‘No, he desn’t want to help us, come on, let’s do it’), etc. Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind and answered briefly, ‘Yes’ (Dickens, CC, II) “Well, well […] sighed Hudnell […]. Then he quickened with interest. “We need a man an’ like your looks […]” (Grey, TH, II)

Paralanguage, I

9

She [Rose, when she is asked to write what she rather not] fumbled in her handbag for a moment and then spoke in a hurried, squeaky voice, “Oh, I don’t think so” (Wilson, ASA, II, I) ‘Hullo, Ashley,’ he said rather curtly (Woolf, Y, 1880) We stared at one another in an unpleasant silence. I stood up at last and began to pace about the room./ “Why don’t you sit still?” she snapped at me (Mailer, BS, XXII)

On the other hand, attitudes in either group could be conveyed differently (e.g., anger with very slow, low and tense speech, self-assurance with quickened tempo and movements) and, again, more than one feeling or even attitude can appear in a blend. Other functions may be purely interactive, as when we suddenly speak faster and louder in order to be heard in a group, when (maybe only as our feedback comment) we wish to rapidly get a word in edgewise without interrupting the speaker with a longer unacceptable intervention, when we know we are going to be interrupted, or when taking the speaker’s turn abruptly.5 As for cultural or subcultural differences, one could think of the generally slower tempo of United States southerners, the faster tempo (and more animated kinesics) of the average Spanish Andalusian, etc. But a slow tempo can also be regarded as a positive quality in the speaker, as Spanish fourteenth-century Juan Ruiz tells us (reiterated two centuries later by the life-like Don Quixote trying to educate his squire): Non fables muy apriesa nin otrosi muy paso,/ […] quien fabla muy paso, enójase quien le atiende/ (Ruiz, LBA, 550a,b, 551b); Anda despacio; habla con reposo; pero no de manera que parezca que te escuchas a ti mismo; que toda afectacion es mala (Cervantes, DQ, II, XIII)

This slowness of speech becomes more conspicuous when joined to an equally slow kinesics: Her slow country voice was matched by her slow, dignified movements. Alice Cresett was a big, regal Junoesque woman. She was not wholly unaware of her queenly manner (Wilson, ASA, I, III)

But tempo can also indicate abnormal states, from a strong neuralgia or the depressive phase of manic depressive psychosis, reflected in slow tempo, to the manic phase, of extreme elation and hyperexcitability, with louder and faster speech.

10

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

1.7

Pitch The most versatile message-conveying feature of voice, which accompanies all verbal and nonverbal communicative sounds with the subtlest possible symbolic variations, is pitch, the acuteness (highness) or gravity (lowness) of tone caused by the faster or slower frequency of vocal band vibrations. Apart from its contribution to intonation contours — together with stresses (inter-word transitions) and junctures (end-ofsentence boundaries) — pitch phenomena in languages like English, Spanish or German can give the same word (e.g., ‘Well’) different meanings (surprise, contempt, anger, disappointment, etc.), but that word remains the same because its shape is not affected by pitch.6 However, in tone languages like Chinese, Thai or Vietnamese, pitch does change the word completely to a word that denotes something else (cf. O’Connor 1973: 18, 190–194, 165–266). But both in intonation languages and in tone languages pitch is attached also to all segmental and nonsegmental paralinguistic features other than primary qualities (e.g., creaky voice with low or high pitch, high- or low-pitched laughter, high- or low-pitched moaning, throat-clearing, hissing, ‘Uh-hu!’)7; which correlates with facial and other bodily expressions (e.g., a high-pitched, raised-brows and raised-arms ‘Oh!’ of happy surprise versus a low-pitched and sort of droopy faceand-body ‘Oh!’ of disappointment). The interactive paralinguistic functions of pitch depend on four of its aspects.

1.7.1

Pitch level, the dominant tone in which a portion of speech of whatever length is conducted — as differentiated from the permanently superimposed timbre that individuates each of us --, is the most significant and eloquent aspect of pitch, beyond the semantic limitations of words. First, there is a personal style of pitch levels (i.e. habitual pitch) that allows us to anticipate a given speaker’s higher or lower level; not only when we know the person, but even after being exposed to him or her for only a very brief time, because of the other nonverbal behaviors that, in our experience, would seem to correlate with high or low pitch level (e.g., very animated facial and bodily kinesics, or a very static general and quietly-speaking general style). Culturally and subculturally, the pitch of most North- American English speakers (Afro-American blacks tend to speak with a higher level) can often reach falsetto, as in a simple expression of utter disbelief or surprise (e.g. ‘What?!’, the high-pitched feminine or effeminate Spanish exclamation ‘¡Uuuuuh!’); but it can also cover one or more key sentence parts (e.g. ‘Well, I will do it if he does it too!’, rising to almost falsetto for ‘I’ and ‘he’) and even qualify a whole sentence (e.g. an irritated ‘What do you want to go there for?!’). “You don’t know the father of one or of all of these children?” he queried, with sharp rising inflection of voice (Grey, RT, X)

Paralanguage, I

11

There is also in each culture a social perception, about which Austin (1965: 37) referred to the American “approved ‘upper class’ way […] clear, low and oral, in men, clear, oral with a choice of high or low for women,” adding that “Low pitch has lately become fashionable for women, but fifty years ago all ‘ladies’ spoke with a high pitch.” He also commented on the loud and low male speech in the Japanese Samurai movies, “almost a bark”, and the Japanese female’s soft and high one, “almost a squeak” (as I soon learned when I first heard the woman’s taped voice calling the different stops on a Tokyo city bus). Among its occupational functions, there is the aforementioned high pitch used by too many Anglo-Saxon female nurses when talking to children (as most of us do, although we would not be able to explain why) and to elderly patients, particularly if they are senile (or just might be), psychiatric patients (who, as I have witnessed, can be sensitive enough to be negatively affected by it), and even ordinary patients, curiously enough in direct proportion to the seriousness of their condition, but rarely when speaking to (much less ‘with’) the alert, attractive male patient; in fact, all my student nurses consciously rejected that behavior when admitting how they constantly shift pitch levels when coming and going between the nurses’ station and their patients’ rooms; likewise, the typical Anglo-Saxon airline stewardess’ smiling and higher-thannormal pitch while offering us something. But there are also social situational settings to which we adapt our pitch level even unconsciously, as when requesting information on the telephone, asking someone during a performance to lean a little to one side to allow us to see better, asking for something at a store, showing deference, etc. As for the attitudinal functions of pitch level, research (cf. Davitz and Davitz 1964, Scherer 1982) has found low level to be associated with affection, boredom, fear, incredulity or disappointment often coupled to creaky voice (e.g. in ‘Oh, no!’), and high level with cheerfulness, joy, alarm, surprise, annoyance, anger, etc. Apart from that, we can see different uses of both in everyday life: – –

low-pitch level: in courtship; Austin (1965:37) refers to “the paralanguage of courtship” as “low and nasal with the male; high, oral and giggling with the female”; reproach: ‘No, Helen,’ said she, with reproachful gravity (A. Brontë, TWF, XV)

–

respect and reverence: “Grayson’s a sound man,” Theo said, in tones of great reverence (Wilson, ASA, I, I)

–

somber premonition: Ugh!” suddenly exclaimed [the Indian]./ Joe Lake muttered low and deep […] no mistake about the nature of his speech […] there was calamity in the air (Grey, RT, XIII)

12

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

–

fear: “Is that you, Euchre?” asked a girl’s voice, low, hesitatingly. The tone of it, rather deep and with a note of fear, struck Duane (Grey, LSR, VI)

–

weariness: “All right, what are you upset about?” he said [to Elena] in a weary voice (Mailer, DP, XIV)

–

disinterest: “Good-bye, good-bye,” she called from the stairs in a monotonous, falling tone (Wilson, ASA, I, III)

Pitch level tends to rise generally when adults address children (Blurton Jones, 1972a: 289), and, for instance, when expressing: –

wonder, surprise, contentment, etc. It’s strange, cousin,” said miss Ophelia, “one might almost think you were a professor, to hear you talk (Beecher Stowe, UTC, XVI)

–

admiration, persuasiveness: Higgins (suddenly resorting the most thrillingly beautiful low ones in his best elocutionary style). By George, Eliza, the streets will be strewn with the bodies of men shooting themselves for your sake before Ive done with you (Shaw, P, II)

–

indignation, annoyance: ‘Have I not lived all my life in India? Do I not know what produces a bad impression here?’ His voice shot up rather crossly” (Forster, PI, XXXI)

–

deference and condescendence: A habit in him of speaking to the poor, and avoiding patronage or condescension, or childishness (which is the favorite device, many people deeming it quite a subtlety to talk to them like little spelling books) (Dickens, BH, XLVI)

Often we pass from one register to a very different one: ‘I am afraid your head is turned, you silly thing,’ said Cherry./ ‘Do you know, my dear,’ said Merry, with engaging candour, ‘that I have been afraid of that, myself, all along! (Dickens, MC, XI)

But we cannot speak of ‘attitude’ so categorically, for the little girl’s voice of innocence or helplessness (not precisely an ‘attitude’) can be either an adult female’s attitude used for coaxing, seducing, etc., or an attitude of innocence in that young girl when her voice pitch happens to be at that stage.

Paralanguage, I

Finally, two pitch level disorders should be mentioned: a sudden pitch break, “usually related to […] speaking at an inappropriate pitch level” (Nicolosi et al. 1983); and deviation from optimal (natural) pitch, due to voice abuse, either above optimum level, as what in speech pathology they refer to ‘screamer’s nodes’, ‘preacher’s nodes’ (i.e. nodules), generally strident, shrill, tense voices, or below, also from vocal abuse, as in ‘husky’, ‘harsh’, ‘hoarse’ and ‘rough’ voices.8 1.7.2 Pitch range, besides pitch level, is an individual characteristic between lowest and highest register, varying widely from a narrow-ranging voice in some to a wide-ranging voice in others, and, naturally (for the anatomical reasons mentioned earlier), higher in women and children than in men. First, there is a person’s habitual range, socially perceived as: very varied in lively types (whether young or youthful), corresponding to equally lively bodily and mainly facial expression, with features like brows, eyelids, cheeks and lips showing also a wide range (i.e. a parakinesic quality); or monotonous, with narrow-ranged facial and bodily kinesics, both inducing us to form first impressions and see in them a personal style. Secondly, there is also an utterance range, since the same verbal expression can be delivered in high, medium or low range, conveying different feelings, for instance: ‘Of course I want to go,’ said with very high pitch (and wide-open eyes and raised brows) on ‘course’ as part of an overall high range, denoting enthusiastic confirmation; with ‘polite’ sustained medium pitch range and loudness and at most a faint smile; or very ‘unenthusiastically’ low range and virtually no facial expression. This utterance range is what provides the situational or attitudinal functions of pitch range, and speakers, independently of their individual ranges, can also choose to express something in a given range, an economy device that avoids the verbalization of what might otherwise be ineffable.9 The most typical pitch-range disorder is the so-called morning voice (or ‘postsleep voice’), a voice throaty and hoarse from the relaxation of the laryngeal muscles upon awakening, producing a pitch level only one segment of the speaking voice and too narrowed, without “the flexibility and melody, comfort and carrying power necessary for daily conversational activities” (Cooper 1971: 589). The pitch range scale can be: overnarrow- narrow-medium-wide-overwide (abruptly or gradually). 1.7.3

Each language or speaker favors lower or higher pitch registers within a given level and range. It is quite typical to see an Anglo-American or Anglophone Canadian apply to Spanish (which usually uses three linguistic pitches) his four, even five registers (part of his lack of paralinguistic fluency in the foreign language) in a sentence like ‘¡¿De verdad que viene?! ¡Qué bien!’ (‘¡¿Is he really coming?! !Good!’) giving ‘verdad,’ ‘viene’ and ‘bien’ an overhigh pitch that nears falsetto, so common in such expressions in his own speech. This paralinguistic use is applied to either words or paralinguistic alternants like a shout, a moan or an expression of repugnance. In fact, to quote also

13

14

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

a British speaker, “falsetto is not uncommon in reaching higher than normal pitches for expressive purposes, so an extra wide fall on Wonderful! may drop from high falsetto to a very low [‘chest’] creaky voice” (O’Connor 1973: 267). 1.7.4 Finally, as our speech passes from one syllable to another and from one pitch to another, there are intervals between them, which we can squeeze, medium or spread. Squeezed interval is used, for instance, “with rasp, particularly with the vocative said with the intonation pattern 2–2–2, signals lack of interest or weariness” (Pittenger and Smith 1957: 73). Spread interval (i.e. spread register) is accompanied by drawling, as when we call someone from a distance, and in other vocative uses of people’s names, the interval spreading the most after the primary-stress (and louder) syllable, but both, before and after (and the last one in longer utterances), pertain of the drawling: ‘¡Mo — ther!’ (or ‘¡Moootheer!’), ‘¡Mister-Wi — lliam-son!’ (or ‘¡Misteer Wiiilliaam-son!’). Monosyllabics are split and handled as longer words (e.g. Sp., ‘¡Lu-iiis!’), while interrogatives are drawled only on the last syllable (e.g. ‘¡¿Mother — ?!’, ‘¡¿Mister Williamson — ?!’): their customary morning farewell, she singing, ‘Good-bye John, don’t stay long,’ he singing back, ‘I’ll be back in a week or two’ (Agee, DF, II).

1.8

Intonation range

1.8.1

Although the various aspects of pitch — particularly registers, range and interval — showed already the nature of intonation, it must be regarded also as one of the primary qualities and identified within the speaker’s permanent (or at least habitual) voice set as ‘intonation range’, that is, between melodious and monotonous, based on the overall impression of that combination of pitches, stresses and junctures. Besides monotonous, toneless and dull, there are various impressionistic labels, referring mostly to monotonous effects: singsong (singsong voice), a high- or low-pitched, melody-less voice with a monotonous cadence: ‘Thank you,’ retorted Merry, singing at her needle. ‘I am quite aware of that, my love’ (Dickens, MC, XI);

droning (or droning voice), low-pitched, slow dull and monotonous way of speaking (never accompanied by lively kinesics), corresponding to its etymological associations with a bee and its humming. We perceive it as the general effect of a conversational group at, for instance, a western funeral, or when confidentiality and low volume are appropriate, or as attitudinal for specific effects:

Paralanguage, I

15

‘Nothing succeeds like success,’ Larry is saying in a deep droning voice (Dos Passos, MT, II, VIII);

toneless voice, typically used in a secretive or intimate atmosphere, or to mask one’s true feelings: ‘John Smith is my father’ […]/ ‘Indeed,’ the rector said, in a voice dry and without inflection [Having ascertained the commonality of Stephen, who courts his daughter] (Hardy, PBE, IX) she asked, in a toneless voice, persisting in appearing casual and unaffected (Lawrence, WL, XXIX)

1.8.2 A few more thoughts on intonation should be added. First, an individual’s intonation style does not always correspond to a similar kinesic style. Secondly, this imbalance or incongruence within his or her basic triple structure may surely have stemmed from developmental problems or later psychological problems (i.e. much verbal-paralinguistic fluency and much bodily inhibition); but, of course, it can happen only in certain situations and settings where we must restrain visual behaviors or where very close interpersonal proxemics tend to keep kinesics at a low key. However, intonation range may betray biological, psychological or socioeconomic characteristics, such as the overmelodious range of some male homosexuals, the depressive person’s monotone, or the less subtle and semantically versatile intonative style of the least educated. As for the desirable learning of cultural intonemes with advanced methods in foreign-language teaching, it is only by becoming fully acculturated — and only if one has a great ‘musical ear’ and power of observation — that one can seek sufficient nonverbal fluency to not only discriminate among the many patterns of pitch, stress and juncture in the speech flow, but to produce those intonation contours without error. Native speakers acquire them gradually as part of their verbal-nonverbal developmental process (e.g. for irony, contempt, sarcasm, innuendo, mock nervousness, sassiness, self-assurance, and so on), thus constituting a non-universal sort of ‘unspoken vocabulary’ that just defies systematic learning. For instance, while an American daughter says to her mother: ‘Mo — ther — !’ (meaning ‘Why, mother, how can you say that in front of these people/this person?!’), her Spanish counterpart will say: ‘¡Pero, mamá!’, each applying her own intoneme to express the same feeling in the other language.10 There are, therefore, verbal expressions that have their own native intonation and not another, as we know how exactly sounds a North American “Mrs. Hudnall’s cheery call to supper” (Grey, TH, IV), or the more subtle combination of words, intonation and silence in: Just then Sally called out sweetly. “Tom — oh-Tom — wouldn’t your visitors like a bite to eat?” (Grey, TH, IV)

16

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Something must be added concerning the supposedly isolated, albeit misunderstood, use of intonation. We know that, even if viewed as made up of stresses, pitches and junctures, intonation cannot be broken into discrete units, since it is a continuum formed by gradual elements whose meaning is given by the whole contour and not by individual stresses or junctures. The fact that a number of nonvocalic, nonconsonantal, closed-lip or open-lip utterances are regarded by many as intonation without words leads them to the equivocation that intonation can be isolated, separated from a segmental stretch of speech and uttered alone, when in reality we are producing the two levels referred to above, the segmental one (a paralinguistic construct) and the nonsegmental or intonational one, for instance: a paralinguistic alternant like a glottalized gliding mid-to-higher-back vowel (segmental), with open or closed lips, overridden by a pitch contour 4–2, two stresses and a falling terminal juncture (nonsegmental), meaning (according to context and pitch variations) ‘¡Oh, I see!’, ‘¡Good!’, ‘¡Delicious!’, etc. Although intonation can be both grammatical and attitudinal (Crystal 1971: 200), it cannot carry any more meaning than nasality or whispering would by themselves, unless they occur with words or with paralinguistic alternants (considered segmental) like ‘¡Eeugh!’, ‘¡Hmm!’. We cannot speak with intonation alone, but can modulate a long ‘Mmmmmm’ with an intonational curve signifying ‘May go with you?’, or ‘I don’t know where she went!,’ always accompanied by at least facial kinesics. But in reality we are evoking a perfectly established verbal-paralinguistic expression, and that is why my dog never failed to react to my ‘Mmmmmmmm?’ when I did not say ‘You wanna go in the car?’

1.9

Syllabic duration Besides the speech characteristics that depend mainly on pitch and volume, we consciously or unconsciously control the speed or tempo of each of the syllables that make up our speech by lengthening or shortening them with multiple functions applied to one or more words as from overclipped and clipped to single, double, and overdrawl, and long overdrawl And, since it is part of the verbal-paralinguistic-kinesic structure, kinesics is also drawled or clipped, not only with facial gestures (e.g., slow eyebrow raise and smile with a pleased, relieving ‘Weeell!’), but with other bodily movements too (e.g. a jerky shoulder shrug and unilateral downward mouth distension in an irritated ‘’course not!’). Drawling is superimposed to words and certain paralinguistic constructs (e.g. a hiss or grunt, but not a lingual click). Apart from geographic variations, it can be a permanent trait in a person’s voice norm, whether continuously present — someone who ‘speaks with a drawl’ — or appearing only in a given situation with attitudinal functions and expressing a particular feeling; but it can be used also consistently in each linguistic-cultural milieu in specific situations with very subtle functions:

Paralanguage, I

17

‘Ah, no!’ she returned almost (with the full privilege of childish inconsequence) resentfully, though with a long sweetness in her drawl of the negative (James, TS, X)

We are all familiar with the more common functions of drawling, for instance: –

starting a conversation or opening the speaker’s: Estoo… Vamos a ver (Sánchez Ferlosio, J, 285)

–

when hesitating: Mmmyes, I believe so…. I think he’s what you call a black sheep (Joyce, D, ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’, 138)

–

trying to remember: “And is there nobody alive now who was with Stockesay at Melpham?”/ “No,” said Rose ruminatively. “Or wait a bit. I believe Gerald Middleton was there […]” (Wilson, ASA, I, I)

–

expressing reluctancy: Ye-es,’ is Mr Weevle’s reluctance admission (Dickens, BH, XXXII)

–

recognizing a fact: “I don’t care to accept a portrait from Paul Morpeth.”/ Mrs. Fisher mused. ‘N — no. And just now, especially--well, he can do you after you’re married (Wharton, HM, II, VI)

–

emphasizing a word or a whole statement: ‘Your master,’ said the husband, muttering an imprecation with slow emphasis, ‘will break your neck, if you meddle with wot don’t concern you’ (Dickens, BH, LVII) “[…] But I suppose it’s generally a matter of what Milton calls the Genial Bed.” She lingered, ludicrously, over the first syllable of “genial” (Huxley, EG, XVI) “No-o-o-o,” said lapham, with a long, loud drawl (Howells, RSL, I) *“[…] Oh, I can’t, Joe, honest! I cannnnn’t! You got to carry me! You got to! (Lewis, M, XVII);

–

to dramatize a word or statement: sepa usted que mi esposa es… ¡adúuuultera!/ Dijo [Ido del Sagrario] esta palabra […] levantándose del asiento y extendiendo ambos brazos (Galdós, FJ, I, VII)

–

calling to someone: “[…] We must go home. Ar — cher! Ja — cob!’/ “Ar — cher--Ja — cob!” Johnny piped after her (Woolf, JR, II)

18

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

–

sometimes speaking in surprise: ‘I’m glad you were afraid.’/ ‘Why? she asked in slow surprise (Grey, RPS, XIV)

–

or in embarrassment: Gerald blushed scarlet, then with an exaggeration of his usual drawl that betrayed his embarrassment, he said […] (Wilson, ASA, II, I)

–

preceding the silence with which we repress our own words: Mrs. Fisher mused. ‘N — no. And just now, especially--well, he can […] (Wharton, HM, II, VI) the ole chap made an infernal nuisance of himself with all that…” His voice tailed away as he realized that “pro-German nonsense” would not be exactly polite to his guest (Wilson, ASA, I, I)

–

in casual greetings and leave-takings: “Mawnin’, Dad,” she drawled (Grey, MR, IV)

–

when dwelling on the negative feelings expressed by the stretched words: ‘Na-a-y.’ said old Martin, with an elongation of the word meant to make it bitter as well as negative (Eliot, AB, XXXI)

–

speaking in surprised indignation: “Wh-a-a-t!” he exclamed; “wh-a-a-t did you say? […]” (Norris, O, I, VI)

–

singing: [singing] So baby come and just clo-o-o-ose your pretty little ey-y-y-y-yes (Kerouak, OR, III, IV)

–

as we calculate a number: “[…] How many girls have you got?”/ “Oh — I don’t know. Not many” (Wolfe, LHA, XXVI)

–

comforting someone: ‘There, there, calm yourself.’

Clipping, in general, is used for addressing someone in a harsh or impatient tone (‘Com’n, get out’f here!’); warning against impending danger (‘Watch out!’); remembering suddenly (‘Wait!’); in irritated or negation (‘course not!’), etc.: “I hain’t,” said the Colonel briefly” (Howells, RSL, II)

Both clipping and drawling characterize certain geographic areas, for instance: the speech of the less educated in many parts of the United States and England, in both apocopated (‘an’ for ‘and’, ‘mos’ for ‘most’, ‘foun’ for ‘found’) and syncopated forms

Paralanguage, I

19

(‘ma’am’, ‘bott’l’, ‘catt’l’), which actually can more legitimately be called clipping than the quickening or shortening in a fast spoken ‘Right!’, or ‘Yes!’.11 Now ‘Yeah,’ ‘Yep’ and ‘Nope’ are always given as examples of what we do with ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ in English and it has become (particularly for foreigners) a sort ofl linguistic myth.12 However, more than drawling and clipping of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’, they are different semantic versions in their own right (as is the incorrect ‘ain’t’ for ‘are not’ or ‘aren’t’), and they can be said at normal speed, ‘Yeah’, ‘Nope’, lengthened as ’Yeaah’ and ‘Noope’, or shortened as ‘Yeah’ and ‘Nope’ — not necessarily said and represented with high volume [!] (in fact, they can be whispered too): ‘You ain’t supposed to tell anybody’ (Mailer, BS, VI)

As for ‘Yep!’, it is simply an affirmation which can also be clipped or drawled by those who prefer it to ‘yes’ or attach specific speeds to different meanings: a falling-rising drawled ‘Ye-ep!’ can mean ‘Let me see, I’m not sure, yes!’, while a very clipped one would mean absolute certainty with perhaps (in the educated speaker) a tinge of humor in the clipping itself.13 Drawling and clipping can also reflect a social attitude, as of recognized refinement, or a personal habitual behaviors, without any attitudinal function or specific meaning: el hablar arrastrado, dejoso y prolongando ciertas vocales (Galdós, FJ, III, IV, V) That thin, precise, over-cultivated drawl (Wilson, ASA, I, IV) “Mrs. Judique on the ‘phone. Like t’ speak t’ you bout some repairs” (Lewis, B, XXXI)

The English exclamation ‘Oh’ is a good example of attitudinal function in both drawling and clipping: of normal duration and rather high register, it can replace, for instance, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize!’; shortened and with middle pitch, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t know [you were busy, sleeping, etc.]’; drawled and with low and falling tone, ‘I didn’t know! I understand now!’; and drawled and low pitch, ‘Now I understand why she always had that face’. Clipping and drawling can alternate with each other in speech: How ‘bout ‘nother lil drink? ‘And a-noth-er drink wouldn’ do ‘s ‘ny harmmmmmmm.’” (Lewis, B, XIII, IX)

Orthographically, vowels and consonants can be prolonged (e.g., ‘Grrrreat!’, ‘Eeeeexcellent!’, ‘Na-tur-a-lly!’), or deleted (‘an’ for ‘and,’ ‘bott’l): At last his brow cleared, and his “Gnight!” rang virile power (Lewis, B, VII,III) Well, don’t you go far, ‘cause dinner’ll be ready in a minute (O’Neill, W, II).

20

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

1.10

Rhythm The combination of different patterns of pitches, loudness, syllabic duration and speech tempo produce as we speak variations in the rhythm of that verbal-nonverbal flow (apart, that is, from the norm of any given language), from very smooth to very jerky. Drawling and clipping, for instance, influence rhythm greatly, from the staccato or jerky effect produced by the clipping of certain syllables (e.g., ‘Well, I’m gonna go righ’ now ‘n see what’s keepin’ h’m!’) to the smooth and sort of gliding of the glissando effect of drawling (e.g., ‘Weeell, I’m going to go rrigh — t nnow ‘n see what is keeping him!’), as well as the irregular rhythm of faltering voice: fue tanto [don Quixote’s annoyance], que, con voz atropellada y tartamuda lengua, lanzando vivo fuego por los ojos, dijo:/ — ¡Oh bellaco villano […]¡ (Cervantes, DQ, I, XLVI). “Please — please don’t — speak of that?” she faltered (Grey, RT, XII)14

The incisive and critical seventeenth-century Spanish Quevedo differentiated several conversational rhythms: [The speakers] Unos hablaban de hilván [fast and hurriedly, from ‘hilvanar,’ basting], otros a borbotones [impetuously, bubbling out and wanting to say everything at once, from ‘borbotón, ‘bubbling’], otros a corretadas [like running], otros habladorísimos hablaban a cántaros [profusely, from ‘cántaro,’ large water jar] (Quevedo, VC)

1.11

The visual representation of primary qualities and other paralinguistic phenomena As with other aspects of live speech, writing people have always strived to express its reality through orthographic and punctuating systems, which they have been using with greater and greater freedom since the realistic narrative literature of the nineteenth-century. Besides the examples illustrating the discussion of paralanguage, many more literary quotations will be found throughout the three volumes. Readers should ponder the various ways of representing paralinguistic features already used, and also the possible additional modifications beyond the prescribed norms, legitimately as long as they succeed in conveying to the beholder the acoustic effects they purport to represent. This would link with Chapter 4.2 and 3 of Volume I (to which readers are also referred), regarding the limitation of words, the ineffability of certain ideas and feelings, and the further constraints of writing and its possible ‘orality.’ In order to avoid unnecessary duplication, the topic of punctuation and orthographic representation as applies to loudness and the rest of the primary qualities (as well as suggestions for the visual evocation of other paralinguistic phenomena) can be

Paralanguage, I

partly found, when discussing the many plausible visual renderings in comic books and cartoons (Chapter 4, on paralinguistic alternants), but above all in Chapter 5 of Volume III, devoted entirely to punctuation.

1.12

Conclusion Apart from the unquestionable importance of primary qualities as basic components of everyday speech, it would be shortsighted to try to isolate that cluster of voice features from the inherent visual features of the face and body, particularly the former, as discussed in Chapter 3 of Volume I. The image a man has of an attractive woman when he thinks of her may be composed of the following dual visual-acoustic portrait: the timbre of her voice, its habitual pitch range, or the pitch she uses to express specific ideas or reactions, as well as her generally lively loudness, the characteristic slightly nasal resonance, her melodious intonation contours, how she sometimes drawls certain syllables to give them an especial emphasis, and the smooth rhythm of her delivery, all become alive again in his imagination, that is, as they travel most vividly through time. But he would not be able to reconstruct that voice without the dynamic part of her speech any more than he would think of her without imagining her face, for those rather lively pitch and intonation features are always translated into equally lively facial and manual speech markers; likewise, as the drawling of her syllables coincides sometimes with her long gazing, the smooth rhythm of her face, hands and body as she speaks is precisely what evokes the rhythm of her voice.15 Those acoustic and visual aspects of hers are judged by him according to his own personal and cultural esthetic values, which he applies to those basic qualities of both her voice and her kinesic behaviors. And just as these audible and visual qualities are so important in the imaginative reconstruction of the person — to the point that we may even act on them later on — so are they on a first encounter for forming in us that first impression that will condition further interactions after an interview, between doctor/nurse-patient, teacher-pupil, etc.

1.13

Topics for interdisciplinary research 1.A comparative intercultural study of primary qualities. 2.A comparative study of primary qualities in different geographic areas of the same language (e.g.U.K.and India). 3.Pathology of primary qualities. 4.Social perception of primary qualities in interaction: basic features and attitudinal features.

21

22

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

5.Primary qualities in the professions. 6.Social stratification of primary qualities. 7.Primary qualities in the novel. 8.Primary qualities in the theater: stage directions and performance. 9.Primary qualities in the cinema: naturalness and affectation transculturally. 10.Primary qualities in the movies and the theater: a comparative study. 11.Ontogenetic development of primary qualities. 12.Psychopathology of primary qualities. 13.Correlation between primary qualities and kinesic behavior in speech. 14.Morphology and semantics of intonation. 15.Problems of primary qualities in literary translation: intercultural equivalence and substitution of language and nonverbal systems. 16.Attitudinal primary qualities in a given language. 17.The primary qualities in television commercials. 18.The primary qualities in political candidates and in their debates. 19.The primary qualities in the classroom teacher. 20.The primary qualities of television talk-show hosts and hostesses. 21.The primary qualities in cartoon-film characters. 22.The primary qualities of young children. 23.The primary qualities of the very elderly. 24.The primary qualities of the foreign speaker. 25.The evocation of primary qualities in the novel.

Chapter 2

Paralanguage, II Qualifiers or voice types

Old Fezziwig […] called out, in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice (Dickens, MC, II) the harsh, hoarse, weak raven’s croak he used to speak with (Maurier, T, I 33) –Oh! mais comme c’est ennuyeux! dit la veille dame, d’une voix haute et flûtée (Montherland, C, VIII) Prince Tsugu Akihito […] on Aug. 15, 1945 […] listened silently […] as the reedy voice of his father, Emperor Hirohito, crackled on the radio, telling a shocked Japanese people that he had decided to surrender (New York Times, 8 Jan., 1989)

2.1

Introduction16 Despite the many possible semantic changes effected by primary qualities, interpersonal communication would be most limited if we did not possess the many qualifiers or voice types which truly attest to its unique complexity, although one may refer to them quite vaguely: ‘She said it in a tone of voice that showed…,’ ‘It wasn’t what she said, but how she said it!’: Munshin’s voice was taking on new tones with every phrase (Mailer, DP, XVI)

Such expressions refer mostly to voice types which many speakers should really know how to identify with the correct description or label. Whether or not we identify them as speakers or as narrative writers, different qualifiers succeed each other in our spoken discourse, especially in certain situations, in such a way that the same verbal message can acquire, through a concrete type of voice, a very specific and efficacious value: The richness of his deep voice [Godfrey’s] added its own indescribable charm to the interesting business question which he had just addressed to me (Collins, M, ‘Second Period,’ II) That’s right,” answered Wetzel, his deep voice softening until it was singularly low and rich (Grey, LT, XX)

24

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

This voice modifiers are determined by various factors: biological, due mainly to permanent normal or abnormal anatomical configuration of the larynx, lips, tongue, etc., but above all physiological (i.e. direction of respiratory air, type of vocal-band opening and vibration and amount of air escaping through them, muscular tension, etc.), in turn affected by psychological and emotional variables. But the communicational importance of the anatomical and physiological aspects of paralinguistic qualifiers lies above all in their sociocultural functions, an extremely complex series of uncontrollable or controllable voice effects which, in either case, are socially perceived and judged according to established values, both universally (e.g. whispering of intimacy) and culturally (e.g. laryngealization followed by falsetto in a very British ‘What?!’ of surprise and unbelief). Further, they are intimately related to bodily expression (first of all to the ‘speaking face,’ as discussed in Chapter 3 of Volume I), since they often appear in combination with congruent kinesic behaviors (e.g. the voice and gesture of intimate whispering, harsh voice), modifying from syllables to much longer speech segments. In fact, they can also be permanent traits in the person’s speech and acknowledged as a person’s distinguishing primary qualities (e.g. So-andso’s permanent husky voice) qualifying words, paralinguistic differentiators (e.g. a strident laughter) and alternants (e.g. a creaky moan). But, as will be seen, qualifiers confront the researcher with the following problems: (a) the ambiguity of many phonetic definitory labels (e.g. harsh, hoarse, shrill), due to insufficient knowledge of speech anatomy and physiology, and — through neglect of its etymology (often being of onomatopoeic origin) — the inaccurately learned association between the word used (the sign) and the sound one believes it represents (its referent); (b) the ambiguity in the ordinary speaker’s usage, as many of the impressionistic labels are used indistinctively; (c) lack of labels for certain effects; (d) lack of accurate physiological descriptions that would truly differentiate these effects, instead of the confusing discrepancies found sometimes; (e) the application of different labels to the same phenomenon, not only in conversation, but in literature (e.g. ‘He said in a rough voice’) leaving it up to the reader or listener to figure out what exactly ‘rough’ means); (f) lack of a transcription symbol (even when the vocal effect has been identified) to use on paper when the presence of that feature is relevant enough to have it recorded; and (g) no attempts to represent them in a text with qualifying symbols (e.g. for falsetto of surprise) as we do with other punctuation marks.17 What follows suggests a comprehensive system (susceptible of further refinements) with a view to a deeper understanding of colloquial references and a more accurate use of the terms involved in everyday conversation and in literature. The discussion is based mostly on the English language, but cultural and subcultural repertoires ought to be identified for each language. Although not always done here, individual qualifiers should be analyzed in terms of: (a) normal or abnormal anatomical configuration of the organ involved; (b) muscular physiology (e.g. velic

Paralanguage, II

25

closure); (c) phonetic label (e.g. glottal stop, harsh); (d) auditory effect (e.g. twang), (e) voice type or quality (e.g. husky); (f) social label (e.g. authoritative); (g) phonological function, if any (e.g. whispered voice in Hindi); (h) paralinguistic function (e.g. to express anger); (i) abnormal occurrence (e.g. harshness); (j) scalar degrees or lack of them; (k) concurrent verbal, paralinguistic or kinesic behaviors; and (l) transcription or notation symbols for recording voice qualities. The term ‘control’ applied to the various parameters means not only voluntary control (not the case in many disorders), but the fact that a speech-producing or speech-modifying element (i.e. the tongue or the mandible) determines the specific quality. Fig. 2.1, ‘Paralinguistic Voice Qualifiers or Voice Types,’ shows only the basic forms, using both phonetic and impressionistic labels. It shows that a clear-cut differentiation has not yet been established, and that impressionistic references to perhaps pancultural voice qualities may at times respond to the particular evocation contained in the specific word or verbal expression in each language. Breathing control egressive speech ingressive speech spasmodic speech Laryngeal control soft whispering normal whispering stage whispering murmured voice breathy voice glottal stop creaky voice whispery creaky voice harsh creaky voice harsh whispery creaky voice falsetto voice whispery falsetto whispery creaky falsetto ventricular falsetto pipe voice harsh voice harsh whispery voice harsh creaky voice harsh falsetto harsh whispery falsetto harsh creaky falsetto harsh whispery creaky falsetto

deep harsh whispery (ginny) voice strident voice shrill voice squeaky voice screeching voice squealing voice squawking voice metallic voice husky voice hoarse voice (dry/wet/rough) gruff voice croaky voice raucous growling voice tremulous voice stammering voice tense voice lax voice Esophageal control vocal esophageal voice belched esophageal voice ventricular voice Pharyngeal control pharyngealized voice pharyngeal husky voice muffled voice hollow voice

26

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

faucalized voice gulping voice Velopharyngeal control nasal voice deep harsh creaky nasopharyngeal hoarse nasalized voice husky nasal voice whining voice bleating voice whimpering voice twangy voice moaning voice grunting voice head-cold voice adenoidal voice nasopharyngeal voice Lingual control retroflex voice velarized voice palatalized voice alveolarized voice Labial control close-lip-rounding voice horizontal-lip-constriction voice

horizontal-lip-expansion voice vertical-lip-constriction voice diagonal-upward lip-expansion voice diagonal-downward lip-expansion trembling lips Mandibular control wide-open-jaw voice half-closed-jaw voice: muttering, mumbling protracted-jaw voice retracted-jaw voice rotating-jaw voice trembling-jaw voice Articulatory control overarticulated voice general misarticulation: cluttering/slurry voice frontal/lateral/nasal lisping lalling lambdacism Articulatory-tension control tense articulation lax articulation Objectual control

Figure 2.1.Paralinguistic qualifiers

2.2

Breathing control By breathing or respiratory control is meant the modifications undergone by our speech according to how we breath, not only because of the natural physiology of breathing, but by the modification of five factors: a.Direction, as speech is mostly eggressive, but also (possible only in short utterances) ingressive (symbolized here with [>]), as in uncontrolled, reflex-like verbal reactions of fearful surprise, expectancy or sheer terror (‘>Aah!,’ ‘>Oh, my God!’), emotional questioning (e.g. clipped or drawled ‘>What!?’): ‘Ah-h-h!’ came her strange, intaken cry, as, on the reflex, she started, turned and fled (Lawrence, WL, I)

It is also used in the feminine Swedish, Danish and Finnish affirmation ‘>Ja!’; but most typically, in both the ‘>Yeah!’ and ‘>No!’ heard constantly in the Atlantic

Paralanguage, II

27

Provinces of Canada, particularly as a second affirmation or negation, as in: ‘Winters aren’t as cold as they used to be, >¡No!’; or in a dialogue: ‘Are you open until late today?’ — ‘Oh, yes we are! >Yeah!’). Ingressive air through either mouth or nares is used to utter many paralinguistic alternants (e.g. a reflex hiss of physical hurt, a contemptuous sniff, a single-pulse laugh). Often a prolonged air ingression allows us to foresee an important statement: “See that steamer out there?[…]”/ “Yes,” said Suzanne with a little gasp. She inhaled her breath as she pronounced this word which gave it an airy breathlessness which had a touch of demure pathos in it. “Oh, it is perfect!” (Dreiser G, III, VII)

b.The channel, mostly the mouth, but also the pharyngeal and nasal cavities, or any two combined. c.The flow (directly related to rate or speed) can be regular or spasmodic and out of phase with speech (e.g. in spasmodic laughter, in distressed breathing, while emotionally speaking or sobbing, in states of anxiety, after physical exertion, during asthmatic breathing). “Thquire!” said Mr. Sleary, who was troubled with asthma, and whose breath came far too thick and heavy for the letter s, “Your thervant!” (Dickens, HT, VI) Wetmore, breathing thickly from the anxiety of getting through the crowd without spilling his tea (Howells, HNF, III, V) ‘Tell us about it again,’ said Zerkow, his bloodless lower lip moving against the upper, his claw-like fingers feeling about his mouth and chin […]/ He was breathing short, his limbs trembled a little (Norris, M, III) She seemed to have lost her deference. Her breast rose and fell as though with secret anger (Galsworthy, MP, I, VI).

d.The duration or length of the inhalation and exhalation phases, between fast (e.g. in a gasp, a panic-stricken ‘¡Help!,’ a quick ‘¡Ugh!’) and prolonged or slow (e.g. a long, anguished ‘Aaaaaah,’ an overdrawled ‘Weeeell’ after drawing air in). e.The respiratory pressure or force, which can eloquently qualify sounds, either because of its lightness, as in a relaxed conversation, or its marked strength, as in the interjectional expressions just mentioned. On the other hand, sighed speech (seen as a paralinguistic differentiator in the next chapter) involves variable prolonged inhalations followed by still longer exhalations: ‘My!’ sighed his mother [Elmer’s], ‘You’re getting so educated […]’ (Lewis, EG, V).

28

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

2.3

Laryngeal control Modal voice is the neutral mode or phonation setting that uses moderate, regular vibration of the vocal folds, within which Laver (1980: 109–111) differentiates the subtypes of ‘chest voice’ (as the standard or neutral mode) and ‘head voice,’ although others (e.g. Perkins 1971: 494), prefer the term ‘heavy voice’ to ‘chest voice’; but there are other basic phonatory settings which depend on the degree of vocal-fold opening (e.g. for breathy voice) and on how the bands vibrate (e.g. for harshness).

2.3.1 Whispered voice Having alluded to the physiology of whispering in Chapter 3.4 of Volume I, the distinction must be made here between three types of whispering: soft whispered voice, which may be thought of as ‘mouth-to-ear whispering,’ used for utmost secrecy or when speaking is utterly improper, which can be also ‘oversoft’: Miriam […] whispering below her breath, ‘men have been struck dead for a less offence!’ (Hawthorne, MF, XVII)

normal whispered voice, which many speakers cannot produce continuously (intermittently applying excessive pressure and producing normal voice), the sort of whispering others complain about during a performance, at the movies or in class: Eleanor had Eveline to tea at the hotel and they sat in the stuffy lounge talking in refined whispers (Dos Passos, 42P);

forced whispered voice (even ‘overforced’), so-called ‘stage whisper,’ which, depending like the others on a proxemic relationship, is used to span nonconversational distances (as from a stage to the farthest parts of the house), to repress anger or indignation, etc.: ‘Yes, yes — I own it,’ she cried under her breath, with a drowsy fervour of manner and tone which was quite peculiar to her (Hardy, RN, I, VI) ‘Then curse him; and curse him! said Bolwood, breaking into a whispered fury (Hardy, FMC, XXXI) And in her dramatic stage-whisper she [Polly] had added, rising from fancy to still more preposterous fancy: ‘Even her nose is like a trunk’ (Huxley, PCP, II) “I’d be grateful if you’d keep your street pick-ups out of my wife’s house,” he said in a whisper of rage (Wilson, ASA, II, II) Yossarian goggled with amazement as Dobbs in the hospital ward pulled a gun out of his pocket and displayed it high in the air. “Are you crazy?” he hissed frantically. “Put it away and keep your idiot voice down” (Heller, C22, XXVII)

Normally, whispering is used, for instance:

Paralanguage, II

– –

29

to express intimacy and establish secrecy or confidentiality, at times conveyed by the whispering itself more than by the topic discussed; for manipulative purposes, as it is to gossip and propagate slander and negative information about others (hence the negative connotation of ‘murmuring’ (a synonym of whispering for some phoneticians): a whisperer separates the best of friends (Proverbs 16:28, NKJ) whisperers, backbiters, haters of God (Romans 1:29–30, NKJ)18

– – –

to make short statements or end longer ones when one wishes to express sincerity, concern or friendly advice; for affiliative purposes, as it seems to presuppose a closer bond between speaker and listener; to express admiration: All were silent for a moment, and then Jane spoke./ ‘And he [Tarzan] is out there,’ she said in an awe-hushed whisper (Burroughs, TA, XXIV)

–

to avoid being heard by others: “Oh, I wish Papa wouldn’t brag so!” breathed Irene to her sister, where they stood a little apart, looking away together (Howells, RSL, IV)

It must be added that the ingressive ‘Oh!,’ ‘What?!’ or ‘Yeah!’ are usually uttered in a whisper, but it is true that, as I read in a magazine advertisement for perfume (always supposedly subtle), “If you want to capture someone’s attention, whisper,” for, it adds, “a whisper is almost impossible to resist.” Naturally, whispering can be applied to other voice types, (e.g. breathy whispered voice conveys sensual intimacy): “You bastard,” he hissed, his visage gray and set. “You’ll never live — to brag of thet again! (Grey, MR, XI) Wal, I hev my opinion,” said the teamster, in a gruff whisper (Grey, LT, I) ”I hear footsteps. Get the rifles,” he said in a fierce whisper (Grey, LT, IV)

Dickens, not exaggerating, but with perceptively realistic dramatism, outlines the negative aspects of whispering: One disagreeable result of whispering is, that it seems to evoke an atmosphere of silence, haunted by the ghosts of sound — strange cracks and tickings, the rustling of garments that have no substance in them, and the tread of dreadful feet, that would leave no mark on the sea-sand or the winter snow (Dickens, BH, XXXII)

30

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

It would be most interesting to investigate the functions of whispering cross-culturally. Phonologically, it is a feature of Oklahoman Comanche, and Ladefoged (1971: 12–14) refers to the phonological opposition of whispered voice, which he calls ‘murmur,’ in Indo-Aryan languages (e.g. Hindi, Urdu, Sindhi, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Bihari and Marwari), and to some murmured consonants in Southern Bantu languages (e.g. Zulu); Key (1975a: 47–48), who mentions how in embarrassment “the voice may dwindle to a whisper” — as I have observed in many cultures as a typical feminine behavior of embarrassment and coyness — describes how in one of the Naga tribes of India “where the ceremonial marriage is very formal, all the talking must be in a whisper when the bride and procession enter the bridegroom’s house,” and that Sir James Frazer reported in 1919 instances of a newly-widowed woman in both British East Africa and among the Californian Indians who “if she could speak at all, was permitted only to whisper […] for several months in some cases.” As for the kinesic correlates, the literary examples used to illustrate whispering suggest, and sometimes describe as well, the visual aspects of whispered voice: the hideous old man […] pointing at him, and whispering to another man, with his face averted, who sat beside him (Dickens, OT, XXXIV) ‘Halloa!’ returned Starbuck, turning round not a single inch as he spoke; still earnestly but whisperingly urging his crew; his face set like a flint from Stubb’s (Melville, MD, XLVIII)

Phonatory disorders, determined by anomalous vocal fold movements, are aphonias commonly referred to as aphonic voice. Both complete aphonia (total loss of the voice, during which whispered speech flows smoothly) and partial aphonia are caused by physical factors like abuse of the vocal folds (e.g. after much raucous shouting) or by hysterical conversion; but there is also an intermittent aphonia, in which voice and whisper alternate during speech. One type of intermittent paralinguistic aphonia is spastic aphonia (also called ‘hysterical disphonia’), during which alternate whispering and voicing spasmodically up to several times within a single word — usually with some breathiness or hoarseness (Moore 1971: 537) — a manifestation of ‘conversion hysteria,’ that is, when a mental conflict is converted into this physical symptom, which we can observe, for instance, during or in the aftermath of an emotional conflict. 2.3.2 Murmured voice (also called ‘sotto voce’), for which ‘murmuring’ (from the evoking Latin echoic ‘murmurare’) is the best term, is neither whisper nor full voice, uttered in an undertone less than distinctive to the ear and perceived as ‘a stream,’ with almost complete vocal fold vibration, without the sighing quality of whisper (but some breathiness) and with more tension, air pressure and friction. Some phoneticians use it as synonymous with whispering and some dictionaries even refer to ‘incomplete articulation’ (equating it with mumbling), which seems to negate ‘murmuring’ its

Paralanguage, II

31

status as distinct from whispering (i.e. without any hissing or tension). ‘Murmuring,’ associated with lower registers and with complaint or dissatisfaction, denotes in literature mostly satisfaction and love: ‘Yes, — my love, yes — my love […]’/ ‘Yes,’ she murmured, nestling very sweet and close to him] (Lawrence, WL, XIII), He [waking up] murmured drowsily, and stirred (Wolfe, LHA, XXVI)

A similar voice is crooning (WNWD, “sing or hum in a low, gentle tone”), often associated with a sensual attitude: he leaned over her and she kept crooning, ‘Love me up, kid,’ in a hotsweet buzzing (Dos Passos, 42P, ‘Mac’)

And another is humming (WNWD, “to make a low, continuous, murmuring sound like that of a bee or a motor”): La chica murmuraba el pasodoble (Sánchez Ferlosio, J, 212)

Muttering can combine with other characteristics: ‘Yes; you love me, don’t you?’ she [Miriam, to a child] murmured deep in her throat, almost as if she were in a trance (Lawrence, SL, VII) “My eye” said Gudrun, sotto voce [to Ursula], with apprehensive horror of people in the mass [looking at the crowd] (Lawrence, WL, XIV)

2.3.3 Breathy voice,19 closer to full voice but still letting too much air through for lack of sufficient muscular effort, since the vocal folds produce “a sigh-like mixture of breath and voice” (Catford 1977: 101) which causes the hissing or sighing quality (common also to whispery voice), possible also in combinations with other laryngeal features. This “combination of vocal fold sound and whisper noise produced by turbulent air” (Moore 1971: 537) adds a powerful paralinguistic element to speech, associated with uncontrollable nonverbal expression of sexual arousal (alternating with whisperiness) — thus the name of ‘telephone breathers’ given to obscene callers — stereotyped film sex symbols and anyone trying to seduce someone else. It is the voice effect used by male and female models in television commercials advertising perfume or shaving and body lotions, smooth fabrics or any other products that may suggest sensual intrapersonal or interpersonal intimacy (thus an important tool of today’s advertising, with manipulative consequences far beyond the actual purchase a product). But it is generally a quality of emotional reactions, weariness, shock, confusion, anxiety, facing difficult decisions or answering difficult questions under tension, giving serious advice, etc.: He [Gerald] said […] at last, forcing the words from his lungs, in a voice so soft and low, it sounded like a dream within her, not spoken in the outer air (Lawrence, WL, XIV)

32

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

As a speech disorder, apart from organic problems, breathiness can also be caused by fatigue and illness. 2.3.4 Glottal stop. Within the scale of vocal fold closures, from whisper through breathiness to full voice, the single-pulse phonatory phenomenon of glottal stop (identified in Chapter 3.4, Volume I) is the briefest instance of voice sound. Catford (1977: 104) distinguishes between “full glottal stop” (for which he asks us to make a series of “gentle, minimal, glottal stops” letting them “explode mildly into a very brief h-like sound: [h h h]”) and “anterior glottal stop” (for which we should “constrict the larynx as for anterior voice,” producing “a slightly sharper, slightly more high-pitched release sound”). A especial form of glottal voice stop produced as a momentary, minimal qualifier is glottal catch, or ‘catching’ of the voice, when it is suddenly and uncontrollably interrupted by the extreme glottal closure caused by emotion (often with a ‘lump’ in the throat) or simply out of nervousness or embarrassment: (Tom utters another groan. Laura glances at him with a faint, apologetic smile. Her voice catches a little): Mother’s afraid I’m going to be an old maid (Williams, GM, I, II)

2.3.5 Laryngealized voice, or pulsated voice, also called creaky voice20 and (because of its frying-like or bubbling-like quality) glottal fry, (identified in Chapter 3.4, Volume I) is actually phonological (cf. Laver 1980: 126) in Arabic, Chadic and Nilotic languages (of the Charie-Nile group, from the upper Nile to Kenya and Tanganyka), sometimes in Danish, and characterizes tone languages like Chinese because of their easily identifiable creaky quality of syllables with low or falling tones. Although possible by itself (e.g. a child imitating a machine-gun, or as prolonged hesitation vowel), it is caused when lifting something heavy (even more while talking), by physical pain (not only with verbal speech, but in an alternant like a ‘laryngealized moan’), and by old age (or imitating the elderly): “I do not think,” said Sir Edgar, and his cracked old voice was additionally broken with emotion, “that […]” (Wilson, ASA, I, II) His accent seemed more cockney and glottal as he got more worked up (Wilson, ASA, II, I) ‘Goodnight Miss Oglethorpe,’ said Mr. Fallik creakily [“a tall man with grey eyes and eyebrows”] and if you cant be good be careful (Dos Passos, MT, II, IV)

Creakiness can be an important attitudinal paralinguistic behavior in many languages, for instance: in Spanish, the Madrid ‘¡Desde luego!’ (‘Why…!,’ ‘The idea!,’ ‘That was an awful thing to say/do!’), French low-pitched ‘Mais naturellement!,’ ‘Mais oui!,’

Paralanguage, II

33

‘Ooooh!,’ the very British higher-pitched and drawled greeting ‘Aaaah!,’ and the general English laryngealization of low-tone stretches of speech (e.g. a vehement ‘Why, of course not’). Key (1975a: 47) mentions also the sensuous effect of creakiness: “Molly’s famous soliloquy (Joyce’s Ulysses) was pungently recited recently by actress Anna Manahan, with frequent laryngealization over whole utterances.” In a conversation, there is often a speaker’s turn-preclosing laryngealization that a listener may perceive as a cue for becoming the speaker. Over whole stretches of very low-pitched speech, it denotes boredom, reluctance (‘Oh, not now!’), suppressed rage (‘¡How dare you!’), unwilling concession (‘Well, uh…’), “stalling or lazines, as one talks when one hates to get up in the morning” (Key 1975a: 47); and, on the positive side, comforting words (‘Now, now…’), a man or woman admiring a baby or a small pet (‘Oooh, just look at him!’), a woman talking lovingly to a man in a babyish voice (often referred to as purring, from the cat’s sound of satisfaction), used also with a pet, or just out of sympathy, affectionately or babyishly (like children coaxing adults): ‘the little dear,’ [the little boy Jimmy] came the nurse’s voice low and purry and reassuring, ‘he’s been sitting up worrying all night and he never bothered us once’ (Dos Passos, MT, I, IV)

Creaky voice can be modified in turn by whisperiness and harshness in what should be called whispery creaky voice (Catford 1964: 32), harsh creaky voice (possibly in the example of suppressed rage seen above), and harsh whispery creaky voice (e.g. intensifying a reluctant ‘Oh, not now!’ with added roughness), etc. La dueña [of the café, doña Rosa] lo llama con una voz seca, cascada; con una voz que parece el chasquido de un timbre con la campanilla partida (Cela, C, I, 53)

2.3.6 Falsetto voice. Falsetto (defined in Chapter 3.4, Volume I), also called ‘light voice,’ does not seem to have phonological value in any language, but it definitely performs important functions as a paralinguistic qualifier of both words and paralanguage itself, besides being associated to, for instance, a young girl’s innocence, or feigned innocence. Besides Pike’s reference to ‘yodelling,’ Laver (1980: 120) notes that in one of the Mayan languages of Mexico they use falsetto as a sign of respect in greeting, even throughout an entire formal exchange, and Key (1975a: 111) refers to the female speech in the Gbeya people of the Central African Republic, often modified by falsetto, apparently in the expression of “emotions and attitudes.” It is definitely a feature of Black American speech, both in males and females, but with functions not dissimilar to those played among white North American speakers, only a little higher in pitch and typically spreading over longer utterances, but in general in the same situations: surprise or indignation (e.g. ‘¡¿What?!’); emphatic affirmation (‘¡Yeah!,’ and the typical ‘¡Yeah, man!’ of the black young male); in several forms of laughter (where blacks may

34

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

differ from whites in their kinesic cobehaviors, such as loosely clapping hands while twisting the body), common to African black speakers; in enthusiastic approval (e.g. ‘¡Wonderful!’, ‘¡Ooooh!’); the typical television host’s or comedian’s drawled and falsetto ‘¡Ooooh!’ confirming the success of a joke or someone else’s funny intervention; and in various forms of screaming, singing and laughing. He spoke in a drawling falsetto that was meant to be an imitation of Marjorie’s voice. ‘Like a sweet little innocent girlie’ (Huxley, PCP, V)

Three even higher forms are: ventricular falsetto (sometimes called ‘seal voice’), by very severe compressive effort of the whole larynx, and extreme pulmonic effort” (Laver 1980: 139); the one mentioned by Hollien (1974: 127) as “usually referred to as the ‘flute,’ ‘whistle’ or ‘pipe’ register […] exhibited by a few women and children”; and piping voice, a “high, falsetto voice” (Laver 1972: 195): ‘Pretty cattle, very pretty,’ said Marshall [looking at the cows], in a queer high falsetto voice (Lawrence, WL, II) –Oh! mais comme c’est ennuyeux! dit la veille dame, d’une voix haute et flûtée (Montherland, C, VIII)

Combinations with other voice types are, for instance, whispery falsetto (e.g. sometimes crying women and children), creaky falsetto (e.g. a very high-pitched ‘Eeugh!!’ of repugnance,), and whispery creaky falsetto (of very similar functions, also typical of children, and of women who perhaps affect exaggerated innocence), but others are also possible: ‘Did Mr. Tierney say when he’d be back?’ he asked in a husky falsetto (Joyce, D, ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’)

As for the abnormal occurrence of falsetto voice, it was discussed when dealing with pitch within primary qualities, and with the larynx in Chapter 3.4 of Volume I, as eunuchoid voice. 2.3.7 Harsh voice, characterized by laryngeal strain and tension, extreme vocal-fold adduction and low pitch, is loosely referred to with a confusing variety of labels: intense, grating, metallic, raucous, rasp, rough, shrill, strident, throaty, and even creaking (cf. Perkins 1971: 496, on the disagreement within speech pathology). Naturally, people’s everyday conversation and even novels are plagued by an indistinctive usage, ‘harshness’ being more frequent, although at times we may wonder what type of voice the writer was imagining as ‘harsh’: Come here, you born devil! [a dog] Come here! D’ye hear?’/ […] Mr. Sikes spoke in the very harshest key of a very harsh voice (Dickens, OT, XV)

Paralanguage, II

35

’Hold your tongue!’ Poole said to her, with a ferocity of accent that testified to his own jangled nerves (Stevenson, DJMH, 60)21

At any rate, harshness is always disagreeable and adds to verbal language (and often to paralinguistic alternants) the meaning of negative attitudes and feelings (anger, ridicule, scorn, contempt, cruelty, violent emotions). It may combine in different ways (e.g. harsh creaky voice, harsh whispery voice) which, for instance, O’Neill may have had in mind in Desire Under the Elms, when he imagined Eben speaking “fiercely,” “vengefully,” “scornfully,” or “with vengeful passion.” Others are: harsh falsetto (e.g. in a harshly expressed indignant surprise), harsh whispery falsetto (e.g. the same reaction if it must be whispered), harsh creaky falsetto (e.g. an elderly person’s indignant surprise), and harsh whispery creaky falsetto (e.g. the same one uttered in a whisper). The harsh quality can appear even in audible breathing: “Hush,” he said fiercely (Steinbeck, P, IV) He heard the old man’s harsh panting breath (Doctorow, R, XX)

Laver refers to ‘whisky voice,’ ‘ginny voice’ and ‘rummy voice’ as “popular labels for the deep, harsh whispery voices that tend to signal one result of excessive habitual consumption of alcohol” (Laver 1972: 197), also attitudinally combined with other equally negative characteristics: La voz [Silda’s] era vibrante, desgarrada, con matices aguardentosos [like ‘ginny’], entre provocativa y fiera (Pereda, S, V)

2.3.8 Strident Voice and Shrill Voices. What we call strident (From Latin ‘stridere,’ stridulation being the high-pitched creaking sound of crickets and some other insects) “has few characteristics to call its own, having been described as harshness, harshness with high pitch, harshness with high intensity, and hoarseness with high pitch” (Perkins 1971: 497). WTNID and FWNSD22 refer to a grating, rasp noise, and describe it as harsh-sounding, shrill, grating, creaking, and as the noise made by hinges. But we find other associations as well: cried Gudrun, in a high, strident voice, something like the scream of a seagull (Lawrence, WL, XIV) suddenly he pitched his voice at the prolonged rasping shout with which he [the Jew Zerkov] made his street cry (Norris, M, XII)

As for shrillness, we think of it as different from ordinary voice in its high pitch and a disagreeable quality which evokes a more piercing and penetrating sound than ‘strident.’ Shrillness (a ME. echoism ‘shrille,’ to refer to a sharp, high-pitch piercing sound, as the first part of the rooster’s cry), denotes nonhuman sounds like the piercing,

36

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

high-pitched noise made by cicadas or by a loudspeaker. Other voice types partaking of shrillness are ‘squeaking,’ ‘squealing,’ ‘screeching,’ ‘squawking’ and ‘cackling’: ‘Well?’ returns the old man, shrilly and sharply (Dickens, BH, XXI) “And what are you?” cried Willets, in shrill fury “[…] Heretic! Atheist! […] (Grey, RT, VIII) How that refined and drawling shrillness of hers got on his nerves! (Huxley, PCP, I) ‘But it’s so silly, all this political squabbling,’ said Rampion, his voice shrill with exasperation (Huxley, PCP, XXIV)

Squeaking (a ME. echoism evoking a high-pitched thin sound by animal or person) is defined by WTNID as sharp, shrill, usually short and not very loud cry or sound (which, of course, can be superimposed to speech), and by FWNSD as high-pitched, thin, sharp and penetrating; in fact, one of the evoking, quasiparalinguistic or language-like sounds we hear daily (not all of them in each culture): the squeaking of oars in the oarlocks, of shoes on a wooden floor, of boots on powdery snow, of hinges, of an old ship (which also ‘moans’) loudly or softly according to the calmness or roughness of the sea, etc., besides combining with other voices: ‘Don’t open another bottle for me,’ said Ashley quickly. His voice sounded a little squeaky, as if he were ill at ease (Woolf, Y, 1880) startled by a shrill squeaky voice in his ear (Dos Passos, MT, 1, IV) All would be lovely, all would be calm, except for Doris’ voice squeaking like a breathless mouse (Laurence, SA, III)

Screeching (also from a ME. echoism ‘scrichen’) is defined by WTNID as high, shrill, piercing cry as in terror or pain, and by FWMSD as strident and shrieking, but also applied, for instance, to the breaks of a car and the night owl: The woman’s voice shrilled in Harkand’s ears like the screech of chalk on a blackboard […] Her voice went on in a faint monotonous screech setting his teeth on edge (Dos Passos, MT, II, III) “You shut up and eat it,” Guinevere screeched [to the little girl]. “I’ll get the strap if you don’t” (Mailer, BS, VI)

Squealing (another ME. echoism squelen) is defined by WTNID as shrill, sharp and prolonged sound, and by FWNSD as more prolonged than squeaking and expressing anger, fear or pain. Pigs squeal, as does chalk on a blackboard sometimes (WYNID), although the latter is thought of more as ‘screeching.’ ‘Then why did you come back at all?’ cried Halliday, his voice rising to a kind of squeal (Lawrence, WL, IV)

Paralanguage, II

37

The boy uttered a squeal of pain as the stick cut his thigh [beaten by his father] (Joyce, D, ‘Counterparts’) He slipped in the middle of the brook and nearly fell with her. Allie squealed (Grey, UPT, VII).

Squawking (evoking a loud, harsh cry, as of a parrot or chicken), is defined by WTNID as a loud harsh abrupt raucous outcry like the squawking of frightened hens; different, therefore, from the previous four voice types because of its abruptness and, although also harsh, not as piercing as screeching, nor as long as squealing. ‘Now wait a minute,’ Doris says, a high hurt squawking, like an unwilling hen the rooster treads (Laurence, SA, I)

As for cackling, another echoism (ME. ‘ckelen,’ related to Latin ‘cacillare’ and Greek ‘gackern’), it refers mostly to speaking or laughing brokenly and noisily and rather shrilly: His small tight freckled impish face was creased again by his high cackle [of laughter] (Wolfe, LHA, XXIV)

2.3.9 Metallic voice is another ambiguous concept variously described, sometimes like the voice qualities just discussed: ‘sharp,’ ‘harsh,’ ‘grating,’ ‘brassy,’ ‘bright,’ ‘clear,’ ‘clean,’ ‘keen,’ ‘piercing,’ ‘penetrating,’ ‘ringing,’ even strident. Perkins (1971: 497) mentions it along with stridency as another term for harshness; which, he says, can be a phonatory or resonance problem. But ‘strident’ and ‘metallic’ will always denote two types of harshness (English ‘strident’ and ‘metallic,’ French ‘strident’ and ‘métallique,’ Spanish ‘estridente’ and ‘metálica,’ German ‘scharf ’ and ‘metallisch’), defying a true consensus because both seem to partake of harshness and depend on physiological and acoustic nuances much too difficult to identify. It is of no importance,’ came the strong, clanging voice of Gudrun (Lawrence, WL, X)

2.3.10 Forms of voice ‘roughness’. The impressionistic term ‘rough’ has been adopted by many specialists in voice disorders as an all-inclusive label to refer to various forms of laryngeal noise, whereas others, and literary writers, just refer to ‘hoarse,’ ‘husky,’ ‘rasp,’ ‘rough’ or ‘coarse.’ Two main types will be identified. Husky.23 Huskiness can be judged as seductively sensual in women (e.g. actress Lauren Bacall), as reflecting a husky body, or as a negative quality if, for instance, it is judged masculine in a woman: She said huskily, ‘Darling, which pair will you be wearing tonight?’ The feminine question sounded oddly in Miss Warren’s deep masculine voice (Greene, ST, II, I)

38

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

a woman’s voice called out […] it was an attractive voice with a rich huskiness which excited interest (Hailey, H, “Monday Evening,” 3)

For practical purposes, and responding to attitude as well as to social perception, it could be associated with the more ‘normal’ “deep, soft, whispery voice” (Laver 1972: 195), which we tend to feel as, for instance, ‘velvety’: In her low voice [Hilma’s], lower and more velvety than ever, she said […] the velvety huskiness of her voice never sounded so sweet to him (Norris, O, I, V; II, II)

However, the term ‘hoarse voice,’ seen below, could be applied also to a pathological form of huskiness: “Oh — I’m so sick. I feel so awful. My voice is husky and muffled, a retching of words” (Laurence, SA, VIII)

In general, it can denote different emotions, such as affection and love; Shefford took her [Ruth, their last time he’ll see her] in his arms and held her close. “Ruth — goodbye!” he said, huskily (Grey, RT, XV) “Kino,” she said huskily, “I am afraid” (Steinbeck, P, III) And when she came to a little and they brought the baby to her, she asked the nurse in trembling husky whisper […] (Dos Passos, 42P, ‘J. Ward Morehouse,’ 197)

anger; his voice was husky with anger (Longfellow, cita en SOED)

sadness; “[…] She [his young daughter] used to be the straightest child, Mr. Waythorn — ” He broke off, his voice a little thick (Wharton, OT, III) “[…]… We found him [Casey] under the car — crushed — dying — ”/ General Lodge’s voice thickened and slowed a little. He looked down (Grey, UPT, XXX)

sensuality and sexual arousal; “You ever rub your back against velvet?” she asked [seductively]/ “Don’t think so/” My voice was husky (Mailer, BS, VI) A voice woke me, a soft husky voice whose overtones were sweet [a girl] (Mailer, BS, XI) Her thin fingers pinched into my biceps. “I want to talk to you.” she said huskily. “Come up to my room” (Mailer, BS, XXIII)

happy weeping: her voice became husky because he throat was bathed in the irrepressible and continuous crying which her happiness caused her (Doctorow, R, VII)

Paralanguage, II

39

Hoarse voice — sometimes an anomaly acquired through some negative activities, which give a poor image of the speaker’s personality — is of low pitch and restricted range, sometimes falling and rising suddenly, or with moments of aphonia. It can be more or less momentary, due to emotion, choking, a cold, laryngitis, or much strain, like after singing or shouting (the typical ‘morning-after’ voice); but it can be caused also by cancer of the vocal folds and removal of part or all of one; a ruptured blood vessel, which produces swelling; by interference of one of the ventricular folds; and by vibration of interfering mucus. WYNID defines it as ‘low,’ ‘harsh,’ ‘husky,’ ‘often muffled,’ ‘with little or no resonance, as from a cold, too much talking or speaking emotionally; FWNSD as ‘harsh,’ ‘rough’ and ‘with grating effect, as from a cold or when speaking with fatigue’); and SOED links it to the voice of a raven or frog: he [a mariner] was not only red in the face, but spoke as hoarse as a crow, and his voice shook, too, like a taut rope (Stevenson, TI, XIV)

For some it is different from ‘huskiness’ in that “the vocal folds vibrate in an aperiodic, irregular or haphazard manner” (Brackett 1971: 452):24 [Neale, in love with Allie] Why, I — The thing is — Allie — you have me!” he said, a little hoarsely (Grey, UPT, VII)

Three well-know types of hoarse voice are: dry hoarseness, of increased intensity and breathiness, as we can imagine don Quixote’s in: afinándola [the ‘vihuela’] lo mejor que pudo, escupió y remondóse el pecho [clearing his throat], y luego con una voz ronquilla, aunque entonada, cantó […] (Cervantes, DQ, II, XLVI);

wet hoarseness, characterized by breathiness, low pitch and often creakiness: Lucas hablaba como si estuviese haciendo gárgaras, con la voz embarazada por la ronquera (Caballero Bonald, DDS, I, I)

rough hoarseness, with additional low-pitched sounds because the vocal folds vibrate at two locations and voice is perceived as a two-tone one. Like many other qualities, hoarseness can be coupled to other voice types, for instance, whisperiness: said the other, looking over the rails, and speaking in a hoarse whisper (Dickens, OT, XXVI)

Particularly harshness, huskiness and hoarseness appear sometimes simultaneously when voice is throaty (defined by dictionaries as ‘guttural’ or ‘hoarse’), and when it is gruff (defined as ‘harsh,’ ‘throaty,’ ‘hoarse’), identified by Laver (1972: 195) as “deep, harsh, whispery, creaky voice,” voluntarily expressing anger and other negative interpersonal attitudes:

40

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

he [the Jew Zerkow] muttered in his rasping, guttural whisper, his finger-tips wandering over his thin, catlike lips (Norris, M, III) “Let’s not start this all over again,’ she says./ […] “Start what?” My voice is gruff with suspicion (Laurence, SA, I)

Synonymous labels used in literature and in conversation to describe the quality of hoarseness (but difficult to identify as the dry, wet or rough type) are, for instance: croaking (ME. echoic ‘croken,’ as harsh, throaty and raucous, similar to the cry of a frog and a raven, both of which croak), associated also with qualities like ‘tartly’ or sour: ‘Nancy, dear!’ croaked the Jew [Fagin], in his usual voice (Dickens, OT, XXVI) So glad to possess you at Limeridge, Mr Hartright,’ he said in a querulous, croaking voice, which combined, in anything but an agreeable manner, a discordantly high tone with a drowsily languid utterance (Collins, WW, 66) His voice croaked tartly like a klaxon (Dos Passos, MT, II, V) She tried to shout “Joe!” but her voice thickened to a croak (Steinbeck, EE, XXXIX, II)

raucous (Latin ‘raucus’), described by WYNID as “disagreeably harsh and strident,” and by FWNSD as “rough, hoarse, harsh,” and as “the raucous voice of a frog”; growling (describing also the growling beast’s facial gesture), used mostly negatively, but also positively: ‘Well, then, keep quiet,’ rejoined Sikes, with a growl like that he was accustomed to use when addressing his dog (Dickens, OT, XVI) The old gentleman growled approvingly, and rang the bell for his servant (Wilde, PDG, II) George Dorset exclaimed with a sardonic growl: ‘Poor devil! […]’ (Wharton, HM, I, VII) To prolong the daze [caused by his words] he [Ethan] groped for a dazzling phrase, and brought out, in a growl of rapture: “Come along” (Wharton, EF, II)

2.3.11 Tremulous voice (Latin ‘tremulus’> ‘tremere,’ to tremble); or quavering (from ME. ‘quaveren,’ to shake), caused by muscular tremor which produces an irregular or pulsating quality because of the uneven vibrato, is typical of a nervous or emotionally overwhelmed speaker (‘There was a quaver in his voice’), found often in literature: The voice of Mr Pecksniff trembled as he spoke (Dickens, MC, II) ‘I entreat you to excuse me, Mr Hartright,’ he said in a feeble flutter (Collins, WW, 69)

Paralanguage, II

41

‘How dare you talk about Anne’s father! […] she [Mrs. Catherick] broke out, her face quivering, her voice trembling with passion (Collins, WW, 510) She protested against this with a small quaver of sound that might have been at the same time a gush of rapture (James, AP, II) “Maybe she’s forgotten it,” Mattie said in a tremulous whisper (Wharton, EF, II) Daddy let’s go away. I don’t like this man,’ whispered Ellen tremulously in her father’s ear (Dos Passos, MT, I, III) “You — you, big-hearted girl!” he [Adam] exclaimed, with a laugh that was glad, yet had a tremor in it (Grey, WW, IV) “But I’ve — I’ve nursed uncle — sat up with him — just the same as you,” said Bo, with quivering lips (Grey, MF, XVI) Yes,’ responded Jane Withersteen, with a throb in her voice [because of emotion] (Grey, RPS, I) “I don’t owe you anything,” he [Eitel] said, and his voice throbbed (Mailer, DP, XVI)

One can speak both convulsively and brokenly when crying: “Fay! — Fay Larkin!…I KNOW YOU!” he cried brokenly (Grey, RT, XII)

Naturally, each of the violent voice types we are identifying are accompanied by kinesic behaviors: Dante turned round violently and shouted […] her cheeks flushed and quivering with range:/ — Devil out of hell! (Joyce, PAYM, I)

As well, different voice types are mutually combined and displayed with the corresponding kinesics: he placed his hands before his eyes; and my voice quivered and failed me, as I beheld tears trickle fast between his fingers — a groan burst from his heaving breast. I paused; — at length, he spoke in broken accents: — ’Unhappy man! […] let me reveal my tale […] (M. Shelley, F, ‘Letter 3,’ 26).

2.3.12 Stammering voice is typical of a form of broken speech with involuntary pauses, of rapid repetitions of syllables or initial sounds, either from excitement, emotion, embarrassment, etc., or “chronically as a result of muscles spasms believed to result from mental conflicts” (WNWD): fue tanto [don Quixote’s annoyance], que, con voz atropellada y tartamuda lengua, lanzando vivo fuego por los ojos, dijo:/ — ¡Oh bellaco villano […]¡ (Cervantes, DQ, I, XLVI)

42

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

“No,” she stammered, “she — she’s left me! (Galsworthy, MP, I, VI) He [Dr. Schumann] was so amazed he almost stammered./ “W-whathaver you [La Condesa] done with those terrible young men? (Porter, SF, II)

But the most common type of pathological brokenness is stuttering
: “[…] you have a story by Irving S. Cobb, the g-g-g-greatest living humorist, and a new story of the prize-ring by J-J-J-Jack London […] in a book it’d c-c-cost you a d-ddollar-and-a-half” (Wolfe, LHA, X) “Come and see,” Brian meant to say; but he got no further than “C-c-c-c-…” The long agony of clics prolonged itself […] “It must be t-t-t…” but “terrible” wouldn’t come. “It must be d-dreadful,” said Brian, laboriously circumventing the obstacle (Huxley, EG, VI, IX)

2.3.13 On tense and lax voices. Two more characteristics that are quite noticeable when superimposed to voice are the tenseness and laxness of the person’s delivery. Tense voice (often called ‘metallic’) has been identified in general as rather harsh (even ventricular), louder and higher-pitched and with higher air pressure, with raised larynx and constricted upper larynx and lower pharynx; and, of course, muscular tension can show kinesically and in the general face and body tone: ‘Don’t start,’ he [Yossarian] begged in a threatening voice, both hands tightening around his beer bottle (Heller, C22, XXVIII)

As for lax voice (often called ‘muffled’), it has been defined as somewhat breathy or whispery, softer and lower-pitched, with lower larynx and unconstricted pharynx, and moderate nasality, typical of relaxation, self-control, etc.

2.4

Esophageal control Having discussed the phono-communicative functions of the esophagus in Chapter 3.3 of Volume I, we should now mention — apart from eructation, for no more than one word — two voice types produced by laryngectomized persons without a prothesis: vocal esophageal voice, as described by Perelló and Salvá Miquel (1980: 148), known also as ‘pseudowhisper,’ ‘pharyngeal voice,’ ‘consonantal voice,’ etc., issued with air stored in the pharynge and mouth, but in general quite unintelligible for lack of consonants (except for labials and a few lingual sounds); and belched esophageal voice, or ‘erygmophonia,’25 a strong and intelligible phonation produced somewhat hoarsely by trained eructation (Perelló and Salvá Miquel 1980: 409), when the speaker realizes

Paralanguage, II

43

“that his larynx was only a sound producer, and that the tongue, soft palate, lips and related structures formed the sound into speech” (Moore 1971: 566). As for his interlocutors, we should ponder the consequences of what in Chapter 8.9 is studied as ‘reduced interaction,’ since a laryngectomy establishes another permanent state with changed voice and kinesics, which requires our readaptation as interlocutors. ‘To acquire this [the ventriloquial drone],’ the manual said, ‘take a long deep breath and, holding it, make a sound at the back of your throat as though you were trying to be ill…’ (Doctorow, WF, XXX).

2.5

Pharyngeal control As discussed in Chapter 3.5 of volume I, the pharynx, like the oral and nasal cavities, acts as a resonating chamber for vocal band vibrations when it changes its shape during speech, becoming longer, shorter, wider or narrower, which produces various pharyngeal voice qualifiers with important functions.

2.5.1

Pharyngealized voice or pharyngealization (when the root of the tongue approximates the back wall of the pharynx) is the secondary articulation which can be used paralinguistically, when speaking, for instance, with mocking contempt, scorn or aggressiveness, and in some forms of ventriloquism.

2.5.2 Pharyngeal huskiness is caused when the retraction of the tongue constricts the pharynge, sometimes causing nasality, and is usually produced by excessive vocal effort, typically when speaking under emotional stress or in many forms of laughter. We know it by popular terms like ‘husky,’ ‘hoarse,’ ‘throaty’ (i.e. guttural) and ‘rasp,’ often used for laryngeal huskiness (with the tense narrowing and friction felt in the throat).26 2.5.3 Muffled voice appears when we push the body of the tongue forward and away from the relaxed pharynx walls and faucal arches (which damps high frequency and produces mellow tone, lower pitch and relaxed tension of the voice). Other everyday and literary labels — most of them listed by Laver (1980: 141) as opposed to metallic voice — are: ‘mellow’ (regarded as the opposite to harshness, stridency, metallicness), ‘soft,’ ‘dull’ and ‘obscure’ (with a possible and unnecessary negative connotation), ‘guttural,’ ‘thick,’ ‘rich,’ ‘full,’ etc. Particularly ‘mellow,’ ‘rich,’ ‘full’ and ‘thick’ are used to refer to maturity, full womanhood and masculinity, etc., and other positive traits. ‘Muffled,’ however, has only negative connotations regarding the speaker’s personality or attitude (or the voice itself) and it is used mostly to refer to a sound (including voice) deadened by something, particularly cloth (the word’s original meaning), or caused by self-restrain:

44

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

she sobbed, her voice muffled in the thick folds (Fitzgerald, GG, V) [In court, when a black man is accused] there was an angry muffled groan from the colored people (Lee, KM, I, XVII)

2.5.4 Hollow voice — defined by WTNID as “sounding or reverberating like a sound made in a cave or large empty enclosure: muffled and sepulchral,” and by WNWDCE as “deep-toned, dull, and muffled, as though resounding from something hollow” — is, along with its synonym sepulchral, a common impressionistic label. It is caused by maximum lengthening of the pharynx as a resonating chamber, and even the oral cavity, with lower pitch and some breathy effect, thus sounding resounding and orotund (from the accompanying round-mouth gesture), terms often used also for hollow voice. Some famous traditional-type orators have had that kind of voice and it is a stereotyped quality for mysterious characters and somber situations. [Ido] repetía con un tono cavernoso la terrorífica palabra: ¡Adúuultera! (Galdós, FJ, I, VII) “I’ll tell you, Angela,” he said sepulchrally (Dreiser, G, III, X) El mozo rubio y festero ahueca la voz para decir, muy compungido y lúgubre:[…] (Espina, AN, VII)

2.5.5 Drawing the faucal pillars toward each other (as when beginning to retch), produces faucalization, or ‘faucalized voice (in contrast to the relaxed, mellow voice characteristic of relaxed faucal arches), used for fun or, for instance, to imitate the twanginess of the American Appalachian hillbilly’s speech. 2.5.6 Gulping, caused by emotional tension or produced at will (e.g. in mock fear), can qualify not more than one or two sounds, or just breathing, mostly in the pharyngeal area, when the tongue-root touches the lower and upper pharynx in a sort of strangulated articulation that lends speech a tense postalveolar velic quality, the posterior faucal pillars (normally helping in swallowing) producing the effect of an Arabic faucal approximant, with the velum pulled up and closing the velopharyngeal passage, all effecting a sudden visible jerk of the neck: she said [questioned by Sherlock Homes], gulping in her throat to keep down her agitation (Conan Doyle, SS, I, VI) The train came. Witla [his father] grabbed his hand [Eugene’s] affectionately. “Be a good boy,” he said, swallowing a gulp (Dreiser, G, I, III) Gerald hesitated for a moment, then he swallowed with a gulp of the throat. “Very well,” he said, “but please […]” (Wilson, ASA, II, I)

Paralanguage, II

45

But gulping can also be heard in convulsive breathing, as when weeping, and when it blends with what is actually glottal stops in choking with emotion: I hear my gulping noisy breath and realize I’m crying (Laurence, SA, VII, 191) “Oh,’ she [Temple] wailed in a chocked voice (Faulkner, S, XVIII)

2.6

Velopharyngeal control After seeing nasalization in Chapter 3.11 of Volume I, a few types of nasal voice can be identifed as velopharyngeal control.

2.6.1 Nasal voice, a paralinguistic secondary articulation as a (hardly ever positive) voice modifier, although there are no cultural or cross-cultural studies, revealing semantic similarities and possibly some universals). It is characteristic of passionate speech, intoxication, a lazy attitude (e.g. ‘Oh, not now!’), a desire to appear tough, when children (or adults, conscious of its childishness) coax others, sometimes in courtship, or when women imitate men, etc. They can modify many paralinguistic differentiators and alternants, as when nasalizing laughter or crying to express repugnance (‘Eeungh!’), in the sensual emission of a sigh or a contemptuous ‘Uh-uh!.’ We find combinations like: deep harsh creaky nasopharyngeal voice (groaning, seen below), hoarse nasalized voice (e.g. a man in severe physical pain), husky nasal voice (actress Lauren Bacall’s and sensual feminine film characters), or low/high-pitched nasalized voice and tense nasolabial constriction, as when expressing rejection. Two disorders are: hypernasality (excessive nasal resonance) due to insufficient nasopharyngeal closure (e.g. in cleft palate); and denasality (or hyponasality), insufficient nasal resonance for [m], [n] and [n]), which appears in rhinitis, adenoidal voice, etc. 2.6.2 Whining voice (through an AS ‘whinan,’ referring to the arrow’s whizzing) is a characteristic nasality accompanied by a higher or (more typically) lower-than-usual pitch and tenser musculature of velum and pharynx and nasopharynx, as one can notice by changing from regular nasality to whining voice. Dictionaries define it as peevish and low, as indicating contempt, distress, fear, coaxing, and as childish and undignified. Children coax adults, but it can be used by women to achieve the effect of sensual innocence. Uncontrollable whininess is, of course, a quality disorder, as is excessive or insufficient nasality: ‘Ma, ain’t they go-wun to begin now-wow?’ whined Owgooste [a little boy at the theater] (Norris, M, VI)

46

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

A subtype of whining is bleating voice (from AS ‘blaetan,’ referred to the cry of a lamb, sheep, goat or calf, but recorded since the mid-sixteenth century as contemptuously applied to the human voice). It is high- or low-pitched, nasalized and with a quavery laryngealized quality, associated with complaining, fear, pleading etc., in an undignified way: Lennie [the half-wit, when they beat him] bleated with terror. He cried, ‘Make ‘um stop George’ (Steinbeck, OMM, III)

2.6.3 Whimpering — in a way, a form of whining — is a low, intermittently creaky (i.e., laryngealized), whining and broken cry. The reader can try switching from whining to whimpering by taking away its creakiness and letting words flow more regularly. While whining appears more in women and children, whimpering can be shown also by men, typical of a complaining mood or grief, while women and children may whimper also from fear, and both in mock fear, coaxing, etc.: LIZA (rising and squaring herself determinedly) I’m going away […]/ HIGGINS (wounded) […] Throw her out./ LIZA (whimpering) Nah-ow (Shaw, P, II) He [Klajiek] began whimpering, ‘My God, man, don’t do that’ […] they’ll hang me! (Cather, MA, XIV)

2.6.4 Twangy voice,27 like when we pinch the nostrils, can be caused by “the combination of an anterior blockage in the nose and an open velopharyngeal channel or by a small velopharyngeal orifice and normal nasal passage […] a piercing sound often used intentionally by news vendors and others to hawk their wares” (Moore 1971: 538–539). It is different from the tenser voice faucalization of the American hillbilly, and a resonance disorder if it is uncontrollable (e.g. when intoxicated), or the trembling twang of some preachers: the minister […] said, in the deep voice that would have been loud had it not been so full and rich, but with the peculiar accent or twang that I believe is considered devout by some people (Gaskell, CP, I) In all of them was a hint of American heartiness and of that twang which is called “talking through the nose” because it consists in failing to talk through the nose (Lewis, B, XI) The nasal twang he used in imitation of a country yokel made Homer smile (West, DL, XI) A Victorita se le puso a voz gangosa, como si estuviera bebida (Cela, C, 178)

Paralanguage, II

47

2.6.5 Moaning voice, also a possible paralinguistic alternant, is differentiated from whining by low pitch, prolonged overriding nasality (e.g. speaking in grief, distress or out of physical or psychological pain) and no muscular tension, but as a soft, feeble, mournful groaning. We also refer to the mysterious language-like quality of ‘the wind moaning in the trees’: The girl moaned out some half intelligible reply […] and seemed, for the smothered noise that escaped her, to be crying (Dickens, OT, XXVI) ‘Oh!’ cried the old man, moaning impatiently, as he tossed one restless arm upon the coverlet (Dickens, MC, II) “Ph — ” Anna moaned. If she had wanted more pain she had it now. “She told you this?” she faltered (Wharton, R, XXXI)

2.6.6 If moaning can be thought of as a soft groaning, voice with superimposed groaning should be identified as groaning voice, a tense and deeper nasopharyngeal harsh creaky voice, whose groaning effect may appear intermittently, beginning and ending abruptly and often impeding proper voice articulation. Without a proven onomatopoeic origin, there is a significant Old High German ‘grinan’ meaning ‘to distort the face,’ a gesture often corresponding to the internal distortion of the speech organs. It occurs if we strain ourselves while speaking (e.g. lifting a heavy weight, when the groaning quality can be added to the laryngealized voice characteristic of that situation), and may appear in strong disapproval or annoyance, and mostly when speaking in physical or intense psychological pain, expressing grief, strong desire or longing. Literature illustrates an uncontrollable, often unconscious (or unrecognized) and quite often frequent crying up to God in any language, most genuinely in the Bible: The children of Israel groaned […] and their cry came up to God […] So God heard their groaning (Exodus, 2:23–24, NKJ) […] We must have patience.’/’Ah, that’s an awful word,’ Rosier groaned; he was deeply disconcerted (James, PL, XXXVIII) “Oh, God — oh, God,” he groaned. The glow of passion he had felt for her had melted to an aching tenderness (Wharton, EF, VII) “[…] I left last night without my dinner — and without my salary.”/ “A — ” he groaned (Wharton, R, II) he flinched and began to cry ‘Oh, my God!’ again in his groaning voice (Fitzgerald, GG, VIII) “Oh, you got to excuse this place,” she groaned. “I never can get in gear […]” “I’ll get the strap!”/ […]/ Guinevere groaned. “Oh, that kid’ll drive me crazy (Mailer, BS, VI)

48

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

If she [Lulu] won a bet she squealed with delight, if she lost she groaned (Mailer, DP, XVII)

2.6.7 Grunting (from an AS echoic ‘grunian’), imitates the deep, gruff sound in the throat made by a hog. Unlike a groan, a grunt is short, but its intermittence with very short intervals lends speech a continuity effect, usually with a congruent sour facial expression. It almost always expresses negative attitudes like disapproval, contempt, dismissal or unbelief, but it can appear while making a physical effort, or simply as an undefined, even distracted comment: [meeting a neighbor who speaks of the weather] I grunted something in return (Mailer, BS, V)

2.6.8 Head-cold voice (possible paralinguistically with a lowered velum, open mouth and without fully articulating) is also identified as ‘denasalized voice’ (see Chapter 3.8, Volume I): ‘I’m so sorry. Forgive…I hadn’t noticed. One gets so absorbed.’ The n’s and m’s had turned to d’s and b’s. He had a cold. ‘So idvolved id ode’s work’ (Huxley, PCP, XVIII)

2.6.9 Adenoidal voice (see Chapter 3.8, Volume I), not always due to adenoids, can be a voluntary behavior in the ‘adenoidal-gape’ posture,28 caused by mouth breathing due to velic closure and added velarization, typically nasalized. Naturally, one can breath displaying that same facial behavior, but without speaking: She breathes noisily and adenoidally when agitated (Laurence, SA, II)

2.6.10 Finally, nasopharyngeal voice, for which there is no clear label, is a double quality of clearly audible oropharyngeal friction (due to constriction) and nasalization. A kind, therefore, of pharyngeal harshness whose nasality enhances its unpleasant quality, used paralinguistically to express a harsh attitude, or to negate scornfully, usually with an equally harsh facial expression: ‘Oh!’ cried the old man [in bed], moaning impatiently, as he tossed one restless arm upon the coverlet (Dickens, MC, III)

2.7

Lingual control The tongue can produce as many abnormal voice qualifiers as it does normal ones, all affecting language and paralanguage with an effect on the listener longer than their actual duration. Although physiologically defined in Volume I, their paralinguistic

Paralanguage, II

49

functions should be mentioned here: alveolarized voice, with the tongue-blade further front toward the upper teeth ridge, making it a little lispy; retroflex voice (not continuous over longer speech segments), added to or ‘coloring’ (i.e., ‘r-coloring’) t, d, n, l, s, z in general American English; velarized voice, by raising the tongue-back toward the soft palate, which sounds sort of a tense ‘gya-gya-gya-, particularly with certain articulations; and palatalized voice, with the tongue-front continually near the hard palate, its overall effect more like the rather babyish ‘dya-dya’ one: Martha (a snarl of disimissal and contempt) NYYYYAAAAHHHH! (Albee, WAVW, I)

Its disorders are: interdental lisping, with the tongue-front protruding between the teeth or pressing against them; macroglossia voice, congenital in mongolism, cretinism or because of too small a mandible, affecting mainly apical consonants t, d, n, and sibilants, and with a peculiar audible and visual characteristic of general speech; and microglossia voice, when the tongue is too small and prevents one from making correct contact for many articulations.

2.8

Dental control Still within the mouth, we must acknowledge the control, especially abnormal, exercised by the teeth. First, the disruption of normal articulation caused by a poorly fitted partial or total denture, which can also affect the person’s kinesic repertoire by the development of certain typical lower-face gestures in the early stages of the protheses (i.e. playing with a loose partial or pressing upward or downward); and when teeth are missing partially (leaving gaps of varying length) or almost totally or totally (i.e. by their very absence), as in this seventeenth-century Spanish illustration: La más antigua de las alcahuetas, mal asistida de dientes y mamona de pronunciación, tableteando con las encías, dijo […] Acabó de mamullar estas razones: […] (Quevedo, HT)

2.9

Labial control After discussing in Volume I the acoustic and visual functions of the lips, we should identify as realizations of labialization the following physiological-paralinguistic qualifiers: close-lip-rounding (i.e. lip protrusion), which best qualifies as labialization proper, as when using ‘baby talk’ with children, lovers or pets, with a typical tendency to articulate toward the front of the mouth and, due to the approximation of the tongue-back to the palate, with nasalization; horizontal lip expansion, as when expressing

50

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

irritation by speaking with bilateral overriding mouth distension, generally with higher pitch (‘I told you I didn’t want to go, and you didn’t pay any attention!’), or when females combine crying and speech (crying speech); horizontal lip constriction (including the so-called ‘lip-rounding’), as in another form of irritated or angry speech, typically with harshness or slightly pharyngealization: ‘Oh, no, you couldn’t do it!’ Too proud to do such a thing, weren’t you?’. Horizontal lip expansion voice, as when expressing irritation by speaking with overriding mouth distension on both sides, generally with higher pitch (‘I told you I didn’t want to go, and you didn’t pay any attention!’), or when females combine crying and speech (crying speech); vertical lip constriction voice, as one way of speaking with contempt or repressed anger, with nasalization (‘I don’t want to have anything to do with that’); diagonal-upward lip expansion voice, as in the typical bashful type of country folk in several cultures, with both vocal and nasal resonance; diagonal-downward lip-expansion voice (either bilateral or just on one side), as in the stereotyped speech of film villains and thugs, often with muscular tension that causes intermittent nasal resonance; and trembling lips, as from cold or emotion, affecting mainly labial articulations. ‘Oh, no, no, no!’ said Father Keon quickly, pursing his lips as if he were addressing a child (Joyce, D, ‘Ivi Day in the Committee Room’)

2.10

Mandibular control After seeing in Volume I the muscular physiology of the mandible and its visual aspects in speech, the voice types determined by its various postures should be identified in the two dimensions, vertical and horizontal. The vertical opening offers the two conspicuous ends of the scale: wide-open-jaw voice, which totally distorts articulations (as used for comicality and especial effects), and half-closed-jaw voice (clenched-teeth voice), used paralinguistically to express fear or, typically, anger (‘to grit’): “Avast!” gritted Ahab between his teet, and violently moving away (Melville, MD, XXIX) with a fierce, grinding movement of his jaws, [Dryfoos] controlled himself. “Take — take those things up,” he gasped (Howells, HNF, V, IV) Shore — it’s losin’ her — that kills me!” he ground out between his teeth. “I cain’t — bear it” (Grey, N, I)

This almost closed mouth is actually the posture for muttered voice. Muttering and mumbling (both from ME. echoisms) are defined as speaking in a low voice, indistinctively and with partly closed mouth. But muttering can denote also the poorly articulated voice of, for instance, fatigue and sleepiness:

Paralanguage, II

51

an indistinct muttering, as of a man between sleep and awake (Dickens, OT, XII)

While ‘mumbling’ is defined only as a voice type, ‘muttering’ is assigned functions like complaining, ‘growling,’ ‘grumbling,’ speaking in an angry tone, and ‘murmuring’: growled Mr. Grimwig, speaking by some ventriloquial power, without moving a muscle of his face (Dickens, OT, XLI)

A person mutters in a low pitch, typically talking to himself, ‘muttering curses,’ expressing anger, complaining, etc. (thus very close functionally to ‘grumbling’), the term hardly ever used in a positive sense: Oh hell!’ he kept muttering and ground his teeth and walked up and down (Dos Passos, MT, III, III) Her chin shot out. She jumped to her feet. ‘You git away from me, Al Joad […]’ (Steinbeck, GW, XXVI)

In the horizontal dimension, the mandible conditions three main voice qualifiers. One is protracted-jaw voice (called prognathism as an anomaly), thrusting the lower jaw forward and causing voice to resonate more nasally than orally when the nasopharynx is pulled against the velum, typically with very narrowly opened mouth, as in mock threatening, or portraying the villain type, gangsters, thugs, etc.: He [Annixter] thrust out his jaw aggressively, clenching his teeth./ ”You,” he vociferated, “I’ll tell you what you are. You’re a — a — a pip!” (Norris, O, I, II) Tull’s hard jaw protruded [trying to throw Venters out], and rioting blood corded the veins of his neck./ ‘Once more. Will you go?’ (Grey, RPS, I) The bearded man thrust out his jaw. ‘Who owns it?’ [the camp] he demanded menacingly (Steinbeck, GW, XX)

The opposite, retracted-jaw voice is caused by recession of the lower jaw, again causing nasality and improper articulation, and is used also to portray the mentally retarded, the somber or abnormally shy type, etc. The mandible’s visual appearance is also modified by muscular tension: As Isabel looked at him it seemed to her that his jaw had never been more square (James, PL, XVI)

The latter two postures are dinamically joined in a rotating-jaw, or side-to-side gesture with protraction and retraction in between, all in a half-closed posture, as in the stereotyped growling or muttering villain, with nasal and strained voice. And must also acknowledge the voice quality lent by a trembling jaw, which modifies also labial articulations, as from cold, emotional tension, etc., even with tooth-chattering: I am c-cold […] G-g-g-gee!” chattered Bo. “I n-never w-was so c-c-cold in all my life […]” (Grey, MF, V)

52

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

2.11

Articulatory control Not every speaker manages each word with the kind of clear pronunciation listeners would prefer. Thus, the statistical frequency of what should be considered normal articulation control is less high than would be desired. While the ideal articulatory voice control is of a slow tempo, anything under it would qualify as overslow, unnatural control: Mrs Farrinder […] talked with great slowness and distinctness […] she pronounced every syllable of every word (James, B, IV)

Beyond a careful, clear articulation is the meticulously articulated speech of overarticulated voice, usually perceived audibly and visually: consonantal lingual contacts are longer and with more muscular force, lingual and labial postures for consonants and vowels are individually precise and visible on the tongue-tip, labiofacial area and mandible. It can be very conscious speaking in a declamatory fashion, in an irritated, ‘is-that-clear?’ tone of voice, or emphasizing every phoneme when speaking to a child, a foreigner, a patient: Polly […] lingered lovingly over them, rolling the r’s, hissing on the s’s, humming like a bee on the m’s, drawing out the long vowels and making them round and pure (Huxley, PCP, XI) “[…] Read it aloud. Read it with expression.” She rolled the r, derisively (Huxley, EG, XXI)

Unlike normal articulation, with its correct placement of the articulators (tongue, velum, lips, mandible) and proper timing, direction of movements, pressure and speed, articulatory disorders are due to “faulty placement, timing, direction, pressure, speed, or integration of these movements”; and so are voluntary paralinguistic qualifiers, with no anatomical, physiological or neurological basis, although “it can be accounted for by normal variations or by environmental or psychological factors” (Powers 1971: 837). General misarticulation (‘general oral inaccuracy’) is caused by any or all of the factors mentioned, and it can be: slow, weak and with little energy, perceived as ‘careless,’ ‘confused,’ ‘distorted’ or ‘unintelligible’; or as a rapid slurry cluttering with a jerky tempo, dropping phonemes, and condensed or distorted (as when intoxicated), like the slurry voice of the late film actor Humphrey Bogart. Two other well-known articulatory disorders which should be identified are: lisping, or defective articulation of one or more of the sibilants [s], [z], [tÚ], [d ] (typically [s] and [z]), which can be: frontal (interdental) lisp, when sibilants are replaced by [Θ] or [ð] (the tongue-tip against or between the teeth); lateral lisp (too much air and saliva escaping over or around the sides of the tongue, sibilants sounding like sh, which produces a ‘slushy’ effect and often a visual impression as well, as the mouth corners are intermittently pushed forward by the escaping air); and nasal lisp,

Paralanguage, II

53

with a relaxed velum, retracted tongue and lax lips, the air escaping through the nose, often in a snorted unvoiced [n] that replaces sibilants. As Powers (1971: 844) says, “sibilant distortion [in all forms of lisping] can be produced or accompanied by atypical lip movements […] labial habits unattractive visually as well as acoustically.” The other articulatory disorder is lalling, articulating sounds with the tongue-tip too low in the mouth (its body flat and lax), which requires a higher point (mainly [r], [l]) or other apical consonants (e.g. [t], [d]), of weak and sluggish tongue movements, resulting in a sort of [w] or a central vowel sound. When the affected sound is [l], the disorder is known lambdacism (from the Greek letter lambda).

2.12

Articulatory tension control This qualifying control depends on the joint action of laryngeal, pharyngeal, lingual and labiofacial muscles, visually affecting the external ones in the face, neck, diaphragm and chest (akin to kinesic tension): while lax articulation is describe with different labels, tense articulation is typical of persuasive oratory, scolding, showing self-assurance, etc. (the tension showing only in the voice through self-control): one of them [girls] cried out in the strange, sticky voice he had heard grown women use, ‘Ooh, just look at the darling little (Agee, DF, II)

2.13

Objectual control Trying to be exhaustive, we should identify a series of ‘things,’ objects or substances, which produce very specific voice qualities and sounds perceived as paralanguage.

2.13.1 Food and masticatories that alternate with words make us produce labial smacks, dorsal clicks and other suctional sounds and (having to breathe while talking and eating) audible mouth inhaling and narial exhaling. This causes us to modify consonants (mainly turning stops into affricates, interdentals and labiodentals) and retroflex and velar sounds, confuse and centralize higher vowels (e.g. [i] o [e] becoming roughly [e] and [f]), and nasalize voice intermittently. Paralinguistically (out of impatience, social anxiety, anger, hurry, fear, hunger, pain, etc.), we can superimpose shouting, low pitch, harshness, laryngealization, half-closed-jaw voice, sobbing, laughter, etc.; while from a sociocultural-esthetic point of view (often through incongruence), it shows poor upbringing, lack of self-respect, depression, etc.: ‘You’ll be wasting your money, Frank,’ said Mannie through a chickenbone he was gnawing (Dos Passos, BM, 177)

54

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

2.13.2 There are a series of objectual obstructors among what in Chapter 6 of Volume I were identified as body-adaptors (besides food) and certain object-adaptors: conversational props, like talking with a pipe in the mouth (not unlike a ‘security blanket’ at times), a leg of one’s eyeglasses or a pen or pencil, perhaps causing the desired interactive effect (e.g. superiority, self-assurance, casualness, toughness, manliness); task-performing object-adaptors, as when holding between the teeth or lips a string, nails, pins, or while eating or drinking: She had hairpins in her mouth and spoke through them (Dos Passos, 42ndP, ‘J. Ward Morehouse,’ 213) “It’s because he’s an angel,” said the girl named Carol, his date, speaking in a hollow voice from her highball glass (Welty, HH)

emotional object-adaptors, as when holding a handkerchief or tissue against the mouth or nose while talking or crying, or sobbing against the arm of a sofa or pillow, the muffled, dampened sound enhancing the emotional situation and its general anxietycreating quality: “Over there — by the rock,” Steele muttered, with his brush between his teeth (Woolf, JR, I)

2.14

External control Finally, there is a genuine, uncontrollable control of our voice when our speech must compete with elements totally external to us, such as the din in some public places, the noise of the traffic, surrounding machinery in a factory, the surf of the sea, the clattering of thunder, the roaring engine of a nearby airplane or the noise of a train where we are travelling. Just as silence often makes us, almost unconsciously, whisper, these overpowering noises force us to raise our voices. However, when we are truly in contact with the source, as in the train of the following example, a characteristic vibrating qualifier is added: She [Coral, on a train of the 1930s] repeated the sentence aloud […] but the roar of the train beat her bravado into a sound more like a tremulos wail […] when they spoke [she and Myatt], instead of whispering, they had to utter the intimate words loudly and clearly (Greene, ST, III, III)

Paralanguage, II

2.15

Conclusion Of the four paralinguistic categories, voice qualifiers certainly constitute the riskiest area because, first of all, it involves the identification of many more qualities than one is likely to suspect at first, from the point of view of their anatomical basis, muscular physiology and phonetic characteristics. But those characteristics can be so similar between two or more voice types that one is bound to, (a) ignore any seemingly trivial differences, and treat as one what are in reality independent voice qualities with (if sought carefully enough) specific communicative functions; or (b) try to see separate types of voice where there is really just one with different existing labels that lead us to confusion. The problem of labels has been amply illustrated, being both phonetic (e.g. harsh, whispery) and impressionistic (e.g. squealing, gruff, piercing); but even many educated ones will always refer to certain effects incorrectly by force of habit, not having learned the proper correspondence between the long list of voice effects they recognize and the many terms at their disposal, let alone certain subtle differences. It has been suggested that speaker, writer, linguist and phonetician would benefit from knowing the different etymologies, for which a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural inventory of the terms and qualities they denote would greatly alleviate the traditional confusion. We would then have a solid etymological basis for judging the true meaning of each voice type according to its original use (evaluating the faithfulness of presentday usage of onomatopoeic constructions according to their referents), and then for ascertaining that to each of the physiological-phonetic realizations identified corresponds only one voice-type label (whether phonetic or impressionistic) or more than one. This would reveal the many inconsistencies of references to voice qualities in conversation and in research and in creative literature. In addition, there is undoubtedly our esthetic judgement of many of those terms (actually evoking sound-andfacial-expression compounds) according to our own personal sensitiveness (e.g. when we say ‘squawk,’ ‘croak,’ ‘screech’ or ‘growl,’ and ‘feel’ the roughness of our own sound and our own facial muscular movements). Finally, the student of literature would find a reliable source and a way to gauge the literary writer’s ability for character individualization and for conveying psychological realism, besides the possible technical functions of those voice descriptions.

2.16

Topics for interdisciplinary research 1.Physiology and phonetics of voice types. 2.Pathology of voice types. 3.Attitudinal functions of paralinguistic qualifiers. 4.Cultural and social background of qualifiers.

55

56

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

5.Types of voice in the cinema. 6.Types of voice in literature. 7.Qualifiers in literary realism. 8.Types of voice in children’s literature. 9.Etymology and evocation of voice types. 10.Regional and local labelling of voice types. 11.Ontogenetic development of paralinguistic qualifiers. 12.Social perception and functions of voice types. 13.Types of voice through history. 14.Types of voice in politics: sound and image. 15.Types and professional functions of qualifiers. 16.A cross-linguistic and cross-cultural inventory of paralinguistic qualifiers. 17.A cross-linguistic and cross-cultural inventory of labels and qualities they denote. 18.Kinesic realization of paralinguistic qualifiers. 19.Paralinguistic qualifiers in film dubbing. 20.Paralinguistic qualifiers in literary translation. 21.Male/Female paralinguistic qualifiers. 22.Voice types in animated cartoons. 23.Voice types and stereotypes film characters. 24.Voice types in television commercials according to product. 25.Voice qualifiers and sexual deviance.

Chapter 3

Paralanguage, III Differentiators, our eloquent physiological and emotional reactions

Even in laughter the heart may sorrow (Proverbs 14:13, NKJ) Heavens knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts (Dickens, GE, XIX) Ho-ho-ho!’ laughed dark Car./ ‘Hee-hee-hee!’ laughed the tippling bride […] ‘Heu-heu-heu’ laughed dark Car’s mother (Hardy, TD, X) Davy Byrne smiledyawnednodded all in one: /—Iiiiiichaaaaaaach! (Joyce, U, 177)

3.1

Differentiators as a paralinguistic category, and their study Between those paralinguistic phenomena that occur only as modifications of verbal utterances (primary qualities and qualifiers) and those functioning as quasilexical items within each linguistic and cultural community (alternants) there are others, differentiators, which possess those two qualities and characterize and differentiate (hence the label chosen) physiological reactions (many of a reflex nature) as well as psychological states and emotional reactions. Although they can qualify words (e.g. yawning while talking), they occur also by themselves, like those quasilexical alternants (e.g. laughter), and they all have the following important characteristics in common: they can be produced naturally (mostly uncontrollably) or voluntarily; they can communicate without concurring verbal language, but (except for laughter and crying) only in short speech elements, not in a sustained way as do primary qualities and qualifiers in many instances; they can be modified by some primary qualities (e.g., a high-pitched yawn) and qualifiers (e.g., harsh laughter); they all alter normal breathing and the audible and visual characteristics of speech, influencing kinesics and affecting the whole triple structure language-paralanguage-kinesics (e.g., a scornful guffaw); they particularly trigger specific, albeit culturally and personally modified, kinesic behaviors, more significantly so than other paralinguistic behaviors; except gasping and panting, they are all subject

58

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

to cultural display rules in a very ritualized way (e.g., crying in mourning) or responding to norms of good conduct serving as class and personality identifiers; unlike primary qualities and qualifiers, however, they seem to defy individual paralinguistic descriptions in terms of scalar degrees, for each one has variants with peculiar primary qualities and qualifiers, although it is possible to describe their phonetic characteristics and the basic physiological activities involved; for most of them neither a phonetic transcription nor a written representation have ever been attempted; they all have been used as literary material as part of characters’ repertoires. This chapter is again a shorter treatment of a lengthier discussion.29 As suggested in Fig. 6.1, ‘Co-structuration of paralinguistic differentiators and interaction components,’ it is not only the specific characteristics of a guffaw, a chuckle, a shout or a meaningful throat-clearing that one must analyze, but also (as done in Chapter 8, on interaction) any verbal or nonverbal preceding, simultaneous of succeeding behaviors. The following aspects (not all of them treated here) should be pointed out as a guide for study or observation: a.biological foundation: gender and age, including its ontogenetic development as well as sexual deviances; b.body and facial anatomy of the person; c.their morphology: phonetic and visual configuration, with or without language (and, in crying, with or without tears); d.influence of the general psychological configuration and personality on frequency of occurrence, duration and audible and visual features; e.forms and functions in temporary emotional states according to sex, socioeconomic status and culture; f.noninteractive situations and pathological varieties; g.distribution according to gender, age and socioeducational status within each culture (i.e., as social identifiers) in given situations; h.distribution and display rules across cultures; i.the associated verbal and nonverbal behaviors according to cultural norms (social, religious, superstitious); j.simultaneous or alternating co-structuration with verbal language, kinesics and proxemics; k.positive and negative social functions in social interaction; l.the differentiated realizations in each language (e.g. chuckling, whimpering) and the presence or absence of definitory labels (possibly of a common etymological and/or echoic base);

Paralanguage, III

59

other interactive components preceding

simultaneous

preceding behaviors

preceding

INTERACTOR’S laughter crying shouting sighing gasping panting yawning coughing throat-clearing spitting belching hiccuping sneezing

succeeding

succeeding behaviors

simultaneous

succeeding

cointeractors’ behaviors Figure 3.1.Co-structuration of differentiators and interaction components

m.similarities and differences among the situational functions ascribed to them cross-culturally; n.labelling and description in the narrative literature and theater of different cultures and periods; o.cross-cultural study of literary usage and differences and similarities in the interpretation of social labels; p.interpretation of literary labels and descriptions for correct professional translation; q.possible written representation of differentiators.

3.2

Laughter

3.2.1 Definition, configuration and labels 3.2.1.1 The only definition that would acknowledge the complex configuration of laughter and its important interactive functions would be: A series of regular, mainly egressive and irregular vocal or narial audible air movements of varying muscular tension, rhythm and paralinguistic phonic characteristics, accompanied by varying facial and bodily behaviors and possible chemical, dermal and thermal reactions, simultaneous to, alternating with or independently of verbal language, and expressing either positive

60

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

or negative feelings with regard to oneself, others, events or the environment. With respect to verbal language, laughter can confirm it, emphasize it, weaken it, negate it, mask it, hide it, or replace it.30 3.2.1.2 The lengthier study (Poyatos 1993a; a shorter version in 1993b) contains a detailed configuration chart for each differentiator (e.g. ‘Laughter Configuration Chart’), a useful tool for any systematic study or observation, as it contains the clusters of features identified below. Verbal-nonverbal text, containing the differentiator, with different representations: He began to sniffle affectedly. “Boo-hoo-hoo! […]” (Wolfe, LHA, XXI) he would burst into a wild “Whah-whah-whah-whah” of laughter […] with strange throat noises (Wolfe, LHA, XVIII) As they smoked and stuffed fat palatable bites of sandwich into their mouths, they would regard each other with pleased sniggers, carrying on thus an insane symphony of laughter:/ “Chuckle, chuckle! — laughter of gloatation./ “Tee-hee, tee-hee, tee-hee! — laugh of titterosity.”/ Snuh-huhm snuh-huh, snuh-huh! — laugh of gluttonotiousness (Wolfe, LHA, XXIV)

Phonetic transcription, for instance: the single-pulse velic nasal plosive of a light chuckle; the forceful vibratory velic trill of uncouth snorting laughter. Facial features and body anatomy, as basic channels and qualifiers of any other laughter characteristics: [aunt Sidora] nada le temblaba tanto al reírse como el pecho y la barriga, que, tras de ser muy voluminosos de por sí, los hacía ella más salientes en tales casos (Pereda, S, IV).

Auditory and social labels that reflect those features (‘convulse,’ ‘sardonic,’ guffaw, etc.): Venters laughed in cool disdain (Grey, RPS, I)

Paralinguistic features
: –

paralinguistic leader (typically an alteration of the preceding words (e.g. a quaver, acceleration): Stephen heard his father’s voice break into a laugh which was almost a sob (Joyce, PAYM, 92)

–

paralinguistic onset (short, abrupt, explosive, prolonged): There was a long silence; then, simultaneously, both of them burst out laughing./ Still smiling, “Let’s have a look,” said Helen (Huxley, EG, XXI)

Paralanguage, III

–

61

vowel type in speechless laughter (e.g. the Japanese feminine [i]): ‘Hi, hi!’ said the old man (Dickens, BH, V) ‘Ho-ho-ho!’ laughed dark Car./ ‘Hee-hee-hee!’ laughed the tippling bride […] ‘Heuheu-heu’ laughed dark Car’s mother (Hardy, TD, X) The idea […] sent Rawdon into roars of laughter: you might have heard the explosion through the hotel at midnight, and the haw-haws of the great dragoon’s voice (Thackeray, VF, XXX) Someone laughed, using only two notes, ha-ha and ha-ha, over and over again (West, DL, XXI) Haw! haw! haw!” roared Legget, slapping his knees (Grey, LT, XIII) “[…] I told him […] and’ then he haw-hawed in my ace” (Grey, TH, XIV) Some of the gang haw-hawed him (Grey, TLM, X) Donovan [a fat boy] placed a plump woolen gloved hand on his breast, from which muttered wheezing laughter at once broke forth (Joyce, PAYM, V) He guffawed loudly, with a hir-hir-hir (Mailer, BS, V) ‘You ought to try flying […] with me […] Just for laughs. Tee-hee’ Orr gazed up at Yossarian through the corners of his eyes with a look of pointed mirth […] Tee-heehee […] Tee-hee-hee […] Tee-hee-hee-hee’ (Heller, C22, XXVIII)

–

primary qualities (pitch, resonance, rhythm, etc.), perhaps with cross-cultural differences (e.g. the high-register laughter of Japanese women: ‘How nice to see you, Eleanor,’ said Milly, with her little old-woman’s chuckle (Woolf, Y, ‘Present Day’) The laugh, pitched in a high key and coming from a so muscular frame, seemed like the whinny of an elephant (Joyce, PAYM, V)

–

qualifiers (e.g. spasmodic, whispered, hoarse): She screamed at Maggie with scoffing laughter (Crane, MGS, XV) “Ah, I tell you!” Jannadeau laughed with guttural pleasure (Wolfe, LHA, III) [Leonard, looking at Eugene’s exam] bent over with a long suction of whining laughter, slapping his knee […], making a slobbering noise in his mouth (Wolfe, LHA, XVI) Little jets of whizzing laughter followed one another out of his convulsed body (Joyce, D, ‘Two Gallants’) Mr. Power sent a long laugh down his shaded nostrils (Joyce, U, 94)

62

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Miss Douce huffed and snorted down her nostrils that quivered (Joyce, U, 259) he [Lenehan] checked his tale a moment but broke out in a wheezy laugh (Joyce, U, 234) ‘Got a live tumor,’ she [the stocky woman] said [to the pregnant Rose of Sharon], and she cackled like a happy hen (Steinbeck, GW, XXII) Gladys threw back her head and uttered a shrill, short, hyena-like laugh (Huxley, PCP, XXXI) her face was alive with a reckless and deliberate gaiety. “Poor Anthony […]!” she said, and from deep in her throat produced a queer unexpected little sound of swallowed laughter (Huxley, EG, I) “I’ll teach to be a good housekeeper — God help her!” She added with a snort of laughter (Huxley, EG, V) her eyes [Daisy’s] flashed around her as in a defiant way, rather like Tom’s, and she laughed with thrilling scorn. ‘Sophisticated — God, I’m sophisticated’ (Fitzgerald, GG, I) Miss Reba […] began to laugh, her hand at her breast […] she laughed in harsh gasps (Faulkner, S, XXI) EBEN [[…] suddenly laughs wildly and brokenly]. Ha-ha-ha! […] I’ll murder her! (O’Neill, DUE, III, ii) And then he [‘The Shadow’ in the radio program by that name] laughed a sniggling nasal laugh that made him sound evil (Doctorow, WF, XV) He snorted with laughter. ‘That’s not what she [Arlene] wants from me’ (Laurence, SA, VI)

–

differentiators (e.g. panting, sobbing): “I don’t know what to do!” cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath (Dickens, CC, V) “Ow-w-w-w!” shrieked Irene. “Do stop!” (Howells, RSL, IV) She echoed his laugh to merge it in an underlying sigh. “Poor Givré…” [a home] (Wharton, R, X) He gave a loud cough of laughter, smiled broadly and tugged twice at the strawcoloured goatee which hung from his blunt chin (Joyce, PAYM, V) Elinor permitted herself to be comforted. ‘You love me a little?’ /’So much.’/ She actually laughed; rather sobbingly, it is true, but still, it was a laugh (Huxley, PCP, VI) Honey (A little giggle-scream) Oooooohhhhh! [from embarrassment] (Albee, WAVW, II)

Paralanguage, III

–

63

consonantal sounds (e.g. a bidental fricative while blowing through the teeth): “[…] She’s apt to say anything. Tee! Hee! It makes me laugh”--she pronounced it laaf — (Dreiser, G, III, I)

–

paralinguistic offset (e.g. abrupt, stopping suddenly and resuming a static countenance): The proprietor let his laugh out like a flood. Then he sobbered abruptly (Welty, HH) He guffawed loudly, with a hir-hir-hir that lasted for many seconds. But his laughter lapsed so abruptly that I realized there was no real merriment (Mailer, BS, V)

–

–

paralinguistic aftermath (e.g. after gradually tailing away followed by the actual aftermath, for instance, sighing followed by a still breathy and very drawled lowback vowel). closed-mouth laughter, as with most chuckles, is necessarily nasal and can still contain articulatory features like palatalization, velic affricates, narial fricatives, etc., besides primary qualities and qualifiers (e.g. whispering): Lilian Portway gave a throaty chuckle. “Oh, my dear, how we differ,” she said (Wilson, ASA, I, III)

Kinesic features
: –

kinesic leader, an alteration of the existing kinesic activity or stillness, usually a quickening-up of movement followed by the jerky movement of laughter or the beginning of a postural shift, with brow raising and smiling: Mr. Weller shook his head, and his red cheeks expanded with the laughter that was endeavouring to find a vent (Dickens, PP, XL) His eyes glanced momentarily at me, and his lips parted with an abortive attempt at a laugh (Fitzgerald, GG, V)

–

–

kinesic onset, right after the leader, as the visible start of the actual laugh and, like paralanguage, short and abrupt (e.g. when one suddenly begins to shake uncontrollably) or slow and longer (e.g. with slow rising and lowering of the trunk when laughing sympathetically and looking down gently and shaking the head); closed or open mouth, labial posture and vertically or horizontally visible teeth
: And George laughed — one of those irritating, senseless, chuckle-headed, crack-jawed laughs of his (Jerome, TMB, IV) He [Perkins] had a short, odd little laugh which showed his white teeth (Maugham, OHB, XV) McLeod’s internal laughter twisted his mouth. I waited for his humor to pass (Mailer, BS, V)

64

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

–

nasolabial furrows
: El viejo se limpiaba las legañas, y daba unas carcajadas sin dientes, con tantos dobleces de mejillas, que se arremetían a sollozos mirando mi confusión] (Quevedo, MPD)

– –

and gaze movements and eyelid opening or closure, almost always present in degrees; brow raising or knitting indicated as open orclosed eyes/brows: His eyes were red and watering when he finally controlled the spasms (Dos Passos, MT, II, IV)

–

other body movements and postures
: ‘I only tried to frighten you [with a knife], Ha, ha! You are a brave boy, Oliver.’ The Jew rubbed his hands with a chuckle, but glanced uneasily at the box, notwithstanding (Dickens, OT, IX) She laughed aloud and clapped her hands with the sudden sense that love was a simple affair, (Greene, ST, I, III) [They laugh uproariously, slapping their thighs] [Cabot’s sons, seeing his new wife] […] holding their sides, rocking with wild laughter) (O’Neill, DUE, I, iv)

–

alter-adaptor behaviors
: The girls broke into a wild giggle, and hid their faces in each other’s necks (Howells, RSL, IV)

–

object-adaptor behaviors
: the laughter rang louder; they [girls] clung to the gate, to the posts, rested on the staves, in the weakness engendered by their convulsions at the spectacle (Hardy, TD, X)

–

–

kinesic offset, for instance: abrupt, stopping all movement, as when a laugh is cut short by a startling event; or gradual (as is usually the case), the distended lips, the furrows in the infraorbital area and the nasolabial furrows slowly returning to their original position, as do the other parts of the body that were moving, sometimes the head still shaking or nodding; kinesic aftermath (coinciding with the paralinguistic one), last sign of the person who has been laughing, mainly a residual smile, but also crossing of legs or arms, preening, or wiping away tears of laughter (cf. Darwin 1872 [1970]: 163, 206): both of them burst out laughing./ Still smiling, “Let’s have a look,” said Helen (Huxley, EG, XXI) Her face [Lucy] still worked with laughter; there were tears on her cheeks (Huxley, PCP, XI).

–

laughed speech, itself modified by paralinguistic features:

Paralanguage, III

65

she asked, with the odd grunt of laughter in her voice, as if she were making game of him in the question (Lawrence, WL, III) I didn’t say anything,’ he laughingly said, and continued his way (Crane, MGS, XVI) she said through her hollow inside laugh that made her shoulders and her big bust shake (Dos Passos, MT, I, V) ‘that was quite a line about the temptations of stage life,’ said Ellen with a little laugh in her throat (Dos Passos, MT, II, IV).

Concurrent bodily activities, such as reddening due to congestion in a paroxysm of convulsive laughter, tear-shedding, losing muscle control in a state of cataplexy, choking with one’s own saliva or irritation, coughing, panting, sweating: [boys and girls] whooping off together, they tumbled, in a pile of immensurable giggle […] kicked up their heels and shouted to their full satisfaction (Beecher Stowe, UTC, VI) Sam and Andy laid their heads back on their shoulders, and broke into a low, immoderate laugh, snapping their fingers and flourishing their heels with exquisite delight (Beecher Stowe, UTC, VI) Ah, panting, sighing […] choking in tea and laughter, coughing with choking, crying […] they urged each other to peal after peal […] shrilldeep […] Exhausted, breathless […] All flushed (O!), panting, sweating (O!), all breathless” (Joyce, U, 260) A coughball of laughter leaped from his throat [Mr. Deasy] dragging after it a rattling chain of phlegm (Joyce, U, 36)

Contextual activities, which we perceive blended with laughter: And then she [Mrs. Morel] sat down and laughed, until tears ran over her cheeks (Lawrence, SL, II, 39) He flung his arms around her and kissed her, while she [Norah], laughing, blushing, and crying, surrendered herself willingly to his embrace (Maugham, OHB, LXVI)

In fact, rather than contextual, they can be eloquently central to the message being delivered by the various activities syntactically together, as in the abrupt closing of an encounter: B. M. threw up her head with a hard little laugh and went out of the room humming a hard little tune (Nicolson, PM, 101).

Contextual body-related sounds of object-adaptors and artifactually-mediated sounds, blending also with the laughter’s visual and audible features, as when two people throw each other things, stamp on the floor or pound on a table while laughing:

66

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

When Papitos burst out laughing she leaned back with such might that the back of the chair cracked as if it were breaking (Galdós, FJ, II VI, trans. mine) he went off in a very spasm of mirth, banging the table with his fist, laughing until his eyes watered (Norris, M, IX)

Duration of the laughter components (e.g. whizziness, interlabial vibration, inflated cheeks) and of some important concurrent or contextual activities (e.g. coughing, tear-shedding). Clinical configuration in some cases (e.g. Down’s Syndrome, schizophrenia, manicdepressive psychosis) would be relevant enough to be registered uppermost in the configuration, as it would condition all other components. Socio-cultural contextual elements, as laughter does not occur in a vacuum: cultural background (e.g. Japanese feminine laughter: one hand vertically covering mouth and nose, but mostly horizontally in Hong Kong or Malaysia), socioeducational status (e.g. an uncouth guffaw, a refined subtle chuckle), situational context, motivation (e.g. contempt), the setting (e.g. a bar, a theater), the cointeractant’s verbal and nonverbal behaviors. Reception by others, that is, as a tactual-kinesthetic experience (e.g. while hugging, slapping someone’s knee), blended with the concurrent and contextual elements just mentioned, or as eye-contact (e.g. a fixed stare): [ABBIE, speaking seductively to her stepson] (She laughs […] without taking her eyes from him) (O’Neill, DUE, II, i)

3.2.1.3 Three phenomena, more like laughter types, are to be identified as possible configurational elements: the effort to control laughter, often a kinesic-paralinguistic leader of laughter proper, other times achieving its purpose: los criados no pudiendo sufrir la risa […] cubriéndose la boca con ellas [the hands] y reventándoles en el cuerpo, se salieron de la sala (Alemán, GA, II, I, VII)

muffled or smothered laughter, a not so successful attempt, when we try to check it after starting: In haste and guiltily, the two children swallowed their incipient shriek of startled mirth and averted frozen faces from one another (Huxley, EG, XXVII)

silent laughter (sometimes a leader), expressed only kinesically by as little as nasolabial furrows or inflated cheeks (i.e. suppressed laughter) or as much as manual gestures, doubling up as with audible laughter, or just the jerky smile of a quiet chuckle:

Paralanguage, III

67

Uriah stopped short, put his hands between his great knobs of knees, and doubled himself up with laughter — with perfectly silent laughter. Not a sound scaped from him (Dickens, DC, XLII) Job, rubbing his hands with delight, uttered the first sound he had given vent to […] — a low noiseless chuckle, which seemed to intimate that he enjoyed his laugh too much, to let any of it escape in sound (Dickens, PP, XXV) The Count was laughing in his smooth silent internal way (Collins, WW, 355) The conclusion of it appeared to amuse him extremely, for he shook his shoulders and sides in silence, and perked up his thin lips with an air of great internal enjoyment (Beecher Stowe, UTC, VIII) Spandrell delayed his laughter long enough to whistle for a taxi […] He was still silently laughing when they climbed in (Huxley, PCP, XII) Eddie. [He utters a silent laugh at himself […] (A. Miller, VFB, I).

3.2.2 Labelling of laughter types This type of model may well prove indispensable for the systematic study of laughter as a component of speech and conversation in clinical work, cross-cultural comparison of its display rules according to different stimuli and situational contexts, the appreciation of novelists’ and playwrights’ use of laughter and how they describe it, etc. Once sensitized to its many forms and even ineffable semantic nuances (at times beyond the consciousness of the laugher), we realize it is not just a question of referring orally or in writing to this or that laughter type, but of knowing what exactly we mean when we liberally use labels like ‘snicker’ (or ‘snigger’), ‘titter,’ ‘chortle,’ etc., and even more when we say that so-and-so laughed ‘cynically,’ ‘bitterly,’ ‘charmingly’; or what is meant when a novelist or playwright (more so for the foreign reader) writes that someone laughs with ‘a sardonic chuckle,’ ‘contemptuously,’ ‘histrionically,’ etc., some reflecting culture-specific forms and display rules. We can at best produce those types if given the label, depending on our past experience of such utterances and on how we would express those feelings, but most probably unable to describe them even in accurate impressionistic terms, let alone phonetically. At any rate, we should be familiar with etymological origins and basic physiological-phonetic characteristics of at least the better established references, for paralinguistic research, literary translation or simply for its correct evocation when speaking or writing. Some types are: chuckling, for instance (probably an imitation of the hen’s ‘chuck’ or clucking noise), denotes a low-pitched, usually closed mouth (and often single-pulse) nasalized creaky realization of a glottal stop that may end in a narial fricative accompanied at most by a brief jerk of the head (or head and trunk) and perhaps intent stare through squinting eyes, associated with polite laughter, condescendence, self satisfaction, etc.:

68

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

‘You didn’t foresee this, then?’ answered Grimsby, with a guttural chuckle (A. Brontë, TWF, XXXIII) ‘He ain’t very small,’ he [Lennie] chuckled softly at his own joke (Steinbeck, MM, II) His words tumbled out between chuckles” (Steinbeck, GW, VIII)

giggling denotes the rapid intermittent velarized utterance of a high-pitched falsetto, associated with girlishness, silliness, femininity, and feminine anxiety or embarrassment: ‘Oh, good gracious, Cherry!’ cried Miss Mercy, holding up her hands with the most winning giggle in the world (Dickens, MC, II)

guffawing refers to a loud, coarse, explosive and short, or prolonged and tense utterance, variously modified by orality, nasality or labialization and accompanied by equally ‘loud’ kinesics, associated with a ‘loud’ personality, vulgarity, aggression, merriment, or unexpected and sudden amusement or comicality: EBEN. I got news for ye! Ha! [He gives one abrupt sardonic guffaw] [telling his brothers about their father’s new wife] (O’Neill, DUE, I, iii).

tittering (though also associated with, perhaps affected, politeness and half-suppressed laughter), is differentiated from giggling in the speaker’s or reader’s mind for its notso-high pitch, palatalization rather than velarization and not so much loudness: the gentlemen interposed with earnest petitions […] but they got only blushes, ejaculations, tremors, and titters (C. Brontë, JE, XVIII) [at a dance in northern Canada, in the 20s, two men who] found two Indian girls who […] seized them despite their titters of shyness, and tried to teach them the one-step (Lewis, M, XIV) he and Ben could show him some places [brothels][…]. Barrow tittered and looked embarrassed (Dos Passos, 42P, ‘Mac’)

We can wonder too about snickering, sniggering, cackling, or chortling (blending chuckling and snorting): Old Bleecker [drinking with other men], cackling with pleasure […] His party was going to be a success (Crane, GM, VIII) ‘You should see her naked,’ General Dreedle chortled with croupy relish (Heller, C22, XXI)

In addition, there are certain descriptive periphrases, as in: [a girl’s gesture] tickled him into hoarse sniggers (Wolfe, LHA, VIII)

Paralanguage, III

69

She sat spluttering31 with laughter with the tears running down her face (Dos Passos, MT, II, III).

James Agee, as a sensitive novelist, wrote about laughter in the comic films: In the language of screen comedians four of the main grades of laugh are the titter, the yowl, the belly laugh and the boffo. The titter is just a titter. The yowl is a runaway titter. The boffo is the laugh that kills. An ideally good gag, perfectly constructed and played, would bring the victim up this ladder of laughs by cruelly controlled degrees to the top rung, and would then proceed to wobble, shake, wave and brandish the ladder until he groaned for mercy. Then, after the shortest possible time out for recuperation, he would feel the first wicked tickling of the comedian’s whip once more and start up a new ladder […] The best of comedies these days hand out plenty of titters and once in a while it is possible to achieve a yowl without overstraining (Agee 1979: 535)

3.2.3 Direction, control, and motivational categories 3.2.3.1 By direction or aim is meant: laughing at, reacting to an internal or external stimulus, as when we find someone amusing or are presented with a birthday cake, or laugh at a dog’s antics; laughing with, at something or someone but consciously sharing that reaction, as when two of us enjoy something funny; laughing for, voluntarily or involuntarily, with an aim in mind, as when laughing out of embarrassment or to provide adulatory feedback during a conversation; laughing at something with someone, when one laughs at something with someone and at the same time at that person’s way of laughing, or at his naiveté, or at the faces he makes while laughing: But one laughed with as well as at her; for the set of her lips was humorous and the expression of her round astonished eyes was mocking and mischievously inquisitive (Huxley, PCP, XI)

The average stage actor’s laughter is an example of ‘laughing for,’ an ably feigned display of a nonexisting feeling (the degree of its ‘authenticity’ depending on the performer’s sensitiveness to identify with the character) in imitation of a make-believe reality done for the purpose of performing realistically.32 But, besides these four directions, there is another interesting form we can identify as solitary laughter, which can cause anxiety and irritation in others, as they feel excluded from the context of a situation in which we participate: The corner of his mouth curling with mockery, he would go into his solitary laughter while I waited with an uncomfortable smile, not knowing at what it was directed […] I waited for his humor to pass (Mailer, BS, V)

70

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

3.2.4 As for control, we should distinguish: voluntary laughter, natural, spontaneous and sincerely motivated, aimed positive or negative toward another, and triggered directly by a social stimulus or generated by imagining it. This kind can develop into a sort of involuntary ‘runaway laughter’ we may try to suppress by unsuccessfully adopting a serious countenance, repressing a betraying smile, etc: [Bidlake, thinking of the critics’ negative comments about his paintings] with a sudden explosion of voluntary laughter, ‘after all, everything I do is good; damn’ good even’ (Huxley, PCP, IV)

forced laughter, as when one feels obliged to laugh (perhaps even urged by a nudge or an intent stare); affected laughter, feigning what is not truly felt (e.g. ‘laughing something off’), the most complex occurrence, for one may sometimes seek protection — quite precariously so and deceiving oneself — behind the shield of laughter, even in noninteractive situations and with no one present: Anthony laughed; but laughed to hide a certain disquiet […] Anthony went on laughing, unconvincingly (Huxley, EG, XLXIX)

Involuntary laughter constitutes another group of several uncontrollable forms, such as: anxious laughter, out of social discomfort in some situations: ‘Why do you blame yourself for gaps in the education of others?’/ It’s silly, I know,’ Major Sanderson replied uneasily with a giddy, involuntary laughter (Heller, C22, XXXIV)

inappropriate social laughter, by a self-generated stimulus (e.g. thinking of something amusing at the wrong time): Charley found himself laughing too loud [after a remark by Eveline, in front of her husband, too conscious about her affair] (Dos Passos, BM, ‘Charley Anderson,’ 83)

infectious laughter, whether or not we are aware of that person’s stimulus (and at times not too far removed from pathological laughter): Mary Rampion laughed, whole-heartedly from the depths of her lungs. It was a laugh one could not hear without wishing to laugh oneself (Huxley, PCP, VIII)

laughter from tickling, triggering all manner of verbal, paralinguistic and kinesic extreme reactions; pathological laughter, documented in the clinical literature (cf. Izard 1979) as ‘paroxysmal,’ a total loss of control, the patient showing no discrimination of stimuli and going into a veritable fit.

Paralanguage, III

71

3.2.5 Finally, we can distinguish four motivational categories: external interactive situations (e.g. in conversation, or as members of an audience, catching a bus on the run, being told that we dropped something); external noninteractive situations (e.g. while trying to open a door the wrong way); internal-interaction situations (e.g. in an imagined conversation with others); internal noninteractive situations (e.g. reading a ludicrous statement by a public figure, seeing a good cartoon). 3.2.6 Functional categories. Although Simmel (1924: 370) said that “the world is composed of two kinds of people: those who make one laugh and those who are made to laugh,” I cannot help adding: and those who are laughed at and those who laugh at themselves. A.
Affiliation Agreement and affirmation with respect to what someone says or does, expressed either by a single laugh or by intermittent laughter and other kinesic affirmative or negative behaviors, or by different combinations of laughter, eye contact, and touch. ‘It ain’t you — Kells??/ Roberts’ query was a confirmation of his own recognition. And the other’s laugh was an answer (Grey, BL, II)

Knowing laughter, requiring no words: ‘No, no,’ we replied, with a knowing chuckle (Jerome, TMB, V) “How’s your poor head?” and broke into a knowing laugh. “You don’t seem to have got up with the lark this morning […] Well, we did have a good time, didn’t we? […]” (Howells, HNF, IV, VII) With sly winks and discreet sniggering he conveyed that he knew very well that there was a great deal more than Philip confessed (Maugham, OHB, LXVIII)

Laughter of deference and politeness, which, independently of the laugher’s feelings toward the person, implies an affiliative intention, whether out of respect or courtesy; Solidarity laughter, at the other end of the affiliation-aggression scale and out of positive or negative motives, whether triggered by a passenger’s remark during an elevator’s ride or at a cashier’s line, and sometimes with a bond-seeking attitude; Affiliate-support-seeking laughter, the painful attitude of many underprivileged and lonely inhabitants of the large cities, alienated from the rest of society: bums, vagrants, winos, those in jails and institutions, etc. I have heard and seen that ready laughter in a deprived ‘shackwife’ by Calcutta’s Howrah Bridge, in a family of Portuguese gypsies camped by Salamanca’s ancient bridge, in a bum sheltered in the warmth of Detroit’s Greyhound Bus depot on a wintry night, and in the woman who had stolen all my photographic equipment and could hardly understand my affection and support.

72

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Status-seeking laughter, another form of bond-seeking with which children and teenagers try to ingratiate themselves with their peers, or the socially inferior with higher-status persons, accompanied (according to culture) by back-clapping or, in women, touching the interlocutor’s arm or forearm. Adulatory laughter, selfish and calculated, when the laugher (regardless of his own status (the powerful, the politician, the boss, the job-giver, the police officer) puts himself below the person he is flattering with insincere excessive praise. Flirtatious laughter, punctuating the flirting witty male’s or female’s remarks, flattering words and charming conversation, often underlining a sincere tone and deep gaze, a powerful tool and sometimes a deceptive means of concealing motives not shared by the other person. The laugher tries to have his or her laughter reciprocated, knowing that shared laughter means progress, the woman, for instance, quickly touching the man’s wrist or knee, or just tilting her head and smiling: the three young ladies laughed in musical echo to his pleasantry, swaying their bodies to and fro, with nervous jerks of their shoulders (Joyce, D, ‘The Dead,’ 199)

Bond-confirming laughter of intimacy and close relationship, while sharing memories, discovering common inclinations, etc., perhaps over an equally bond-creating meal or drink, both persons measuring without words the degree of that developing intimacy, in some possibly even developing into flirtation or seduction. Laughter of play, depending on age (children and young people being more given to yelling and uncontrollable laughter than the more mature),33 gender (women usually laugh more gigglingly and spasmodically), socioeconomic status (e.g. the coarser laughter and more violent bodily movements of the less educated) and, of course, the type of game (the hilarity elicited by a fast game like table tennis triggers more sudden outbursts, loud guffawing and longer paralinguistic aftermaths than do games like pool or chess), including the expectant or tense laughter of adult games, with variables such as the amount of money involved. Compassionate laughter of support (often simply laughing with) is, or should be, the subtly timed laughter displayed, for instance, by the more sensitive doctors, nurses and visitors with seriously ill patients. It can be verbalized in soothing words (even laughing about the unlaughable), with simultaneous eye contact and smiling, close proxemics, contactual kinesics (e.g. an affectionate squeeze of the hand) and perhaps the kinesthetic link established between the two by the mediating bed on which sits the doctor or nurse, all of therapeutic value.34 Laughter of affection and love, at times exceeding the magnitude of its stimulus out of sheer satisfaction about the presence and well-being of the loved person, an easy laughter of many loud or subdued forms. In cultures where hugging is much less common the laughter tends to acquire another meaning: ‘We are hugging, although we are men, but of course we like each other,’ which acts as a disclaiming element35

Paralanguage, III

73

B.Aggression Seduction laughter, as seduction is achieved in part through laughter up to the last stages, of rather low volume and pitch, often with lips closed and at times distended horizontally in a simultaneous knowingly, seductive smile coupled to prolonged intent gazing and intimate distance: [She [Abbie to his stepson] laughs a low humid laugh without taking her eyes from him] (O’Neill, DUE, II, I)

Satirical laughter, clearly a product of pride (sometimes a habitual attitude), accompanied by more or less subtle and complex gesture of contempt, irony or sarcasm: her laugh was satirical, and so was the habitual expression of her arched and haughty lip (C. Brontë, JE, XVII)

Laughter of contempt, the sneering laughter disdainfully directed to someone, typically stereotyped by actors, with half-closed eyes, laterally-distended lips and nasolabial fold, rather lower pitch and loudness and often with a long sneering kinesic leader and chuckling as its onset: She [Trilby] stared at him with a cold stare of disdain, and cut him dead […] he heard them both snigger — she with a high-pitched flippant snigger worthy of a London barmaid (Maurier, T, VII)

The laughter of scorn, understood here as extreme contempt or disdain, with harsher paralinguistic and kinesic behaviors (e.g. low, hateful pitch, laryngealization, tenseness, alternating velic nasal plosives and narial fricatives and a sardonic sneer as kinesic leader and aftermath) which express visually the strong feeling: So the runners [sent by the king and his leaders] passed from city to city […] but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them (2 Chronicles 30:10, NKJ) All those who see Me laugh Me to scorn (Psalm 22:7, NKJ) CABOT. (gives him a push away that sends him sprawling--laughing with withering contempt) (O’Neill, DUE, III, iv) “Not come to live in this house? Don’t tell me. You ask her, that’s all,” said the Squire, with a short, scornful laugh (Eliot, SM, IX) her eyes [Daisy’s] flashed around her as in a defiant way, rather like Tom’s, and she laughed with thrilling scorn. ‘Sophisticated — God, I’m sophisticated’” (Fitzgerald, GG, I)

Laughter of mockery, derision and ridicule (often of scorn too), also vividly portrayed by actors in rather stereotyped (though real) forms; most offensively displayed with open mouth, low-pitched mid-vowel, loud orality rather than nasality, or, even worse, nasopharyngeal guffawing and even a pointing gesture toward its victim; while milder,

74

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

more subtle forms disguise the mocking and ridiculing with not so harsh tones, or truly lack ill will and only serve to make fun without malice or hostility: Beatrice put her tongue between her teeth and laughed wickedly [when Miriam misinterprets a Latin expression] (Lawrence, SL, VIII) ‘He [Birkin] is such a dreadful satanist, isn’t he?’ she drawled to Ursula, in a queer resonant voice, that ended in a shrill little laugh of pure ridicule. The two women were jeering at him (Lawrence, WL, III) He [Kate] cackled at him [Adam] derisively (Steinbeck, EE, XXXI, I)

Skeptic laughter of incredulity can also blend with that of scorn or disdain, very often expressed with a sneer, at times with a tone of sad or bitter disbelief, or in what is called sardonic laughter: “Oho,” exclaimed George incredulously (Dreiser, JG, II)

Sardonic laughter, harsh, open-mouth guffawing, or the closed-mouth chuckle type, is the offensive laughter of derisive mockery blended with disdainful or skeptical humor: Where did you break your glasses? […] / — The cinderpath, sir./ — Hoho! The cinderpath! the cinderpath! cried the prefect of studies. I know that trick (Joyce, PAYM, I) SIMEON [with his sardonic burst of laughter] [to his father]. Ha! Eben’s a chip o’ yewspit’n image-hard’n’ bitter’s a hickory tree! (O’Neill, DUE, I, iv) [EBEN suddenly laughs, one short sardonic bark: ‘Ha! […]) (O’Neill, DUE, III, ii)

Laughter of challenge and threat, the former another stereotyped behavior: low pitch, not loud, of either prolonged emissions or repeated short ones, with typical intent gazing and sometimes a sneer, and, more showingly, with the tough-guy’s come-on gesture, made rather universal by American movies: Cruel laughter, that can be already present in scornful or threatening laughter, depending on the degree of perversity36: Finally, the invasion of privacy through laughter is a form of aggression we have all experienced at one time or another as victims or, less consciously so, as aggressors, the offense due actually to the fact that we are not sharing that laughter and ignore ‘what can be so funny’ for those too-close-forcomfort people; particularly in places where we expect privacy or even pay for it (e.g. a quiet lounge), or in an hotel lobby, subway car or park; however, should one be invited to join the laughing group, everything could change. C.Fear As with anxiety, fear can elicit a sort of laughter seemingly incongruent with the situation being experienced, forced by the presence of others, laughing off the fearful object, since we recognize it as perhaps not threatening enough to, for instance, just cry in unequivocal terror; but we would not laugh if we are alone, thus it is clearly what

Paralanguage, III

75

Ekman (1981:273) calls “concealment of affect or the substitution of an unfelt emotion for a felt emotion,” that is why its configuration resembles much more that of anxiety: ‘No! she cried half laughing in terror — ’no!’ (Lawrence, SL, V)

D.Social anxiety Anxiety laughter responds to a welcome and seemingly appropriate stimulus and serves mostly as a convenient supporting behavior willingly offered in response to our cointeractant (the laugh itself not necessarily anxious) or consciously or unconsciously to our own anxiety (the laugh then being anxious).37 Only a few of its realizations are identified here. Opening laughter, expressing, usually unconsciously, the tension generated in certain situations: initiating a formal gathering, at a critical business meeting, hotellobby encounter, etc.; short laughs are easily elicited by any trivial stimulus to break the ice and fill the initial moments, humorous remarks are quite welcome and typically used as openers by many public speakers to ward off their anxiety. Social event laughter, easily elicited at weddings, receptions, banquets, etc., by different and often simultaneous reasons (e.g. fighting off feelings of social isolation, awkwardness), unless one manages to busy oneself with a drink, unfolding a napkin or listening with pretended attention to someone else. Social performer’s laughter, observed in those men and women of the world (politicians, members of royal families, actors) who, despite the obvious easiness with which they negotiate any social and public situation, may also betray anxiety through certain random behaviors (hair-, tie- or cuff-preening, smiling, etc.) and laughing at trivial remarks, things or happenings. Uncomfortable laughter, in situations in which one would perhaps use laughing speech, but, more commonly, would not offer any comments at all, as: They all [after Cass, a judge, is told something not very appropriate in front of others] laughed, hastily, trying to sound comfortable (Lewis, CT, XLIX)

Embarrassment laughter, depending on the situation, trying to conceal consciously or unconsciously the anxiety created by one’s or even someone else’s awkwardness, social blunder, inappropriate language, etc., sometimes accompanied by blushing in both sexes, as in the coyness behaviors observed by Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1980) as universal: Here the gentlemen interposed with earnest petitions […] but they got only blushes, ejaculations, tremors, and titters, in return for the importunity (C. Brontë, JE, XVIII) he laughed slightly with shame [when she can hardly move the swing herself]” (Lawrence, SL, VII) ‘Quite,’ said Philip [who has a lame leg], nodding, and laughed with an affectation of amusement that was meant to cover the embarrassment he felt at Rampion’s reference to physical disability (Huxley, PCP, XXXIV)

76

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

he and Ben could show him some places [brothels][…]. Barrow tittered and looked embarrassed (Dos Passos, 42P, ‘Mac,’ 353).

False anxiety laughter is certainly a common form: [When the butcher sees Helen handling the hook she was going to steal, and she blushes and says something] Nervously, for lack of anything else to do or say, Helen laughed again (Huxley, EG, V).

Expectancy laughter, caused by worry, fear, hope, or happiness, as when watching a perilous race or waiting at an airport gate for a loved one to appear, during a high-wire act, hardly blinking, women typically with hands clasped against the chest or pressing the sides of the nose. Crowded laughter, a form of tension-relieving laughter while being crowded by strangers, as in the proverbial elevator or in a rush-hour subway car, when the unwanted intimate proxemic situation makes any humorous remark welcome. Foreigner’s laughter, displayed by people of different languages who are trying to communicate verbally and nonverbally, impaired by lexical and grammatical deficiency and frequent incorrect decoding). Relief laughter, of irregular rhythm and with rather static facial expression, provoked by the actual relief of the anxiety:38 [after avoiding a former lover in the street] he perceived the forlorn woman dodging about like a scout. Jimmie laughed with an air of relief and went away (Crane, MGS, XV).

Laugh-off laughter, a complex form trying to alleviate interactive or noninteractive anxiety, triggered by a threatening concern or responsibility which we refuse to face and want to openly deny. E.Joy There is a whole gamut of laughs in this category, with congruent facial expressions, or simply speaking in laughing speech. Elation laughter, a blend of exultant joy and pride, sometimes surprise at what seems unbelievable but is real; in fact, the first one ever referred to in a text: Abraham prostrated himself and laughed [when God tells him his elderly wife would give him a son] (Genesis 17:17, NAB).

Good-luck laughter, learning of one’s good fortune, breaking into a high-pitched spasmodic or continuous laugh, sometimes with an initial ingressive burst which may be totally voluntary and self-gratifying, with brow raising and smiling face. It is, for instance, the culturally differentiated laughter we see on television game shows, in which most western women display the palms-holding-nose gesture, gaping mouth, jumping with joy at their ‘incredible’ fortune or remaining static for a moment, speechless with disbelief, grasping their hair, clasping their hands, a frozen smile on

Paralanguage, III

77

their faces, or frowning with incredulity, and then bursting into laughter and sometimes tears. the countenances of the Easterner and the Swede [playing poker] were miserable whenever the cowboy thundered his aces and kings, while Johnnie, his eyes gleaming with joy, chuckled and chuckled (Crane, BH, II).

Surprise laughter, very similar to the former, often with an ingressive onset and a sudden postural shift, trunk erect, grabbing the arms of the chair if seated, etc. Greeting laughter, a controlled ‘laughing greeting’ (unless caused by anxiety) as part of a warm salutation, preceding and during energetic handshaking and, in more expressive culture, with different kinesic behaviors (see greetings in Chapter 5). Congratulatory laughter, often also within a greeting situation, with or without verbal accompaniment and typical of laughing speech, thus rather spasmodic. Reunion laughter which, depending on the intensity of the occasion, may often be accompanied by tear shedding, sometimes making the situation unrecognizable if laughter has not occurred yet (as illustrated below when discussing crying). Merrymaking laughter could denote different situations in which two or more persons display a mutually engaging exuberant mirth, reflecting personality, socioeducational background and sensitiveness, its kinesics corresponding to the intensity of its paralanguage. Rejoicing laughter, combined with other behaviors, perfectly defined in this example: ‘[…] so you’re going to London?/ Miss Mercy replied in the affirmative, pinching her sister’s arm at the same time, and giggling nervously./ ‘Lots of beaux in London, cousin!,’ said Mr Jonas, slightly advancing his elbow./ ‘Indeed, sir!’ cried the young lady. ‘They won’t hurt us, sir, I dare say.’ And having given him this answer with great demureness, she was so overcome by her own humour, that she was fain to stifle her merriment in her sister’s shawl (Dickens, MC, VIII).

Satisfaction laughter, triggered by: –

real or imagined sensual pleasure: ‘Do you like to feel velvet?’ Lennie [the half-witted laborer] chuckled with pleasure. ‘You bet, by God,’ he cried happily (Steinbeck, MM, V)

–

pride: Milo chortled proudly, ‘I don’t buy eggs in Malta,’ he confessed, with an air of slight and clandestine amusement (Heller, C22, XXII) Chief White Lafoat settled back in the staff car with an ebullient, prideful chuckle. ‘That’s Captain Black’s car […] I stole it from him […]’ (Heller, C22, XII)

–

gratification:

78

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

[Looking at a family photograph] “Well, that’s Bill,” said Lapham, with a gratified laugh (Howells, RSL, I)

–

as a self-gratifying kind of expressive behavior, enjoying hearing one’s own laughter (‘I’m experiencing pleasure’), while eating or drinking: Old Bleecker [drinking with other men], cackling with pleasure […] His party was going to be a success (Crane, GM, VIII)

–

enjoying success: Tom [in great satisfaction] […] laughed too and rubbed his hands, and wished them a pleasant journey and safe return, and was quite brisk (Dickens, MC, VI)

–

the pleasure of good company, the enjoyment of a wedding or ‘a great party,’ etc.; but also in altruistic delight at someone else’s enjoyment, hugging and even cheekkissing between men, as I experienced in Istanbul with men I had just met in the street who invited me to join them. In reality, that satisfaction may respond simultaneously to various stimuli, at conscious and unconscious levels: Anthony’s laughter pleased her none the less for that. It was whole-hearted laughter, loud and prolonged — louder and longer than the joke itself warranted. But then it wasn’t at the joke that he was really laughing. The joke was hardly more than an excuse; that laughter was his response, not to a single stimulus, but to the whole extraordinary and exciting situation (Huxley, EG, XXVII).

Self-confidence laughter, which may respond simply to an egocentric tendency or to an attitude of malicious challenge. ABBIE [when her stepson, Eben, tells her that the farm was his mother’s and is now his] (with a cool laugh of confidence) Yewr’n? We’ll see ‘bout that! (O’Neill, DUE, I, iv)

Triumphal laughter (beyond mere luck), a single loud cry or a chain of prolonged or spasmodic bursts with congruent facial and manual expressions and posture: ABBIE [to her stepson, who eyes her desirously] (She laughs a crazy triumphant laugh) I’m a-goin’ t’ make all o’ this hum my hum! (O’Neill, DUE, II, II)

Laughter over someone else’s misfortune, a form of the cruel laughter discussed earlier, displayed in a sort of ill-will glee There was such a malignant enjoyment in her utterance [Miss Havisham’s] of the last words, and she broke into such a disagreeable laugh (Dickens, GE, XV)

F.Sadness. Laughter of grief (diametrically opposite to that of joy) is subdued, sorrowful and sad, shown by those who grieve for a dead person, remembering this or that humorous attitude or amusing event in the deceased’s life, often to comfort the relatives.

Paralanguage, III

79

Rueful laughter or sorrowful chuckle, another expression of sadness, witnessing or remembering something (or someone) that inspires pity, at times with an element of dejection: Even in laughter the heart may be sad (Proverbs 14:13, NAB) [Joe Hartland, identifying himself to an old friend who had a much better life than he] A titter died in his throat […] ‘I remember I thought I’d do something for that kid [his friend’s son] someday. It’s a funny world.’ Hartland laughed feebly (Dos Passos, MT, II, II) ‘Don’t laugh,’ said Asphalter, himself grimly laughing [remembering sad and ridiculous things of his childhood] (Bellow, H) (She thinks, gives a muffled laugh in rueful contemplation of the incident) It was awful! [telling others how “in jest” she had knocked down her husband] (Albee, WAOVW, I)

Bitter laugh, from impotence, resignation, etc., in the face of an unhappy state of affairs: ‘but I want to see you comfortable before I go.’/ ‘Me comfortable!’ repeated she, with a bitter laugh, as if there were something amusingly absurd in the idea (A. Brontë, TWF, XII) “Do you — I hesitate. “’Do you ever get used to such a place? [an institution for the elderly]. She laughs then, a short bitter laugh (Laurence, SA, III)

But even sad laughter can blend with the one triggered by something comical, absurd or ludicrous when this second stimulus appears unexpectedly: Suddenly and uncontrollably, Elinor had begun to laugh. To laugh and to cry uncontrollably. Grief alone she had been able to master. But grief allied with Bonzo [a dog her mother alludes to at Elinor’s boy’s bedside] was irresistible. Something broke inside her and she found herself sobbing with a violent, painful, and hysterical laughter (Huxley, PCP, XXXIII)

G.Comicality and ludicrousness These two topics involve the reactions to comic or funny remarks and situations, the incongruity that surprises us or the grotesque appearance of someone or something. It is the closed-mouth explosion, the stentorian guffawing of the less compassionate people, the contagious belly laughs while doubling up ‘in hysterics,’ flopping into a couch with legs spread, eyes closed; one can shed uncontrollable tears, choke, grab another convulsively, knock down objects, stamp the feet or pound on a table, ending sometimes in an often sought state of paroxysm: ‘Ha, ha, ha! A beefsteak pudding made with flour and eggs! Why anybody knows better than that. I know better than that! Ha, ha, ha!’ (Dickens, MC, XLV)

80

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

‘Oh, I can’t laugh. I mustn’t. It pulls my stitches. But did you ever see anything like the look on her face?’/ I have to snort, recalling it […] My own spasm of laughter catches 3me like a blow […] Convulsed with paining laughter, we bellow and wheeze (Laurence, SA, X) He kept slapping his hands on his legs every few seconds as though he had the shakes and saying ‘All right now, all right,’ and giggling like a crazy little freak (Heller, C22, XXVIII)

H.Incredulity Skeptical laughter can be displayed out of sheer jocose unbelief or in a sad and bitter tone, the most ancient example of the former being Abran’s, when told about a future son of his, and Sarai’s, when she heard about it too: Abraham prostrated himself and laughed as he said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Or can Sarah give birth at ninety? […] Sarah laughed to herself (Genesis 17:17, 18:12, NAB)

I.Amusement laughter and social interaction laughter Laughter of amusement (from OF. ‘amuser,’ to muse) can be subdued and subtle (even when unconsciously emitted), elicited not exactly by unexpected displays of wit, clownishness or ridicule, but rather a light ongoing pleasant effect, as when we just like our interlocutor, or when man and woman charm each other by interspersing their talk with humorous comments, lively remarks and engaging references to people, places and events, mutually responding with a continuous or intermittent smile: She [Clara] laughed in amusement at him (Lawrence, SL, 32)

Sometimes (as happens with children) is a reaction to the naiveté of something said: all the while the trunks creak and thump on top [of the cab]. [‘Muddy, dear, you don’t think it’ll break through do you?’] ‘No dear,’ she laughs tilting her head to one side (Dos Passos, MT, I, III)

Random interactive laughter is what we often can observe in ourselves, thought unable to identify any of the motives discussed: a coincidence (e.g. two persons unexpectedly saying the same thing at the same time), simple agreement (e.g. ‘I don’t like the cold’ — ‘Neither do I!’), a brief mini-conflict (e.g. sidestepping once or twice when two people walk into each other’s path), a slight inconvenience (e.g. the slipperiness of a floor, when in the presence of others), welcoming someone into one’s home (‘Well, come on in!’), acknowledging someone who tells us we dropped something, etc. Polite laughter — hardly heard in the home, and unfortunately missing in otherwise realistic novels — would sometimes define that random behavior, as part, for instance, of the professional repertoire of receptionists, salespersons, etc., when interacting with those they must attend to (related to their desk- or counter-tapping). Others, as in interaction of medical people with patients, we cannot even see that kind of context.

Paralanguage, III

81

J.Self-directed laughter Laughing at oneself is not triggered by a truly external stimulus, but by our attitude or feelings toward it, and it may also occur in interaction, out of self-directed annoyance, concealed embarrassment, self-pity, etc.: ‘What is the matter with you, young woman? […] /’Oh, nothing, sir — nothing in the world!’ answered Phoebe, with a little laugh of vexation at herself [after she had started when he makes a strange noise in his throat] (Hawthorne, HSG, VIII) He [Philip] looked at her [Mildred, who comes to him after humiliating him so much], and the corners of his mouth turned down in an expression of misery. He had triumphed indeed […] He gave a little laugh of derision at his own humiliation (Maugham, OHB, XXXVI) NINA […] [She laughs at herself] Oh, what a goose I was!…then love came to me…in his arms…happiness! (O’Neill, SI, V).

3.2.7 Historical and cultural aspects of laughter No attempt has yet been made to study laughter from a cross-cultural perspective, whose sources, apart from live direct observation, would be mostly in painting and in written literature for the past and in filmed materials and cinema for today. In the Middle Ages and up to the eighteenth century, it was looked down upon,39 as wrote a medieval Spanish author: No se deue reyr sonlocadamente con disformes visages, ni reyrse por costumbre, más que por necesidad40

Wildeblood (1965) explains that laughter was thought ill-bred by courtly standards. The countenance, it was said in the sixteenth century, should express mirth in such a way that the mouth was not disfigured” [making the laugher appear as of] “light mind” (125) [and quotes an eighteenth century text] Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of folly and ill manners: it is the manner in which the mob expresses their silly joy at silly things; and they call it being merry (216)

We can associate these attitudes with the lack of conspicuous gesticulation reflected in persons of status in Renaissance painting (precisely because of the low opinion in which very animated gesticulation was held), in some later periods still depicted only in country folk (e.g. by sixteenth-century Brueghel the Elder). Hardy eloquently documents the social perception of some types of laughter as class identifiers: [expressing pleasure and gaiety at a dinner-party] a slight laugh from far down the throat and a slight narrowing of the eye were equivalent as indices of the degree of mirth felt to a Ha-ha-ha! and a shaking of the shoulders among the minor traders of

82

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

the kingdom; and to a Ho-ho-ho! contorted features, purple face and a stamping foot among the gentlemen in corduroy and fustian who adorn the remote provinces (Hardy, HE, VII)

Cross-culturally, even today certain forms of loud laughter (e.g. truly stentorian guffawing with violent gesticulation) are considered improper in many situations. But laughing may at times conceal other feelings in certain cultures, as happens in Japan, where as a reaction to an act of rudeness, people “are more apt to smile, giggle or laugh nervously” (Morsbach 1973: 269) — without the occasional foreign interactant being able to distinguish it from ‘natural’ laughter — and where typically women laugh (or rather, giggle), as was mentioned earlier, hiding their face with a vertical hand.

3.3

Crying41

3.3.1

Configuration and basic aspects of crying 3.3.1.1 Accepting the definition of laughter above, the one for crying would be: A series of regular or irregular vocal and/or narial audible air movements, mainly egressive, of varying muscular tension, rhythm and paralinguistic phonic characteristics, accompanied by varying facial and bodily behaviors and almost always by tear-shedding, simultaneous to, alternating with or independently of verbal language, and expressing negative feelings most of the times. 3.3.1.2 Apart from the aspects of crying that deserve investigation, the features of its configuration must also be identified exhaustively by following the laughter model, with some specific differences, particularly if we have read some of the popular assumptions and generalizations (e.g. that the lips are distended downward in sad weeping and distended upward in laughter, when anyone can see them distended downward in weeping laughter, or laughter, just as crying in frustration or sad crying can be displayed by the opposite gesture). Verbal-nonverbal transcript, with fewer written representations than for laughter, almost only forms like ‘Eeeeeeee!’ and ‘Boo-hoo-hoo’: “O boo-hoo-hoo! What have I done that God should — ” (Wolfe, LHA, XXXV)

Phonetic transcription (with IPA symbols and those suggested in Poyatos 1993a: Chapter 5). Auditory and social labels (sobbing, weeping, snivelling, blubbering, etc.), crying shows also specific features. Paralinguistic features
:

Paralanguage, III

83

paralinguistic leader (much more varied than for laughter because of a more gradual stimulus for the emotional reaction), sometimes an incomplete paralinguistic (and kinesic) leader: ‘I’m a gone coon this first time and — and I w-want you to take these here things — to — my — folks.’ He ended in a quavering sob of pity for himself (Crane, RBC, III)

paralinguistic onset, abrupt (even explosive) or slow, in a sustained tone or in a crescendo, and sometimes interrupted: with a strong heave and sob I broke into tears (Dickens, GE, XIX) ‘Jewel,’ ma said, looking at him. ‘I’ll give — I’ll give — give — ’ Then she began to cry (Faulkner, AILD, 105) ‘Oh, no,’ Her voice broke and her eyes filled with tears (Dos Passos, MT, II, VIII) she sobbed, bursting violently into tears (Heller, C22, XVIII)

vowel type, between [i] and [u] (front ones more typical of children, but also in the elderly and senile and in pathological regressive states) and in ‘crying-’ or ‘weeping speech’ passing from one drawled vowel to another; primary qualities are, for instance: the great loudness of weeping and wailing in many southern European, Arab and Middle-Eastern cultures and the nasal resonance due to strained musculature of the neck and nasopharynx which raises the velum: And he [Joseph, when he made himself known to his brothers] wept aloud (Genesis 45:2, NKJ) He [Jesus] came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and saw a tumult and those who wept and wailed loudly (Mark 5:38, NKJ) “God bless ye,” he seemed to half sob and half shout (Melville, MD, XXXVI) ‘[…] I can see the innocent child in that there girl’s belly a-burning.’/ A low wailing cry escaped from Rose of Sharon’s lips (Steinbeck, GW, XXII)

qualifiers
: irregular breathing
: Amanda draws a quick shuddering breath [to later break into tears] (Williams, GM, I, iv)

quavery or tremulous voice
: she said in a strangled voice… ‘I think I’m going to have a baby.’ She put her head down on her knees and sobbed” (Dos Passos, MT, II, III)

glottal catch of breaking voice: ‘Oh, no,’ Her voice broke and her eyes filled with tears (Dos Passos, MT, II, VIII)

84

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

whispering
: he could not find his full voice. Only a whisper came out. The tears were in his eyes (Bellow, H, 172)

nasalization and a quivering lip, perhaps while whimpering; huskiness caused by laryngeal muscular tension: I heard a low husky sob, and saw that the tears were overflowing down his face./’The […] coward!’ [the driver who killed his friend] he whimpered (Fitzgerald, GG, VII)

shrillness of various types: The mother lay screeching on the floor, the tears running down her furrowed face (Crane, MGS, IX)

gulping (see Chapter 2.5.6), so typical of emotional tension: I hear my gulping noisy breath and realize I’m crying (Laurence, SA, VII)

alternants
: particularly a sigh (visible as heaving) and sniffling
: Two or three of the spectators were sniffling and one was weeping loudly [when Maggie dies] (Crane, MGS, XIX) Janey began to sniffle. ‘What you wanna cry for […]’ (Dos Passos, 42P, ‘Janey,’ 155)

differentiators that modify crying (e.g. screaming, panting, gulping, sighing, yawning, coughing), sighing, which at times can be more like sobbing because of its first stage: Something like a sob and a sigh shook his broad, rough chest convulsively (Beecher Stowe, UTC, V) “God bless ye,” he seemed to half sob and half shout (Melville, MD, XXXVI)

alternants like sniffs, sniffles, etc.: ‘God I hate her. I hate her.’ Sniffing up the tears that were hot in his eyes, he walked fast down Hudson Street (Dos Passos, MT, Í, II)

consonantal sounds (e.g. crying between the teeth in a bidental fricative, labialization in softer crying, palatalization, ingressive velic stops with a snoring effect; paralinguistic offset (e.g. a sigh and a quiet sob), not abruptly controlled like laughter (although young children crying for attention do it when it is given them), unless due to a startling stimulus; paralinguistic aftermath (e.g. slight voice quavering, a dry sob, until only the kinesic aftermath remains):

Paralanguage, III

85

I sobbed a little still, but that was because I had been crying; not because I was crying then (Dickens, BH, XLIV)

Closed-mouth crying is a very specific type due always to an effort not to burst into more violent weeping, as done in muffled crying (using a handkerchief, the pillow, etc.), therefore much more uncommon in adults and typified by prolonged nasalized emissions intermittently interrupted by sniffing. Kinesic features
: kinesic leader, as an alteration of the previous kinesic activity or stillness42 (e.g. lip trembling, trying to check oneself); a barely initiated leading smile may identify the crying from happiness-sadness (e.g. at the departure of the newly-married): Her upper lip [Tony’s] trembling on the verge of tears, had an expression that was indescribably touching (Mann, B, III, II) Daisy bent her head in the shirts and began to cry (Fitzgerald, GG, V)

kinesic onset, abrupt, as in the first two examples, or slow and gradual, as in the others: with a strong heave and a sob I broke into tears (Dickens, GE, XIX He [the Pirate] […] burst into hysterical sobs (Steinbeck, TF, IX) Suddenly his throat contracted, the tears came into his eyes, the muscles of his chest tightened in spasm after violent spasm; he was sobbing (Huxley, EG, LII) [Jennie] sank down into one of the chairs close to the kitchen table and, laying her head on her arm, burst forth into soft, convulsive, inaudible sobs (Dreiser, JG, XIV)

We can see leader and onset together, as in the first example, and even certain alteradaptors acting as leaders or onset, as in Cervantes’ example: She saw Miss Fulkes’s lips trembling, her eyes growing suddenly bright with tears (Huxley, PCP, XXXIII) [Zoraida] viéndole llorar […] se enterneció […] se levantó de mis pies y fue a abrazar a su padre, y juntando su rostro con el suyo, comenzaron los dos tan tierno llanto (Cervantes, DQ,I, XLI)

kinesic behaviors while crying
: – mouth, tightly closed or fully open; – mandible, as with half-open mouth and receded mandible in a regressive state); – lips, as with the bilabial inward retraction when trying to repress loud sobbing; – nasolabial furrows, for instance, pronounced if crying out of physical pain; – eyelids (degree of closure) and eyebrows (raising, knitting); – hands, arms and body, as with women rocking their bodies back and forth while wailing loudly (e.g. in ancient Egyptian paintings and in modern Greece and

86

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Middle-Eastern cultures), some with a totally ‘dry wailing,’ others shedding tears of grief or triggered by the mounting emotional situation: The mourner sat with bowed head, rocking to and fro, and crying ‘Ah, me poor Mary!’ sobbed the woman in black [and] put her arms about her [Maggie’s mother] (Crane, MGS, XIX) She gave a groan of horror and then burst into low, hoarse shrieks which sounded hardly human, and she beat her head passionately on the ground (Maugham, R) I found him [a patient] weeping, his head in his hands […] In a feeble voice he said to me: “Oh, if only I could never have met you! I am a lost man now!” (Tournier 1983: 60–61)

kinesic offset (abrupt, as when one is startled or interrupted, or slow to change to a noncrying gesture and posture); kinesic aftermath (perhaps coinciding with the paralinguistic one and visually continuing as reddened eyes or flushed face, nose-blowing, etc.): Hizo Altisidora muestras de limpiarse las lágrimas con un pañuelo (Cervantes, DQ, II, LXX)

The kinesthetic aspect of crying should be mentioned, as when we feel it mediated by a couch we share with the crier: She […] silently sobbed in little jerks that made the fragile three-legged table quiver (Hardy, JO, II)

Chemical component in crying is of course tears, with its associated behaviors: he [Father Herzog] could not find his full voice. Only a whisper came out. The tears were in his eyes (Bellow, H, 172)

Tearless crying is also possible, as in a dry sob
: her tense state caused her to simmer over in a little succession of dry sobs (Hardy, JO, IV, V)

As to the relationship between crying and talking, two types of crying are quite significant: crying or tearful speech
: ‘Ah — that’s owing to an accident — a misunderstanding, and we won’t argue it,’ Tess answered, with tearfulness in her words (Hardy, TD, XLIII)

silent crying, sometimes alternating with the audible one: He felt horribly lonely […] He folded his arms and began to cry — not aloud; he sobbed without making any sound, and his tears left scorched marks (Schreiner, AF, I, I) It being dark, Thomasin allowed her emotion to escape her by the silent way of tears, which could roll down her cheeks unseen (Hardy, RN, V).

Paralanguage, III

87

Concurring bodily activities, such as glistening, shining or moist eyes, which actually constitute crying (not the so-called ‘crocodile tears’ or any type of reflex lacrimation); nasal secretion, use of a handkerchief (or tissue, now available for mourners in some Spanish city ‘tanatorios’) or with cultural and social differences (e.g. the rural Spanish, Italian or Transylvanian women I have observed at church funerals and wakes; if standing, holding it against her face, the elbow of that arm propped on the other hand at a right angle): The mourner [Maggie’s mother] shook her great shoulders frantically, in an agony of grief. The tears seemed to scald her face (Crane, MGS, XIX)

Self-checking of crying is a specific and eloquent behavior that may reflect the cryer’s personality, gender, culture, etc. as well as other situational aspects: Laura, stretched on the sofa [because she became ill while she was having a visitor], clenches her hand to her lips, to hold back a shuddering sob (Williams, GM, VI)

Residual bodily activities are typical after the crying episode: sniffling, coughing, choking, yawning, reddening, and puffing of eyes, nose and face; Contextual elements are always relevant: cultural background, for the differences and similarities in bereavement behaviors; socioeducational status, opening displaying or controlling crying; situational context, as with an embarrassing situation, at a wake, a wedding, during leave-taking; setting, as in a funeral parlor, counsellor’s office, airport, etc. Clinical configuration can be, as with laughter, an essential component in the person’s whole configuration, to be registered before other features (e.g. a manicdepressive patient, in a pre-operative stage).43 3.3.2 Labelling of crying forms It is obvious that many people do not know exactly the meaning of the different terms for crying, how those labels are translated into different languages, and how members of different cultures with differing sets of values and varying display rules interpret ‘hysterically,’ ‘with childlike tears,’ ‘bitterly,’ ‘indignantly,’ ‘disconsolately,’ ‘resentfully,’ ‘with joy,’ etc. To begin with, crying, from a Latin ‘quiritare’ (a variation of ‘quirritare,’ squeal like a pig), meaning to wail or shriek, has come to signify many undifferentiated types; but a few other terms should be identified which denote specific characteristics. Wailing and bewailing (ME. ‘wailen’ and ‘biwailen,’ from ON. ‘vaela,’ to lament) evoke in their prolonged diphthong the long, loud emissions: Lisbeth burst out in an eager, wailing tone (Eliot, AB, XI).

88

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Lamenting (French ‘lamenter,’ from Latin ‘lamentari,’ mourning, wailing) is similar to them and sometimes, mostly in men, closer to whimpering: The youth still lamented. ‘Oh, Jim — oh, Jim — oh, Jim — ’ (Crane, RBC, IX).

Keening is a typically Irish word denoting the wailing for the dead. Sobbing (ME. ‘sobben’) denotes loud and usually spasmodic, broken weeping with short, gasping breaths, and not necessarily with tear-shedding, which can be the ‘hysterical crying’ or ‘crying one’s eyes out,’ but often tearless: My tears do not flow so easily as they ought — they come almost like men’s tears, with sobs that seem to tear me in pieces (Collins, WW, 187) [Sue] silently sobbed in little jerks (Hardy, JO, IV, II), No-o-o!” she sobbed (Dreiser, JG, XXXVI) Helen said this in a low voice with just a sob in her breath (Grey, LT, IV)

Weeping (OE. ‘wepan,’ outcry) denotes mostly tearful crying. One specific form of weeping is blubbering (ME. ‘bloberen,’ to bubble), bubbling through the lips (mostly the mouth corners) while weeping and sobbing: Here, the fat boy [a servant, during Mr. Pickwick’s emotional toast to the bride and groom] burst forth into stentorian blubberings (Dickens, PP, XXVII)

snivelling (ME. ‘snivelen,’ the flow of nasal mucus), not far from blubbering, is a ‘sniffling’ form seen sometimes in not very sincere crying: The little girl went rigid for a moment, and then dissolved into sniffling, quiet crying (Steinbeck, GW, XXVI)

Boo-hooing denotes the act of weeping noisily: LIZA. Boohoo!!!!/ MRS PEARCE. Now stop crying and go back into your room (Shaw, P, II) Telling you how well you’re looking with hearty smiles, and boo-hooing behind your back (Wolfe, LHA, XXXII)

Moaning crying suggests a nasal rather low-pitched and low-volume sound with possible pitch variations. Whimpering (of doubtful echoic origin), also a qualifier of verbal language, has the nasality-and low-pitch quality of moaning, but its emission is broken and intermittently creaky and whiny (of echoic origin itself): Francis began to whimper. ‘But Dutch what are we going to do, what are we going to do?’ […] Jez you make me nervous with your whimpering and crying’ (Dos Passos, MT, III, IV)

Paralanguage, III

Related to whimpering are the two less frequent mewling and puling, both of a whimpering or whining quality, “as a sick or fretful child” (WNWDCE), but perhaps with less nasality.44 3.3.3 Direction and situations of crying 3.3.3.1 What was said about the aim or direction of laughter can be applied to crying: to cry about something in response to an external or internal stimulus; crying with someone about something; and crying for an ulterior motive, hardly qualifying as true crying (e.g. making the effort to get all worked up at a funeral); crying ‘about’ and ‘with’ can blend (e.g. when grief throws someone into someone else’s arms). For the stage actor, acute sensitiveness could turn into actual ‘crying about’ what usually would only be ‘acted crying for’45 As for pathological crying, it has been referred to as “situations where weeping is outside the grasp of the observer’s empathy or sympathy and appears to be ego-alien or nearly so to the weeping person himself” (Löfgren 1966), but it should be mentioned as a likely instance of involuntary crying. As with laughter, the different situations are: external interactive (e.g. between lovers, at a wake), external noninteractive (e.g. watching a parade), internal-interactive (e.g. imagining a dead loved one), and internal noninteractive (e.g. reading a moving account). Finally, when not empathically involved, the crying of others can make us feel extremely uncomfortable, even feeling like we are invading their privacy, particularly in an inappropriate setting (e.g. a quiet lounge). 3.3.4 Functional categories of crying A.Affiliation Because of its intimate nature, crying with someone strengthens our bond with that person much more than it would through laughter. Solidarity through crying, a familiar scene through today’s media, shows some cross-cultural differences: people who are ‘louder’ verbally, paralinguistically and kinesically, and also touch more, tend to cry louder and with much less inhibition. Arrivals and goodbyes elicit the kind of crying we observe in vantage points like the international airports at Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Frankfurt or London, but it lends itself to misinterpretation. Once I kept observing a low-middle class Italian family (betrayed by their clothing, paralanguage, gestures, etc.): the son was embracing his elderly mother while crying uncontrollably, surrounded by four more relatives who smiled with tearful eyes as they looked on (their smiles still not incongruent as an expression of sympathy); so I erroneously concluded that the mother must have just arrived from ‘the old country’ after losing her husband, her crying and her son’s

89

90

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

expressing their grief. But I had barely stopped looking for three minutes when I saw him walking away holding his mother with one arm, carrying a bouquet of obviously ‘greeting flowers’ in the other and laughing as uncontrollably as he was crying before. Were the loud crying and shedding of tears only from joy, which I could not identify as joy because I had missed the first eye-contact behaviors and perhaps preceding smiles of the participants?. A culture of intense intimate physical contact and kinesic repertoire, and an emotionally more unrestrained social class, had quickly unfolded before my eyes, perhaps blending happiness and sadness, yet I lacked sufficient data. Courtship crying is limited here to the man’s or woman’s overflowing and less selfish kind of love, of low tones, quavery, whispery voice and relaxed breathing, accompanied by alternating prolonged eye contact and looking away, often the mutual holding of hands acting as an added interpersonal ‘articulation.’ Love and tenderness, in any relationship, elicit calm and virtually silent or silent crying — just as it does gentle laughter and not a raucous one — accompanied by glistening eyes, or a tear, as it is caused only by a deep feeling of psychological and/or spiritual closeness to the loved one, usually with no mediating words, since tears can express the ineffable. Although nowadays women are more prone to it than men, we should remember the male lover’s crying in nineteenth-century novel and; and a review of Dickens’ world shows how masculine crying had not yet suffered from our modern restrain of expressed emotions and of the emotions themselves: Heavens knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts (Dickens, GE, XIX)

B.Empathy Compassionate weeping, witnessing other people’s tragedies and misfortunes, is usually subdued than that of the person one empathizes with, who may or may not cry, usually supported by bodily contact, such as holding a hand or the person’s shoulders, embracing, kissing or just giving a firm handshake with a compassionate look (but crying triggered by someone else’s grief would not qualify as mourning). Indirect empathy, that is, on hearing about someone’s tragic death or watching a documentary on famine victims, cannot result in any kind of response on our part, unless we, act upon that emotional effect on us.46 Melancholic empathy, a similar type, is caused by relived feelings and a sense of alienation from one’s loved ones and oneself: The letters [by grandfather Herzog during the Russian Revolution] […] accounts of cold, lice, famine, epidemics, the dead […] ‘Shall I ever see the face of my children?’ […] Father Herzog […] could not find his full voice […] The tears were in his eyes (Bellow, H, 172).

C.Joy The common denominator in this category is so obvious that the manifestations of crying with tear-shedding can be very similar to each other, only the contextual

Paralanguage, III

91

elements allowing us sometimes to identify the actual stimulus. The feeling of good fortune when learning about it is qualified by surprise, perhaps mixed with disbelief at one’s luck, then by bursting into the recognition of one’s triumph. The triumph of a female Olympian can bring a tearful smile to her face, soon followed by raised arm or arms; but if her triumph is the result of many painful hours and much anxiety, or sad memories linger in her mind, the weeping may for a while overshadow the expression of happiness. The crying of joy, however, is always in a lower key when it is not mixed with much anxiety, relieved precisely through crying. she [Ada] was not crying in sorrow, but in a little glow of joy, and pride, and hope (Dickens, BH, XIII) [saying how happy she is about marrying] ‘Very, sobbed Caddy. ‘Ve-ry!’ (Dickens, BH, XXX)

D.Social anxiety This is caused mainly by feelings of embarrassment, shame, tension, or when that tension is relieved, and its paralinguistic and kinesic characteristics vary with age and gender (e.g. the young boy whose voice quavers and clenches his teeth trying to repress his tears). As with the relief laughter, this can be, mostly in women, the response to the actual relief of pent-up tension, quiet or in uncontrollable convulsive sobbing that gives way to a smiling aftermath of relief. E.Psychological pain Foremost in this category are grief and bereavement, with the same paralinguistickinesic-chemical characteristics, depending on personality and, even more, on cultural display rules and the cultural concept of, and reaction to, personal loss (i.e., by death), forced separation (as with exile), material loss (e.g. seeing one’s home in flames), or alienation in general (e.g. before a long absence). The crying of mourning deserves special attention, particularly as regards sex differences across cultures and its almost ritualized, or truly ritualized, display. As Leach (1972: 332) puts it, “it is the noise [thus the paralanguage] rather than the tears which have symbolic value.” By contrast with, for instance, Mediterranean cultures, the typical North American funeral home, where the deceased is suddenly seen in an environment which cannot elicit the associations and memories his or her own home would, there is much more restrain in crying; but first and even second-generation male and female members of crying cultures are also more expressive in bereavement, such as the Lebanese or the Italian, whose weeping amounts to expressing verbally their suffering and the degree of their attachment to the deceased. The loud and prolonged wailing of women at the place of cremation in India, where men relatives (not the friends) also cry loudly, indicates that they belong to the immediate family, while among the Yoruba of Nigeria women must cry loudly and men silently. In China, where a proverb warns that “A man will shed blood, but not tears,” men

92

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

however cry at funerals; in Ghana, one of the cultures where professional mourners are still hired, the better-off families have female mourners who, dressed in especial clothes and with their hair cropped (seen, for instance, in a Greek ‘lekythos’ painted in the fifteenth century B. C.) or tied behind in a bun, wail with back-and-forth rocking movements, accompanied by male flute players, and call the memorized names of other dead family members. In Lebanon, with the same rocking motion, the hired females wail around the coffin during the two or three days the body is kept there, once in a while prompted by others to cry louder when new people are arriving, and entreating the deceased with great cries to greet their own dead relatives in heaven. When they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, he [Jesus] saw a tumult, and people weeping and wailing loudly (Mark 5:38, RSV) ‘Where have you laid him [his friend Lazarus, before he resuscitates him]? […] ‘Sir, come and see.’ And Jesus wept’ (John 11:34–35, NAB)

Two more forms of loss are: alienation, another form of loss, as before a long separation (e.g. before incarceration): I [young Pip, leaving his hometown] broke into tears (Dickens, GE, XIX)

longing, that intense yearning that moves someone to silent tears or, more in women, to even audible, rather quiet crying. Distress, with different reactions to it cross-culturally, are witnessed even on television: Juggut Singh was led out of the house in handcuffs [while his mother] continued to wail and beat her forehead and breasts (Singh, TP, 51)

Anguish is sometimes the only way to refer to certain outbursts of crying, since different emotions can cause that deep pain. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken [that he would deny Him] […] He went out and began to weep bitterly (Matthew 26:75, NAB) Mr. Casey [called blasphemer and devil during a violent dispute] bowed his head in his hands with a sob of pain […] He sobbed loudly and bitterly (Joyce, PAYM, I)

Fear of, for instance, impending or possible danger, is usually of a higher pitch, more continuous than spasmodic, tense, whispery or whispery-creaky, accompanied by fixed gaze and slow or almost static facial expression. Anger — leading even to a ‘temper tantrum’ — is also more characteristic of women and children, as in a fight (but men can shed angry tears mixed with emotional pain). Among many other possible behaviors, the person may scream tearfully and stamp the feet, followed by a long aftermath of heaving and sighing: The small combatants pounded and kicked, scratched and tore. They began to weep, and their curses struggled in their throats with sobs (Crane, MGS, I)

Paralanguage, III

93

Humiliation can make men and women cry quietly but bitterly, with a rather static facial expression and tense hand and body movements. Frustration triggers a very similar kind of crying, often accompanied also by occasional sobbing, clenched teeth and tense facial expression; while disappointment (e.g. if someone very close to us lets us down) can be manifested in men by silent tears, but louder weeping in women. Shame is sometimes associated with humiliation or seen as its consequence, as when someone hurts our pride causing us to feel shame because our own behavior or attitude has brought us dishonor or disgrace, to which both men and women can react with crying speech or just weeping: ‘I ain’t any good — any — more’ [Johnny, after losing in a fight]. Then, from shame and bodily ill, he began to weep, the tears furrowing down through blood-stains on his face, ‘t was too — too — too heavy for me (Crane, BH, VI)

Resentment and indignation will cause tearful crying when feelings are hurt in extreme, or when they are blended with humiliation: ‘I thought you didn’t believe in God.’/ ‘I don’t,’ she [Lieutenant Scheisskopf ’s wife] sobbed, bursting violently into tears. ‘But the God I don’t believe in is a good God, a just God, a merciful God’ (Heller, C22, XVIII)

Impotence and helplessness can be quite agitated, with intermittent louder outbursts of high-pitched weeping in women, low-pitched groans and forceful exhalations in men. Depression — an important complex stimulus with different manifestations — can be manifested by crying mostly in women, by just silent tears and sighing with occasional weeping or quavering voice and lower motor activity and perhaps feelings of pessimism and inadequacy. But as a pathological form of crying, it is more conspicuous in both sexes, and feelings of hopelessness are betrayed also by a low-key kinesic repertoire. In the manic-depressive psychosis, anxiety and deep sadness trigger tantrum-like episodes with violent and loud weeping, long, high and low-pitched cries, regressive nasality and labialization, periods of open-mouth childish crying, or closedmouth and quiet weeping, and gaze fixed in infinity as part of acute underactivity. F.Deception One cannot trigger his own crying and tear-shedding as easily as laughter, although some will produce insincere ‘crocodile tears’ at will. However, if someone, particularly a woman, forces herself to actually shed tears, she may afterward continue (mostly in the company of other crying persons whose emotions he wants to feign) in a way that will feel quite natural. A second way of pretending through crying is by intensifying the existing but weak reaction (i.e., with paralinguistic pitch and loudness, concomitant kinesic behaviors, etc.). This deception can be aimed mainly at: bond-seeking, as when trying to cry along with the bereaved, not reaching their intensity, but mostly with silent tears, long voluntary sighs and a sorrowful facial

94

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

expression; seduction on the part of either man or woman (with intense eye contact and intimate proxemic behavior and touch), feigning deep, passionate affection in order to make the other person break down; or eliciting empathy, as children coaxing parents or a woman trying to soften a police officer’s heart; but this would not include the actor’s or actress’ tears as deception, perfectly congruent with the scene being performed, which may well be real and caused by a deep identification with their parts. G.Self-directed crying Self-pity, a negative, self-indulging attitude toward one’s real, imagined or just exaggerated situation, often blended with a state of ordinary depression and, more in women, causing tears and even loud weeping, stirred by seeing or imagining oneself in ‘pitiful’ situations and experiencing ‘pitiful’ feelings: He [the wounded soldier] ended in a quavering sob of pity for himself (Crane, RBC, III)

Guilt, spurred by a devastatingly negative feeling of self-reproach and the realization of having (or believing so) violated some social, ethical or spiritual norms, is manifested in intermittent, tortured weeping, either calm and subdued or in heartrending sobs, manageable only through spiritual repentance if the person acknowledges those sometimes hidden dimensions of his feelings. But many times it is handled differently, as when involving a criminal and the law, when crying indicates only remorse and readiness to confess, at which point interrogators are instructed to encourage the male crier.47 H.Esthetic enjoyment This type depends, of course, on our own esthetic concepts and the degree of enjoyment, but we must consider the difference between being moved to tears experiencing that by ourselves or with someone else, thus influenced even by that mere presence, especially in a one-to-one relationship with a loved one. I.Spiritual god-directed crying What in general can be called spiritual crying responds to various stimuli. Although it basically reflects the person’s love of God, the joy at being able to respond to God’s personal love for him or her as an individual, it shows the following aspects: repentance, whose expression always includes weeping: Because you [King Josiah] were heartsick and have humbled yourself before God […] have torn your garment and have wept before Me, I in turn have listened (2 Kings 22:19, NAB)

conversion, defined in Christian terms as a radical turning of a person’s heart and mind to God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, involving repentance for

Paralanguage, III

95

the past life and weeping, a joyful and hopeful kind of pain I have observed in persons of different age and cultures48: a woman in the city who was a sinner […] began to wash His (Jesus’) feet with her tears (Luke 7:37–38, NKJ) ”Jo-Jo [a New York street gang member] was a changed boy. It began with tears; Jo-Jo cried the bitterness out and he cried the hatred out (Wilkerson, CS, IX) And the next thing you knew the President of the Chaplains [a New York street gang] flopped down on his knees, right on Edward Street, and started crying. The VicePresident and two War Lords got down beside him and they cried (Wilkerson, CS, 69)

spiritual joy, manifested through quiet or loud crying, of which countless examples could be gleaned from different sources, beginning with the Bible: and no one could distinguish the sound of the joyful shouting from the sound of those who were weeping (Ezra 3:13, NAB) all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law [read by Ezra (Nehemiah 8:9, NAB)

The Pentecostal pastor David Wilkerson (1976) offers also his first-hand account (and true paralinguistic document) of young street men’s and women’s attitude toward crying when they were afraid they would at a rally where he was going to preach: they were afraid that something in the rally might make them cry […] the horror these young people have of tears./ What is it about tears that should be so terrifying? I asked them again and again […] tears to them were a sign of softness, of weakness and childishness in a harsh world where only the tough survive./ Yet I knew from my work in the church how important a role tears play in making a man whole. I think I could almost put it down as a rule that the touch of God is marked by tears […] I have seen it happen again and again. Deep soul-shaking tears, weeping rather than crying. It comes when the last barrier is down and you surrender yourself to health and wholeness. […] ‘You must be born again,’ said Jesus. And the paradox is this: at the heart of this newborn personality is joy; yet joy is ushered by tears (VIII)

Dr. William Wilson, psychiatry professor and Director of Duke University’s Christian Psychiatry Program, once found this note from a prostitute and suicidal psychiatric patient: “Please, dear God, send someone to tell me about you. Love. Rose.” Tears welled up my eyes as I choked out my response […]. I glanced at Pickett [a psychiatric aide], who — like Russ [a young doctor] and myself — was doing her best not to cry […]. I knew she was in the process of being transformed (Wilson 1984: 121–122).

Lamentation and penance usually go together, as in this other nonverbal biblical account:

96

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

When Mordecai learned all that was happening, he tore his garments, put on sackcloth and ashes, and walked through the city, crying out loudly and bitterly […] the Jews were into deep mourning, with fasting, weeping, and lament; they all slept on sackcloth and ashes (Esther, 4:1,3, NAB)

Guilty pain is also found in Scripture, as in instances when God does not respond to the sinner: with tears, weeping and groaning, because He no longer regards your sacrifice (Malachi, 3;13, NAB)

I.Ritualized folk crying There are many manifestations of actual intense tearful crying — whose sincerity is much doubtful, though — associated with folk rituals, one of which is the wailing of hired mourners, discussed above. An extremely bizarre instance I witnessed out of curiosity is the rather pagan (though deceitfully disguised as Christian) May 1st celebrations at the village of Berrocal, in Spain’s southwestern sierra of Huelva: the very loud weeping (thus to be regarded also as a especial form of shouting) of ordinary-looking, mostly youngish women as they welcome, in two different parts of town, their respective sets of lavishly harnessed male mules, along with other centuries-old practices.

3.4

Shouting

3.4.1 On the nature of shouting and the labels for it 3.4.1.1 The voice we commonly refer to as ‘very loud’ corresponds to the forte and fortissimo levels of intensity as a primary quality of speech, but that shouting quality constitutes in itself a parameter that merits much study of its acoustic and visual characteristics. This, in the first place, would yield a better differentiation in each language and each culture of the various nominal and verbal labels, that is, shouting, yelling, howling, etc., in both their original forms and their translations into different languages. Apart from the configuration table for shouting,49 with its possible paralinguistic (e.g. pitch, resonance, etc.) and kinesic (i.e. face and body) components, a recurrent problem concerning shouting is their origin. In addition, an analysis of this type would afford a useful comparison of human and animal cries, beginning with the high-volume utterances of primates, such as the loud barks of chimpanzees upon finding good food, their “spine-chilling” “wraaaa!” screams in dangerous situations, their panthoots when “about to enter a valley or charge toward a food-source” (van Lawick Goodall 1971, 241–242, 263–266), and other high-intensity calls by different wild and domestic species.

Paralanguage, III

97

As with laughter and crying, though in a less versatile way, shouting appears obviously as a phylogenetically basic behavior in its speechless form, as it must have been needed for cries of warning, aggression, command, to span distance, etc., while ontogenetically it appears as the infant’s first utterance, then to call the caretaker’s attention and from then on to play, show anger, excitement, etc. It must be noted that, unlike laughter and crying, shouting is most of the times a controlled voluntary behavior, except when triggered by sudden alarm, fear or, for instance, as an uncontrolled outburst of anger (when control of voice loudness usually follows the involuntary start). Also, there are more instances of involuntary speechless shouting than of spoken shouting, and, when spoken, they usually contain short utterances like ‘No!’, ‘Watch it!’, etc. On the other hand, there are many instances of voluntary or involuntary symptomatic pathological shouting we should differentiate according to their audible-visual characteristics. 3.4.1.2 As for the labels to denote different types of shouting: shouting refers in general to crying out, as when ‘shouting orders,’ or in a sudden outburst; hollering implies calling someone’s attention (e.g. figuratively in ‘If you need me, holler,’ or, even by phone, ‘ — give me a shout’); halloing, also an exclamation of surprise or greeting (and to urge hounds in hunting as ‘Halloo!’); yelling, closer to screaming and shrieking; crying, often used as ‘crying out’; screaming, of a higher pitch and more piercing and shrill (e.g. when suddenly frightened or angered); shrieking, an even more piercing and loud cry, while screeching evokes a very similar sound, but with a harsher quality, just as squeal refers to an also shrill and high-pitched, but longer cry, similar to (perhaps harsher) squall, squawk (i.e., as a parrot or chicken) and squeak, a thinner, higher-pitched cry; howling, a loud and prolonged cry, said usually of wolves, dogs, the wind, etc., and a wailing person, or someone crying out in anger or pain (yowling being a much less used synonym); whooping, a prolonged and shrill wordless shout or cry; bellowing, a powerfully reverberating sound (said of a bull), as when crying out loudly in anger, pain, etc.; roaring denotes an also powerful but deeper cry, such as the lion’s, or a very angry or paining person, and the rumbling, loud, deep general sound of a loud-talking crowd; bawling is used mostly as loud shouting (as in ‘bawling someone out’), and also weeping or wailing; vociferating and clamoring denote vehement shouting or crying out, the latter said more often of continuous, noisy complaint or demand; crowing denotes a shout of victory or exultation (‘to crow over a victory’): ‘Halloa!’ we said, stopping. ‘Orlick there?’ [calling out in a dark and misty night] (Dickens, GE, XV) ‘Ow-w-w-w!’ shrieked Irene. ‘Do stop!’ (Howells, RSL, IV) He began to squeal like a rat and run about wringin’ his hands. ‘They’ll hang me!’ (Cather, MA, I, XIV)

98

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

He discussed it at the top of his voice, vociferating, shaking his fists, exciting himself with his own noise (Norris, M, I) A swarm of running men who were giving shrill yells […] stooping and swinging their rifles (Crane, RBC, V) The cowboy bounded into the air with a yowl [after much pent-up tension] (Crane, BH, VI) The mother lay screeching on the floor [after struggling with her son] (Crane, MGS, IX) Owgooste crowed shrilly, clapping his hands continually (Norris, M, VI) A baby’s thin squalling […] ‘That’s his messcall’ (Dos Passos, BM, ‘Charley anderson,’ 65) A woman with her hair done up […] was screaming, shaking her fist at the man in the car (Dos Passos, MT, II) So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk […] this girl squawks and squawks (Steinbeck, MM, III)

3.4.2 Functional categories of shouting The following functional categories of shouting can be differentiated. A.Overcoming obstacles As time and space are the two basic dimensions of social interactions, they elicit shouting when they are in excess, for instance: distance can be spanned by shouting and typically by stepped-up kinesic behavior, due to the internal cohesion of the linguistic-paralinguistic-kinesic structure, and we can also do it while phoning ‘long distance’; as well, we try to overcome time by shouting when warning against an impending hazard or danger, unconsciously accompanied by a forward movement (e.g., ‘¡Watch out!’, ‘¡Don’t touch it!’, that is, in an effort to catch up with the person’s action). We also shout to counter noise in a bar, or darkness, even when we are not far from others (‘Don’t shout, I’m right here!), or poor hearing on the part of our auditor. B.To call, summon, command, warn This category of shouted speech (or the paralinguistic shout) includes basic relationships with others or to announce one’s presence, and to call, command and dominate domestic or tamed animals: to announce
: ‘Sir Thomas Clubber, Lady Clubber, and the Miss Clubbers!’ shouted the man at the door in a stentorian voice (Dickens, PP, II)

Paralanguage, III

99

to attract someone’s attention, although not universally (e.g. Ghanaians criticize Nigerians for their shouting in this way): He shrunk behind the curtain and called out very loudly: ‘Ha--hum!’ […] ‘Ha — hum!’ (Dickens, PP, XXII) Nancy […] was now leaving the room. ‘Hallo!’ cried Sikes. ‘Nancy. Where’s the gal going to at this time of night?’ (Dickens, OT, XLIV)

calling upon hearing someone arriving, not necessarily in answer to the arrival: The door yielded to the pressure, and they [Sikes and Oliver] passed in together./ “Hallo!” cried a loud, hoarse voice, as soon as they set foot in the passage (Dickens, OT, XXI-XXII)

responding to a call, whether verbal or nonverbal, as with the long disappeared Spanish street night watchman summoned at a distance to unlock one’s main door in an apartment building, who would respond with a loud double tap of his stick against the pavement (an artifactually-mediated sound) or a verbal ‘¡Voy!’: A rap at the door startled him […]. “Who’s there?” he cried in a shrill tone (Dickens, OT, XIII)

calling for help
: ‘Coming!’ he bawled, his voice shrieking with terror. ‘He’s coming. The ‘Nvisible Man! After me. For Gawd’s sake. ‘Elp! ‘Elp! ‘Elp!’ (Wells, IM, XVI)

summoning someone
: He [Jesus] cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” (John 11:43, NKJ) I was summoned back by a piercing shriek (E. Brontë, WH, IV)

warning of something imminent (e.g. someone who can fall or is about to drop something, seeing something fall), that is, trying to overtake time: ‘Run, Jimmy, run! Dey’ll git yehs!’ screamed a retreating Rum Alley child] (Crane, MGS, I)

commanding people or animals, from the typical drill sergeant or the British officer during the changing of the Guard, to the circus tamer (adding to his voice the loud whip’s crack), the average dog owner or during herding (cries discussed in Chapter 7 as paralinguistic alternants): ‘Webley!’ she [Lady Edward] repeated. ‘Stop! Woa!’ And her imitation of a country carter was so loud and so realistically rustic (Huxley, PCP, IV) ‘Hè, hè,’ they shout as they drive them [bullocks] to the temple courtyard (Rao, K, XII)

100 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

The taming of animals contains also a whole vocabulary of verbal and nonverbal utterances, emitted either softly while coaxing, praising, etc., or truly shouting to control, intimidate and dominate: A divided drove of branded cattle passed the windows […] --Huuuh! the drover’s voice cried, his switch sounding on their flanks. Huuuh! Out of that! (Joyce, U, 97)

C.Aggression This category includes any form of verbal or paralinguistic intentionally harmful or abusive behavior, whose shouting are differently qualified by paralanguage and kinesics. The expression of annoyance, not necessarily shouted as much as other forms of loud aggression, is qualified by other eloquent voice features: ‘Yeh devil’s kids! she [Maggie’s mother] howled, shaking her fists (Crane, MGS, IX) He turned around and bellowed at his wife, ‘Let the kid alone for a minute, will yeh, Mary?’ (Crane, MGS, II) ‘Shet your face, an’ come home, yeh old fool!’ roared Jimmie at her [his mother] (Crane, MGS, IX) Her voice [George’s mother’s, to make him get up from bed], shrill with annoyance, pierced his ears in a slender, piping thread of a sound (Crane, GM, XIV)

Shouted anger, modified by a great variety of laryngeal and pharyngeal voice qualities mainly and congruent kinesics: ‘Deceit is not my fault!’ I cried out in a savage, high voice (C. Brontë, JE, IV) he fumed about the room, his anger gradually rising to the furious pitch. ‘I’ll kill deh jay!’ (Crane, MGS, X) A woman […] was screaming, shaking her fist at the man in the car. ‘Officer he near run me down, he did’ (Dos Passos, MT, I, II)

Shouting with rage is either low-pitched when suppressed with difficulty or highpitched (even in falsetto) and extremely intense: the shouts of derision and rage culminated, people screamed and cursed, kissed one another, wept passionately (Forster, PI, XXIV)

Indignation can elicit loud shouting and excited kinesic behaviors: ‘Oh, to hear him! cried my sister, with a clap of her hands and a scream together […] ‘To hear the names he’s giving me!’ (Dickens, GE, XV) Hungry Joe flew into the air with a screech of intolerable pain. ‘You did what?’ he screamed (Heller, C22, XVI)

Hatred in loud speech is always mixed with anger mainly, but also with contempt, reproach, etc.:

Paralanguage, III

101

‘And she’s bleeding! [the mare, after she’s made race a train] She’s bleeding!’ cried Ursula, frantic with opposition and hatred of Gerald (Lawrence, WL, IX) The husband [fighting with his wife] seemed to become aroused. ‘Go chase yerself!’ he thundered fiercely in reply] (Crane, MGS, III)

Derision, scorn, scoff, etc., can be expressed through shouted speech or shouted laughter, and sometimes, in women, through crying: Maggie’s mother [when Maggie, “ruined” by a man, returns home] pointed a quivering forefinger: ‘Look ut her […] Look ut her! Look ut her!’ She screamed at Maggie with scoffing laughter (Crane, MGS, XV) The jeering cries ended in another burst of shrill laughter [Maggie’s mother against her] (Crane, MGS, XV) PETER. Free! [He gives a kick in the air] SIMEON [in a frenzy]. Whoop! PETER. Whoop! [They do an absurd Indian war dance about the old man […] [The two brothers continue to cry “Whoop!” in derision] (O’Neill, DUE, I, iv) the shouts of derision and rage culminated, people screamed and cursed, kissed one another, wept passionately (Forster, PI, XXIV)

Threat and intimidation, challenge, and actual attack take very similar forms of shouted speech, paralinguistic cries and accompanying gestures, although the former three can be uttered softly, even whispered, but vehemently, the louder the shouting, the more pronounced the facial gestures and the more marked the other body behaviors. the people shouted when with a great shout [the Hebrew ‘teruwa’ battle cry][…] the wall [of Jericho] fell down flat (Joshua 6:20, NKJ) Johnnie […] hailed the Swede again. ‘Did you say I cheated?’ […] ‘we must fight.’ ‘Yes, fight,’ roared the Swede. He was like a demoniac (Crane, BH, V) The Swede again […] ‘You are all a gang of — ’ boomed the Swede, but the storm also seized the remainder of this sentence (Crane, BH, VI) He [McTeague, fighting Marcus] […] with a shrill and meaningless clamor, totally unlike the ordinary bass of his speaking tones […] the hideous yelling of a hurt beast. The squealing of a wounded elephant […] high-pitched sound […] no longer human (Norris, M, XI)

D.Physical and psychological pain Because of the similarity in their manifestation through voice, the pain of both body and mind can be studied together and comparatively, distinguishing the characteristic differences between children and adults as well as male and female, a wide parameter of voice types: speakers of Mende in Sierra Leone react to pain with a high-pitched glottalized “ee!” (Levenston 1987: 98)

102

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

The boy uttered a squeal of pain as the stick [with which his father hits him] cut his thigh (Joyce, D, ‘Counterparts’) Jimmie screamed in pain [while his mother scrubs his face after his fight], and tried to twist his shoulders out of the clasp of the huge arms (Crane, MGS, II) Men in the outskirts of the crowd [outside a charitable house in New York] occasionally yelled when a boot-heel of one of trampling feet crushed on their freezing extremities (Crane, MS) ‘You mean thing!’ she cried between her shut teeth, blushing hotly (Howells, RSL, IV)

We would include here the paralinguistic behaviors of mourning, mentioned in connection with crying: the king [David] covered his face, and the king cried out with a loud voice, ‘My son Absalon! Absalon!’ (2 Samuel 19:4, NKJ) I will wail and howl […] I will make a wailing like the jackals and a mourning like the ostriches (Micah 1:8, NKJ) “Oh, he’s dead, Heathcliff! he’s dead!”/ And they both set up a heart-breaking cry./ I joined my wail to theirs, loud and bitter (E. Brontë, WH, V)

Anguish and despair are expressed through low-key weeping and moaning, groaning, etc. (e.g. the low-pitches of the Japanese, heard in their films), or with the loudest and most uncontrollable cries and shouted speech, with qualifiers like breathiness, creakiness, ventricular harshness, shrillness, hoarseness, etc.: ‘No!’ she shrieked. ‘Oh, don’t, don’t go. It is the last time! Edgar will not hurt us. Heathcliff, I shall die! I shall die!’ […]. I wrung my hands, and cried out [when the housekeeper sees that Catherine’s husband is going to find her in Heathcliff’s arms] (E. Brontë, WH, XV) He [Heathcliff, after Catherine’s death] dashed his head against the knotted trunk; and, lifting his eyes, howled, not like a man, but like a savage beast getting goaded to death with knives and spears (E. Brontë, WH, XVI) These words she uttered with a suppressed cry of despair, more terrible in its sound than any shriek (Dickens, BH, XXXVI) one fellow [dreaming while sleeping in a New York ‘flophouse’] oppressed by some frightful calamity […] began to utter long wails that went almost like yells from a hound, echoing wailfully and weird […] The sound, in its high piercing beginnings that dwindled to final melancholy moans […] howled in a writhing agony (Crane, EM) ‘Are we bailing out?’/ ‘I don’t know! Kid Sampson shot back in anguish, wailing excitedly (Heller, C22, XIV)

Paralanguage, III

103

To mention one more type of shouting, expressing the utmost degree of anguish and often the deepest hatred, the loud cries and shouted verbal abuse of satanic possession are always present in the most violent instances, as in the famous 1928 ‘Iowa case,’ involving a woman, or as the woman described by Steinbeck (most likely based on a real case, even on the one reported by Vogl): [the woman] continued to yell and howl […] shrieking howls […] unearthly noises and howlings of the evil spirits (Vogl, 1973: 13–14) suddenly she threw back her head and howled. Her eyes rolled up, her shoulders and arms flopped loosely at her sides, and a string of thick ropy saliva ran from the corner of her mouth. She howled again, long deep animal howls […] The white eyeballs showed under the open eyelids” (Steinbeck, GW, XXII)

E.Alarm, fright, startle, fear, terror The reaction of alarm, which can turn into fear, is always elicited by something unexpected: when I saw him […] stand in the act to hurl it [the book], I instinctively started aside with a cry of alarm (E. Brontë, WH, I) ‘Ha! cried Sikes starting up [when a vendor snatches his hat to prove the properties of a stain remover]. ‘Give that back’ (Dickens, OT, XLVIII) ‘Gerald! Gerald!’ came the wild crying voice of Winifred [when Diana is drowning] (Lawrence, WL, XIV)

Sudden fright or startle, as a sudden feeling, can precede fear and even flight: Once his back happened to be half turned toward the door, and, hearing a noise there he wheeled and sprang up, uttering a loud cry (Crane, BH, III) There’s a terrible smell of burning coming from the kitchen./Mollie: (wailing) Oh, my pie! (Christie, M, II, i)

Fear can elicit shouted speech, or a rather repressed wordless cry: Ah-h-h!’ came her strange, intaken cry, as, on the reflex, she started, turned and fled (Lawrence, WL, I) ‘I’m scared!’ she wailed and buried her face in my neck (Doctorow, WF, XXIX)

True terror, which can also strangle and smother the cry, is usually expressed with the greatest intensity: The shriek at the name [mentioned], the reiterated look of hatred and fear that instantly followed, told all (Collins, WW, 129) Something in the gesture of the [dead] man […] made the youth start as if bitten. He yelled in horror […] screamed:/ ‘Gawd! Jim Conklin!’ (Crane, RBC, IX)

104

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

‘Hey, nurse,/ […] Say, nurse, nurse.’ He [Charley] shouted as loud as he could. The sweat broke out all over his face […] He had no feeling in his legs (Dos Passos, BM, LXI) Then Big Joe squalled with fear […] ‘For the love of Christ, don’t kill me!’ (Steinbeck, TF, XII)

F.encouragement, triumph, praise These three attitudes — including the already mentioned ‘teruwa’ cry and the collective praises of God — are also ritualized in sports and competitions: Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth […]! (Psalm 98:4, NKJ) The crowd [waiting for Sikes to be caught] raised a cry of triumphant execration to which all their previous shouting had been whispers (Dickens, OT, L) The [Captain Ahab] raised a gull-like cry in the air. ‘There she blows! — there she blows!’ A hump like a snow-hill. It is Moby Dick!’ (Melville, MD, CXXXIII) The flying regiment was going to have a catapultian effect. This dream made him run faster among his comrades, who were giving vent to hoarse and frantic cheers (Crane, RBC, XXXII) He [Philip] crowed with triumph [winning at the game of Nibs] (Maugham, OHB, XII) [when old Cabot struggles with Eben and wins] [More and more triumphantly] Seventy-six an’ him not thirty yit […] [He goes into the house laughing. A moment later his loud ‘whoop’ is heard] (O’Neill, DUE, III, ii)

G.Joy, delight, merrymaking, comicality Besides shouted laughter elicited by these situations and attitudes, words are also shouted and shouts are emitted alone, with the paralinguistic and kinesic characteristics we would find in a configuration chart (see Poyatos 1993a: 318). There we would identify certain personal and socioeducational characteristics as ‘vulgar,’ ‘uncouth,’ etc., particularly when accompanied by equally harsh lip gestures and unrefined hand and body movements, very loud or raucous laughter being present in the shouts and yells of boisterous horseplay, frolicking, etc., as well as in reactions to jokes and ludicrous situations and behaviors. This sometimes provokes in oneself the feeling of being having a good time (which may depend, in some cultures more than others, on the amount of alcohol consumed): They [men drinking] grinned and beat time with their feet […] The men slapped their knees, roaring loudly [telling something funny] (Crane, GM) The music [from the hotel ballroom, during a wedding] had died down as the ceremony began and now a long cheer floated in at the window, followed by intermittent cries of ‘Yea — ea — ea!’ and finally a burst of jazz as the dancing began (Fitzgerald, GG, VII)

Paralanguage, III

105

Douce gave full vent to a splendid yell, a full yell of a full woman, delight, joy, indignation./ — Married to the greasy nose! she yelled (Joyce, U, 260) Herr Baumgartner quite outdid himself [making them laugh] with fascinating devices and the children squealed and giggled and peeped through their fingers most flatteringly (Porter, SF, II) ‘Wagh! Whoo!’ shouted Remi in the evening streets of Frisco (Kerouak, OR, I, XI) ‘Whoooee, here we go!,’ yelled a kid in a baseball cap, and they gunned up the truck to seventy and passed everybody on the road […] ’Wheeoo! let’s go!’ cried Dean and we jumped in the back seat (Kerouak, OR, III, IV)

H.Controlled or uncontrolled expression of excitement Under this heading — whether normal or significant pathological behavior — could be included any shouted and impulsive linguistic-paralinguistic-kinesic exteriorization of excitement typically accompanied by equally excited facial or bodily behavior, for instance: tense anticipation (e.g. of fans waiting for their idolized star to appear, or someone imagining a brighter future); in children’s rough-and-tumble play and adult’s mock wrestling, frolicking, etc. (higher-pitched and spasmodic in females, hoarser in males); the prolonged, mostly nonverbal shouting elicited in the audience by musicians at rock concerts; senility (e.g. the loud wailing cries one hears much too often in the homes for the elderly and geriatric wards). I.Ritualized and folk cries and yells This — as with any other differentiators — could be a rich research area in paralanguage or, within cross-cultural anthropology, as ‘acoustic anthropology’ (analogous to ‘visual anthropology’), that is, the sounds typical of a culture, whether strictly human or animal or emitted by man-designed artifacts. There are many forms of ritualized shouting: all kinds of war cries; the collective rhythmic yells of the audience and cheerleaders at an American football game; the ‘Kiai!’ yell let out just before a karate match while tightening the stomach muscles; by beaters while beating bush in hunting through underbrush to stir the game; within the occupational repertoire in many types of work, recorded in texts as ancient as the Bible, etc.: I have caused wine to fail from the winepress; no one will tread with joyous shouting — not joyous shouting! (Jeremiah, 48:33, NKJ) “[…] Endicott Everett Atkins? Sounds like a business college yell […]” (Lewis, D, XIV) Their game [two boys in the desert], as always in the Sudan, seemed to consist of a competition to make the most ear-piercing screeches (Asher, FDR, XI).

106

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

3.5

Sighing and gasping

3.5.1

Physiological and semantic nature of sighing and gasping Both the sigh and the gasp must be studied together because of their similar physiological realizations (both caused by the altered breathing), the stimuli that elicit them, and their communicative functions. But precisely because of the confusion or ambiguity in the use of both terms in real life and in literature, they should be defined separately, identifying their characteristics. Sighing is a variably prolonged ingression of respiratory air followed immediately by a longer egression (both with or without pharyngeal friction). It has been explained as responding to an involuntary stimulation of respiration by lung receptors, which helps cycling the lung volume. But we can also sigh voluntarily (or rather, produce that same acoustic effect) as a paralinguistic expression, as are many of the sighs described in literature, whether sincere and deliberate or intentionally deceitful.50 Dolly made no answer and only sighed. Anna noticed the sigh, which expressed dissent (Tolstoy, AK, XXIV)

Furthermore, we can sigh without opening the mouth, whether audibly mostly as a nasal second phase, or only visually in the sort of two-phase heaving: With an inward sigh [thinking of some bad news], Warren Trent switched his thoughts to more immediate affairs (Hailey, H, “Tuesday,”2)

As for the gasp, it appears — in the light of the definition of the sigh and the prespeech inbreath, mentioned later — as the first part or phase of a sigh, only it is a sudden intake of breath that actually interrupts breathing, thus we know it also as ‘catching’ one’s breath, although the latter can be done without any sound and without opening the mouth: Julián contuvo un suspiro. ¡Dos días ya sin misa! (Pardo Bazán, PU, III) ‘She’s coming!’ she thought with a little catch of her breath, laying down the pen (Woolf, Y, 1880)

But, before determining whether a gasp is simply an ‘unfinished’ or ‘incomplete’ sigh, and why the two should be discussed together, we should acknowledge a third similar phenomenon, frequent in oratory and conversation, to which we can refer only with periphrastic references (e.g. ‘drawing in one’s breath,’ ‘drawing a deep breath’) and call pre-speech inbreath. Its closeness to sighing and gasping make it a qualifier (although we cannot speak through that first audible and visual phase), actually another form of sighing (in which the first part, not the second, is the communicative one), functioning only as preparatory to speech.

Paralanguage, III

107

As for the relationship between sighing — transcribable as [>φ<] — and language and paralanguage, speech is momentarily interrupted in order to sigh, we inhale and then we can again speak through its exhaling phase, that is, as sighed speech, or just emit a speechless but voiced sigh (e.g. with pharyngeal friction). A sigh always conveys a message and can modify the coinciding or adjoining verbal message. In fact, the expressive ambiguity of a verbal utterance like ‘Okay’ disappears when it is overridden by a sigh signifying ‘Okay, have it your way,’ and pitch is higher than normal in the first syllable, indicating a yielding attitude. Besides, the intensity of a sigh, revealed in its perceived loudness, is most meaningful when the second (longer) phase is prolonged and becomes the truly eloquent part of that quasilexical, perhaps ineffable, breathing behavior: He emitted a labored breath, as if the scene were getting rather oppressive to his heart, or to his conscience, or to his gentility (Hardy, TD, XII)

If this prolongation coincides with words, it becomes sighed voice (one of the qualifiers identified in the previous chapter): dando un gran suspiro, dijo entre sí:/ — ¡Que tengo de ser tan desdichado andante, que no ha de haber doncella que me mire que de mí no se enamore…! (Cervantes, DQ, II, XLIV) Doña Cándida, una bendita señora […] desde cualquier rincón que le fuese propicio para rezar, suspirante y quejosa, diciendo en voz queda: ¡Ay, Dios mío! (Espina, DM, I, VIII)

I have found in my readings one attempt, by James Agee, at writing a sigh, and Mulk Raj Anand’s spelling of gasping, which proves how writers could have tried to give visual form to more paralinguistic utterances than they have: ‘Hyesss,’ Hannah sighed (Agee, DF, VIII) ‘Hoon…hoon’ […] ‘Hoon-an-haan’ […] ‘Hoooo…haa’ (Anand, C, III)

3.5.2 Functional categories of sighing and gasping A classification of the expressive functions of sighing and gasping becomes much more difficult than for laughter or crying, for their stimuli are most often unidentifiable and elusive, let alone the many emotional blends that may trigger sighing: When I had told Mrs Barton Trafford […], she sighed, but whether from satisfaction or distress I had no notion (Maugham, CA, XX)

A.The prespeech breath intake Movie actors, because of their proximity to the camera and microphones, can use this prespeech breath as a typical part of their repertoire, particularly to qualify the subsequent words with an air of authority or sincere concern, as for years Americans

108

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

heard from their actor-become-President Ronald Reagan; those in the roles of suave lovers, self-confident heroes, knowledgeable professionals, etc., use it also as a mark of impressive credibility with an air of sincere interest and preoccupation, while lovers, selfassertive persons and professionals use it for marked emphasis
: PETER [drawing a deep breath — oratorically]. Anybody that wants this stinking old rock-pile of a farm kin hev it (O’Neill, DUE, I, IV)

when about to explode
: She paused and drew in her breath sharply. Then she burst into a furious torrent of abuse (Maugham, OHB, XCVI)

expressing anger
: He [Heathcliff] drew in his breath, struck the table, and swore to himself — / ‘By hell, I hate them’ (E. Brontë, WH, XXVII)

as a sign of impatience and restlessness
: Willie drew a restless heavy breath. “Man, I’m asking you to read it” (Malamud, T, 50)

B.Pleasurable feelings As a reflex reaction, sighing can express: physical relaxation and physical relief, expressed by natural or involuntary sighing: He [the soldier, while hearing distant musketry] gave a long sigh, snuggled down into his blanket, and in a moment was like his comrades (Crane, RBC, XIII) –You don’t want anything for breakfast?/ A sleepy soft grunt answered: / — Mn./ No. She did not want anything. He heard the warm heavy sigh, softer, as she turned over and the loose brass quoits of the bedsteads jingled […] Mrs. Bloom […] curled herself back slowly with a snug sigh (Joyce, U, 56, 62) Her teeth [Rose of Sharon, giving birth] were clamped on her lower lip […] the shining terror was in her eyes […] The girl heaved a great sigh and relaxed. She released her lip and closed her eyes (Steinbeck, GW, XXX)

anticipating good food, a voluntary and rather pancultural sigh can prolong its second phase (often the only conspicuous part, aside from a possible visible heaving): All blessed themselves [at Christmas dinner] and Mr. Dedalus with a sigh of pleasure lifted from the dish the heavy cover (Joyce, U, I)

after eating and drinking, expressing also that conscious bodily and psychological delight: Sancho […] en acabando de beber [from the wineskin] dejó caer la cabeza a un lado, y dando un gran suspiro, dijo: — ¡Oh, hideputa bellaco, y cómo es católico [excellent]! (Cervantes, DQ, II, XIII)

Paralanguage, III

109

‘Here’s how,’ said Marcus, half emptying his glass. ‘Ah-h!’ he added, with a long breath, ‘that’s good; it is, for a fact (Norris, M, IV) He [the wounded soldier] tilted his head afar back and held the canteen long to his lips. The cool mixture [coffee] went caressing down his blistered throat. Having finished, he sighed with comfortable delight (Crane, RBC, XIII) Mr. Sieppe devoured the calf ’s head with long breaths of contentment (Norris, M, IX) He [Morel] poured out a saucerful of tea, blew on it, and sucked it up through his great moustache, sighing afterwards (Lawrence, SL, I, II)

happiness
: “But I have always been told that love makes trouble — that is what it is for. Trouble.” She drew a deep quivering happy sigh. “I shouldn’t mind!” (Porter, SF, II)

as an expression of unattainable sexual pleasure
: To catch up and walk behind her [a customer] […] behind her moving hams. Pleasant to see first thing in the morning […] He [Mr. Bloom] sighed down his nose: they never understand (Joyce, U, 59)

C.Physical displeasure and pain Sighing and gasping can express real or feigned tiredness, sleepiness, or fatigue from exertion
: the second C. I. D. man was back, puffing frantically in haste. Gasping for breath, he shouted (Heller, C22, IX) ‘Hoon…hoon,’ moaned Seth Prabba Dyal, as he straied to drag his bundle […] He blew a mouthful of heavy breath […] and mopped his brow to wipe off sweat./ ‘Hoonan-haan’ he heaved again […] ‘Hoooo…haa’ (Anand, C, III)

unexpected physical pain can trigger a gasp (holding our breath) as a reflex reaction, rather than a longer sigh: My pinches moved him [Heathcliff, while ill] only to draw in a breath, and open his eyes as if he had hurt himself by accident (E. Brontë, WH, V) while I looked in his fierce face [Heathcliff], I gave an involuntary sigh: his grip was painful (E. Brontë, WH, XXVII) ‘Hurt?’ he [McTeague, the dentist] inquired, anxiously. She answered by frowning, with a sharp intake of breath (Norris, M, II) The little boy accompanied his words with a sharp kick on Philip’s shin […] Philip gave a sob and a gasp (Maugham, OHB, X)

110

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

But continuing pain triggers longer sighs, due to illness, even while dying
: she [Catherine, almost dying in Heathcliff’s arms] clung fast, gasping […] she sighed, and moaned, and knew nobody […] She drew a sigh, and stretched herself, like a child, reviving, and sinking again to sleep (E. Brontë, WH, XV, XVI) The mother [about to die] sighed again with weariness. Her pulse was very irregular (Lawrence, SL, XIV)

D.Love, longing, nostalgia, reverie The sighing of sheer love, longing and nostalgia — whether natural or as voluntary expression — abound in literature and in real life, yet I have not been able to find a scientific explanation of why exactly they trigger the physiological reaction. We sigh naturally or in a feigned way longing for someone or something (e.g. ‘he’s always sighing to go back to his country’): The sighing of love can be real or feigned: [Don Quixote, speaking of Dulcinea] dio un sospiro [modern ‘suspiro’], y le puso en las nubes (Cervantes, DQ, I, XXI) Después [Ido del Sagrario, after eating well and speaking of his wife] exhaló un hondísimo suspiro, y llevándose la mano al pecho, dejó escapar con bronca voz estas palabras:[…] (Galdós, FJ, I, VII, IV)

The sighing of alienation from the separation of the lovers
: la noche que precedió al triste día de mi partida [de Cardenio], ella [Luscinda] lloró, gimió y suspiró (Cervantes, DQ, I, XXVII) Suspiró oyendo esto Preciosa, y su madre como era discreta, entendió que suspiraba de enamorada de don Juan (Cervantes, G)

Nostalgic reminiscing draws sighs about long-lost experiences, thus characteristic of the elderly: ‘What did they talk about?’ I asked her [Antonia]./ She sighed and shook her head. ‘Oh, I don’t know! About music, and the woods, and about God, and when they were young (Cather, MA, XIV) La abuela suspiró con un ¡ay! rutinario, muy tembloroso (Espina, EM, X)

E.Coaxing, wheedling, seduction These can be also tactics used for attaining something or regaining what was lost: ‘If I let you alone for half-a-day, won’t you come sighing and wheedling to me again?’ (E. Brontë, WH, XIV)

Paralanguage, III

111

F.
Happy feelings Voluntary sighing can express, as an intentional paralinguistic behavior, a number of positive, psychologically pleasurable states and reactions, for which it is typically long in its two phases, emphasized often by pharyngeal friction and accompanied by the visible heaving movement, sometimes extended arms, eyebrow raising, and smiling. Contentment is perhaps the mildest form in a scale of happiness; then happy satisfaction at one’s condition, expressed usually with glowing or smiling face, or statically thinking of the source of happiness: She drew deep breaths of pleasure [while watching a show] (Crane, MGS, VII) ’There,’ he [Burlap, tired and with a headache, relieved by Beatrice] whispered, and, with a sigh of contentment, closed his eyes (Huxley, PCP, XXXIV)

Satisfaction can be aroused by one’s accomplishment and out of pride of oneself or about something: The truck bumped to a stop. Tom sighed. ‘Well, there she is’ [California] (Steinbeck, GW, XXVI)

Pleasurable anticipation can be, much like other happy feelings, paralinguistically and kinesically expressed: [anticipating better times, their feet on the table] PETER. Ay-eh ([…] Unconsciously they both sigh) […] (They drink — puff resolutely at their pipes — sigh) (O’Neill, DUE, I, iv) they [the four bums] were all going to live in Danny’s house./ Pilon sighed with pleasure. Gone was the worry of rent (Steinbeck, TF, VI)

G.
Wonder, admiration, awe These feelings sometimes blend with happiness, satisfaction and pride, a long gasp being a typical reaction in front of a ‘breathtaking’ view, as when we unexpectedly face a grandiose, awesome scenery: ‘My!’ sighed his mother, ‘You’re getting so educated […]’ (Lewis, EG, V)

H.
Boredom, weariness, confusion These are feelings between those of happiness and sadness and psychological pain, expressed, when words lack, with a reaction like sighing rather than verbally: ‘Oh, dear! I thought I was at home,’ she sighed […] ‘Because I’m weak, my brain got confused’ (E. Brontë, WH, XII) She [Catherine] was […] suppressing a weary sigh (E. Brontë, WH, XV) ‘What is it you wish for?’/ ‘What is it I wish for?’ she repeated and sighed. ‘I am very tired, I am old’ (Turgenev, FS, XVII) –No lo comprendes, ¡eh? — Miguel hizo una pausa y resopló por la nariz, suspirando […] Pues yo tampoco (Sánchez Ferlosio, J, 174)

112

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

‘[…] I’m not sure what I’m saying, I feel that mixed up.’ She sighed, stroking his face with the back of her hand (Malamud, T, 171)

I.Annoyance, uneasiness In the scale between happiness and anguish we find negative feelings like annoyance, expressed often with a sharp and intentionally audible sigh or a gasp: ‘Bitte, bitte,’ said Cäcilie, with a rapid intake of the breath, ‘I won’t listen to anything against him [the Chinese man she is in love with]’ (Maugham, OHB, XXX)

Also uneasiness (sometimes an emotional blend of embarrassment, disagreement, etc.): poor Hepzibah [when advised to deal with customers in a rather dishonest way if necessary] responded with a sigh so deep and heavy that it almost rustled Uncle Venner quite away, like a withered leaf (Hawthorne, HSG, IV)

J.Sadness, unhappiness Sheer sadness triggers natural sighing, but it can also be uttered voluntarily as a paralinguistic expression: It was very, very sad, and while I read, I sighed (E. Brontë, WH, XVII) then Pilon sighed noisily, and again he sighed. ‘Now it is over,’ he said sadly (Steinbeck, TF, I)

The sigh of bereavement, however, it is an spontaneous anguished reaction in many cultures, typically in lower-class women, not only during a wake and the days following, but as they muse and reminisce about their departed, or while they whisper their prayers in the churches of many countries: But they were holy peasants. They breathed behind him on his neck as they prayed [during Sunday Mass] (Joyce, PAYM, I) ‘Hyesss,’ Hannah said softly, sharply inhaling the first of the word, and trailing the sibilant to a hair […] ‘Hyesss,’ Hannah sighed [thinking of Jay, recently dead] (Agee, DF, VIII, XI)

Being sad about someone else’s misfortune and pain elicits also sincere, voluntary sighing of empathy and compassion
: Miss Temple […] examined her pulse [Helene’s] […] I heard her sigh low. She was pensive a few minutes […] it was for her she a second time breathed a sad sigh; for her she wiped a tear from her cheek (C. Brontë, JE, VIII) Volumnia sits at a table a little removed, sympathetically sighing (Dickens, BH, LVIII) El Director dio un gran suspiro, expresión oficial de sus sentimientos compasivos, e Isidora quedóse fría, aguardando terribles noticias (Galdós, D, I, I, III)

Paralanguage, III

113

Grandmother sighed [seeing the little girls asleep in a hole in the floor] […] You’ll have a better house after a while, Antonia, and then you will forget these hard times (Cather, MA, X) The doctor came and glanced at her [Mrs. Morel, dead], and sighed./ ‘Ay — poor thing! he said (Lawrence, SL, XIV) ‘It’s so horrible to see him suffer. Helplessly. It’s dreadful’ […] Mrs. Bidlake sighed. ‘Dreadful,’ she echoed, ‘dreadful,’ and closed her eyes in a meditative perplexity (Huxley, PCP, XXXIII) He gave a compassionate sigh (Bellow, H, 42)

But compassion can be for oneself, in verbal and nonverbal expressions of self-pity, although sometimes it seems to be caused only by a sad thought: My aunt dismissed the matter [having married the wrong man] with a heavy sigh, and smoothed her dress (Dickens, DC, XLVII) He [Mr. Quarles] sighed, he shook the martyr’s head [saying how much he had to do] […] ‘Trivial — but the business must be done.’ He sighed again (Huxley, PCP, XX) ‘My son and daughter-in-law brought me to see the place [a senior-citizen home]/. But I’ll not be staying./ Mrs. Steiner heaves a sigh and sits down beside me. ‘That’s what I said, too. The exact same thing’ (Laurence, SA, III)

Other forms of sadness include feelings like hopelessness, frustration, despondency, anguish, and simply unhappiness
: Heathcliff’s face brightened a moment; then it was overcast afresh, and he sighed [giving up the idea of beating the handsomer boy because he knows it would not change things] (E. Brontë, WH, VII) Arabella sighed [thinking that her ex-husband’s new wife must see herself as his only wife before God] ‘[…] Perhaps another woman feels the same about herself, too!’ Arabella sighed again (Hardy, JO, VI, VI) I [Laura] only thought you might not know I was married,” I said […] She [Anne Catherick] sighed bitterly, and turned away from me. “Not know you were married?” (Collins, WW, 300) She [Anne Catherick] spoke those words quietly and sorrowfully, with a heavy, hopeless sigh, and then waited a little. Her face was confused and troubled (Collins, WW, 302) ‘There they are — our heirs!’/ ‘Heirs,’ Nikolai Piotrovich repeated with a despondent sigh (Turgenev, FS, X) –¿No hay esperanzas?/ La Princesa suspiró:/ — No las hay…Solamente un milagro (Valle-Inclán, SP)

114

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

It was easy to promise, but oh, how hard to fulfill! Elinor sighed, If only Philip would let her love him! (Huxley, PCP, XXVIII) When she [the landlady leaving fresh linen on his bed] finished, she sighed loudly and purposefully (Mailer, BS, IV)

Resignation could be included here as the passive acceptance of a decision, a consummated fact, etc., often carrying a certain element of sadness or feeling of longing for something missed or lost: the fat boy [a servant at the picnic] hanging fondly over a capon, which he seemed wholly unable to part with […] sighed deeply, and […] consigned it to his master (Dickens, PP, IV) ‘Be it so,’ assented Miss Lavinia, with a sigh […] ‘Be it so, Clarissa!’ assented Miss Lavinia resignedly (Dickens, DC, XLI) a pitiable object [Philloston, whose wife lives with another man] […] sighing a sigh which seemed to say that the business of his life must be carried on (Hardy, JO, IV, IV) she sighed mournfully […] / ‘You sigh, dear, as if you were sorry for it […]/ ‘No, I don’t sigh for that. There are other things for me to sigh for, or any other woman in my place.’/ ‘That your chances in life are ruined […]? (Hardy, RN, IV, II) ‘I’m troubled with calluses, Jim; getting old,’ she sighed cheerfully (Cather, MA, IV, III)

We find in this category the humanization of sounds that surround us when they are in accord with a given situation, as in this stage direction in The Glass Menagerie, which suggests what corresponds to the depressing atmosphere surrounding the crippled Laura: ([…] Laura moves slowly to the long mirror and stares solemnly at herself. A wind blows the white curtains inward in a slow, graceful motion and with a faint, sorrowful sighing) (Williams, GM, VI)

K.Psychological pain, fear, relief One type of sighing that can be a clinical symptom is a sort of sympathetic response replacing conscious anxiety as what in psychoanalysis is called ‘anxiety equivalent.’ It is prolonged and with deep, visually perceived heaving, typically accompanied by an egressive audible utterance or cry and sometimes very frequently throughout the day. But sighing, and at times gasping (uncontrolled or voluntary), are also typical expressions of ordinary conscious anxiety and tension, reflected also in the kinesic behaviors: She rose, drew herself up, sighed deeply, and with her light steps began pacing up and down the room [anxious about the idea of a divorce] (Tolstoy, AK, VI, XXIV) He [Philip] looked at the printed page vacantly. Mr. Gordon began to breath heavily […]. ‘I don’t know it,’ he [Phillip] gasped […] The master’s breathing grew almost stertorous (Maugham, OHB, XVI)

Paralanguage, III

115

Worry is another quite generic word we loosely apply to lesser degrees of distress, anxiety, uneasiness, fear, etc., verbally or nonverbally expressed but never violently and susceptible of some ambiguity: and after sucking the last wreath [of his pipe’s smoke], and heaving a profound sigh, he [the old man] got up, and departed as solemnly as he came (E. Brontë, WH, III) ‘Yes,’ she [Sue] said, with a little quiver in her words, ‘I have had dreadful fears […] I have thought — that I am still his wife! […].’ Sue sighed uneasily (Hardy, JO, VI, III) He uttered a sound which was neither a sigh nor a sob, but was even more indicative than either of a troubled mind (Hardy, RN, I, IX) Ma sighed […] ‘Tom,’ she said, ‘we gotta have a house in the winter. I tell ya we got to’ (Steinbeck, GW, XXVI) women sighed and then shifted feet [during a tense conversation between their men (the tenants) and the owners of the land] (Steinbeck, GW, V)

Fear of something very concrete and real or in anticipation of it, or just imagined, elicits involuntary and voluntary sighing and gasping, the latter from a sudden stimulus. ‘Oh, to think what might have happened!’/ He drew his breath short (C. Brontë, JE, XXVI) [Jayne] cast my eyes down on the two large feet [Mr. Brocklehurst’s], and sighed, wishing myself far enough away./ ‘Hope that sigh is from the heart’ (C. Brontë, JE, IV) She [Mrs. Morel] sighed, hearing him [Morel] coming, as if it were something she could not bear (Lawrence, SL, I, II)

The sighs and gasps of anguish, as the strongest negative emotion, are mostly natural, the person being too overwhelmed to consciously express this state through a feigned sigh or counterfeit kinesic behaviors. In the Old Testament we find a number of references to anguished sighing (translated from the Hebrew root ânach, meaning to sigh, mourn, or groan): For my sighing comes before I eat,/ And my groanings pour out like water (Job 3:24, NKJ) Edgar sighed [gravely ill, when told he has much time ahead of him]; and […] looked out towards Gommerton Kirk [where he will be buried] (E. Brontë, WH, XXV) Ella [María Rosario] suspiró angustiada como si el aire le faltase (Valle-Inclán, SP, 83)

But one sighs also as an expression of relief from any of these feelings: “Whoopee,” sighed Gene [after a tense encounter between Madge and Lance] (Grey, MR, IV) “You look perfectly lovely,” he said, expelling a deep breath, as if in relief (Grey, DF, IV)

116

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

‘I can’t tell you how heartily thankful I am it’s all over! [his relationship with Nora], he [Philip] sighed (Maugham, OHB, LXV) A great sigh escaped from the men, a sigh of relief that everything was over (Steinbeck, TF, XV) With a sigh of relief, Myatt found himself alone (Greene, ST, I) Appleby heaved an immense sigh of relief [when he is told there is nothing wrong with his eyes] (Heller, C22, V)

From a cross-cultural point of view we cannot take for granted that sighing in those adverse circumstances is acceptable. It is certainly not, for instance, in Saudi Arabia, where it is interpreted as not accepting God’s will for the person who sighs, and so one is obliged to add ‘God, forgive me.’ K.Surprise, bewilderment, alarm, start Wordless spontaneous gasping is a natural reaction to the unexpected: the sudden stupefying statement or news, the outburst of abuse, the feeling of alarm, a pleasant or unpleasant surprise, the starting or frightening encounter, etc, with accompanying gestures and other bodily reactions: starting movements, frightened eyes, arched brows, blanching, the feminine mouth-shielding gesture of the hand, the back-of-thehand- to- forehead gesture in the silent movies, etc.: surprise can be the happy reaction at seeing someone: ‘Halloa!’ said the sergeant, staring at Joe. ‘Halloa, Pip!’ said Joe, staring at me [both in surprise] (Dickens, GE, V) ‘Oh!’ she sighed, smiling at him from the doorway (Lawrence SL, I, IV)

anticipation
: Philip gave a little gasp [because now she would be able to go out with him again] (Maugham, OHB, LIX)

bewilderment
: as I went on [about the ghost] […] her round eyes started and her mild mouth gaped […] she gasped (James, TS, V) He […] stooped over the dead man. I heard a sharp intake of his breath and the cigar fell from his fingers./ “Who — who’s this?” he stammered (Conan Doyle, HB, XII)

shock
: ‘I think that’ll be marvellous, don’t you? […]/’ […] I don’t give a good goddam.’ / A gasp, a gloved hand to a rounded mouth, a titter (Laurence, SA, II)

Paralanguage, III

117

fear
: Then a sharp gasp […] ‘Who’s there?’ (Laurence, SA, VIII)

3.6

Panting

3.6.1 The paralinguistic nature of panting As the product of altered breathing, panting could be discussed together with sighing and gasping, but its natural occurrence in all instances sets it apart, for if we pant it is not because we are feigning that state, but because we are actually breathing arhythmically for a real physiological reason; thus we can at most emphasize it with heaving movements and loudness of breathing, but not just trigger it for communicative purposes (only on rare occasions clownishly feigning deep panting). We could transcribe it as [“φ”] and write it as ‘aH,’ repeating it throughout written discourse, or as ‘aH-aH-aH-aH’ in wordless panting, where the capital H would evoke precisely the tense breathing and movements. We cannot deny the eloquence of isolated panting or of panting speech, as it is even one of the acoustic characteristics to apply to the humanized image of certain mechanical artifacts, as when we refer to the panting of the old steam locomotives: Y cuando el tren arranca, jadeante y sonoro […] (Espina, EM, I) as he [Anthony] breathed its [the train’s] stink of coal smoke and hot oil, as he heard […] the ch-ff, ch-ff, ch-ff of its steamy panting […] Ch-ff, ch-ff; then silence; then the terrible, the soul-annihilating roar of escaping steam (Huxley, EG, IX)

3.6.2 Functional classification of panting We can establish three groups of eliciting causes for panting, responding to medical state, physical strain, and psychological strain can be distinguished. A.Medical state Although some occurrences of panting can be considered pathological, they can convey other messages as well. When they recur in the individual they contribute powerfully to generate a particular image of that person, above all a visual one, associated at its worst with a heaving chest, a parted-lip expression and the difficult breathing that becomes superimposed to speech and with which we interact face to face. This is how we perceive, for instance, the very obese person, whose irregular, ‘puffing’ respiration blends with his heaviness of body while talking and moving: Se sube también un hombro gordo, con aire de feriante, que va fumando un puro […] se quita el sombrero y se pasa el pañuelo por la cabeza […] resopla mientras se acomoda (Cela, VA, II)

118

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

I [an elderly and ill woman] heave the breath in and out of my lungs (Laurence, SA, VIII)

B.Physical strain The most common instance of panting from physical strain is, of course, exertion (e.g., after running or struggling with someone), when the more or less dynamic visual signs can be even more telling than the panting itself, betraying the cause (e.g., tense facial muscle tonus). The relevance of the contextual and concomitant signs must again be emphasized, as they sometimes provide a more eloquent information than words, difficult at that time, as in this example where “wild-eyed,” “mad-looking” and “panting” are inherent in each other as an expressive behavioral cluster. ([…] EBEN runs in, panting exhaustedly, wild-eyed and mad-looking […] [after killing his and Abbie’s baby] (O’Neill, DUE, III, iv) ‘He is not at home then, is he?’ I panted [after running], quite breathless with quick walking and alarm (E. Brontë, WH, XVIII) The two men were grappling at each other wildly. The party could hear them panting and grunting as they labored and struggled (Norris, M, II) the second C. I. D. man was back, puffing frantically in haste. Gasping for breath, he shouted (Heller, C22, IX)

C.Emotional strain Altered breathing can also be caused by agitation and emotional strain, such as in excitement, anticipation or anger
: Philip [in school] began to speak in a low voice./ ‘Don’t mumble,’ shouted the master […] Mr. Gordon began to breath heavily […] he gasped […] The master’s breathing grew almost stertorous (Maugham, OHB, XVI) LAURA (panicky) […] (breathlessly): Mother — you go to the door!” […] (desperately): Please, you answer it, please!’ (Williams, GM, VI)

3.7

Yawning

3.7.1

The paralinguistic nature of yawning Yawning, another differentiator which depends on respiratory and motor activities, has — like sighing, but not so communicatively — the important function of intermittently cycling the lung volume over a large range stimulating the ventilation of some alveoli which are not used during normal, quiet breathing, thus causing some blood to pass through the lungs without being properly oxygenated, which is believed to trigger this reflex act of deep breathing. Its stimuli are above all physiological (e.g. fatigue, sleepiness, the yawning that may signal the passing of an asthma attack), but also psychological (e.g., anxiety and boredom), and even organic (e.g., the excessive yawning caused by intracranial disease). It has also two phases, inspiration and

Paralanguage, III

119

expiration, the first being the physiologically useful one, while both are visually conspicuous, possess communicative value and can be voluntarily used as another audible visual nonverbal behavior, accompanied by a rather tense distension of the facial muscles; hardly suppressible by keeping the mouth tightly closed, but which we can emphasize attitudinally. Only its second phase becomes audible and therefore the potential paralinguistic behavior, even as ‘yawned speech’ when blended with words. ‘I have not read them,’ said Neigh, secretly wrestling with his jaw, to prevent a yawn […] at last beaten by his yawn, which courtesy nevertheless confined within his person to such an extent that only a few unimportant symptoms, such as reduced eyes and a certain rectangular manner of mouth in speaking, were visible (Hardy, HE, X)

Its morphological configuration, clinically and socially, comprises a whole series of paralinguistic and kinesic features — to which we should add in a transcription the cultural and socioeconomic background (betrayed by the behaviors associated to the yawning reflex) — and certainly merits both a transcription symbol (e.g. [>0<]) as well as an orthographic representation (e.g. ‘Iiiiaaaa!,’ ‘¡Aaaaeee!,’ ‘¡Eeeeeaaaagg!’). 3.7.2 Functional classification of yawning Boredom, fatigue and sleepiness can sometimes be mistaken for one another, and we should look for further cobehaviors, which in boredom can be a facial gesture, a meaningful sideways look, postural shift, etc.: a long sermon, read by Miss Miller, whose irrepressible yawns attested to her weariness (C. Brontë, JE, VII) Volumnia sits at a table a little removed, sympathetically sighing (Dickens, BH, LVIII)

Fatigue causes us sometimes to shift posture, thus stretching, a facial gesture (perhaps with drooping shoulders), etc., will signify physical tiredness and/or psychological weariness better, unless those who do not yawn are also tired: I know,’ she answered with a yawn [of fatigue] (Forster, PI, XVI)

Sleepiness is usually what triggers the tenser and longer yawning, through which, as with other instances, we can speak, and which we can qualify paralinguistically and display different kinesic behaviors: Davy Byrne smiledyawnednodded all in one: /--Iiiiiichaaaaaaach! (Joyce U, 177) “Wellllllllll, uh — ” That sleepiest sound in the world, the terminal yawn. Mrs. Babbit yawned with it (Lewis, B, VII, II) he went sluggishly out the door, yawning and stretching (Steinbeck, GW, XXVI)

120

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Joe Harland [night watchman] […] settled himself in his chair and stretched his arms out and yawned […] Suddenly Jimmy wanted terribly to sleep […] ‘Goodnight Jimps,’ she whined in the middle of a yawn (Dos Passos, MT, II, III) [when his mother wakes him and sends him to the store] he went sluggishly out the door, yawning and stretching (Steinbeck, GW, XXVI) Alicia bostezó, dándose con los dedos sobre la boca abierta (Sánchez Ferlosio, J, 173)

3.8

Coughing and throat-clearing

3.8.1 Coughing and throat-clearing as paralinguistic activities: Their nature and morphology As with other differentiators, coughing and its milder form, throat-clearing, have been virtually ignored as communicative phenomena — aside from its pathological aspects and a few scattered cultural observations (cf. those cited by Key [1975a]) --, although narrative literature abounds in examples with different functions. Medical physiology books define a cough as a violent reflex air release from the lungs triggered, for instance, by irritation of the larger air-passages by foreign matter (i.e., bronchi, trachea and vocal folds), or by inflammation of the lining mucous membrane of the bronchi and trachea. During a cough the epiglottis, as well as the glottis in the vocal folds, close tightly after air is inspired, then the abdominal, intercostal and other muscles contract forcefully, immediately after which the air pushes open explosively the glottis and epiglottis. Some books say that “a deep breath is taken” (which would entail a visible behavior), yet we know that many times the explosive, spasmodic reflex is triggered instantly and uncontrollably before we can attempt to draw in any air at all, a cough that, so to speak, surprises even the cougher. As for throat-clearing, which is not given much attention in the medical literature (except as a way of ridding the throat of phlegm), its connotations in interaction are so specific that both ‘to clear one’s throat’ and ‘to hem’ are widely referred to and accurately used in literature; as will be seen, the echoic term hawking is used to refer to the louder, disagreeable and rather coarse way of clearing one’s throat, sometimes preceding a second behavior, spitting. The different functional realizations of coughing and throat-clearing can be defined by identifying their paralinguistic and kinesic configuration of each one (see Poyatos 1993a: 348–350). In addition, their phonetic transcription should be sought (e.g. [Kx] for strongly pharyngeal, [KZZ] for a prolonged whizzing one), as well as their written forms (e.g. ‘Koff-koff!,’ ‘Uh-hroff!’), which would not necessarily preclude their literary description:

Paralanguage, III

121

‘Hok-hok-hok!’ […] hok-hok! ahok-hok! […] a-ha-a-wk’ (Hardy, FMC, XXXIII) ‘Heh-cha-cha!’ [Lewis, MS, X]) MERRIMAN: Ahem! Ahem! Lady Brackwell […] (Enter Lady Brackwell […]) (Wilde, IBE, III)

As for labels, they are limited mostly to: ‘coughing,’ ‘clearing one’s throat,’ ‘hemming,’ referring to a mild, sometimes ‘polite’ form of throat-clearing; ‘hemming and hawing,’ which denotes hesitation in speech, as when one searches for words; ‘hawking,’ the louder, harsher clearing of the throat, which often precedes spitting; and ‘whooping,’ denoting the convulsive gasping sound that often precedes the coughing fit. The cultural background and the socioeducational status of coughers are of particular interest in the case of reflex acts like coughing, sneezing, belching and yawning, for they are always subject to cultural display rules — existing within the same culture in certain ranks and not in others — and, ultimately, to individual norms, according to one’s upbringing and sensitiveness, by virtue of certain optional paralinguistic and kinesic qualifiers that develop from childhood.51 springing to his feet [Pumblechook], turning round several times, in an appalling spasmodic whooping-cough dance […] violently plunging and expectorating, making the most hideous faces, and apparently out of his mind [after drinking tar water] (Dickens, GE, IV)

3.8.2 Interactive functions of coughing and throat-clearing Due either to reasons elicited by an interaction or to pathological causes, coughing communicates always, whether socially or clinically. A.Interaction regulation. To announce one’s presence, through either a ‘polite’ throat-clearing or a loud, intentionally disrupting cough or throat-clearing, depending on whether we just intend to make our presence acknowledged or must also allow others to change their present behavior:52 a very buxom-looking cook […] announced her presence by a slight cough: the which, being disregarded, was followed by a louder one (Dickens, PP, LII) (They fall into each other’s arm)./ (Enter Merriman. When he enters he coughs loudly seeing the situation)./ Merriman: Ahem! Ahem! Lady Brackwell […] (Enter Lady Brackwell […]) (Wilde, IBE, III) She [Mrs. Carey] coughed elaborately at the door so that Philip should have time to compose himself […], then she rattled the door handle (Maugham, OHB, IX) She was convinced that Eugene was in his room, and a few moments later a monitory cough on his part — coughed for a purpose — convinced her (Dreiser, G, II, XXIV)

122

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

To draw attention to myself [because the two women are unaware of him], I tried to clear my throat. But as if this were wholly inadequate, I gave vent instead to a furious spasms of coughing (Mailer, BS, XXVII)

To attract someone’s attention for various purposes, often preparatory to calling out or speaking to the person: ‘I’m sure aunt’s talking about us,’ [at a distance]/ ‘Is she?’ replied Isabella — ’Hem’ aunt dear!’ (Dickens, PP, IV) Mr. Pickwick nodded assent, and coughed to attract the attention of the young gentleman (Dickens, PP, XX) He [Mr. Pickwick] shrunk behind the curtain and called out very loudly: ‘Ha — hum!’ […] ‘Ha — hum!’ (Dickens, PP, XXII) She [Nancy] tapped softly with the key at one of the cell-doors, and listened. There was no sound within; so she coughed and listened again (Dickens, OT, XIII) [approaching a home] He cleared his throat, and coughed once or twice. He [Opu] had not the courage to call out (Banerji, PP, XXVII) Seeing […] he quietly cleared his throat to capture his colleague’s attention and together, with the briefest of glances between them, they folded their papers and stood (Doctorow, BB, VIII)

To acknowledge someone’s presence, as when we knock at a door and someone coughs previous to answering verbally: A light shone through the transom, and, summoning all her courage, she [Jennie] knocked. A man coughed and bestirred himself (Dreiser, JG, VII)

To make an understood statement nonverbally
: ‘Have you been to meeting [divine service], Mrs Brick?’ asked Martin’s friend, with something of a roguish twinkle in his eye./ ‘To lecture, sir.’/ ‘I beg your pardon. I forgot. You don’t go to meeting, I think?’/ Here the lady on the right of Mrs Brick gave a pious cough, as much as to say ‘I do!’ (Dickens, MC, XVII)

The pre-speech cough or throat-clearing, often accompanied by the typical prespeech (apicoalveolar) click and/or the prespeech breath intake (both included later under ‘alternants’), can be an unconscious anxiety-based behavior, or a conscious preparatory and effect-seeking opener which is even used consciously in informal as well as religious oratory (cf. Key’s [1975a: 97] reference to Hayes’ [1957] mention of reports on sixteenth-century printed sermons whose margins had indications where the preacher was supposed to cough or hem): Dorotea […] con toser y hacer otros ademanes, con mucho donaire comenzó a decir (Cervantes, DQ, I, XXX)

Paralanguage, III

123

as the beadle coughed, preparatory to bidding her good-night, [the matron, being courted by him] bashfully inquired whether — whether he wouldn’t take a cup of tea? (Dickens, OT, XXIII) ‘I will now enter on my business. Hem! I am, as I told your ladyship […] (Dickens, BH, XXIX) It was Emile Dumaire who “harrumphed” and opened the proceedings (Hailey, H, “Friday,” 5)

The pre-reading cough
: He [Mr. O’Brien, the lawyer about to read Lester’s father’s will] He turned to his desk, picked up a paper lying upon it, cleared his throat, and began (Dreiser, JG, XLII) Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Smith put on solemnn faces and Mr. Smith cleared his throat and began to read the will (Dos Passos, 42P, ‘Eleanor Stoddard,’ 264)

A similar pre-singing cough, usually part of a whole behavioral complex: Raymie blushed [after being asked to sing] […] he was clearing his throat, pulling his clean handkerchief farther out of his breast pocket, and thrusting his fingers between the buttons of his vest (Lewis, MS, VI)

A prompting cough or throat-clearing is a familiar and important regulatory behavior, as it serves to induce someone to, or prevent him from, saying or doing something (typically acknowledging someone else’s presence), acquiesce with what someone says, avoid making a social blunder, etc., usually accompanied by meaningful eye contact, perhaps even a postural shift: The old gentleman was just going to say that Oliver should not go out […] when a most malicious cough from Mr. Grimwig determined him that he should (Dickens, OT, XIV)

We find interesting cross-cultural occurrences of this prompting cough (actually a paralinguistic emblem), such as the throat-clearing that means ‘Let’s stop eating and let’s go,’ traditionally given in Saudi Arabia by the guest of honor at a meal in a house in order to leave enough food for those who have not eaten yet, a practice less common now as living standards rise and most families can afford an abundance of food. Another regulatory function is the tactical stalling for time, or as a thinking pause, often combining both: The audience cleared their throats and tossed a few stalks into the fire, not because these deeds were urgent, but to give themselves time to weigh the moral of the story (Hardy RN, I, III) He [Mr. Marvel] seemed on the point of some great resolution; he coughed behind his hand (Wells, IM, XIV)

124

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

With a cough or throat-clearing we can also muffle an inopportune comment or statement or distract from inappropriate audible or visual conduct, including in the second example an artifactually-mediated sound as well: ‘I have been persecuted and annoyed by scoundrels of late, sir.’/ Parker coughed violently, and asked Mr. Pickwick whether he wouldn’t like to look at the morning paper?” (Dickens, PP, LIII) Mr. Dedalus’ cup had rattled noisily against its saucer, and Stephen had tried to cover that shameful sign of his father’s drinking bout […] by moving his chair and coughing (Joyce, PAYM, II) Clearing the throat can fill a silence when speech fails
: La Guardia civil, quién sabe si por eso de que la parte ofendida tan presto entra en razón, se atusó los mostachos, carraspeó […] se marchó sin incordiar más (Cela, PD, VIII) [while he flirts with her] La señorita Elvira entornó los ojos […] El señor […] carraspeó un poco (Cela, C, I)

Naturally, as a conversational or nonconversational regulatory behavior in interaction, a cough or throat-clearing can typically act as a feedback behavior, a function implied in many of the instances discussed in this section (e.g., showing anger, impatience, disinterest). B.Satisfaction With a little cough or a pensive throat-clearing we can sometimes express satisfaction of self, as with a man who just donned a new suit and walks out of his house on a fine morning as if the world were a mirror, or who receives a compliment, or has performed a good deed: ‘This is Mr. Micawber,’ said Mr. Quinion to me./ ‘Ahem!’ said the stranger, ‘that’s my name’ (Dickens, DC, XI) ‘Ahem!’ said Mr. Micawber, clearing his throat, and warming with the punch and with the fire. ‘My dear, another glass?’ (Dickens, DC, XXVIII) He cleared his throat as he looked himself up and down [in the mirror, at the barbershop, after a manicure girl finishes her job] (Dos Passos, MT, II, I) He gave the little cough which was the invariable comment on the best of his phrases. ‘I would laugh, I would applaud,’ the little cough might be interpreted; ‘but modesty forbids” (Huxley, PCP, X)

C.Uncertainty, incredulity, confusion, surprise These are situations which in general we associate with coughing and throat-clearing, for instance: dubious acquiescence
:

Paralanguage, III

125

‘Very extraordinary thing.’/ ‘Very,’ said his three friends./ ‘Placed me in such an extremely awkward situation,’ continued Mr. Pickwick./ ‘Very,’ was the reply of his followers, as they coughed slightly, and looked dubiously at each other (Dickens, PP, XII) [the lawyer, told by Mr. Pickwick that he will not call any witnesses] coughed dubiously. These tokens […] were not lost on Mr. Pickwick (Dickens, PP, XXXI)

confusion
: Mr. Rochester professed to be puzzled. ‘Hem!’ said he (C. Brontë, JE, XXIV)

surprise
: ALGERNON (Somewhat taken aback). Ahem! Ahem!/ CECILY. Oh, don’t cough, Ernest. When one is dictating one shouldspeak fluently and not cough. Besides, I don’t know how to spell a cough (Wilde, IBE, II) Tom coughed delicately. ‘For a fella that don’t preach no more — ’ [after the former preacher gives quite a tirade] (Steinbeck, GW, X)

D.Embarrassment, shyness This category is associated with various attitudes, from shyness to trying to prevent someone from exposing our weaknesses, or making an effort to participate in an interaction in which one feels left out, for instance: shyness
: All the children are fond of you, Tom […] I might name one of ‘em after you […] No objection to that, I should say?’/Tom cleared his throat, and smiled (Dickens, MC, XII) “I wasn’t sure,” said Eugene somewhat timidly […]/ They were silent a moment. Then Eugene, clearing his throat in his embarrassment, said […] (Wolfe, LHA, XL) ‘’Tonight […] I will buy for Arabella Gross one of those little things that goes around higher up.’/ ‘You mean the little silk pockets on a string?’/ ‘Yes […]’ […]. He coughed to clear his throat (Steinbeck, TF, IV) LAURA [faintly]: Hello [She clears her throat] […] Hope you don’t think I’m being too personal — do you? LAURA (hastily, out of embarrassment): I believe I will take a piece of gum [which Jim had offered her previously], if you — don’t mind (clearing her throat) [and brings up another subject] […] JIM: […] You make me feel sort of — […] (Laura touches her throat and clears it […]) (Williams, GM, VII)

realizing a silly error
: [after mistaking a heap of dead rabbits for a dog] I hemmed once more (E. Brontë, WH, II)

trying to prevent someone from exposing one’s weaknesses
: ‘Hem! Really, my dear,’ interposed Mr. Micawber (Dickens, DC, XXVIII)

126

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

E.Forbearance, resignation, acceptance Through a simple cough or subtle throat-clearing we can often convey what verbally we would not or could not express in moments of emotional tension: A very awkward pause on Mr. Bounderby’s part, succeeded. Mrs. Sparsit sedately resumed her work and occasionally gave a small cough, which sounded like the cough of conscious strength and forbearance./ [after Mr. Bounderby suggests perhaps she would want to leave his home] “Oh, dear no, Sir […]!” Mrs. Sparsit shook her head, still in her highly superior manner, and a little changed the small cough--coughing now, as if the spirit of prophecy rose within her, but had better be coughed down (Dickens, HT, I, XVI)

F.Social anxiety Coughing and throat-clearing appear out of social anxiety, even as an a priori reaction, but typically when at a loss for words
: He stands there awkwardly […] clears his throat, swallows, but fails to speak […] (Laurence, SA, II)

when a sense of propriety triggers the behavior: Tom [after kissing the shy Laura] coughs decorously (Williams, GM, VII)

by a subordinate in front of a superior, and any situation in which, regardless of our social status, we may regard someone as above us (e.g. the police officer when we broke traffic regulations), or in different situations in which there is a dominion-submission relationship, as with the cigar and the revolving chair in this example in which the subordinate would have probably kept turning his hat if he had had one: ‘Well Joey tell me all about it,’ said Gus McNeill puffing a great cloud of smoke out of his cigar and leaning back in his swivel chair […] O’Keefe cleared his throat and shuffled his feet. ‘Well sir […]’ (Dos Passos, MT, II, III)

as silence fillers when no other audible behavior is displayed, a compulsive attitude according to how each culture manages interactive silences, which may or may not create anxiety: Mr. Bumble coughed again, and smiled slightly [during a silence, while courting Mrs. Corney] […] coughed, — louder this time than he had ever coughed yet (Dickens, OT, XXIII) Tom blows his coffee glancing sideways at his mother. She clears her throat. Tom clears his […] clears his throat again. Amanda coughs (Williams, GM, IV) from anxiety caused by embarrassment
: ‘Are there many of them [bedfellows for him]?’ inquired Mr. Pickwick, dubiously./ ‘Three,’ replied Mr. Roker./ Mr. Pickwick coughed (Dickens, PP, XLII)

Paralanguage, III

127

Lester cleared his throat hopelessly [when his sister sees Jeanie, but thinks she is his housekeeper] (Dreiser, JG, XXXII)

as an effort to participate in an interaction: The bellboy [after the lieutenant returning from the war tips him] shuffled his feet and cleared his throat. ‘It must have been terrible overseas, Lootenant’ (Dos Passos, BM, XLIV)

But the most intriguing and elusive type of anxiety-based cough and throat-clearing is what I have called before the solitary dyadic cough
: two people relatively close to each other in an empty subway platform at night; when I have walked past a street bum in downtown Chicago late at night, realizing I have cleared my throat (yet in Calcutta I have been too shocked for even that reaction), or walking along a narrow street (which forces interaction) in old Jerusalem or Istanbul. The motivations can be complex: simple anxiety, mutual acknowledgement that we are both safe individuals, socioeconomic inferiority, etc. G.Disinterest and rejection Coughing and throat-clearing can communicate our negative attitude toward a situation like, for instance, sheer disinterest
: ‘Heh-cha-cha!’ coughed Dr. Kenicott [her uncultivated husband] hearing Carol read poetry (Lewis, MS, X)

boredom
: People cleared their throats, tried to choke down yawns. The men shot their cuffs and the women stuck their combs more firmly into their back hair […] (Lewis, MS, IV) the guests were beginning that cough which indicated, in the universal instinctive language, that they desired to go home and go to bed (Lewis, MS, VI)

avoiding acknowledging someone verbally
: Hurstwood only cleared his throat by way of acknowledgement [talking to another street bum like him when he is reduced to beggary] (Dreiser, SC, XLI)

reluctant acceptance, which can be clearly stated in a word-qualifying throat-clearing: why don’t you have dinner with me tonight […]?’ […] Merivale cleared his throat. ‘Very well,’ he said dryly [disliking the idea, but obliged to do it] (Dos Passos, MT, III, II)

disagreement, in which of course there is disinterest and rejection: Everybody cleared her polite throat [when Carol makes suggestions at the meeting of the town’s cultural committee] (Lewis, MS, XI) ‘So intelligent,’ Lucy repeated./ ‘Some people think so, I know,’ said General Knoyle

128

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

very stiffly. ‘But personally…’ He cleared his throat with violence. That was his personal opinion (Huxley, PCP, VII)

H.Impatience, uneasiness, reproach, irritation, anger, contempt These attitudes reflect different feelings that often can actually blend in a cough, as happens in the first example: [when Mr. Grimwig insists on putting Oliver down] Here, Mr. Brownlow coughed impatiently (Dickens, OT, XIV) […] said the gentleman, shaking his finger before his nose [Mr. Pecksniff’s], and planting his legs wide apart as he looked attentively in Mr Pecksniff’s face […]. ‘Observe me, society will not be satisfied!’/ Mr Pecksniff coughed (Dickens, MC, IV) ‘There you make a great mistake, sir.’ returned Mrs Todgers [who keeps contradicting the young gentleman, who insists he is not understood in the house] […] You are of too susceptible a nature; it’s in your spirit.’ The young gentleman coughed (Dickens, MC, X) Sir Leicester Dedlock coughed, as if he could not possibly hear another word in reference to such an individual; and took his leave (Dickens, BH, XLIII) he [Mr. Tupman, after being either “indignant” or “scandalized”] passed the wine, coughed once or twice, and looked at the stranger [who asked him to] for several seconds with a stern intensity (Dickens, PP, II) Here, Mr. Brownlow coughed impatiently (Dickens, OT, XIV) Joe gave a reproachful cough, as much as to say, ‘Well, I told you so’ (Dickens, GE, II) The thought of sending money home made him break into a scoffing laugh, which he turned into cough in order to deceive the passers (Howells, HNF, V, II) Herzog […] narrowed his eyes and cleared his throat, already aware of the anger, the pervasive indignation he felt (Bellow, H, 128)

I.Pathological and traumatic causes Here we should naturally include the different types of clinical occurrences: she [Helen] breathed a little fast and coughed a short cough [from consumption] (C. Brontë, JE, VIII) [Cainy, from eating while running] began to cough violently […] You’ll choke yourself some day […] ‘Hok-hok-hok!’ replied Cain. ‘A crumb of my victuals went the wrong way — hok-hok! That’s what ‘tis […] ahok-hok! […] a-ha-a-wk’ (Hardy, FMC, XXXIII) Phlegmy coughs shook the air of the bookshop […]. The shopman’s uncombed head came out and his unshaven reddened face, coughing (Joyce, U, 236)

Paralanguage, III

129

The reader is invited to ‘see and hear,’ in Chapter 3 of Volume III, the functional repertoire of not less than twenty-five varieties of coughs displayed by Dickens’ Mr. Snagsby, the most versatile cougher anyone could imagine, for, as his creator assures us in what constitutes an affirmation of one of the principles of nonverbal communication, Mr. Snagsby, as a timid man, is accustomed to cough with a variety of expressions, and so to save words (Dickens, BH, X)

3.9

Spitting

3.9.1 Spitting as a paralinguistic-kinesic behavior These two phases of spitting, hawking and the actual spitting out of spittle — used naturally to expel phlegm and nasal mucus and also to get rid of any other unwanted matter from the mouth — can be eloquently modified with paralinguistic and kinesic qualifiers and constitute a subject that merits cross-cultural research. Anyone may, for instance, spit at someone out of contempt or as an angry act of humiliation, but the ‘slowness’ or ‘quickness’ of the facial gesture and the actual spitting may betray cultural background, the spitter’s social status and perhaps the exact meaning put in that aspect of the behavior which, otherwise, we might just regard as spitting ‘in anger’ or ‘as a punishment.’ Its kinesic morphology is characterized by: a leader, shown mainly on the face, as the spitter prepares himself, but it can blend with an emotional expression, such as contempt, the movement of mouth and cheeks being then more of an onset; the behavior of the face may be relevant, as when the spitter approaches his victim with puffed-up cheeks; a general body behavior may include bending toward the victim slowly or abruptly, as in tense and premeditated anger or in a sudden outburst; the aftermath can be again the angry expression or the gesture of contempt. And we should also acknowledge the spittle in the general configuration, for its mere presence on the face, body or clothes of the victim (unless just on the ground) adds a much humiliating element to the equally abasing spitting sound. There have been some attempts to write down the spitting sound, a pharyngealized forceful dorsovelar fricative followed by a reverse apicolabial articulation, or only the latter if the spitting is not preceded by the (probably very intentionally communicative) drawled hawking: I had my mouth full of tobacco juice. I bent down to her and Phth! says I to her like that […] Phth! […] right into her eye (Joyce, PAYM, I, 36)

3.9.2 Physiological and social functions of spitting A.Physiological functions Apart from its pathological realizations, spitting can be due to a physiological need, as

130

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

in instances when it is elicited by the need to reject foreign matter or dirtied saliva from the mouth, so one should not, when in a foreign culture or unfamiliar environment or situation, hastily judge it as merely an unnecessary unrefined act, for instance: seeing pedestrians and bicycle riders returning to New Delhi along a dusty tributary dirt road late in the afternoon; people at a threshing-floor or while winnowing grain avoiding to swallow its dust. What would make the difference is — and that must be weighed very carefully — whether they do it in the presence of others, how close to them, and how necessarily or unnecessarily they make the ‘paralinguistic’ part of it conspicuously loud, Escupía Sancho a menudo, al parecer, un cierto género de saliva pegajosa y algo seca […] y [the charitable Knight of the Wood] volvió […] con una gran bota de vino (Cervantes, Q, II, XIII)

What presumably would be physiological spitting is, however, condemned in many different cultures when done in public places visibly and audibly enough, the hawking sound being considered as offensive as the spitting itself. I have seen looks of disgust in pedestrians in European cultures as well as in North America. In Nigeria, where audible and visible spitting seems to be a habit among one of the three ethnic groups, but strongly looked down upon by the other two, the latter look away or throw a disapproving look at the spitter, as they do in Ghana, for spitting, if necessary, must be silent, shielding one’s mouth and away from others. B.Social spitting There is an abundant documentation on the habit of spitting in front of others, not only in books on etiquette of different periods, but in literary works. It blends with the first category, for physiologically motivated spitting can be clearly subject to varying social norms and personal sensitiveness across cultures. Wildeblood (1965), tracing such developments within European societies, mentions how spitting was accepted in medieval times, although the well-bred “would perform the act in the least disagreeable manner, children being taught to hold the hand in front of the mouth” (125); and how in the seventeenth century the polite world knew that people should “’forbear hawking or spitting as much as you can,’” turn and spit in their handkerchief if the room was “’neat and kept cleanly,’” and how Samuel Pepys (from whose Diary she collects this information) did not object at all when a pretty lady in the darkness of a theater box spat “’backward upon me, by mistake’” (205).53 Mr Jefferson Brick expectorated and laughed; the former copiously, the latter approvingly (Dickens, MC, XVI)

Among other attitudes, middle-class male teenagers in the more ‘spitting cultures’ are observed, when outdoors, to hawk-and-spit ‘like men’ in front of other male peers to gain approval as a form of affiliative behavior during a conversation or while playing a game (e.g., the soccer goalkeeper ready to stop the ball), or during a spitting contest,

Paralanguage, III

131

seeing who gets the farthest. Another type of social spitting is, for instance, that of tobacco smokers or chewers of masticatories in different cultures, for instance: men’s outdoors spitting while chewing tobacco in North America or England; the Indian or Pakistani chewers of betel; the chewer of kola (i.e. from the caffeine-rich stimulant kola-nut) in Ghana, where, as a social activity in the company of others, we certainly appreciate the difference between higher and lower class in various aspects of the behavior; just as we can imagine the sort of man who leaves the red mark of betel on parked automobiles, as I have observed in India, or the night security officer in Ghana, who chews his kola-nut to keep more alert and audibly throws his clay-red spittle describing a wide curve on walls. swinging himself in a rocking- chair, lounged a large gentleman [Major Pawkins] with his hat on, who amused himself by spitting alternately into the spittoon on the right hand of the stove, and the spittoon on the left, and then working his way back again in he same order (Dickens, MC, XVI) They drank at intervals from their huge pint tumblers and smoked, spitting often on the floor and sometimes dragging the sawdust over the spits with their heavy boots (Joyce, D, ‘A Painful Case’)

We must note the tendency of men, and even more so children, to spit into a fire and even watch the spittle sizzle: Mr. Henchy spat vigorously and spat so copiously that he nearly put out the fire, which uttered a hissing sound of protest (Joyce, D, ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room”)

Social spitting, however, does not always show a practical purpose, but it can be an unspoken expression of togetherness, as with the spitting of the Navajo Indians (reported by Bailey [1942] and cited by Key [1975a]) around the fire: the men spitting right into the fire, the women on the ground, a singer doing it intermittently and continuing the song “on a humming note” while getting ready to do it. But in no instances does social spitting seem to be silent in any culture, thus possessing that quasiparalinguistic quality that can certainly fill a silence or blend significantly in the conversation, often with what La Barre (1964: 217) perceptively calls “punctuational and editorial-comment” characteristics. One particularly bizarre form of spitting to watch is practiced among the Turkana men of Northern Kenya, who pierce the lower lip with a hollow metal tube or stick and spit through it at a distance. C.Random spitting and task-performing spitting There is a random paralinguistic-kinesic spitting (cf. Krout’s [1935] inclusion of spitting among his “autistic gestures”), an unnecessary and almost unconscious behavior at times, like a tic. But the most interesting form of noninteractive spitting cross-culturally — although a possible intentionality in its performance could certainly be considered interactive when in co-presence, as when done with a ‘watch-this’ sort of attitude — is the task-performing function of spitting, which I have always observed

132

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

in different cultures among peasants and laborers, before grabbing the smooth wooden handle of a hoe or pick. What makes it more interesting is that, beyond its practicality, the man may communicate quite eloquently his disposition (i.e., enthusiastic, frustrated, tired, dejected, angry, etc.) through the loudness of his hawking and spitting, the audible inspiration while ‘looking at’ the job to be tackled, the facial expression qualified by grunting, etc. Tom took off his coat [after having been hired for work and given a pick] […] He pushed up his cap and stepped into the ditch. Then he spat on his hands. The pick arose into the air and flashed down. Tom grunted softly […] the grunt came at the moment it sank into the ground (Steinbeck, GW, XXII) [The guitarist] […] apretando y aflojando las clavijas. Escupió entre las piernas; bebió un sorbito de su copa (Caballero Bonald, DDS, II, III)

D.Rejection In many cultures (e.g. Turkey, Lebanon) spitting on the ground upon hearing someone’s name communicates rejection. It also denotes contempt, and Darwin (1872 [1970]: 260) documented spitting as “an almost universal sign of contempt or disgust,” citing various sources and personal communications.54 “Ce ne sont que des Flamands — allez!”/ And then he took his cigar gently from his lips and spat on the painted floor of the room (C. Brontë, P, VIII) yo me iría a trabajar para ellos./ Juan escupe […] mira, con odio, hacia algo lejano./ — Y dejar el ganado, eh, y dejar las tierras, eh […] Vuelve a escupir (López Pacheco, CE, I) SIMEON ]suddenly]. Mebbe ye’ll try t’ make her your’n too? [their new stepmother]/ PETER. Ha! […] [laugh of relish at this idea]/ EBEN [spitting with disgust] […] stealin’ my Maw’s farm! I’d as soon pet a skunk ‘r kiss a snake!” (O’Neill, DUE, I, iii) SIMEON [Turns away and spits contemptuously] I see her! [his new stepmother]. PETER (Spits also). An’ I see her! (O’Neill, DUE, I, IV) ‘Nah…nah…’ she [Lekha, at the brothel] shrieked at last. Shew drew back and spat at the face [of the man], again and again, crazily. Thoo! Thoo! Thoo! (Bhattacharya, HWRT, XXI)

Anger can trigger spitting also on a habitual impulse: Cathy [angry because her father brings home a young boy and not her present] showed her humour by grinning and spitting at the stupid little thing, earning for her pains a sound blow from her father (E. Brontë, WH, IV) the policemen [who could not stop the religious procession] swearing and spitting (Rao, K, XVIII) citizens spoke of hanging the Jew Leo Frank for what he had done to a fourteen-yearold Christian girl, Mary Phagan. They spit in the dirt (Doctorow, R, XL)

Paralanguage, III

133

As with other differentiators, the spitting act can contain a whole emotional blend, as when someone spits out of rejecting and frustrated resignation: SIMEON […] [He sighs — then spits] Waal — no use’n crying over spilt milk [the past and losing the farm] (O’Neill, DUE, I, IV)

Spitting out of rejection can be done, of course, without the subject being present: I spit upon him, whilst I say he lies (Shakespeare, RII, IV, i) ‘He is a poor abused!’ cries Mademoiselle. ‘I spit upon his house, upon his home, upon his imbecility,’ all of which she makes the carpet represent. ‘Oh, that he is a great man! O yes, superb! O Heaven! Bah! (Dickens, BH, LIV)

E.Aggression There are different forms of aggression communicated through spitting. Challenge is expressed in some cultures through a sort of ritualized ‘exploratory’ spitting, as when two Ghanaian young men try to pick a fight: the challenger spits on the palm of his right hand and shows it to his opponent who, if he accepts the challenge, slaps it with a slap-and-retract motion. Bodily aggression through spitting can take different forms. One is contemptuous and angry rejection: [Rejecting Buffalo Jones’s plan to take musk-ox alive] every chief, with the sound of a hissing snake, spat in the hunter’s face (Grey, LP, VIII)

It can be done even as a ritualized practical joke played on the newly-arrived member of a group, as among the students in Quevedo’s famous seventeenth-century Spanish picaresque novel El Buscón. Isaiah documents an ancient form of aggressive humiliation in Jerusalem: I did not hide My face from shame and spitting (Isaiah 50:6, NKJ)55

But this form of punitive aggression is also practiced by many today: and now the police […] spit on them and bind them with ropes […] and beat them, and spat into their mouths (Rao, K, X)

In mutual bodily aggression children, adolescents and low-class women spit at each other during a fight in many cultures, but in general it is not considered manly. In Ghana or Nigeria, for instance, a woman would never spit at a man, although it may happen, for instance, among Canada’s Maliseet Indians, as does in Lebanon. My own recollections are of ‘the older ones’ in my school playground spitting at each other, as well as of bullies doing it as an intimidating behavior. F.Rejection ritual The Bible offers instances of this kind of spitting:

134

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

then his brother’s wife [if he refuses to marry his brother’s widow] shall […] remove his sandal from his foot, spit in his face, and answer and say ‘So shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother’s house’ (Deuteronomy 25:9, NAB)

Key (1975a: 98) mentions the interesting private ceremony at a Jewish home, at which the father of the man who had married a Christian disowned his son formally, not only verbally, but spitting on his picture. In India, where social life is pervaded by ritual, spitting is a form of rejection: standing at the village gate, she spat once toward the east and once toward the west, once toward the south and once toward the north, and then spitting again thrice at the Pariah huts (RAO, K, IV)

G.Healing Since ancient times saliva has been known as having healing properties (certainly in the case of small bleeding scratch), and the practice of spitting on the sick person has been common across cultures. La Barre (1964: 217) reports that “the spitting of an American Indian medicine man is one of the kindly offices of the healer,” and we know how Jesus, using the practice of popular medicine, just as he used a language familiar to his hearers, spat sometimes to perform a healing miracle: He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and he anointed the eyes of the blind man (John 9:6, NKJ)

H.Playing Most of us have witnessed during our elementary and secondary school years the ‘spitting prowess’ of some male schoolmates engaged sometimes in real spitting contests. This kind of paralinguistic-kinesic folk behavior can be found as what we would call play in cultures very different and distant from each other. Young girls in Ghana, for instance, but not boys, ‘distance-spit,’ doing it between their teeth and producing only a slight interdental hissing sound (and no hawking, which would not be feminine at all).

3.10

Belching

3.10.1 Nature and social functions of belching Belching, basically the expelling of stomachic gas through the mouth, manifests itself externally both audibly and visually, involving paralinguistic as well as kinesic controlled or uncontrolled behaviors whose characteristics, due to different display rules, can vary among individuals and social groups, as well as across cultures. It is a reflex that cannot be feigned for communicative purposes, although some persons have the ability to provoke it if they feel the presence of gas in the stomach,

Paralanguage, III

135

then expanding and contracting the esophagus as an initiator of esophagus air (see volume I, cap. 3.3). Its sound can be modified by changing the shape of the mouth (opening it wide or keeping it shut), thus modifying resonance, right after which gas has passed through the pharyngoesophageal segment (i.e., mainly its cricopharyngeal ring), which acts as a sort of glottis (seen in Chapter 2.4, in connection with the speech of laryngectomized patients). There is, therefore, as for the rest of the differentiators, a whole configuration (Poyatos 1993a: Chapter 6.9). The social functions of belching revolve around its two manifestations, that is, physiological and involuntary and voluntary physiological and social. As one moves up the social ladder, uncontrolled involuntary belching is a taboo in most advanced cultures under any circumstances unless due to illness, and even then one is supposed to minimize it and shield the mouth with one hand (unless unable to control it), while its sound is considered embarrassing and offensive if it is not repressed. However, we find double standards for men and women in many cultures: an Australian male informant assured me that “it is all right for men to belch in bars, but never in a restaurant,” while the Chinese always told me that women should refrain from belching, but that “it is all right for men.” Ten cuenta, Sancho, de no mascar a dos carrillos, ni de erutar [‘eructar,’ to belch] delante de nadie (Cervantes, DQ, II, XLIII) ‘Now you’re getting me all excited… Bad for my stomach, bad for my heart.’ Phineas Blachead belches portentously and takes a great gulp out of the glass of bicarbonate of soda (Dos Passos, MT, II, III)

Voluntary belching may respond to satisfaction and enjoyment while eating and drinking, not being repressed or minimized when it could be, but emphasized by conscious manipulation of the abdominal and throat muscles, made loud by controlled mouth resonance and followed by the audible paralinguistic exhalation that completes the paralinguistic expression of satisfaction. In Malaysia the belcher must say ‘¡Alhamdilil-Lah! (‘Thanks to God’) to avoid appearing ungrateful, while among American Indians belching is a way of praising a meal, for “without it the hostess is not quite sure that the guests are enjoying the food” (Key 1975a: 99). Actually, not all Muslim Arabs regard belching as a desired behavior, for I made a point of asking Muslims from Egypt, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Iraq, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, and they all said burping at meals was definitely rude. A well-mannered and highly educated Christian friend from Ghana used to belch moderately at our family table as a compliment and a sign of satisfaction: Now and then he belched, in compliment to the richness of the food’ [Mohammed Latif] […] who occupied the position neither of a servant nor of an equal (Forster, PI, II)

But we should also identify folklore belching, displayed even as contests among young people. Mary Key (1975a: 99) mentions it as a pastime in connection with an American

136

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

college dormitory, certainly not reflecting much refinement in either participants or their audience, and I vividly remember how proudly my teenage schoolmates at a boarding school in Spain used to show off their belching prowess and how they improvised such contests in the quiet of a study room, where the reverberating burping of the ‘older ones’ had a ‘manly’ sound to our ears, just as at the playground they hawked and spat ‘like men’ and scratched themselves where, in a culture-wide habit among the less educated, men are seen to scratch, all parts of a tacit rite of passage at that age.

3.11

Hiccuping

3.11.1 Hiccuping as a reflex and as a paralinguistic behavior The hiccuping act is a sudden, sharp inspiration due to a spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm with the glottis closed, the air striking the vocal cords also spasmodically and causing the typical sound (with no apparent physiological reason), but it does not seem to serve any useful function. Since it is a sort of ingressive dorsovelar fricative followed by a dorso-uvular stop, [>xq], each language can transcribe it according to its sound system: Arabella […] hiccuped […] ‘It is — hic — never too late — hic — to mend! (Hardy, JO, VI)

Hiccuping, otherwise an alternant, is seen here as a physiological reflex that lends speech a peculiar general quality when it alternates with and affects words, because we cope with it differently personally and cross-culturally. Thus, it triggers different kinesic behaviors, aside from certain activities, as when in Kenya they try to stop a stubborn fit of hiccuping by drinking water with a wooden spoon. As with coughing and belching, there are different cultural kinesic behaviors associated to hiccuping (e.g. the not very refined Anglo-Saxon speakers often touche their chest with the thumb side of a fisted hand, while saying ‘Excuse me!’): For an answer [when asked about drinking] Tom Rochford pressed his hand to his breastbone and hiccuped./ — Could I trouble you for a glass of fresh water, Mr. Byrne? (Joyce, U, 178). He hiccoughed and tried to pretend that he had coughed (Huxley, PCP, X)

The hiccuper’s management of it and its social perception are quite peculiar, since sometimes the person resorts to other behaviors trying to mask his or her display of ‘weakness,’ particularly after drinking something alcoholic or with gas, which sounds even more embarrassing in the middle of a silence.

Paralanguage, III

137

‘I’m [Halliday] sure I’ve — hic! Oh dear! — got one.’ […] I’ll read you the choice bits — hic! Oh, dear! […] ‘Do you think if I drink water it would take off the hiccup? Hic! Oh, I feel perfectly helpless [hiccuping through the whole conversation]’ (Lawrence, WL, XXVIII)

Another type of hiccuping can be identified as emotional, for instance, while weeping and sobbing: –No aguanto más, no puedo aguantar más — era lo único que ella decia con angustioso hipo, mojándole a él la cara y las manos con tanta y tanta lágrima (Galdós, FJ, III, II, I)

3.12

Sneezing

3.12.1 Physiological and paralinguistic nature of sneezing Sneezing is usually initiated by irritation in the nasal lining, in response to which (unless it happens very suddenly with no warning) there is a first stage in the form of a silent (if the velum is lifted) or audible (if lowered) inhalation; an abundant and spasmodic blast of air forced through the glottis (‘Atchoo!’) follows and rapidly goes either through the nasal passages — depressing the uvula and closing the opening between the pharynx and the oral cavity — or both through the nasal passages and the mouth, through the latter often as a third stage during which a strained voiced expulsion prolongs itself if the mouth is shut. In other words, the first stage is the ‘atchoo!’ sound, and the second, not always present, the vowel-like continuous one. But the presence or absence of this second part, and the possible paralinguistic and kinesic qualifiers of the whole act, give it enough audible-visual and socio-semantic complexity to deserve a detailed description of its features. Phonetically we would identify the initial prolonged pharyngeal ingression and then the dorsopalatal explosive with a front high or unrounded high-back vowel, the vowel sound uttered shortly or conspicuously prolonged and nasalized. Ned Lambert gasped, I caught a…cold night before…blast your soul…night before last…[…]/ He held his handkerchief ready for the coming…/ — I was…this morning…poor little…what do you call him…Chow!… Mother of Moses! (Joyce, U, 231–32) [Dobbs] sneezed thunderously six times, staggering sideways on rubbery legs in the intervals and raising his elbows ineffectively to fend off each seizure off (Heller, C22, 308)

3.12.2 Social sneezing and associated behaviors Sneezing merits in itself a cross-cultural study, determining: whether and how the sneezer reacts verbally or nonverbally to his own behavior; whether and how those present respond also verbally or nonverbally to his sneezing; and the meaning of that response, which can be of a religious nature, a folk superstition, or simply a social custom.

138

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

A simple social courtesy is, for instance, German ‘Gesundheit!’ (‘Health!’), French ‘A vos souhaits!’ (‘Good wishes!’), Greek ‘Hygeia sou’ (‘To your health!’), Trinidad’s rather humorous ‘Marche, dog!’ (pronounced ‘mash’ by many, from French ‘marche,’ march), Hong-Kong’s ‘Tai carc lei shi!’ (‘Good things will happen!’), Russian ‘Za zdaróvye!’ (‘To your health!’), Hungarian (‘Kedves,) egészégeré!’ (‘Dear, health!’), South India’s ‘Chiringeer!’ (‘May you live long!’) in Telegun language, the ‘No obo!’ of Nigeria’s Edo people, or the ‘¡Salud!’ (‘Health’) in many Latin American cultures (Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mexico), in some of which, however, it competes with Spain’s ‘¡Jesús!’ But courtesy must be displayed in some cultures by the sneezer as well. Thus, in North America and England, where sneezing may be responded to with ‘God bless you!’ or ‘Bless you!’, the average well-mannered middle-class sneezer apologizes with ‘Excuse me!’ before the mere presence of other people, typically (seriously or not) emphasizing the apology by putting a major stress and drawling on ‘me’ (‘Excusemé!’) when the sneeze was unexpectedly abrupt or loud, even when not in true interaction; for instance, while reading a magazine at a doctor’s outer office (where recently I observed how a mother with a small child on her lap excused herself after sneezing, either because of my presence, the child’s, or both), or my secretary from her main office when the mediating door was at least ajar. In fact, those same people apologize after coughing or just clearing the throat mildly, not only in a noninteractive gathering, but by a regional television newsperson ‘facing’ an audience. There are also some associated kinesic behaviors, from the more refined attitude of trying to check the sneeze to the loud one intentionally made more tense with a ‘Iiaaaah!!’ outset and all kinds of gestures. [The German Captain] Sitting back and turning his head aside, he breathed out as long as he could, then began to sneeze. He sneezed three times inwardly, one forefinger pressed firmly to his upper lip as he had been taught to do in childhood, to avoid sneezing in church (Porter, SF, III)

Superstitious responses to a sneezer are common in some cultures. In Ghana, if someone sneezes in the morning toward the right side of another it is an omen of good luck, but if something bad befalls that person it would be associated with someone having sneezed toward his left that morning. In Niger, if two people are engaged in a discussion and a third party (outside their group) sneezes, both conversants will bless him, as the sneeze sanctions what one of them was trying to prove. Finally, the religious character of the responses to sneezing is seen in many cultures and in different religions, particularly Christian and Muslim, on the part of both sneezer and listener, for instance: in English many believers respond with ‘God bless you!’ or ‘Bless you!’(although for most without a true religious connotation). Icelandic males say ‘Blessadur!’, while females say ‘Blessod,’ both meaning ‘God bless you!’ In Spain the listener has, if used at all, only one response, ‘¡Jesús!’ In Lebanon Catholics

Paralanguage, III

invoke the name of the Virgin Mary, ‘Ya, Adra!’, the Muslims that of Mohammed, but those who are neither simply say ‘Siha!’ (‘Health!’). The Yoruba of Nigeria respond ‘Pele!’ (otherwise a greeting), which means ‘God bless you!’ But it is across Muslim cultures that the find the most interesting variety. In some the sneezer is the only one who is obliged to respond to his own sneeze, as with Egyptian ‘Yarhamukum Allah!’ (‘May Allah have mercy!’) or Malaysian ‘Al-hamdilil-Lah!’ (‘All praise be to God!’). In other cultures sneezing may be the occasion for a more elaborate ritual between the sneezer and his listeners: among the Muslims of Malaysia the sneezer must say ‘Alhamdu lil-Lah!’ (‘Thank God!’), and the listeners answer ‘Yarhamukum Allah!’ (‘God bless you!’); but in Saudi Arabia this socioreligious observance becomes more elaborate: the sneezer says ‘Alhamdu lil-Lah!’ (‘Thank God!’), the others respond ‘Yarhamukum Allah!’ (‘God bless you!’), to which he must add ‘Yahdina wa yahdikum Allah’ (‘God shows us and you the right path’), but if he fails to thank God first the listeners express God’s blessing anyway, which obliges him to thank God, and this exchange can happen up to three times.

3.13

Conclusion It is obvious that much more could be said about paralinguistic differentiators. The objective of this chapter has been only to establish the profound psychological, social and cultural relevance — merely suggesting the literary one — of what otherwise can be regarded as only incidental phenomena. While laughter and crying in interaction or noninteraction still need much research in their normal or pathological varieties, the other differentiators could be discussed further on he basis of the present research model. Anyone not just doing research, but even more when engaged in professional interaction (i.e., doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, counsellors, interviewers, etc.), need to be acutely aware of the subtle relationships between paralinguistic differentiators like coughing, throat-clearing and sighing and other activities and nonactivities in personal encounters or in noninteractive situations. It is a matter of being able to relate what is said as well as what remains unsaid, what is done or not done, with other verbal and nonverbal interaction components, when a simple clearing of the throat or a sigh can be an eloquent comment which otherwise would be missed altogether or misinterpreted, the former being usually more common because one does not even suspect that it might serve any specific purpose in the encounter. When we considered differentiators as dynamic components of personal interaction — and of interactions with our personal environment and the environment at large — we begin to discover that nothing can be said not to communicate until proven otherwise, and that such nonverbal signs often express what otherwise would not, or could not, be expressed with words.

139

140

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

3.14

Topics for interdisciplinary research 1.A phonetic study of paralinguistic differentiators: transcription and spelling. 2.Paralinguistic differentiators and good manners. 3.Paralinguistic differentiators on the stage: visual, acoustic and proxemic aspects. 4.Paralinguistic differentiators in the cinema. 5.Pathology of paralinguistic differentiators and social behavior. 6.Cross-cultural study of verbal and kinesic behaviors associated to coughing, belching, sneezing and yawning. 7.Paralinguistic differentiators in the novel. 8.Interlinguistic and intercultural perspective on differentiators in the novel. 9.Interlinguistic and intercultural perspective on differentiators in the theater. 10.Interlinguistic and intercultural perspective on differentiators in the cinema. 11.Feelings and ritual in the crying of bereavement: cross-cultural and social aspects. 12.Cross-cultural study of loud voice and shouting, and social perception. 13.Laughter, sighing and tears in the novel. 14.Ontogenetic development of the social functions of paralinguistic differentiators. 15.Kinesics and paralinguistic differentiators. 16.Paralinguistic differentiators in television advertising. 17.Paralinguistic differentiators in the theater and the cinema: a comparative perspective. 18.Paralinguistic differentiators in film dubbing. 19.National and regional labelling of paralinguistic differentiators. 20.Verbal and nonverbal etiquette associated with paralinguistic differentiators. 21.Paralinguistic differentiators of men and women. 22.Mannish and effeminate paralinguistic differentiators. 23.Paralinguistic differentiators in political candidates. 24.Paralinguistic differentiators in public figures. 25.The differentiators of male and female characters in the novel and the theater.

Chapter 4

Paralanguage, IV Alternants, our vocabulary beyond the dictionary

‘Puss, puss, puss, — tit, tit, tit [calling a cat]’ (Dickens, PP, XVI) ‘You and the pick (umph!!) workin’ together (umph!)!’ (Steinbeck, GW, XXII) His swollen lips and end of his nose just visible in a swathe of bandages big as a large pumpkin emitted burbles and rattles and snorts (Porter SF, III, 454) “There’s certainly nothing prime about his clothes,” the retailers sniffed last week, adding that [John] Major had set an “appalling” style […] (Time, l6 Sept, 1999, 53)

4.1

The nature and study of paralinguistic alternants

4.1.1

Several terms were identified in the dawn of paralinguistic studies — in a very general way,56 with only a few examples and without reference to their phonetic features — for what I began to call ‘alternants’; however, they would not even recognize the phonological value of some of them in certain languages (cf. Stopa 1972, on lingual clicks in Bushman languages) and consistently shunned them as “marginal,” “abnormal” or “nonspeech” sounds. But it was clear that they were perfectly integrated as segmental elements of lexical (or quasi-lexical) value in the triple structure language-paralanguage-kinesics, and they were being included more and more in the more progressive and realistic dictionaries (e.g. Webster). Surprisingly, those who strive to find the origins of language would not consider as part of their phylogenetic theories the truly ‘primitive’ nature of many alternants within a protolinguistic double structure made up of gestures (the domain of Gordon Hewes mainly [1973a]) and sounds like clicks, hisses, grunts, snorts, glottalized sounds, etc.

4.1.2 Given the deserved status of alternants as a true subsystem of speech, and their very peculiar phonetic and functional characteristics, their comprehensive (though inevitably lengthy) definition should be: ingressive or egressive, voluntary or involuntary, conscious or unconscious, independent single or compound nonverbal segmental utterances, articulated or not, produced or shaped in the areas covered by the supra-

142

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

glottal cavities (nares, nasal chambers, nasopharynx, mouth, pharynx), the laryngeal cavity, the infraglottal cavities, the diaphragm and the abdominal muscles, or assisted by the hand, either voiced or unvoiced, as well as momentary silences or breaks (similar to kinesic stills), variously combined with, and qualified by, kinesics and other nonverbal systems in multiple-system constructs and, or only, by some primary qualities and qualifiers. Sound alternants are produced singly or repeatedly in interaction with humans and animals or in noninteractive situations. Impressionistically, we would describe them as: language-free sighs, voluntary throat-clearings, clicks, inhalations and exhalations, hisses, throat or nasal frictions, moans, groans, grunts, sniffs, snorts, smacks, blows, slurps, shudders, gasps, pants, hesitation breaks, etc., but we would soon run out of labels. the variety of articulated noises, which cousin Holman made while I read, to show her sympathy, wonder, or horror (Gaskell, CP, II)

4.1.3 Alternants can be modified by kinesics and paralinguistic suprasegmental features (hence their segmental nature), as when they are emphasized or deemphasized (enhancing a ‘Ugh!’ of disgust with extreme drawling, higher pitch and a violent gesture of revulsion, or a reproachful ‘Tz-tz’ softened by a benevolent lower pitch and smiling). But both gesture and paralanguage can be triggered unconsciously, as when the crunching of eating becomes emotionally intensified (consciously or unconsciously) as a true paralinguistic behavior while facial expression communicates anger in a true dual-system alternant. 4.1.4 Alternants perform the following functions
: a.voluntarily involuntarily express feelings and emotions: an irate ‘Hum!,’ a narial exhalation of impatience, a commiserative ‘Tz!’ click; b.regulate the mechanism of conversation (e.g. the same ‘tz’ click with or without a pharyngeal ingression to indicate our desire to take the floor, or ‘Uh-hu,’ ‘Mm!,’ for feedback); c.express things we could or could not express verbally, as when referring to sounds we may not even know how to describe, such as ‘hrrrr’ for some sort of screech, ‘ploff!’ for a pie falling on the floor, ‘plink!,’ ‘gloo-gloo-gloo’ (perhaps lacking the word ‘gurgling’), ‘bzzz,’ or imitating different animals; d.refer to personal qualities, as with a strongly glottalized closed-lip sound to denote courage and strong will; e.refer also to activities, as with ‘zip-zip!’ to acoustically represent swiftness; f.refer to abstract concepts, as a drawled strong glottalized voiced pharyngeal friction symbolizing the ineffable beauty of a vista; and

Paralanguage, IV

143

g.serve to interact with animals by calling them and even imitating their own calls, etc. As mentioned before, differentiators can be more appropriately regarded as alternants when they do not occur simultaneously to verbal language (e.g. a chuckle uttered by itself, but not when we ‘chuckle our words’). 4.1.5 As for their coding, alternants — unlike words (always consciously coded, though not always voluntarily) — can be encoded also out of awareness, just as gestures and other nonverbal behaviors are, even when they are part of an expressive whole (e.g. ‘I don’t think you + tense narial egression + realize what you’ve done!’), for they can be encoded and put in motion at a subconscious level, without the intellectual process (quick as it may be) required for the production of words; while others can be carefully ‘thought out’ together with verbal language precisely because of their quasilexical nature.57 As for their sign-meaning relationship, they can be arbitrary if their sound (like in most words) bears no resemblance to the signifier (‘H’m,’ a snort of disgust); iconic or imitative, if the signifier resembles its signified (e.g. ‘Whack!,’ for slapping, ‘Bang!,’ for door-slamming, ‘¡Pssssss!,’ for a punctured tire); or intrinsic, the sign not just resembling but actually being its own significant (e.g. the blowing sound of a fan), that is, in semiotic terms, the ‘model’ and not its ‘replica.’ Three additional thoughts should be pondered with regard to the iconicity of alternants. One, that imitative alternants and kinephonographs reveal the human need to imitate the sounds and movements of nature, animals, people and the very artifacts we create, but above all, animals and objects (e.g. buzzing like a bee, ticking like some mechanism). The other is our tendency to evoke through sound many abstract qualities and physical properties (e.g. ‘And he, ffss!, came out like a shot,’ ‘She’s a very uhn!, intense person’); which should inspire those who hypothesize about an early gestural-paralinguistic stage of language, since it would have necessarily abounded in ‘imitative’ (‘echoic’) gestures and sounds leading to a more ‘arbitrary’ lexical repertoire. Naturally, sometimes resorting to paralinguistic identifiers may simply be due to the speaker’s verbal deficiency: “That frying of fish […] fizz, fizz, fizz!” (Hardy, PBE, VII)58

On the other hand, what was said in Volume I, Chapter 4.2, concerning the semantic blends possible in single words according to how they are uttered (i.e. to their paralinguistic and kinesic qualifiers) applies also to alternants, further proof of their quasilexical nature. An expression like ‘H’m!’ (variously written as ‘Hm,’ ‘Hmff,’ ‘Hmph!,’ ‘Hum!,’ ‘Um,’ ‘Umph!,’ ‘Herumph!,’ etc.) can denote individually — with other nonverbal qualifiers that will be discussed later — approval, disapproval, hesitation, unbelief, admiration, acknowledgement, interest, disinterest, curiosity,

144

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

anger, contempt, surprise, pleasure, displeasure, concern, suspicion, pondering, superiority, etc.; but at least two of those emotions or attitudes can be expressed simultaneously in the same utterance by coloring it with certain paralinguistic and kinesic qualifiers (a touchstone for measuring the lexicality of an alternant). What must remain clear is that alternants are very far from being merely “interjective” — even strictly adhering to its fourth-century Latin definition as ‘significant mentis affectum’ (Donatus, 4th century A. D., Ars Minor) — or simply vehicles for the expression of “emotions” only. 4.1.6 As for the synonymical visual-audible compounds, it will be seen in Section 4.8. how they blend with simultaneous gestures that convey the same meaning, to the extent that if the audible part is not perceived, the visual one still carries that meaning, proving their segmentality even further. Much like a word, an alternant has one single meaning (depending on its exact sounds and morphology) and, like a word, can be illustrated by speech markers and kinesic constructs that are actually emblems or identifiers. In the examples below, the wiping of the perspiration and the haughty head gesture are emblematic kinesic behaviors that translate visually and unambiguously what their corresponding alternants express audibly, and we can dissociate them from each other without detriment to their meaning: ‘Whew!’ said the housebreaker wiping the perspiration from his face [after exerting himself] (Dickens, OT, XLIV), “She sniffed in a little haughty way, and put her head up (Lawrence, SL, VI)

4.1.7 For all the aforesaid, alternants constitute a true area of interdisciplinary study still quite untapped in which the following objectives should be identified: (a) the nature of their sounds, whether imitative or arbitrary; (b) their phonetic classification; (c) the origin of those with an etymological history sometimes traceable across cultures and languages of the world, even back to some common etyoms; (d) the sounds in them that are phonological in some languages but absent in the formation of words in others (e.g. clicks); (e) a comparative study of the capacity of the phonetic system of two or more languages for the formation and written representation of alternants; (f) the appearance of alternants in the ontogenetic development (and, therefore, of the emotions, etc., signified by them) as part of the person’s repertoire; (g) their status, in terms of their identification by labels and their written representation; (h) their regulatory functions in conversation and general occurrence and frequency in interaction; (i) the unconscious production of alternants in interaction as well as noninteraction; (j) their systematic concurrence with gesture, as audible-visual constructs; (k) their pathological occurrences and variants; their socioeducational distribution according to sex, age and socioeducational status in each culture; (l) their

Paralanguage, IV

145

inclusion in novels and plays of different literatures (as well as in oral literature) and the discrepancies in their written representation; (m) the use of alternants in the performed play, in terms of stageable and unstageable forms; and (n) systematic inventories, not only for each language, but for each of the cultures using a common language (e.g. Britain and India).

4.2

Identified and unidentified alternants: Verbal and visual representation The almost insurmountable problem that confronts alternants is that, whether voiced or silent, they do exist as part of our speech, yet for most of them we lack a name or a written form or both, and there are still many about which we just cannot ‘talk,’ but can only ‘utter’ them. However, the official dictionaries more concerned with actual usage, such as the various Webster versions, strive to include new ones in each edition,59 and both the letter-writing layman and the professional writer also make an effort to represent a few, proving quite eloquently that they are there, that their ‘status vivu’ is a reality, and that every effort to establish their rightful identity is well justified. It is a problem, in other words, of both labelling (i.e. identifying them lexically) and visual representation, at a point in the history of human speech when many such everyday meaningful utterances remain unidentified, while others have even found their place into the dictionary. A.Alternants with labels and written forms These are, of course, the most ‘lexical’ of all and the best established — many defined as interjections, from which a verb and a noun have been formed — and are spoken of by a noun indicating a single or multiple occurrence and a verb that evokes the action, being also assigned a conventional orthographic representation, which does not necessarily coincide with its label (e.g. ‘braying’ and its production and written form, ‘hee-haw!’): ‘a click,’ ‘several clicks,’ ‘to click,’ ‘Tut-tut’; ‘a growl,’ ‘their growls,’ ‘to growl,’ ‘Grrr!’; ‘a hiss,’ ‘several hisses,’ ‘to hiss,’ ‘Ssss!’; ‘a pooh,’ ‘her poohs,’ ‘to pooh,’ ‘Pooh!’; ‘a pshaw,’ ‘their pshaws,’ ‘to pshaw,’ ‘Pshaw!’; ‘a titter,’ ‘their titters,’ ‘to titter,’ ‘He-he!’; ‘to tut,’ ‘tutting’; ‘a whistle,’ ‘the whistles,’ ‘to whistle,’ ‘Wheeee!.’ In this category are the ‘lexical’ alternants that have generated a verb and perhaps a noun: after a little humming and hawing, he [the older suitor] returned to the attack./ ‘I know, my dear, that there exists a considerable disparity between us in years (A. Brontë, TWF, XVI) He [Rochester] fretted, pished and pshawed (C. Brontë, JE, XXIV) George pooh-poohed the wine and bullied the waiters royally (Thackeray, VF, XXVI)

146

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

‘Tut, tut,’ said Mr. Pecksniff, pushing his latest-born away and running his fingers through his hair (Dickens, MC, II) “Ding, dong!”/ “A quarter past,” said Scrooge, counting (Dickens, CC, II) if anybody had asked him, plump and fair, whether they [Negro slaves] had human immortal souls, he might have hemmed and hawed, and said yes (Beecher Stowe, UTC, XIX) A light pit-pat was audible upon the road […]./ ‘By George — ‘tis she […]’ (Hardy, FMC, XXXIV) I’m a crow […] Caw! caw! caw! caw! caw! caw! Ain’t I a crow? (Melville, MD, XCIX) Mrs. Leivers […] clicked to the horse as they climbed the hill slowly (Lawrence, SL, VII) ‘T-t-t-t!’ he went with his tongue […] ‘I tell you, nothing gets done when there’s a woman about’ (Lawrence, SL, XII) with the dogs [the shepherd] drove the pattering, baaing flock […] The thirsty, parched sheep baa-baaed and drank (Grey, SG, XIII, XVIII) It was an ugly story. Jadwin pished and pshawed, refusing to believe it, condemning it as ridiculous (Norris, P, IX) The little man [a sailor] threw up his cap, whooped [‘Whoopee!’] (Grey, LT, VIII) ‘It’s Doris’ voice, hissing at me […] ‘Sh — Sh — ’ (Laurence, SA, III) *“[…] And two cans of corn! I’m going to swallow ‘em both right down, like this — glup! […]!” (Lewis, M, XXI)

This lexicalization, however, is not always felicitous, as with English pseudoechoics ‘wham’ and ‘biff,’ obviously aided in spoken discourse by their accompanying kinetographic gesture: Then the young fellow I mentioned, socked him in the stomach — a terrific wham! (Grey, MR, III) Jim […] planted another, at the pit of Up’s stomach. Biff! It had a solid sound. Up let out a groan (Grey, DF, XIII)60

B.
Alternants with labels but no written forms This category includes perhaps the largest number of alternants. Labels in many instances do not evoke the exact characteristics of the sounds they denote, and the average speaker — more so the foreigner — tends to remember the more imitative forms and forget, or never learn, the more learned, etymological ones.61 The problem is that we have not yet been able to have visual written representation of their paralinguistic

Paralanguage, IV

147

realization as alternants proper, such as the sounds of kissing, clapping, gurgling, hawking, sneezing, swishing, etc., for which today, as will be seen, comics just present labels. We find, for instance: ‘a blow,’ ‘his blows,’ ‘to blow’; ‘a cackle,’ ‘to cackle’; ‘a grunt,’ ‘with grunts,’ to grunt’; ‘to gulp,’ ‘a gulp’; ‘a lap,’ ‘laps,’ ‘to lap’; ‘a sigh,’ ‘with sighs,’ ‘to sigh’; ‘a smack,’ ‘two smacks,’ ‘to smack’; ‘a sniff,’ ‘sniffs,’ ‘to sniff.’ The literary author who must speak of them can do so out of purely literary, stylistic and technical reasons, as his descriptive words will artistically evoke their signifieds; but perhaps he would rather on some occasions just write them down and make their graphic symbols part of the visual configuration of his text; or perhaps he would both refer to them and write them too. But, not being able to, there remains a vast domain of everyday expressive repertoires visually inaccessible to his pen and therefore to the recreative experience of his readers. [a little girl] uttered a shrill scream of delight, and, quitting her mother’s side, ran crowing towards him (A. Brontë, TWF, XXXII) ‘Great Heaven! and she has duped me all this time!’ He turned away with a suppressed groan of agony, and paced the room again, in a paroxysm of renewed agitation (A. Brontë, TWF, XXXVIII), The man gave a grunt of discontented acquiescence, turned over in his berth [on a ship], and drew his blanket over his head (Dickens, MC, XV) ‘How do you find yourself this morning, sir? [on a ship]/ ‘Very miserable,’ said Martin, with a peevish groan. ‘Ugh! This is wretched, indeed!’ (Dickens, MC, XV) ‘My lady. For God’s sake, where?’ And makes an imploring moan (Dickens, BH, LVI) He chirruped paternally at his [mice] […] through the bars of the pagoda [cage] (Collins, WW, 252) [an Indian] shook us by the hand, grunted his salutation, and sat down on the floor (Parkman, OT, IX) When Jake asked for the collar, he [Ambrosch] grunted and scratched his head […] It was one of his mean days (Cather, MA, I, XVIII) the lady, with a contemptuous snort, rejoined: “You young men are all alike — ” (Wharton, R, XXI) Jocelyn […] gave up with a disgusted grunt (Grey, DF, VII) making [the Indians] the forest ring with their short, savage yells (Grey, LT, XX) Horn snorted his disdain (Grey, UPT, III) Wood’s snort of disgust and wrath was thoroughly genuine (Gray, BL, XIV)

148

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Hermione gave a queer, grunting sound (Lawrence, WL, VIII) She [Annie] sniffed in a little haughty way, and put her head up (Lawrence, SL, VI) a gulping sound behind her made her turn. It was Milly […] the tears slid slowly down her cheeks (Woolf, Y, 1880) [Irene, feeling harassed by her own husband] gave a little gulp, and that was all her answer […] her answer was a long sigh (Galsworthy, IC, II, II) “You should see that fellow lapping up his bacon […]/ He twisted his features into a grimace of heavy bestiality and made a lapping noise with his lips” (Joyce, PAYM, I) He [called by his employer] went heavily upstairs […] he halted, puffing with labour and vexation (Joyce, D, ‘Counterparts,’ 97) He [Mr. Dedalus] took off his silk hat, blowing out impatiently his bushy moustache (Joyce, U, 126) Fainy clacked the reins continually on his caving rump [the horse’s] and clucked with his tongue until his mouth was dry (Dos Passos, 42P, ‘Mac,’ 45) the doctor’s wife gave a little sniff of contempt (Maugham, CA, V) the baby […] cried softly until Juana gave him her breast, and then he gurgled and clucked against her (Steinbeck, P, VI) Miss Lorraine [comforting Miss Reba] made a faint clucking sound with her tongue. “You’ll get yourself started” (Faulkner, S, XXV) Miss Myrtle […] snuffled behind the handkerchief (Faulkner, S, XXV) We shook hands and he put his arm around my neck and kissed me [Frederick Henry]./ “Ough,” I said (Hemingway, FA, III) They smacked their lips, making the sound of long, lecherous kisses (Singh, TP, 9) “[…] They are excitable as children, those West Indians,” and he clucked his tongue in disapproval (Wilson, ASA, I, III) Frank grunted disapproval (Wilson, ASA, II, I) [When Gerald refers to his wife, Elvira, dining with him, says] “Oh her!” Elvira snorted (Wilson, ASA, II, I)

C.Alternants with written forms but no labels While many labeled alternants cannot be written, many others possess no labels and cannot be referred to except by a verbal description that cannot instantly evoke the sound; an elaborate and uneconomical semiotic process: partial signifier + partial signifier, etc., producing only a delayed evocation of the signified. Again, although

Paralanguage, IV

149

some literary writers may welcome the challenge to show their lexical dexterity in evoking those sounds, both they and the ordinary lay person will always feel the need to be able to use — even more in conversation — the same distinctive labels with which to refer to other alternants and thus give audible and written shape (almost simultaneously imagined as sound) to what they wish to convey (whether or not it possesses sound); further, they will seek to do so as economically as they write or say ‘he gasped,’ ‘I was puffing,’ ‘he smacked his lips,’ ‘she hissed at me.’ That is the uncertain status of otherwise quasilexical expressions like ‘Humph!,’ ‘Umph!’ (exerting oneself), ‘Psst!’ (for which ‘hissing’ is much too ambiguous), ‘Whew!,’ ‘Uh-uh!,’ ‘Er —’ ‘Tsch!,’ ‘Phew!,’ ‘Ho!,’ ‘Oho!,’ ‘Yum!,’ ‘Whoee!,’ and many others for which comics have provided visual representation. ‘Ugh, you coward!’ replied Mrs. Raddle, with supreme contempt (Dickens, PP, XXXII) “[…] to let you run his ranch an’ hire strange riders — umf--mmm, Miss Latch, I cain’t see it” (Grey, LWT, XII) […] as long as I can stand it” […]/ “Humph! That won’t be long […]” (Grey, WW, XIII) “Lance […] saw the big gun go prodding into the driver’s side. “Agg-h! he ejaculated, and lifted his hands off the wheel” (Grey, MR, VI) Puff! came the sound of expelled breath (Grey, TH, IV), “An’ you’re interferin’ with an officer of the law”/ “Law, hooey!” (Grey, MR, I) “[…] a bear rib roasted--um--um umm!” (Grey, 3H, IV) ‘Psst. Psst. Don’t go there! […]’ (Brenan, FS, X) The Bedeyat [of the Sudan desert] steal whole herds [of camels] […] their women make up poetry about the bravery of their men. Tsch! (Asher, FDR, VI)

This is the category that includes so many oral and written imitations of so many unnamable utterances; but writers sometimes make a valuable effort to write them and thus turn them into literary stuff: ‘If you start with the deep bell and ring up to the high one — der — der — der — der — der — der — der — der! (Lawrence, SL, VII) imitating the [firemen’s] warning bell: “Clang-a-lang-a-lang” (Wolfe, LHA, VIII) listening to the curious rhythm that the Greeks put into their bells: Ling-tow, ling-tow, ling-tow, Ling-tow, ling-tow Ling-ling-tow, ling-tow (Morton, TLB, IX, V)

150

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Uphill swung in like a snorting bull, and Jim making a feint with his right came up hard with his left. It connected. Bam! (Grey, DF, XIII) il s’assit et fit: «Hrrr… » Ces «Hrrr…», pareils aux grognements donts certains singes souligment tout ce qu’il a font, étaint toujours chez lui lourds de choses, et d’ordinaire menaçants (Montherlant, C, I) Il entendait, en bas, le pch… öch… crachouteur de la pipe de M. de Coëtquidan […] le veil homme avait l’habitude de saliver continuellement dans sa pipe (Montherlant, C, I) ‘Pok!’ was heard as a the cork [of the stout bottle put by the fire] flew out of Mr. Lyons’ bottle (Joyce, D, ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room,’ 143) he heard […] the ch-ff, ch-ff, ch-ff of its [the train’s] steamy panting […] Ch-ff, ch-ff (Huxley, EG, IX) Out in the darkness there was a plop-plop-plop. She must be throwing small pieces of wood into the river (Greene, BOC, II, II) The train crossed a nullah. ‘Pomper, pomper, pomper,’ was the sound that the wheels made as they trundled over the bridge moving very slowly (Forster, PI, XIV) A pair of lapwings pierced the still night with startled cries: ‘Teet-tittee-tittee-whoot, tee-tee-whoot, tee-tee-whoot, tit-tit-tee-whoot’ (Singh, TP,14)

D.Alternants with no labels and no written forms These alternants require at times rather periphrastic descriptions of concrete behaviors, resorting to comparisons with natural, animal or mechanical sounds, references to emotions or attitudes, or qualifications of existing labels: that hissing sound which hostlers are wont to produce when engaged in rubbing down a horse (Dickens, PP, V) He made a noise of pain (Crane, RBC, IX) Mr. Snow let out a gruff sniff (Dos Passos, MT, VI)

Although they can only be described, their lack of identifying labels implies no less a communicative status than that of labeled and written alternants; what happens is that their verbal descriptions can be interpreted correctly (often evoking the precise audible characteristics with kinesic acts) only if we recognize them from experience, perhaps that of culture-specific behaviors like those in the preceding quotations. But a ‘noise of pain’ is not necessarily pancultural — as we hear, as reflex utterances, English ‘Ouch!,’ Spanish ‘¡Ay!’ and, among the Mende of Siera Leona, “a high-pitched glottalized ‘ee!’” (Levenston 1987:98) — and is perhaps understood differently by different readers. Which once more suggests the often precarious encoding-decoding process involved in translation, for, even if the culture-specific expression were to be visually preserved in a translation of, for instance, a play, the foreign cast sometimes would not know how to ‘make it sound,’ unless they had ‘heard it’ and ‘seen it’ in films:

Paralanguage, IV

151

PETER. Free! […]/SIMEON [In a frenzy]. Whoop!/ PETER. Whoop! [They do an absurd Indian war dance about the old man […]] (O’Neill, DUE, I, IV)

That is why (as will be seen below) we cannot deny the evocative power of comic strips and books, as they so often give visual representation and audible interpretation to many of these alternants, quite rare in literature: ‘Humph! […] I regard this as queer […] By Golconda! let me read it once. Halloa! here’s signs and wonders […] Hem, hem, hem; here they are, — here they go — all alive: — […] wait a bit; hist — hark! By Jove I have it!’ (Melville, MD, CXIX) ‘Boun’ is the sound as far as the human alphabet can express it, or ‘bou-oum,’ or ‘ouboum’ — utterly dull (Forster, PI, XIV)

4.3

The inconsistency of written forms and the ambiguity of labels In both daily conversations and literary readings we can observe the inability of speakers and writers to describe the sounds that are heard — resulting in their tendency to lump under a single term utterances that are in reality phonetically and semantically quite different — as well as their failure to attain a phonetic spelling that could faithfully evoke such distinctive word-like paralinguistic expressions. Writers rely solely on their intuition most of the times, but even when they really recognize the articulations involved, they cannot possibly provide the appropriate graphemes for the simple reason that they cannot find them in the spelling systems of their own languages. For instance, for the unvoiced apicoalveolar click (represented here as ‘Tz!’) my file of alternants discloses the following written forms, besides Aldous Huxley’s ‘Tz!’ (which I had adopted previous to finding it): ‘T-t!’, ‘Tut, tut!’, ‘Tush, tush!’, ‘Tst! Tst!’, ‘Dth, dth!’, ‘Tck, tch!’, ‘Chk! Chk!’, ‘Tsch!’, and ‘Tz, tz!’ ‘Tut, tut!’ said Heathcliff […] ‘None of that nonsense’ […]’ (E. Brontë, WH, XX) ‘Tut, it’s nothing, Daisy! nothing!’ he replied [laughing off an adverse situation] (Dickens, DC, XXIII) ‘Tush, tush, my dear! […] I only tried to frighten you’ (Dickens, OT, IX) ‘Oh, tut, tut! interposed Tom, tenderly. ‘You musn’t cry’ (Dickens, MC, XXXIX) ‘Tut! Don’t be a fool!’ (Lewis, MS, XIV) ‘T-t-t-t!’ went her tongue [Mrs. Morel’s, when there is money missing] (Lawrence, SL, VIII) Mrs. Lapham […] let her work drop in her lap with that “Tckk!” in which her sex knows how to express utter contempt and despair (Howells, RSL, XI) ‘For shame!’ […] ‘Tch! Tch!’ […] ‘Stop!’ (Fitzgerald, TIN, I)

152

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

‘Tst! Tst! Tst! […] a sucking sound of the tongue and palate (Dreiser, AT, III) “tuk-tuk-tuk,” clucked cook like an agitated hen (Mansfield, GP) His tongue clacked in compassion. Dth! Dth!/ I’m sorry to hear that (Joyce, U, 159) ‘You ought to be ashamed […] Tz, tz!’ She clicked her tongue disapprovingly against her teeth and shook her head (Huxley, PCP) ‘Chk! Chk! I wonder if I am too old to start […]’ (Lewis, EG, VIII)

Their identified meaning and the sometimes described accompanying gesture show that they try to represent the same click, but agreement on a single form seems to be almost impossible. To make it worse, sometimes they may refer to their characters’ ‘clicking their tongue’; equally ambiguous, for only with its context and a previous experience of it could they evoke the disapproving or commiserate apicoalveolar click or the lateral click used to urge a horse. However, the lateral click we could write ‘Lj!’ seems to be still unrepresented: Sor Marcela […] hizo un castañeteo de lengua y no dijo más que esto:/ — Andando (Galdós, FJ, II, V)

‘H’m!’, a closed-mouth voiced glottalized utterance with varying velopharyngeal and narial friction (a final slight huffing justifying a grapheme ‘ph’) may signify utmost contempt in its tenser form; but we find it, besides ‘H’m!’, as ‘Hum!’, ‘Hmff’, ‘Humph!’ and ‘Herumph!’: ‘Humph!’ said Mr. Rochester, and took his tea in silence (C. Brontë, JE, XIII) ‘Humph!’ said my aunt. ‘Unfortunate Baby!’ (Dickens, DC, XIV) ‘What sort of man is this Sergeant Troy? said Gabriel./ ‘H’m — I’m afraid not one to build much hope upon […] (Hardy, FMC, XV) ‘H’m!’ said Gerald in disapproval (Lawrence, WL, II) ‘H’m!’ He [Paul] made a curious, interested sound [when her mother shows him something] (Lawrence, SL, V) Gatsby […] muttered ‘H’m!’ in an interested way” (Fitzgerald, GG, VII) ‘Hmff, […] Don’t wait until the season is over [for a holiday]’ (Dreiser, SC, XX) ‘Yes, it was a fine gratifying moment. And — herumph — slightly surprising […] Herumph! Curious smell’ (Lewis, EG, IV)

Actually, ‘Humph!’ can often be the angry or contemptuous grunting referred to in literature: Hermione gave a queer grunting sound (Lawrence, WL, VIII)

Paralanguage, IV

153

General Dreedle would complain […] with a contemptuous grunt (Heller, C22, XXI)

Another common family of alternants denoting negative feelings involves mainly the voiced exobilabial fricative [β] with initial glottalization (sometimes with a more forceful bilabial explosion) of a disdainful ‘Pooh!’ found also as ‘P-h!,’ ‘Pah!’, ‘Pshoo!’, ‘Psha!’ for the variant that passes from the bilabial contact to a laminopostalveolar africate [dq]. What causes parents […] spend a fifth of their year’s income in ball suppers […] Pha! they want to marry their daughters […]’ (Thackeray, VF, III) ‘pooh!’ said he, ‘I didn’t care much for it’ (Dickens, GE, XXII) ‘[…] I ought to be single […] Instead of that, here I am tied like a log to you. Pah! Why do you show your pale face when I come home?’ (Dickens, MC, XXVIII) ‘Mercy Chant is of a very good family.’/ ‘Pooh! — what’s the advantage of that, mother? […]’ (Hardy, TD, XXVI) ‘[…] you [Sue] ought not to marry this man again!’ said Mrs. Edlin indignantly […]/ ‘Pshoo! You be t’ other man’s’ (Hardy, JO, VI, V) ‘P-h!’ she went quickly, in contempt (Lawrence, SL, II) ‘Pah!’ he said, contemptuous […] (Lawrence, SL, X)

Other examples are, for instance, for affirmation or acknowledgement: ‘Umph!’ said Mr Pecksniff, in his most winning tone (Dickens, MC, II) “[…] You saw the stage-coach come in.”/ “Ump-uum,” declared Corny (Grey, LWT, XII) “He drove one of my booze trucks”/ “Ahuh. One of those trucks […], eh? (Grey, MR, XI) “Seen any other outfits?”/ “No. But Pilchuck said there were a couple down the river.”/ “Awhuh,” said dunn, running a stubby, powerful hand through his beard (Grey, TH, IV)

To hush someone: ‘Hush — sh — sh!’ whispered Fergus, in a tone of solemn import (A. Brontë, TWF, XLVII) “Hist! Did you hear that noise, Cabaco?” (Melville, MD, XLIII) “Hush,” she said, “Shhhhhhhh.” (Faulkner, S, XVII)

154

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

She tried to speak, and Kate said, “Shussh! Save your strength. Save your strength” (Steinbeck, EE, XXI, IV)

Even a single writer may use different spellings, as happens precisely with hushing: “Sh-s-sh!” he breathed, grasping her wrist (Grey, LT, IV), “Ss-sh-h,” whispered Wetzel […] “Hist! What’s that?” whispered Wetzel” (Grey, LT, XIX) “Sssch!! Listen (Grey, LWT, IV) “S-s-ssh. You needn’t yell” (Grey, DG, I) Allie […] heard a whispered “Sh-s-s-sh!” (Grey, UPT, XIII)

Regarding the ambiguity of labels, what, for instance, is referred to as ‘hissing,’ without further qualifications, could be any of several sounds with very specific meanings both culturally and cross-culturally. One is the unvoiced laminoalveolar fricative [s], used to call someone’s attention (according to the situational context) in several cultures, (e.g. a waiter’s in rather informal Spanish places), to specifically call a Spanish woman’s attention in the street, with two short hisses, etc., represented ‘Sss!,’ which can be written ‘Sss!’ or ‘Ss-ss!’ and referred to as ‘to hiss’ and ‘a hiss.’ Another one is the invoiced dorsopalatal fricative [ç] used to hush or to call someone’s attention too, which can be written ‘Ssh!’ and labeled ‘to sish’ and ‘a sish.’ A third one with the same possible functions as the other two is the unvoiced laminopostaalveolar fricative + apicodental stop [Út’], which one could write ‘Sst!’ and rightfully differentiate as ‘to sist’ and ‘a sist.’ But there is still a fourth form of wrongly called ‘hissing’ formed by the unvoiced combination of bilabial stop + laminoalveolar fricative [ps], with the same functions and easily represented as ‘Pss!’; and even a stop + laminoalveolar fricative blended into a laminoalveolar stop [pst], with again the same functions, but which obviously deserves its own written form as ‘Pst!’ as well as the verb ‘to pist’ and the noun ‘a pist.’

4.4

The paralanguage of comics: The challenge of ‘soundgraphs’ and the communication problems and intercultural borrowings Comic books and daily papers’ comic strips have been offering us for many years now a great number of written alternants, vividly evoking those sounds and often inciting us to be creative in our own writing. The study of what can be termed soundgraphs is important in linguistics because of their challenging innovations (making us more aware of the constant language flux in which we live), the negative influence on the verbal expressiveness of the younger speakers, and the worst type of interlanguage borrowings.

Paralanguage, IV

Visual perception of capitalized soundgraphs trigger their mental audible perception as true paralinguistic utterances, while even lexical identifiers acquire the same paralinguistic qualities through their being qualified by capital letters of varying sizes, indicating increasing or decreasing sound intensity and volume, direction lines suggesting movement and speed, etc. The audible becoming visual creates a whole new challenging repertoire of mimetic pseudophonetic articulations that gradually acquire phonetic status beyond the dictionary (e.g. ‘phlump!,’ to evoke the falling of someone on someone else’s body) and also enrich the written possibilities. Two obvious problems are: first, the verbal limitation imposed by the availability of these soundgraphs among young speakers, resulting in verbal economy in their descriptive speech; and the intercultural-interlinguistic borrowings, specifically the influence of English comic-book soundgraphs on other languages when the target language could provide the appropriate forms or established paralinguistic alternants of it, for instance: Unnecessarily leaving ‘Ouch!’ for pain in the comic-book Spanish version, when it should read ‘¡Ay!’; or ‘beep-beep!’ instead of ‘¡pii-pii!’; ‘shh!’ for hushing, instead of ‘¡Chiiss’; ’ow-ow’ for barking and not ‘¡guau-guau!’, etc. In fact, I heard Spanishspeaking children say (i.e. mispronounce): “SLAM,” “ZOOM,” “SNAP,” “ROAR,” “CLATTER,” “THUD,” “CHOMP,” etc.

4.5

The categories of soundgraphs: Human, objectual, environmental, animal A classification of the usual soundgraphs aims also at suggesting a search for literary transcriptions. A.Lexical soundgraphs are mostly onomatopoeic dictionary items shown in comics and cartoons, accompanying the drawings by themselves or along with the words uttered by the characters, to evoke all sorts of organismic or nonorganismic sounds: ‘BOO HOO HOO,’ ‘CRACK,’ ‘CHOMP, CHOMP!,’ ‘GULP’ (both gulping and swallowing something), ‘GURGLE,’ ‘RIP!,’ ‘SNIFF, SNIFF,’ etc. The rest are nonimitative, but also evoke the sounds as we read them: ‘CLAP, CLAP,’ ‘FLITTER, FLITTER’ (insect bird), ‘KICK,’ ‘KNOCK KNOCK,’ ‘*SIGH*,’ ‘SKRATCH, SKRATCH,’ ‘SLAM!’, ‘SMACK’ (kiss), ‘SNAP’ (fingers, breaking something, something ‘snapping closed,’ camera ‘snapping’ a photo), ‘TAP, TAP, TAP,’ ‘SNIP,’ ‘SLOBBER,’ etc. B.Paralinguistic soundgraphs, apart from lexical soundgraphs that denote paralinguistic utterances; another problem about ‘half-translated’ comics (e.g. ‘burp,’ ‘gasp,’ ‘gulp,’ ‘pant,’ ‘sigh,’ ‘slurp,’ ‘smack,’ ‘snarl’). They include the strictly paralinguistic alternants vocally uttered by speakers as paralanguage; in other words, as nonimitative phonetic constructs which include those registered in the dictionary — some with identifying labels (e.g. ‘achoo!’ for sneezing, ‘ahem!’ for throat-clearing), others without (e.g. ‘ow!’ when feeling pain) — and many more that were not written

155

156

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

before and thus constitute an important part of the true contribution of comics to visual written expression: ‘AAK!’ (fear, choking), ‘ARGH-GA!’(pain), ‘ARRRRGH!’ (anger), ‘BAAA!’ (dismissal), ‘BLAH!/BLEAH!’ (sticking tongue at someone), ‘BOOOOO!’ (disapproval), ‘EEK!’ (startle), ‘KOFF’ (cough), ‘OUCH!’ (pain), ‘OWWWW!’ (pain), ‘PSST!’ (calling someone’s attention), ‘THPPFT!’ (sticking tongue at someone), ‘UMMPG!’ (hit on face by fist), ‘UNGH!’ (receiving uppercut), ‘WHAA!’ (crying child), ‘WHUUMMFF’ (making great effort), ‘WHEEEEE’ (‘Here I come!’), ‘WOOSH!’ (forceful breath exhalation), ‘YAHOO!’ (joy, surprise), ‘YEEEOW!’ (surprise), ‘YIPE!’ (stung by cactus), ‘ZZZZZZ!’ (snoring), ‘ ’ (whistling). C.Self-adaptor soundgraphs are sometimes represented by their lexical references, t hu s b e l o n g i n g a l s o i n t h e fi r s t g ro u p a b ove , f o r i n s t a n ce : ‘C L A P ! (clapping/applauding), ‘SMACK’ (kissing one’s fingers and saying ‘Magnifique!’), ‘SNAP, SNAP’ (finger-snapping). D.Body-adaptor soundgraphs, typically associated with eating and drinking and often represented by their onomatopoeic lexical soundgraphs: ‘CRUNCH, THUD, CRUNCH’ (crunching food in mouth), ‘FFFT!’ (spitting out ball), ‘GLUG, GLUUG, GLUG’ (drinking avidly), ‘POIT!’ (letting go of pacifier from mouth), ‘PTUI!’ (spitting out small object through straw). E.Alter-adaptor soundgraphs, the category that best represents the increased exposure to violence in children’s literature, bristling with the quasiphonetic and quasiparalinguistic blows of kung-fu. Besides promoting aggressiveness among youngsters, these stories add to their repertoires of utterances with which they accompany the description or imitation of aggressive actions in their games. We can test their orthographic accuracy by reading them aloud: ‘BLUD’ (foot-to-mandible), ‘BRAP! (hand-to-hand), ‘CLUD!’ (hand edge-to wrist), ‘CRMP!’ (fist-to-face), ‘FUP!’ (foot-to-abdomen), ‘FWAK!’ (hand-to-face), ‘FWOK!’ (fist-to-chin), ‘POW!’ (fist-to-face, boxing punch on face), ‘PHLUMP!’ (fist-to-jaw), ‘SHUP’ (feet-to-back), ‘SOCK’ (boxing punch on face), ‘SPUNT’ (fist-to-face), ‘SWOK!’ (fist-to-chin), ‘THWAK!’ (foot-to-crotch), ‘WAP!’ (hitting face), ‘WHOP!’ (fist blow). F.Object-adaptor soundgraphs, movements in which the body contact objects, mostly of a violent nature as well, whether humorous (e.g. the “Charlie Brown” or “Dagwood and Blondie” series) or of the more harmful type. Many are lexical evocations of sounds mentally uttered with its imitative qualities (therefore as paralinguistic constructs: ‘thump,’ ‘clang,’ ‘boot,’ etc.), a rich repertoire of truly original alternants which can enhance the vividness of a text and give way to imitative vocal utterances; they are used, for instance, during children’s games when speakers may not be able to verbalize those sounds, nor evoke them when simply imitating them (e.g. a child initiates the movement of falling to the ground, but only completes the action by imitating its sound with ‘wump!’ or refers with ‘bonk’ to someone being hit by an

Paralanguage, IV

157

object on the head). Among many others, are: ‘BAM BAM BAM!’ (kicking door, head-against-tree), ‘BANG! BANG!’ (pounding on door), ‘BONK!’ (bumping into post, being hit by football), ‘BRATCH!’ (kung-fu body through wooden panel), ‘CLANG!’ (car hood falling on someone’s back), ‘CRASH’ (body hitting ground, falling down the stairs), ‘CRUNCH!’ (crumpling paper into ball), ‘PHLUMP!’ (body falling on another body), ‘PUNT!’ (kicking football), ‘SPOING!’ (falling on net), ‘SSSSSS’ (body diving into water), ‘TAP…TAP…TAP’ (tapping on window), ‘THUNK!’ (falling hard on elbow), ‘TWACK!’ (shaking blanket like a whip), ‘WHOP!’ (being hit with hockey stick on head), ‘WHUFF’ (kung fu stick hitting abdomen), ‘WUMP!’ (falling on ground). G.Object-mediated soundgraphs are produced by what constitutes extensions of the body as we manipulate them and possess a peculiar language-like quality62: ‘BONG!’ (boxing ring bell), ‘CLICK! CLICK! CLACK! (typing), ‘CLINK’ (camera shutter, turning switch on), ‘CLUMP!’ (catching baseball in glove), ‘DING-A-LING’ (small bells), ‘KLOP!,’ ‘PLUNK!’ (catching baseball in glove), ‘SHRAK’ (sword cutting through table), ‘SHRESH!’ (sword in air), ‘SPLOOSH-SPLOOSH-SPLOOSHGUSHA-GUSHA — KA-FLOOSH! (a plunger in a stopped-up toilet), ‘SNAP!’ (‘snapping’ picture), ‘SPLAT!’ (hitting wall with jet of shaving cream from dispenser), ‘SSSSSSSSSSSLOOFF,’ ‘SEEE,’ ‘SWISSSS,’ ‘SWSSSS,’ ‘SSWHIIIIIISSSSHHHCCHHHTTT,’ ‘SWOOFFF’ (brandishing sword), ‘TAP TIK TAP’ (typing), ‘THUMPA, THUMPA’ (pencil drumming on book), ‘WANG!,’ ‘WHAP!’ (tennis racket hitting ball), ‘WHAPETY WHAPETY WHAPETYWHAP’ (racket with returning ball), ‘ZUAC!’ (hitting someone with stick). Visual perception of even a lexical reference to a sound like ‘type’ (not onomatopoeic like ‘ding’ or ‘tinkle’) can develop an echoic quality and vividly evoke that sound if repeated: “type, type, type.” Besides, we can be consciously discriminating of sound quality, as in: PHLUMP! [Archie falling on another man’s belly at the beach] — Oof!’ [the other] — Phlump! I like that sound!’ [the dog’s thinking]’ SCREEEEE [the dog sliding down a sand dune] (Archie Digest, No. 3, 1982) [seeing between the tennis players the sounds WAP! WHAP! BLAP! and the spectator’s words] “When you hit a volley it’s supposed to go ‘thing!’ not ‘blap!’” (Archie Digest, No. 3, 1982)

H.Animal soundgraphs depict animal utterances beyond the few established lexical echoics (e.g. ‘yap,’ ‘meow,’ ‘heehaw’), most of them quite accurate and more like human phonetic constructs: ‘ARF,’ ‘AARGH!’, ‘BOW-OW-OW-OW-OWF,’ ‘RARF!’, ‘ROWF!’, ‘ROWRRRRGHGHRAWRR,’ ‘ROWWR!,’ ‘WARF! WARF WARF! (dog barking), ‘GGROOWFF! GRF GRFOWF!’ (dog barking and growling), ‘GROWF! GROWF!’, ‘GRRRRR GROWLLLL,’ ‘GRR!,’ ‘GRRR! RUFF!’ (dog growling),’ ‘OWOOOOOOO’ (dog howling), ‘YAP YAP,’ ‘YIP’ (small dog barking) ‘BREEP’ (frog

158

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

croaking), ‘BZZZ, BZZZ’ (bee, fly), ‘EE-HAW- HAW HAW! (donkey braying), ‘GAWWWW! HEE-HAWWWH!’ (horse neighing), ‘KSSSS-TSSSSS!’ (snake hissing), ‘MEOW’ (cat meowing), ‘MROW!’ (cat purring), ‘ROWRR RRGHGH RAWRR’ (tiger), ‘SQUAK SQUAK!’ (parrot). I.Artifactual soundgraphs, perhaps the most interesting innovation of comics. Visual repetition of echoic lexical references contribute definitely to their evocation (e.g. ‘clink clank clink clank’), but comic book authors have invented many more soundgraphs to accompany their drawings of those artifacts, increasing or decreasing their loudness by using capital letters of various sizes or changing size from beginning to end and adding one or more exclamation marks. Which lends stories great vividness, as the reader perceives their activities through three types of signs or channels: the drawings showing people’s movements and facial expressions, that is, kinesics; the paralinguistic representations around them and around any objects producing sound; and (almost on a secondary plane sometimes), the verbal language of the characters. Three subcategories should be differentiated: mechanical, besides dictionary words, include clever orthographic representations: ‘BAM!BAM!’ (shooting), ‘BHUD-UDUD-AH!,’ ‘KAWAM KAWAM ZAP!,’ ‘RATATAT!,’ ‘WUMP! POW! POW! BAM!’, ‘POW CRACK K-POW,’ ‘BLAM!’ (gun going off, tank gun, shotgun), ‘BEEP!’ (signal), ‘BLEEP TAP BLEEDEEP’ (punching electronic cashier), ‘BONG, BONG, BONG’ (church bell), ‘BWHUMP,’ ‘FWOOM’ ‘KAWOOM!!’ (great explosion), ‘BWOOM!’ (bazooka going off), ‘CHATTA-CHAKKA-CHAK,’ ‘CHOP CHOP CHOP’(chopper, helicopter), ‘CHOO! CHOO! CLANG!’, ‘CLANG! CLANG!’(train), ‘CLATTER CLATTER’ (horse cart), ‘CLICK’ (TV set on/off switch), ‘CLINK CLANK CLINK CLANK’ (watch), ‘DUM DUM DUM’ (piano), ‘FSSSS’ (powder advancing), ‘HONK HONK’ (car horn), ‘KA-PLOOSH!’ (water rushing out of a furnace), ‘KLAK!’ (empty gun), ‘PFUTTSPUT-BRP’ (failing plane engine), ‘PSSST’ (spray can), ‘PUTTA PUTTA PUTTA PUTTA’ (airplane machine gun), ‘RINGG!’(phone), ‘TAT TA-TAT-TAT’ (machine gun-like weapon), ‘RRRTT RRT RRP,’ ‘TAK-AK-AK-AK!’ (machine gun), ‘SKREEEE’ (car brakes), ‘SSSSSSS!!’ (ball punctured), ‘SNAP’ (camera shutter triggered), ‘SPROINGG,’ (jumping on couch), ‘SWISH’ (sliding door), ‘TINKLE TINKLE’ (small dog bell), ‘TWANG!’ (slingshot; bow and arrow), ‘VAROOOOM!’ (passing plush car accelerating), ‘VROOM!’ (car going fast), ‘WWHHHRRREEEEEEEEE’ (plummeting plane), ‘WHIRRRR’ (automatic film advance in camera, electric can opener, hair dryer, vacuum cleaner, machine mechanism);63 objects in contact, letting us ‘hear’ the materials objects are made of when they hit each other: ‘BEEOW,’ ‘VIP VIP VIP’ (bullets ricochetting and hitting ground), ‘BLANG’ (bullet hitting tank), ‘BBLUT’ (car tire splashing in puddle), ‘CLANG!’ (metal against metal), ‘FWAT! FWAT!’ (bullets hitting grass and ground), ‘KAPWENG’ (shots hitting rock), ‘KEESH!’ (window pane broken by bullet), ‘KLUNK!BUMP!BUMP!KRASH!’ (cars colliding), ‘PING!’ (ping-pong bat hitting ball), ‘PLINK! (marble hitting marble or

Paralanguage, IV

159

ground), ‘SNAP! TEAR! BONK! SMASH!’ (kite hits ground), ‘SPLAT’ (tomato hits wall), ‘SQUEEEEE’ (car tires on pavement), ‘THOP’ (gunfire hits sandbags), ‘TZING’ (bullet ricochetting and hitting ground), ‘TZUNK!’(bullet hitting helmet); and objects through air, such as ‘SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS’ (hand grenade), ‘SWISH!’, ‘WHOOSH!’ (boxing glove missing blow), ‘THHWIIPP!’ (arrow from bow), ‘VIP’ (bullet), ‘WHOOM!’ (heavy object falling), ‘WWHHHRRREEEEEEEEEE’ (plummeting plane, mechanical sound). These comic-book forms certainly bring to mind certain vivid representations by Melville and a other later writers: white whale, shirr! shirr! Here have I heard all their chat just now, and the white whale — shirr! shirr! — but spoken of once! (Melville, MD, XL) Crish, crash! there goes the jib-stay! [a rope that goes from the fore-topmast to the jib sail] Blang-whang! God! Duck lower, Pip, here comes the royal yard! [support of fourth-level sails] (Melville, MD, XL) “And were there ices?” came from Charlotte. Then the creak, creak of her rocker (Mansfield, IF) “[…] that guitar […] That’d be a real good thing to hit somebody with. Whang!” […] So the other one says bam! bam! He whacked him over the head [with a beer bottle]” (Welty, HH)

J.Environmental soundgraphs, another credit to comic book authors, both offering a visual image of the sound source and representing its sound, even by emphasizing the echoic nature of a word: ‘GUSH!’ (‘oil gushing in oil well), ‘PFFITT!’ (air through a hole punctured in a raft), ‘WHOOOSH!’ (gust of wind).

4.6

Phonetic classification of alternants and their paralinguistic and kinesic qualifiers The alternants of a cultural-linguistic community should be classified, as suggested in Figs. 4.1 and 4.2, by identifying manner and point of articulation, the paralinguistic elements that may modify them morphologically and semantically, and the possible kinesic cobehaviors that may accompany them more or less conspicuously in face-toface interaction.64

4.6.1 Manner of articulation or production. Since some alternants do not have a clear articulation (e.g. an audible pharyngeal ingression) or are silent altogether (though not related to the surrounding speech sounds), we should refer to ‘production’ and not only to ‘articulation.’ Following the speech activities as described in Chapter 3 of Volume I, the manner of articulation or production for alternants (Fig. 4.1) is based on production with pulmonic air (egressive,

160

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

MANNER OF ARTICULATION/PRODUCTION

POINT/AREA OF ARTICULATION/PRODUCTION

Pulmonic air (breathing)

egressive ingressive spasmodic

Laryngeal glottal stop glottal trill

Nonpulmonic air

mouth air

Esophageal air

belched

Laryngeal

unvoiced ventricular glottal stop glottal trill glottalized implosive

Pharyngeal

pharyngeal stop pharyngeal trill faucal

Lingual

stop explosive fricative frictional affricate click continuant whistling trilled (rolled) percussive lateral retrolateral retroflex

Dental

scrapive percussive dentalization assisted

Labial

stop fricative approximant affricate trilled click percussive

Nasal Narial

nasal narial

exolabial exobilabial Faryngeal endolabial labiodental (exo/endo) endolabio-exolabial assisted

Lingual

reverse apicolabial apicolabial (endo/exo) apicosublabial (pal. groove) apicolabiodental apicoendosublabial apicoalveolar apicosubalveolar apicopostalveolar apicopalatal subapicolabial subapicodental subapicopalatal laminosublamino-interlabial laminosublamino-interdental laminolabial laminodental laminosubalveolar laminopostalveolar sublaminodental sublaminobuccal (percussive) predorsodental dorsodental dorsoprepalatal dorsopalatal dorsovelar dorsopalatal dorsouvular radicopharyngeal

Dental

bidental dentoexolabial dentiendolabial

Nasal Narial

velic uvular bilabial alveolar velar

Figure 4.1.Manner and point of articulation or production of alternants

ingressive, spasmodic or just audible breathing), nonpulmonic air or mouth air alone (e.g. a percussive flapping by the tongue on the mouth floor), as well as with belched esophageal air. Besides the better known laryngeal sounds (e.g. the glottal stop in ‘Umph!’ to express physical exertion) and the more neglected ones (e.g. the ejective of a scornful explosive ‘Pgh!’), the pharyngeal formations (a prespeech friction, the faucal sound of retching, etc.) and the lingual ones (e.g. stops, clicks, the trill in imitation of a phone ringing), cross-cultural research should seek out dental scrapives (e.g. in tooth grinding), percussives (e.g. tooth-chattering) etc., in addition to the stops, fricatives,

Paralanguage, IV

161

approximants, clicks, percussives, etc., formed by the lips (audible kissing, blowing, ‘Pooh!’, ‘Ooff!,’ etc.), and the meaningful utterances generated in the nasal and narial cavities (e.g. a meaningful nose-clearing sound). 4.6.2 Point or area of articulation or production. As Fig. 4.1. shows, alternants can be differentiated also as to their specific point or area of articulation or production. Laryngeal
: the cattlemen’s ‘Eeuh-eeuh!’ in different cultures; the German highpitched glottal stop + drawled closed-mouth voiced narial friction signifying ‘Delicious!’; children’s multiple glottal trills in imitation of a car’s starting or a machine gun; the glottalized high-back vowel + labiodental fricative to comment on the heat (e.g. in Spain and Israel, but [fw] in Germany); naturally, if water or food ‘goes the wrong way’ into the larynx, one chokes (with equally tense kinesic behavior) and produces an abnormal laryngeal alternant: At this dread allusion to John Westlock, Mr Pinch precipitately choked in his tea (Dickens, MC, VI).

Pharyngeal, as the prespeech or hesitation ingressive pharyngeal friction, often preceded by the prespeech apicoalveolar click (much prolonged while thinking of an answer or as a studied behavior of self-assurance or authority in film actors, perhaps before saying ‘Let me tell you something — ’), or the contact of the tongue-root against the lower and upper pharynx in the strangulated articulation of gulping: The daring Canadian skywalker crossed a 636-meter-long wire 411 meters above Qutam Gorge […] with no harness and -gulp!-no net! (Time, 13 Nov. 1995)

Labial, as for the glottalized exolabial fricative expressing rejection or contempt; the unvoiced exolabial blowing friction of dismay, fatigue, etc.: the repeated exolabial voiceless stop + highest-front vowel to call chickens in Spain, Turkey, Israel, Germany, etc.; the German ‘Pfui!’ of repugnance; the bilabial click in: “Boh!” burst out Jett, in disgusted doubt of her, himself and the whole situation (Grey, TH, XIV);

an endolabial audible expiration (blowing) preceded by a deep breath intake and finger-tapping, a common Turkish expression of impatience (as is a double throatclearing), the gesture having been a cause of complaint by Turkish Airlines employees; the explosive endolabiodental-fricative in: “Faugh!” exclaimed Annixter. “It makes me sick (Norris, O, I, III) “Faugh!” exclaimed the scout. “I’d rather have nose an’ eyes full of cottonwood smoke” (Grey, TH, XVIII);

162

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

a high-back vowel-exolabiodental fricative, as in Croatian and Turkish ‘Uf!’ (the latter while shaking both hands as for French ‘Oh-là-là!’) when it is hot; the endolabial trill for making a horse or donkey stop in Germany, Turkey, Israel, etc.; the reflex reaction to pain of the German glottalized endobilabial stop in ‘Pau!’; the unilateral endolabial click of regret (‘Oh, well!’); the ingressive endobilabial click (as in kissing) used by Moroccan Berbers to make a donkey serve a mare (Bynon 1976), used also by Spanish males as a vulgar attention-getter for a female; the prolonged drawled nasalized endobilabial click (i.e. loud ‘smack’) of the enthusiastic kiss-on-cheek heard in southern European cultures; assisted labial articulations like the up-and-down flapping of neutral lips with index finger by children, the ‘champagne-bottle’ popping sound, or for several types of whistling; the Moroccan Berbers’ ‘raspberry’-like “labio-palmar trill” (exolabial) for calling goats at a distance (Bynon 1976). Whistling is a cross-cultural study area in its own right, from ‘cat-calling’ at women to calling a dog to urging horses and making sheep drink (cf. Bynon 1976, on Moroccan Berbers): Mr. Sillerton Jackson streteched his ankles nearer the coals and emitted a sardonic whistle (Wharton, AI, V) We leaped over the low wall […]. Jem whistled bob-white and dill answered in the darkness (Lee, KM, I, VI)

Lingual, as for the Japanese ingressive apicoprepalatal fricative approximant or hissing of deference, “perhaps the most perplexing to Westerners” (Morsbach 1973: 271); the apicoprepalatal click of the Israeli paralinguistic negation, with a chin-to-shoulder movement (akin to Southeastern Spain’s gesture with either affirmation or negation); the Israeli [Úia] to urge a horse; the nasal fricative velar + mid-back vowel of Spain’s euphemistic ’¡Jo!’ of surprise, disappointment, admiration, etc. Dental, as with the drawled ingressive bilateral bidental friction of the Japanese pre-turn opening in conversation, also an onset in praying; bidental scrapives (i.e. tooth gnashing, grating, grinding), producing, for instance, the meaningful rasping sound of rage; assisted dental articulations (e.g. playing a tune by snapping the upper incisors with the fingernails or with a pencil). Nasal and narial, like the velic nasal plosive (velopharyngeal stop) of a subtle, meaningful polite chuckle; the laryngealized and nasalized velopharyngeal friction of the Japanese male’s grunt of acknowledgment, also a polite denial in conversation, both of which have confused me at times (cf. Morsbach 1973: 271); the dorsovelar approximant + continuous nasalized narial aggression, ’Huunnnnn-huunnnn’ of the Japanese male’s (and older female’s) feedback behavior, resembling (but not necessarily equivalent to) ‘Uh-hu,’ often misinterpreted by westerners as agreement; the same continuous nasalized narial egression in a higher pitch (rather puzzling when I first heard it coming from an adjacent university office in Tokyo!) as the

Paralanguage, IV

163

typical feminine feedback on the telephone; a shorter ‘Hun’ heard also in Japan, but permissible only in a male or female of higher status (older person, teacher, etc.), or between equals, never addressing a superior, nor between man and woman, as ‘Hun’ is not considered feminine (a woman uses only head nods); a short ‘Hun,’ however, is a feminine conversational feedback behavior in Turkey (‘Hun-hun!’ or ‘Hun-hunhun!’); *a grunt of agreement common to many cultures; the versatile North American Indian grunt ‘Ugh!’: “Ugh!” […] The Indian grunted again, and pointed upward [at the smoke of fire on their roof]” (Grey, LT, XXII) “[…] Hawk Eye. Meet me heah after dark. We go.”/ “Uggh!” (Grey, LWT, XVIII) The chief gave a grunt of agreement. “I will […]” (Hailey, H, “Monday Evening,” 4)

The strong narial emission of nose-blowing can produce a number of meaningful alternants: She [Mildred] thought it slightly indelicate to blow her nose and did it in a deprecating way (Maugham, OHB, 261)

Vocalic: Higher-vowel
: the glottalized gliding mid-to-higher back vowel of surprise (British more with [6] than [f]; the overdrawled glottalized nasalized narial gliding mid-to-higher back (pitches 4–2) of sensual moaning, the higher the pitch, the more feminine, creakiness increasing with muscular tension, perhaps released to openglottis voicing; Israeli ‘Ay!’ (also ‘Auts!’) and Spanish ‘¡Ay!’ as reflex sounds when in sudden physical pain (cf. English ‘Ouch!’); Finnish ‘Huh, huh!’ when feeling hot or cold; German round high-central [y] after an emphatic dorsovelar affricate to urge a horse; Israeli ‘Wai!’ with drawled high-front vowel, for surprise; the drawled high-mid front + nasal alveolar [e::] of Japanese children crying for attention. Vocalic: Mid-vowel
: The Japanese former Prime Minister Ohira used the Japanese prespeech ‘Aaah’ and ‘Uuuh’ so much that he was known as ‘Prime Minister AahUuh’; the other very Japanese prespeech sound (typical of children when asked in school, but also of adult interviews) is basically the high-mid front [e] in ‘Eeetó’; the Japanese male’s semi-vowel-drawled high-mid back when seeing an attractive woman, ‘Wooo!’; the Japanese male’s [f3I::] of delight; Israeli glottalized ‘Eh!’ of disgust; the affirmation double mid-central vowel (the second with velar-nasal friction), written ‘Uh-hu’ and much borrowed today from Anglo-Americans in many cultures and social classes (as is the glottalized and negation nasalized double vowel, ‘Uh-uh!’): ‘Uh-uh,’ she smiled, shaking her head to mean ‘no’” (Dreiser, G, I, XXIII).

Vocalic: Low-vowel
: The ‘Aaaaah!’ of delight or surprise in Turkey; Japanese ‘Aah!’ (or glottalized ‘Itáh!’) when physically hurt; the Japanese drawled ["] in reaction to the summer heat; the [a] in the German [a] conversational feedback affirmation ‘Ah-ha!’

164

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

and negation ‘Ah-ah,’ both more open than English ‘Uh-hu’ and ‘Uh-uh!’; Israeli [fxf] of surprise or negation.

4.7

Silent alternants For different reasons, we momentarily cease to speak in a conversation (or more accurately, to communicate with sound), and, according to the definition of alternants, those voluntary or involuntary momentary breaks in the speech stream should be identified as paralinguistic alternants.65 In fact, from the point of view of both normal or pathological interactive behavior, a serious analysis of interaction cannot ignore the presence or absence of these segmental silences, their frequency, and the congruence or incongruity in relation to verbal segments of speech, for we speak by means of sounds that are delimited and defined precisely by the non-sounds that both precede and follow them, just as we perceive gestures because each of them emerges from stillness, without that stillness being devoid of meaning. Further, these silent alternants can be qualified by kinesic cobehaviors and any other nonverbal activities (e.g. blushing, tears, emotional sweat), performing the following functions, among others: speech markers, corresponding to periods between phrases, commas, before quotation marks, after a colon (e.g. when enumerating), or with a key word that may, for instance, elicit halting or hesitation, and they can be qualified by other nonverbal activities like blushing or tears and by conversational gestures (e.g. a raised index finger before quoting someone, which acts also as a visual [:]: ‘They live in a state’ — he hesitated, he blushed — ‘of hostile symbiosis’ (Huxley, PCP, IV) ‘Great — goodness!’ Mary exclaimed (Agee, DF, XII)

turn-opening, after the speaker utters a prefatory word like ‘Well —’ clears his throat, etc.: ‘Well — look, we’re gonna work in a ranch like the one we came from up north’ (Steinbeck, MM, I)

pre-question, during which nonverbal acts like eye contact or an audible pharyngeal ingression enhance the anticipation: –Dis-mois, Gertrude… t’a-t-il dit qu’il t’aimait? (Gide, SP, 98)

mid-question feedback request
: ‘You know that man I tell you about?…That man Enrico Malatesta […]?’ (Dos Passos, MT, I, II)

interpolation, acting as brackets or hyphens in writing:

Paralanguage, IV

165

‘[…] I wonder — that is, if we all get jobs an’ all work--maybe we can get one of them little white houses’ (Steinbeck, GW, X)

post-statement evaluation, as in a mental playback of our interlocutor’s words: ‘I didn’t know you were here or I’d have come earlier, honest.’/ ‘Would you indeed?…Now that’s very nice’ (Dos Passos, MT, I, II)

external interruption, during which there may be a momentary drawl or short inspiration: ‘He was sent to get the coal. He — ’/ ‘We don’t mind what they pick around the yard,’ interrupted the detective (Dreiser, JG, VII)

hesitation, which may or may not be replaced or accompanied by hesitation utterances: ‘I don’t know what to say — I — I — I ain’t never made a speech before […]’ (Norris, M, VII) ‘Jimmy […] Er…have you any…er…any change with you?’ (Dos Passos, MT, II, VII)

word search, or lexical hesitance: Je voudrai savoir si je ne… comment dites-vou cela? … si je ne […] (Gide, SP, ‘29 fév.’)

word withholding, checking ourselves to avoid saying something: ‘Yes; but Irene — I don’t like to have you go on so, till — unless he’s said something to show — You oughtn’t to give yourself up to thinking — — ’ (Howells, RSL, XVII)

self-correction, after having said something: ‘in spite of the fact that I’m as rich as Croesus — not quite’ (Dreiser, JG, XLV)

understood ellipsis, when what is not said is known: — You’re in black I see. You have no…/ — No, Mr. Bloom said. I have just come from a funeral (Joyce, U, 157)

memory searching, during which momentary silences are often interspersed with paralinguistic utterances and are always accompanied by kinesic behavior: ‘O. K. Now when we go in to see the boss, what you gonna do?’/ ‘I…I…’ Lennie thought. His face grew tight with thought. ‘I…ain’t gonna say nothin’ (Steinbeck, MM, I)

remembering
: ‘Jus wanted to feel that girl’s dress — jus wanted to pet it like it was a mouse — -[…] [remembering how he killed her]’ (Steinbeck, MM, I)

166

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

thinking pause, during which an added activity may take place: ‘Well…’ Pa says. He looks out over the land […] mouthing the snuff slowly against the gums (Faulkner, AILD, “Darl”)

task-performing pause, sometimes a critical conscious behavior in conversation (e.g. with manipulative purposes): Here ensued a pause, filled up by the producing and lighting of a cigar, having placed it to his lips and breathed a trail of Havannah incense […] he [Rochester] went on (C. Brontë, JE, XV)

pre-nonverbal activity, as the leader of even onset to crying, blushing, etc.: ‘Sh! Get some sleep.’ The little girl went rigid for a moment, and then dissolved into sniffling, quiet crying (Steinbeck, GW, XXVI)

emotional broken speech, to which different emotions give specific nonverbal characteristics, for instance: anguish
: ‘I — I — ’ ventured the mother, stammering in her perturbation; ‘she — they have been talking about her’ (Dreiser, JG, V)

happiness
: ‘An’ that manager […] says ‘Mrs. Joad’ this, and Mrs. Joad that — an’ […]. She stopped and sighed, ‘Why, I feel like people again (Steinbeck, GW, XXII)

relief
: Lennie grinned with relief/ ‘I…I thought I put it in my side pocket’ (Steinbeck, MM, I)

emotional emphasis put between words: Ralph [the deceased’s brother] is an undertaker. I imagine you know what he wants[…]/ ‘Good — God!’ Joel exclaimed (Agee, DF, XII)66

4.8

Paralinguistic and kinesic qualifiers of alternants A cultural, dialectal or cross-cultural inventory of alternants, or any other type of study of them, must specify the paralanguage that, wittingly or unwittingly, can qualify them, as well as the simultaneous or adjacent kinesic qualifiers. A few examples are shown here from the nonexhaustive table in Fig. 4.2, ‘Paralinguistic and kinesic qualifiers of alternants.’

Paralanguage, IV

167

PARALINGUISTIC QUALIFIERS loudness pitch level pitch interval

Primary Qualities

Qualifiers

intonation syllabic duration

Breathing control

egressive ingressive

spasmodic

Laryngeal control

whispering breathiness glottal catch creakiness

Esophageal control

belched sounds

Pharyngeal control

pharyngealization hollowness

faucalization

Velopharyngeal control

nasalization whininess whimpering

moaning groaning grunting

Lingual control

velarization

palatalization

Labial control

labialization protrusion retraction

expansion constriction trembling

Mandibular control

wide-open half-open protacted

Articulatory tension control

tenseness laxness

falsetto harshness shrillness hoarseness

retracted rotatory

KINESIC QUALIFIERS Face

Head

forehead brows eyes, gaze nose nasolabial folds cheeks lips mandible

nodding shaking tilting rocking cocking rotating

Shoulder

Trunk

shrugging erect dropping slumped bent

Hands conscious gestures unconscious gestures hand-clapping finger-snapping finger-tapping

Body & Legs general posture

Figure 4.2.Paralinguistic and kinesic qualifiers of alternants

4.8.1 Paralinguistic qualifiers Paralinguistic primary qualities Loudness or volume can differentiate — often correlating with lax or tense facial musculature and gesture, perfectly congruent with the internal muscular effort — between, for instance, a soft, compassionate apicoalveolar click ‘Tz!’ and a loud, angry one; others would be:

168

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Mr. Winkle returned to the window and sniffed aloud [overwhelmed by emotion] (Dickens, PP, XLIV) The Colonel took three or four deep sniffs of the dawnsmelling air and threw his cigar into the gutter (Dos Passos, MT, I, II)

Pitch level is perhaps the most noticeable and effective qualifier, as happens with the many realizations of ‘H’m!’ (high-pitched for surprised delight, interest, admiration, low-pitched for contempt, reproachful pondering, etc.): the wild, piercing stacatto note of Indian whoop (Grey, FC, XI)

Pitch interval affects, of course, only multiple alternants, as with ‘Uh-hu!’: total lack of interest if squeezed with an intonation pattern 2–2–2, or expressing discovery, delighted acquiescence, agreement, etc., with pitches 2–4: ‘Sweetness you’re a lovely dancer,’ she cooed snuggling closer. / Think so Nevada?’/ ‘Um-hum…’ (Dos Passos, MT, III, III)

Intonation in alternants with several elements (or a seemingly continuous single one): hearing a wild tenorman bawling horn across the way, going ‘EE-YAH! EE-YAH’ (Kerouac, OR, III, IV)

Syllabic duration, changing meaning between drawling and clipping: Hermione lifted her face and rumbled — / ‘M — m-m — I don’t know . . . . . […] (Lawrence, WL, VIII) They smacked their lips, making the sound of long, lecherous kisses (Singh, TP, 9)

Paralinguistic qualifiers Breathing control can make alternants ingressive or egressive, beginning with breathing itself: Mr. Hyde shrank back with a hissing intake of the breath. But his fear was only momentary (Stevenson, JH, 18) “If he was such a fool as to promise that he wouldn’t talk to me on a subject — ” Lapham drew a deep breath, and then made the plunge “ — that I brought up — ” (Howells, RSL, XIX) Jonathan made no answer to this; but his breath literally hissed through his clenched teeth (Grey, LT, XIX) The other men shifted from one foot to another and there were deep-drawn breaths (Grey, BL, XVI)

Laryngeal control Whispering affects alternants that use air passing through the vocal folds, when

Paralanguage, IV

169

they do not vibrate but let out only a hissing sound (e.g. a whispered ‘Hm,’ a gasp, ‘Psst’), or a very soft click, sniff, etc.: ‘S-s-t,’ said the other girl, bending over her work (Dreiser, SC, IV)

Breathiness can be added to, or be a component of, alternants like ‘Hhew!’ (‘It was close!’), making a physical effort, etc.: [Hurstwood] hurried down the street./’Whew!’ he said, drawing in his breath [getting away from an undesired encounter] (Dreiser, SC, XLI)

Glottal catch occurs in ‘Eeugh!’ retching, lifting a heavy weight suddenly, etc: ‘What is it?’ asked Yossarian, and took a big bite./ ‘Chocolate-covered cotton.’/ Yossarian gagged convulsively (Heller, C22, XXIV) As he [Morel] sat on his heels, or kneeled, giving hard blows with his pick, ‘Uszaa — uszaa!’ he went (Lawrence, SL, I, II)

Laryngealization or creakiness can be added to any alternants (and blended with other qualifiers, such as harshness and whisperiness), as in the very British high-pitched and drawled greeting ‘Aah!’: His heart seemed to wrench itself almost free from his body at the sight [of a wounded soldier]. He made a noise of pain (Crane, RBC, IX)

Falsetto can be reached by any voiced alternant without only a stop consonantal sound, a typical semantic modifier and an emotional expressive tool as a spontaneous or consciously exaggerated reaction to surprise, indignation, etc.: ‘Ugh!’ cried Ursula in sudden panic, starting to her feet (Lawrence, WL, XIV)

Harshness, shrillness, squawking, screeching, and similar effects, can modify some vocalic alternants characterized precisely by any of those qualities (i.e. a harsh sound, a shrill cry, a squeak, a screech), generally negative: ‘O-o-h them birds, they won’t let you speak — ! shrilled the labourer’s wife in disgust (Lawrence, WL, XIV)

Hoarseness, growling (and its variant snarling, with a gesture resembling a snarling animal), can be detached from words and produced independently as a growl or a snarl: ‘Ah-h-h!’ growled the journeyman between his teeth [preceding a threat] (Dickens, GE, XV) The Pirate, in his corner, snarled, and all the dogs growled (Steinbeck, TF, X)

Velopharyngeal control Nasalization and narial qualifiers can be added at will as attitudinal elements, as

170

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

with a nasalized chuckle, an emphatic ‘Eeugh!’ of repugnance, the sensuality of a sigh, the contemptuousness of a ‘Hu!’ (more like ‘Hun!’), adding laziness to a growl, etc.: ‘I guess we have a few days yet,’ he said. ‘Hmff,’ she [his wife] returned [contemptuously] (Dreiser, SC, XX) Don Doneeka emitted a glum, self-pitying sniff (Heller, C22, XXXI)

Lingual control Velarization, palatalization, etc., can also modify alternants like the strongly velarized vibratory ‘hhha!’ of repugnance, or its palatalized Finnish equivalent ‘Yäk!’ Labial control This can be part of, or modify, alternants like a conspicuously labialized and drawled Hebrew ‘Ouh!’ of regret, the Japanese masculine ‘Woo!’ at seeing an attractive woman, ‘Brrrr!’ as an expression of frustration or irritation, etc. Mandibular control It can also affect certain alternants, as with a wide-open-jaw ‘Ha!,’ a clenchedteeth groan or grunt, a protracted-jaw ‘Hn!’ (like the stereotyped villain), or a rotating-jaw growl. 4.8.2 Kinesic qualifiers Within the audible-visual speech stream there are more or less conspicuous simultaneous, preceding or succeeding segmental kinesic behaviors (with their own nonsegmental features, that is, parakinesic qualities), particularly facial gestures, in constant correlation with many of the paralinguistic voice features and their accompanying kinesics, as well as with silent alternants. Primary qualities Loudness, as a cultural, personal or situational feature, shows a congruent correlation with ‘loudness of gesture’ (i.e. parakinesic intensity and movement range, seen in Chapter 5), the opposite being the incongruity seen when, for instance, we whisper loudly and use the ‘loud’ kinesics that would normally accompany true loudness: He would […] look up sudden and fierce, and blow through his nose like a fog-horn […] so loudly […] (Stevenson, TI, I, I)

Pitch correlates as also with facial and bodily visual features: high with raised brows, wide-open eyes, jerky movements or raised trunk, while a soft, low-pitched ‘Hm’ is accompanied by a slow frown and lowered head; Drawled and clipped alternants and slow and swift gestures are likewise congruent with each other: The other rubbed his nose meditatively with his fist and let his breath out in a long whistle (Dos Passos, MT, I, II)

Paralanguage, IV

171

He went sluggishly out the door, yawning and stretching (Steinbeck, GW, XXVI)

Qualifiers Glottal catch in alternants elicit a tense facial expression, heard and seen as indivisible units (e.g. ‘Eeugh!’). A lengthening posture of the neck and trunk appear with shrillness, screeching, etc.: ‘Whooee!’ yelled Dean. ‘Here we go!’ (Kerouak, OR, VI)

Roughness of hoarseness, growling and snarling are always accompanied (except perhaps when hoarseness is due to voice abuse) by equally rough facial expressions, generally emblematic in themselves when so intended (e.g. with a growl or a snarl). As for the kinesic qualifers of paralinguistic silences, they are typically movements arrested during the silence, for instance: the attitudinal eyebrow raise that may accompany an emphatic enumeration of items (equivalent to visual commas); the unconscious still gaping of hesitation; the prolonged frowning and intent staring after a scrutinizing question. Which proves that those elements are still parts of the basic triple structure, only without verbal language (replaced, for instance, with emblematic gestures); and also that it cannot possibly be neglected in interactive situations in which silences can be critical (particularly in pathological behavior and in clinical observation), for silent and visual behaviors are not necessarily congruent and synonymical, but even contradictory.

4.9

Functional classification of alternants for the preparation of cultural inventories Since alternants constitute a definite repertoire in everyday speech, we need a system of classification and presentation that would make it possible to gather together in one body the whole ‘dictionary’ or inventory or alternants of any given language (independently of, or included within, its official dictionary), in order to present them in a functional-semantic arrangement of the thesaurus type, or classify them phonetically (i.e. more from a linguistic point of view, according to their soundproducing mechanisms). As a dictionary of alternants, they would be arranged alphabetically and therefore presented in their spelled forms. The problems involved in this pursuit are obvious: there are not enough letters in the alphabet to represent each of the many primary articulations (e.g. interdental), secondary articulations (e.g. palatalization) and sound qualifiers (e.g. harshness), with which, unlike words, alternants are characterized both morphologically and semantically (a click ‘Tz’), thus some diacritics would have to be added (e.g. for nasalization). Considering the alternants included in a dictionary like the Webster New World Dictionary, the very absence of others just as important or

172

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

more would warrant the addition of certain letters, such as some symbols from the IPA and elsewhere (e.g. [(φ)] for breathy voice, [µ] for closed mouth) and some diacritics (e.g. [~] for nasality, [w] for labialization, [::] for drawling, [Ü] for clipping). As for the thesaurus of alternants suggested here (susceptible of many refinements), it would be based on: some key regulatory behaviors in conversation or the model of the nonverbal categories (Chapter 6, Volume I); the imitative conversational illustrators discussed earlier; a basic classification of attitudinal concepts in interaction; and, for its interest as a cross-cultural research topic, an inventory of animal-calling sounds (discussed separately), thus covering the various areas where we find alternants. A.Interactive-regulatory Prefatory (e.g. prespeech click ‘Tz’); calling attention (e.g. throat-clearing, ‘ahem!’); postspeech (e.g. audible pharyngeal egression, ‘Eeeeh’); speech markers (e.g. ingressive click ‘>Tz’); acknowledgement (e.g. ‘Aah!’); affirmation (e.g. ‘Uh-hu’); warning (e.g. ‘Ah!’); negation (e.g. ‘Uh-uh’); hesitation (e.g. ‘Uuuh’); thinking pause (i.e., a silence, ‘ ’); memory-searching pause (e.g. ‘ — — — ’); word-searching pause (e.g. ‘ — o — ). Within this complex category would be Ward’s many “conversational grunts”: ‘uh-huh,’ ‘un-hn,’ ‘um,’ ‘mm,’ ‘hmm,’ etc., with “extensive phonetic variation… whose meanings… are largely a product of sound symbolism” (Ward 2001:1; cf. his references). ‘Ahem’!’ said the Mouse with an important air. ‘[…] Silence all round, if you please¡’ (Carroll, AAW, III) A warning, “Hisst!” came from the bushes (Grey, LT, I) “Hist!” he whispered into the cabin. “Hist!” (Grey, HD, XIX) ‘Hsh!’ said Mr. Teddy Henfrey. ‘Didn’t I hear the window?’ (Wells, IM, XII) “Tut, tut, my dear. Not so fast. You don’t know what I thought” (Dreiser, JG, XLV) The people behind [at the theater, when they talk] started shushing (Dos Passos, BM, ‘Charley Anderson,’ 80) ‘It’s Doris’ voice, hissing at me […] ‘Sh — Sh — ’ (Laurence, SA, III) “You said something about — ” Gowan said./ “Pssst!” the other said. He began to wink and frown at Gowan, jerking his head at Popeye’s back (Faulkner, S, VI) [Popeye, about to be hanged] “Pssst!” he said, the sound cutting sharp into the drone of the minister’s voice; “pssssst!” […] Fix my hair, Jack,’ he said (Faulkner, S, XXXI) “But we aren’t lovers, Cass.”/ “We might be.”/ “M.” (Lewis, CT, XVI)

B.Descriptive-illustrative Space markers (e.g. ‘Bff!, this big,’ ‘Pgh!, right here,’ ‘Whisss!, far away’); time markers (e.g. ‘Ooooof, a long time ago!’); deictics (e.g. ‘Mm!’ pointing with nod/chin); picto-

Paralanguage, IV

173

graphs (e.g. ‘Wooiish!’ indicating a spiral); ideographs (e.g. ‘Aaaaaaay!,’ imagining a pleasurable situation); event tracers (e.g. a nasalized ‘The lecture went on and on, o-oo-o-o-oh!’); identifiers (e.g. physical quality: ‘It was sssszzz, very smooth’; moral quality: ‘He’s a little eeuh, I don’t know’; abstract concept: ‘It’s …); externalizers (e.g. an ‘Aaaoooh! or ‘Ungh!’ of pain, a random throat-clearing). C.Imitative-illustrative Self-adaptors (e.g. ‘He went clap, clap, clap’); body-adaptors (e.g. ‘He was glug, glug, drinking it all’); alter-adaptors (e.g. ‘Pow, whack!’); object-adaptors (e.g. ‘He went bang, bang, until she opened’); artifactually-mediated (e.g. ‘The two swordsmen were sswissh, sswissh, swissh, without hitting each other’); animal (e.g. ‘He came to me, warf, warf, warf!’); artifactual (e.g. ‘The train went up slowly, chuck-a-chuck-achuck-a,’ ‘It fell, bonk!,’ ‘We could hear the bullets, swissssssss’; the storm started, ‘Bbrrwoouuhhmm!,’ ‘Kkrragsz!’). Men died violently but cleanly in the movies. Bang-bang. Good-by, boys, I’m through (Wolfe, LHA, XX) The fast cackle-cluck of sensual hens (Wolfe, LHA, XIV) with the dogs [the shepherd] drove the pattering, baaing flock […] The thirsty, parched sheep baa-baaed and drank (Grey, SG, XIII, XVIII) …Crack! Smack!…Zugg! (Grey, DF, XIII)

D.Attitudinal Affiliation and Positive Attitudes. Greetings, like the British form [a32::], etc.: an old Kansas Indian […] Having shaken us by the hand with a cordial grunt of salutation […] (Parkman, OT, II);

agreement (e.g. ‘Ah-ha’); approval (e.g. ‘Mm!’); interest (e.g. ‘Mmm!’); curiosity (e.g. ‘Hm!’); coaxing (e.g. ‘Ooooh!’); relief (e.g. ‘Whew!’); affection and love (e.g. lowpitched laryngealized moan); flirtation (e.g. ‘Tz-tz’); encouragement (e.g. ‘Eeeeh!’); praise (e.g. a yell); surprise (e.g. ‘Uh!’; Beduin ‘Eigh!’ [Levenston 1987: 98]): Clint knocked at the open door. A gray-haired […] woman appeared. She gasped (Grey, FC, XXI) ‘Bottom of the class as usual?’/ ‘Top!’ […]/ ‘H’m — you don’t say so’ (Woolf, Y, 1880) “Whew!” The gambler whistled softly (Grey, UPT, XXV)

admiration (e.g. gasping): Jane […] gasped at the riding of this intrepid man (Grey, RPS, VI) Congo let his breath out in a whistle. ‘Whee…c’est chic ca, Dolmenico…’ (Dos Passos, MT, I, IV)

174

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

compassion: The rough man held a candle to her face [Eliza’s], and uttered a kind of compassionate grunt […] (Beecher Stowe, UTC, IX)

Aggression and Negative Attitudes. Anger: The little girl […] put out her tongue […] at Dr. South […] the old gentleman was annoyed […] gave a low snarl (Maugham, OHB, CXVII);

aggression (e.g. ritual yells in martial arts) and mock aggression, challenge (e.g. a laugh of challenge [Chapter 3.2.4]); threat (e.g. a growl); fighting: Pete at intervals [in a fight] gave vent to low, laboured hisses, that sounded like a desire to kill (Crane, MGS, XI)

disagreement (e.g. ‘Uhn!’), disinterest (e.g. ‘Bah!’); derision: the whole house [theater] was in an uproar — shouts from the gallery, shouts of laughter, hoots, hisses, cat-calls, cockcrows (Maurier, T, VII, 197) Good-natured catcalls and boos [toward a girl] sounded from back of the circle of students (Grey, MR, I) somebody at the back of the train began to laugh and jeer, and others joined in, whistling and catcalling (Greene, ST, IV, III) Jeers and catcalls drove him [a policeman interrupting a speaker] from the hall (Doctorow, R, VIII)

contempt: ‘Ho!’ she said with a great grunt of contempt (Crane, MGS, II)

disbelief (e.g. ‘Ho!’): Pah! I don’t believe it. It’s a lie. You know it’s a lie! (Dreiser, G, III, IX);

disapproval (e.g.’Uh-uh!’), shown differently by an audience cross-culturally: When the second act was over there came a storm of hisses (Wilde, PDG, VII)

protest: He protested, “Whoa!…” (Hailey, H, “Tuesday,” VII)

reproach: ‘Oh! Fie, fie! Nonsense, Mrs Gamp’ (Dickens, MC, XXV) The purser only clicked his tongue against his teeth several times and wagged a finger at him, shaking his head with paternal gravity” (Porter, SF, II, 162)

Paralanguage, IV

175

suspicion (e.g. “Mmmmm’); puzzlement (e.g. ‘Uuuuuh’); mockery (e.g. mocking laughter); contempt (e.g. superiority, haughtiness (e.g. high narial egression + gesture): Several little trifles, which Tom had treasured […] he [Mr. Legree] looked upon with a contemptuous grunt, and tossed them over his shoulder into the river (Beecher Stowe, UTC, XXXI)

scorn (e.g. ‘Pff!’), desdain, disgust; anger, as with the Beduin ‘Akhs’ (Levenston 1987:98) Can you stand there and tell me you’re any better? Pah! If you only had a sense of shame (Dreiser, G, II, XXIV) ‘Bah!’ cried John Westlock, with the utmost disgust and disdain the monosyllable is capable of expressing (Dickens, MC, II);

repugnance (e.g. ‘Eeugh!’): Her belly swollen out! Phew! Dreadful simply! (Joyce, U, 161)

startle (e.g. ‘Ah!’); alarm (e.g. gasping, ‘Eh!’); fear (e.g. broken moaning): The gasp that went up from round that table proved that some one saw the guns were both cocked (Grey, UPT, X); etc.

Happiness and Joy. Satisfaction (e.g. ‘Aaaaah’); self-confidence (e.g. ‘Hmmm’); delight (e.g. ‘Mm!’); elation (e.g. ‘Wheee!’); anticipation (e.g. play (e.g. girls’ high-pitched screaming); merrymaking (e.g. ‘Wagh!’); triumph (e.g. ‘Whoop!’): ‘Woo-hoo! Wa-hee!’ screamed the Gay-Header in reply, raising some old war-whoop […] answered by others quite as wild. ‘Kee-hee! Kee-hee!’ yelled Daggoo […] ‘Ka-la! Koo-loo’ howled Qeequeg (Melville, MD, LXI) A great ‘jai!’ burst from his throat, a yell of victory (Bhattacharya, HWRT, XXIII)

Sadness. Regret (e.g. ‘Tz’): Don Doneeka emitted a glum, self-pitying sniff (Heller, C22, XXXI)

Others would include: compassion (e.g. sighing), anguish (e.g. gasping), resignation (e.g. ‘Tz’), longing (e.g. sighing), etc. Contempt, self-assurance
: “The Indians. They will kill you if you don’t turn back.”/ “Faugh! to tell an American plainsman that!” (Grey, LP, VIII) Pooh! What do I care for him? (O’Neill, W, I, i) “Pshaw!” said Eliza scornfully (Wolfe, LHA, XXX)

176

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

E.Physical sensation Pleasure. Wonder and amazement: he is rich, so rich — ouf! (Levenston 1987: 98);

after drinking/eating (e.g. “Dg-aaah): Mr Squeers tasted the milk and water./ ‘Ah!’ said that gentleman, smacking his lips, ‘here’s richness! […]’ (Dickens, NN, V) We drank the hock and smacked appreciative lips (Maugham, CA, II) He then drank off the milk in one draft, smacking his lips and putting the glass down on the table with a rap (Doctorow, WF, XXVI)

sensuousness (e.g. moaning): She tasted my kiss for a few seconds, and then pushed me back, and hummed a breathy, “Whew.” She smiles. “That was nice” (Mailer, BS, VI);

Others would include: relief (e.g. drawled pharyngeal egression), relaxation (e.g. ‘Aaaaah’), etc. Displeasure. Exertion (e.g. ‘Umph!’) and fatigue (e.g.’Phoo!’): ‘Whew!’ said the housebreaker wiping the perspiration from his face [after exerting himself]” (Dickens, OT, I, XLIV) “Whew!” exploded Lance, catching his breath [after the police chases him] (Grey, MR, I)

heat (e.g. ‘Oof!’) and cold (e.g. ‘Brrr!’): ‘F-ff-f!,’ he went, pretending to shudder with cold (Lawrence, SL, VIII) Bill blew his breath into one large fist, then the other (Malamud, T, 76)

physical pain (e.g. ‘Ooow!’): “Hurt/ No […] Auggh!… (Grey, 3H, VII) Ow, Evelyn cried. It stings! (Doctorow, R, VIII)

imagining pain (‘Ouf,’ inhaled ‘Fff!’): Adye drew the air in between his teeth sharply [when told about the powdered glass for the Invisible Man to step on] (Wells, IM, XXV)

bad odor: “Poo, Papa! How you do smell of smoking” (Howells, RSL, XIV);

repugnance:

Paralanguage, IV

177

Didn’t you see them [starving Yellow Knife Indians] eatin’ of the [reindeer’s] raw innards? — faugh! (Grey, LP, IX)

Others would include: sleepiness (e.g. creaky moaning), boredom (e.g. ‘Nnnn’), weariness (e.g. a breathy, falling vowel sound), etc. F.Interaction with animals Domestic pets
: ‘Here’s that horrible cat coming in!’[…] Shoohoo! Get out, you goblin!’ (Dickens, BH, XXXIX) Old Jolyon ‘shoo’d her off at once [a cat] […] he called ‘Hssst!’ several times, as though assisting the cat’s departure (Galsworthy, MP, I, II)

Working animals
: ‘Whoa, Wrangle [a horse], old boy. Come down. Easy now. So--so — so. You’re home, old boy (Grey, RPS, XV) Suddenly he yelled at the burros: “Hehaw! Gedap!” (Grey, WW, XXIV) ‘Whoa, Wrangle [a horse], old boy. Come down. Easy now. So--so — so. You’re home, old boy (Grey, RPS, XV) “Hardy, how do you drive these oxen?” […]/ “Wal, Logan, that’s nothin’ to that but gadep, gee, whoa, an’ haw […] “Yell ‘whoa’ when you want them to stop, ‘gee’ when you want to go to the right, ‘haw’ to the left, and when you start up--a crack of the whip and ‘gidap,’” (Grey, 3H, II, III)

Wild animals
: A coarse-throated chatter […] It was a sparrow just waking./ ‘Chee-weeze-weezeweeze!’ […] It was a finch […] ‘Tink-tink-tink-tink-a-chink!’ […] It was a robin./ ‘Chuck-chuck-chuck!’ […] A squirrel (Hardy, FMC, XLIV)

G.Animal calling Domestic pets
: cat (e.g. Holland’s ‘Uis-uis-uis-uis!’); dog (e.g. Uganda’s ‘Wau-wau-wau!’); canary (e.g. Spain’s drawled kissing sound); parrot (e.g. Venezuela’s ‘Prroa-prroa!’). Domestic produce animals
: chicken (e.g. Turkey’s ‘¡Bili-bili-bili- bili!’), pigeon (e.g. Singapore’s ‘¡Krrrroo-krrrroo!’), duck (e.g. Brazil’s ‘¡Quack-quack- quack!’), rabbit (e.g. Finland’s ‘¡Pupu-pupu!’), pig (e.g. N. China’s ‘¡Lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo!’), sheep (e.g. Spain’s ‘¡Rria-rria!’), goat (e.g. the Moroccan Berber’s ‘labio palmar trill’), cow (Uganda’s finger-snapping): Gabriel called at the top of his voice the shepherd’s call./ ‘Ovey. ovey, ovey!’ (Hardy, FMC, V) saying “Hoosh!” to the cocks and hens when they go upon your seeds (Hardy, FMC, X)

178

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Working animals
: horse (e.g. Germany’s ‘Ksch!’ to go), mule (e.g. Spain’s double lateral velar click), donkey, bull (e.g. India’s ‘¡Hé-hé!’), buffalo (e.g. Thailand’s ‘¡Hai-hai-haihai!’), cow, camel (e.g. Sudan’s ‘¡Sha-sha-sha! to couch it). ‘Wo — o!’ cried Mr. Pickwick, as the tall quadruped [a horse] evinced a decided inclination to back into the coffee-room window (Dickens, PP, V) Suddenly he yelled at the burros: “Hehaw! Gedap (Grey, WW, XXIV) ‘Hue! Hi-ee!’ […] The cattle broke and fell back quite spontaneously (Lawrence, WL, XIV) Jody touched [the pony] and he crooned, ‘So-o-o-, boy’ […] Then he called, ‘Whoa,’ and the pony stopped (Steinbeck, RP, I)

Wild animals
: birds (e.g. whistling); monkeys (e.g. Uganda’s forceful kissing sound + m-m! Mmm + explosive click); alligators (e.g. British Guyana’s high-pitched ‘¡M-mm!’); squirrels (e.g. Nigeria’s ‘¡Ko-kú, ko-kú!’ for large type).

4.10

The paralanguage of animal calling as an area of interdisciplinary research What has been called ‘animal calling’ — the sounds we utilize mostly to convey messages to many animal species (cf. Bynon 1976; Levenston 1987:99) — is outlined here as an example of an area within paralinguistic alternants in need of serious and systematic cultural and cross-cultural research, which would address the following aspects. a.The similarity and differences among calls for pancultural species (e.g. cat, dog, chicken) and for the more culture-specific ones (e.g. alligator, monkey, parrot, camel, elephant, water buffalo). b.The encoding of calls, in terms of arbitrariness
: the Chinese ‘¡Lo-lo-lo-ló-lo-lo-ló!’ for pigs; the bilateral or unilateral dorsovelar click for urging a horse in Canada, Spain, Turkey, etc. (but the German [y]) or camels in Sudan; or the ‘¡Bili-bili-bili-bili!’ and the ‘¡Tz-tz-tz-tz-tz!’ (apicoalveolar click) for chickens in Turkey and Trinidad, respectively), and ‘¡To-to-to-to-to-to!’ in Japan; or imitativeness
: the ‘¡Oing-oingoing!,’ and a forceful dorsovelar fricative ([kxoá-kxoá]) to call pigs in Uganda and Brazil, respectively; or the imitative calls for chickens in Uganda, Nigeria, Vietnam, Northern China, ‘¡Ko-ko-koko-ko-ko-ko!’ (with slight variants); the ‘¡Wau-wau-wauwau!’ for dogs in Uganda and Vietnam; the ‘¡Quack-quack-quack!’ for ducks in Vietnam, Canada, and Holland (in the latter, along with the dorsovelar click used for horses in other cultures). c.The strictly paralinguistic calls, like the drawled high-pitched glottalized closedmouth nasal [m-m-m] for attracting young alligators in British Guyana, the ‘¡Lo-lo-loló-lo-lo-lo-ló!’ for pigs in Northern China, the triple dorsovelar click used to call squirrels in Nigeria, the varied imitation of the pigeon’s cooing in Canada (‘Brrr-brrrrbrrr-brrr’), Singapore (‘Krrru-jrrru-krrru!,’ a dorsovelar + apicoalveolar trill), etc.; the

Paralanguage, IV

179

‘¡Pitós-pitós-pitós! ¡pí-pi-pi-pi-pi-pi-pi-pí!’ to call chickens in Spain; and ‘¡Soo!’ (Spain) and ‘¡Wo-o!’ (England, North America) to stop a riding animal. d.The verbal-paralinguistic calls, as when calling a dog by its name followed by whistling, or by name and various alternants for cats (e.g. ‘¡Uis-uis-uis-uis!’ in Holland, ‘¡Miaw-miaw-miaw!’ in Thailand, Nigeria, Uganda, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada); as well as for horses, mules, cows, etc. e.The verbal-paralinguistic-kinesic calls, such as when coaxing a dog with affectionate words, clickings of the tongue and slapping of one’s thigh, or finger-snapping. f.The paralinguistic-kinesic calls, as when shooing chickens with both voice and hands (e.g. ‘¡Scho!’ in Nigeria) or chasing dogs away (e.g. ’¡Oosch-oosch!’ in Pakistan). g.The assisted paralinguistic calls, mostly to imitate the animal’s own call, as for attracting birds, or, as is done in the forest of Brunei (N. Borneo): tapping an o-shaped mouth with the hand to produce the percussive sound that imitates the monkey’s call and even makes the animal repeat it and fall prey to hunting or trapping; also to deceive people through animal imitations: he was transfixed to hear an owl hoot — who-who — whowho! [imitated by attacking Indians] (Grey, FC, VIII)

h.Naturally, after the name of each animal, the various functions of the call would be identified for each culture: to call, to shoo, to urge, to drink, to calm down, to attract, etc. A systematic study of animal calling, if done as widely cross-culturally as possible, soon begins to reveal, for instance, what one tends to perceive as inconsistencies, against what we would expect, particularly in the area of easily achievable and logical imitativeness. Such is the case of chicken-calling at feeding time: in many cultures, people tend to imitate repeatedly the chickens’ basic ‘pee-pee’ (drawling the first one) in a high pitch, as in Spain, Guatemala, Venezuela, Israel, Germany, Yugoslavia, etc., or the hens’ cackling, as is done quite realistically in England and Canada, or Vietnam’s ‘¡Ko-ko-ko-kgó, ko-ko-ko-kgó!’ (with ending rising pitch), this basic ‘ko-ko-ko-’ acquiring many different characteristics across cultures. However, the Japanese call their chickens with a ‘¡Tó-to-to-to-to-tó!’, Pakistanis with an elaborate ‘¡Kutz-kutzkutz-kutz-kutz-kutz-kutz-kutz-kutz, kutz-kutz, kutz-kutz, a-a-a-a, kutz-kutz, kutzkutz!’, the Finnish (besides ‘¡Kot-kot-kot!’) with ‘¡Tipu-tipu-tipu!’ with rounded lips, and the Turks with the already mentioned ‘¡Bili-bili-bili-bili!’ while Ghanaians and Trinidadians use the apico- or dorsoalveolar click for chickens, which in so many other cultures is used indistinctively for squirrels (Canada, Nigeria), dogs (Spain, Finland, Japan), or rabbits (Japan). This seemingly inconsistent use of the same paralinguistic utterances for addressing different species suggests in turn the need to consider each individual sound or cluster of sounds in its phonetic characteristics and investigate its cross-cultural use in communicating with animals, and then establish perhaps certain cultural families or areas and determine whether such utterances (irrespective of

180

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

whether they are imitative or arbitrary) respond to the articulatory systems (languages) of those peoples; for instance, the lateral dorsovelar click so common to many cultures for urging horses, mules and donkeys, or the ‘¡Brrrrr!’ (bilabial + apicoalveolar trill) with which Germans, and naturally new Israelis from Germany, make horses stop, while a Canadian uses it to imitate his pigeon’s cooing sound. As with many other paralinguistic behaviors, the fieldwork linguist would do well to search also through the narrative literature of each culture he is dealing with — which falls within literary anthropology (Chapter 7, Volume III) — as it would help him to identify quite a few forms of animal calling, beyond those quoted in the preceding section, for instance: the delightful excitement of attempting to stimulate the last donkey [during a donkey race] by hisses, while the boy applied the argument of sticks (Eliot, AB, XXV) ‘Puss, puss, puss, — tit, tit, tit [a girl calling a cat] (Dickens, PP, XVI) As often as the driver rested them [the horses] and brought them to a stand, with a wary ‘Wo-ho! so-ho then! the near leader violently shook his head (Dickens, TTC, II) ‘Hue! Hi-ee!’ came a sudden loud shout from the edge of the grove. The cattle broke and fell back quite spontaneously (Lawrence, WL, XIV) the driver [of the stage] clucked to his horses, and travel was resumed (Grey, MF, V) Jody touched him [the pony] and he crooned, ‘So-o-o-, boy,’ in a deep voice […] Then he called, ‘Whoa,’ and the pony stopped (Steinbeck, RP, I) ‘Hè, hè,’ they [the drovers] shouted as they drive them [bulls] to the temple courtyard/’Hè, hè’ […] Hèhè, hèhè, ho!’ and the plough cuts into the earth […] (Rao, K, XII) Bedouins lure them [camels] as they run lurching by, with loud Wolloo-wolloo-woloo, and to stay them Wòh-ho, wòh-ho, wòh-ho! they chide any that strikes a tent-cord with hutch! (Levenston 1987: 99) every man drives up his beasts, with weeaho! weeaho! weeaho! encouraging to drink […] they make to kneel under their burdens with the guttural voice, ikh-kh-kh! (Levenston 1987: 99)

As well, we find in literature different ways of transcribing the imitation of animal sounds, for instance: The fast cackle-cluck of sensual hens (Wolfe, LHA, XIV) an owl hoot — who-who — whowho! (Grey, FC, VIII) “Hellow!--Riders coming lickitty cut down the road" (Grey, 3H, XIV) Ga Ga Gara. Klook Klook Klook. Black Liz is our hen/…/ Ga ga ga ga Gara. Klook Klook Klook (Joyce, U, 315)

Paralanguage, IV

4.11

181

The communicative status of random alternants67 Those mostly unconscious behaviors — which in reality are not always casual, involuntary, or unconscious — occur among paralinguistic alternants as well. Like random kinesic behaviors, they can betray: culture, as with the Anglo-American soft ‘Mm’ as a middle and lower-class rather involuntary silence filler; gender, as with a light unilateral mouth-corner sucking typical of women, but also of some male homosexuals; socioeducational level and upbringing, particularly bad manners, as happens with slurping, rather unconscious and unchecked mild belching, ingressive nose-clearing, forceful sniffing with a face-twisting gesture, or frequent but physiologically unnecessary spitting, all mainly by males, the latter typically in cultures where male spitting is characteristic: she took her wineglass […] and drank without making any sound […] not a sip or slurp or gulp or gurgle (Doctorow, BB, IX)

personal sensitiveness, as when, independently of social upbringing, an uneducated woman displays quite involuntarily a subtle sniff with a very subtle smile, or when someone with a high level of academic education has the unconscious habit of snorting once in a while; and emotional states or momentary reactions, as paralinguistic externalizers, displayed, like kinesic externalizers, in different types of situations, but most of the interactive visual behaviors are much more noticeable and easier to remember than subtle utterances. They are typically triggered by social anxiety, particularly when facing people on entering public places (e.g. the throat-clearing of some students walking into a classroom, the click-and-audible-inhalation prior to introductions at social events), but also as emotional clicks, hisses, ‘Hm’s,’ sniffs and blows while impatiently checking an airport departures board, the puffing of rage, the coughing of nervousness and tension, sighs of fear, etc. Undoubtedly, our awareness of them as simple cointeractants or as professionals (in psychiatry, general medicine and nursing, counselling, law enforcement, or teaching) allows one to understand and relate to others better. As a basic inventory — which is sure to remind the reader of other similar alternants and situations (some characteristic of specific language or culture areas) — this list contains also the ones mentioned by Krout (1935), using mostly ordinary labels and descriptions rather than phonetic ones: air sucking, belching, blowing, blowing into fist, blowing into cupped hands, blowing through nostrils, breathing audibly, clicking tongue, clicking tongue (a few notes), clicking, lateral coughing, exhaling, ff-ing, grunting, hissing, egressive hissing, ingressive, hissing (a few notes), hm-ing, humming a few notes, lip-closing percussion, lip-smacking, lip-sucking, moaning, mouth-corner sucking, nostril egressive friction, nasal velic affricate (light

182

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

snorting), nose-clearing, ingressive pss-ing, puffing, regurgitating, sighing, sniffing, light sniffing, forceful snorting, spitting, light audible spitting, inverse interlabial tongue-flapping on mouth floor, whistling, monotone whistling a few notes, yawning. [Qeequeg] began counting the pages [a book] […] at every fiftieth page […] stopping a moment, looking vacantly around him, and giving utterance to a long-drawn gurgling whistle of astonishment (Melville, MD, X) And Ma went to the meat counter, her forefinger pressed against her lips, blowing on her finger, thinking deeply. ‘Might get some pork chops,’ she said (Steinbeck, GW, XXVIII)

4.12

Conclusion The interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary aspects of paralinguistic alternants are still susceptible of further research. At the linguistic level, we need to systematically identify the vocabulary of alternants in each community’s language and culture, to later develop a system of written representation, since we need to be able to talk about them, since their interactive communicative status is as legitimate as that of etyom-based constructs in interaction. To this end, shunning the trend begun by cartoons, comic books and comic strips as only an amusing curiosity would be a grave error, for they truly possess the sometimes unwittingly felicitous inspiration for linguists, phoneticians and writers to even adopt from them what is already surprisingly valid and improve what now seems rather far-fetched. In addition, they reveal cross-culturally not only the negative aspects of poor translation and identical use of paralanguage in their so-called ‘art,’ but also the positive effects of ‘universalization’ of soundgraphs, and above all their oral use when it is not in detriment of, but as a complement to, possible existing verbal forms. On a clinical level, a detailed record of an encounter or a study of solitary behavior would require that what some might neglect as trivial be always indicated, since alternants can, wittingly or unwittingly, carry as much meaning as verbal constructions and act as an eloquent form of information ‘leakage,’ while they often constitute veritable symptoms in hospital patients.

4.13

Topics for interdisciplinary research 1.An inventory of paralinguistic alternants in a given language. 2.Masculine, feminine, manly and effeminate paralinguistic alternants. 3.Paralinguistic alternants in and out of a give language’s official dictionary: limitations and possibilities.

Paralanguage, IV

4.Paralinguistic alternants in literature. 5.Ontogenetic development of paralinguistic alternants. 6.Paralinguistic alternants in the theater and the cinema. 7.Pathological aspects of paralinguistic alternants. 8.Random alternants in social interaction. 9.Transliteration, translation and equivalence in paralinguistic alternants in comics. 10.Paralinguistic communication with animals: spelling problems and norms for their unification. 11.A Comparative study of alternants in two languages. 12.A comparative study of alternants en in the Romance languages. 13.Inclusion of alternants in the dictionary: criteria and norms. 14.Names for unlabelled alternants. 15.The spelling of unwritten alternants. 16.The etymological or non-etyomological origin of alternants across cultures and languages. 17.A phonetic inventory of the alternants of a language. 18.A comparative study of the capacity of the phonetic system of two or more languages for the formation and written representation of alternants. 19.Alternants in informal conversations. 20.Socioeducational identification of alternants: male and female. 21.Alternants in youth’s speech. 22.Calling animals: a cultural inventory. 23.A comparative multilingual study of alternants as dictionary entries. 24.Paralinguistic alternants in children’s interactions. 25.A dictionary of paralingyistic alternants.

183

Chapter 5

Kinesics Gestures, manners and postures

about picking a wife. See that she chews her food well, and sets her foot down firmly on the ground when she walks, and you’re all right (Collins, M, ‘First Period,’ II) The fierce flash of her eyes said more than any words (Conan Doyle, HB, XIII) She seemed to have lost her deference. Her breast rose and fell as though with secret anger (Galsworthy, MP, I, vI) ‘But Huzoor!’ said Hari, touching the foreman’s black boots with his hand and taking the touch of the beef hide to his forehead. ‘Be kind’ (Anand, C, IV)68

5.1

Definition, nature, perception, functions, scope, and temporal dimension of kinesics

5.1.1

Ever since I began to study nonverbal communication, I was aware not only of the relationship between what had been called kinesics — first as a component of speech (as discussed in Chapter 4, Volume I) — and of the other somatic activities, but of the unnecessary limitations with which that realm was being defined. In light of those limitations, I have always suggested what seems to me a realistic definition of kinesics, accordant with the approach taken in this chapter and with whatever is said throughout the three volumes: Conscious and unconscious psychomuscularly-based body movements and intervening or resulting still positions, either learned or somatogenic, of visual, visual-acoustic and tactile and kinesthetic perception, which, whether isolated or combined with the linguistic and paralinguistic structures and with other somatic and objectual behavioral systems, possess intended or unintended communicative value.69

Thus defined, kinesics must not unrealistically exclude, for instance: a.postures, since they delimit, and are precisely the product of, movements, with which they articulate in a communicative continuum, as silences do with respect to sounds:

186

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Harran fell thoughtful, his hands in his pockets, frowning moodily at the toe of his boot (Norris, O, I, V)

b.gaze movements and direction (since eye movements, which naturally include the eyelids, can be as eloquent as gestures in interaction): And her eyes, her smile expressed a kind of rueful amusement and an apology (Huxley, PCP, IX)

c.the hand we hardly see moving inside a pocket (as it betrays a movement not less significant than an emotional voice): Godfrey stood, still with his back to the fire, uneasily moving his fingers among the contents of his side-pockets, and looking at the floor (Eliot, SM, III)

d.the heaving chest that expands and contracts with agitated breathing (for its affective eloquence and its possible co-structuration with words): Her bosom was heaving in a distressful manner that I greatly pitied (Dickens, BH, IV) She [Ruth, in court] was pale, angry, almost sullen, and her breast heaved (Grey, RT, X)

e.the stride of a person, or the unseen footsteps, which may speak as loud as his or her conversational gestures, and yet we may never perceive and weigh: [Godfrey] with his head down, and his heel grinding a hole slowly in the gravel walk […] put out (Collins, M, ‘First Period,’ IX)

f.and so many even more subtle movements or still positions which certainly carry meaning but are never systematically integrated into kinesic observation or research. Thus, any discipline that studies communication, beginning with linguistics, must acknowledge the preponderance and the conscious or unconscious need for movement in any interactive situation under normal circumstances, as well as the limitations of the conversational mechanism when one of the three systems in the speech structure language-paralanguage-kinesics cannot operate. 5.1.2

As indicated in its definition, kinesic activity can be perceived, individually or jointly, in four ways: visually, as we tend to conceive of gestures, with no other type of sensory perception, except those we can imagine through synesthesial associations; audibly (discussed in Chapter 6), as when snapping the fingers, applauding, clapping someone’s back, the sound of footsteps, always with a specific semantic content, though not necessarily revealed: Tom snapped his fingers at him, for he was rising fast in wrath (Dickens, MC, XXIV)

Kinesics

187

Ralph strode the corridor haughtily… He did not know he was mutely saying […] “I’m not the greasy and tattered hobo who arrived in town this morning” […]./ His heels clicked aggressively on the shiny stone pavement (Lewis, M, XXV)

tactually, as people hug, kiss or shake hands, the additional touch receptors for pressure, heat, cold and perhaps pain being particularly active then: She [Mrs. Driffield] held out her hand […] and when I took it gave mine a warm and hearty pressure (Maugham, CA, V)

kinesthetically, that is, not necessarily along with direct contact, as in the first example below, but through an object that acts as a mediator and transmitting channel, as when another person’s movements are communicated through a shared couch and to that person’s words or silence is added that very intimate sensory perception of his or her movements (e.g. tremors of anxiety, fidgeting, preening): as I sat opposite to her at work, I felt the table tremble. Looking up, I saw my little maid shivering from head to foot (Dickens, BH, XXXI)

5.1.3

In addition, kinesic behaviors possess a temporal dimension (i.e. the chronemics of kinesics), as they can be transmitted through time. Not only can we vividly reconstruct a person’s gestures, manners and postures in our memory as part of speech (as discussed in Chapter 4.11, Volume I), but in an even more dramatic way, its physical effects can stay behind and evoke those actions with a social and even clinical significance (e.g. in the nervously crushed cigarette butts left in an ashtray, in the tiny bread balls found on a dining table, in the lines and figures someone scribbled with a ballpen or a penknife on a classroom desk, wall or tree trunk):70 I could read all that in the dust; and I [Sherlock Holmes] could read that as he walked he grew more and more excited. That is shown by the increased length of his strides (Conan Doyle, SS, I, IV).

5.1.4 On the other hand, the possible functions of nonverbal systems with respect to language have been identified in Chapter 2.9, Volume I. As for our movements and positions, what we are saying, have said or will say can be: (a) replaced by them (e.g. a beckoning gesture instead of ‘Come’); (b) supported (e.g. nodding while saying ‘He’s a great person’); (c) duplicated simultaneously (e.g. shaking the head while saying ‘Nothing doing!’): “Mr Guppy screws his mouth into a silent ‘No!’ and shakes his head” (Dickens, BH, XXIX); (d) repeated (e.g. shaking the head after saying ‘Nothing doing!’); (e) weakened (e.g. saying ‘The movie is all right,’ with a slight condescending smile); (f) contradicted (e.g. saying ‘He’s very nice’ while frowning and with light unilateral mouth distension); and (g) masked (e.g. smiling while aggressively whispering to someone in public). Without forgetting, however, that in

188

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

most cases the paralinguistic features correspond to kinesics, and vice versa, since both systems function within discourse in perfect morphological and semantic cohesion with verbal language. 5.1.5

Merely outlining the development of kinesic studies would take more space than for paralanguage. Kinesics being, somewhat deceivingly, more observable, measurable and tangible, its research has produced, first, a vast popular and pseudoscientific literature — usually self-betraying in its use of the term “body language” — full of superficial generalizations and intuitive conclusion. They are in many instances hasty observations that ignore, among other things, basic variables like somatogenic factors, cultural and subcultural peculiarities, gender, or socioeconomic background, simplifying quite naively the meaning of kinesic behaviors from a very limited psychodynamic point of view.71 By contrast, scientific kinesic literature, much indebted to Darwin (1872) for his observations regarding emotional expressions — reflected in a more rigorously scientific fashion in Ekman’s work, today an obliged source for the study of facial expressions72–developed notably through valuable publications during the late 50s and mostly during the 60s and 70s, continuing during the 80s and 90s, not only within social and clinical psychology, but ethology, cultural anthropology, ethnology, history (along with art), semiotics, educations, etc., although not always using the term kinesics.73 However, despite the criticism (sometimes justified, others simply ungrateful) directed toward Ray Birdwhistell (see Kendon and Sigman 1996, after his death in 1994), the true founder of kinesics as a research field (1952, 1970), it would be impossible to deny his influence and inspiration for many, nor his scientific thrust in the observation and study of body movements, partly stemming from his well-known “linguistic-kinesic analogy,” which I myself accepted with some reservations, but was also inspired by it into developing related perspectives and ideas.74

5.2

The anatomical-communicative possibilities of body articulations: From zookinesics to anthropokinesics

5.2.1

If we follow the model of the nonverbal categories discussed in Chapter 6, Volume I (and according to the definition of kinesics offered above), conversational gestures, manners and postures, whether accompanying words or by themselves, can perform the following functions in social interaction: (a) replace words with emblematic gestures (e.g. /Come/, /The check please/); (b) punctuate and emphasize them along the speech stream; (c) point at present or absent referents; (d) refer to size, volume and spatial location of something; to past, present and future; (e) draw in the air or on a surface the contour of a referent; (f) imitate movements and sounds; (g) give visual

Kinesics

form to feelings and tangible or abstract qualities, while referring to them verbally, and to reactions to internal or external stimuli; (h) refer to real or imagined events; (i) touch our own body, or someone else’s, as part of speech or outside it; (k) use gestures, manners and postures, with or without words, conditioned by our contact with substances (perfumes, drinks, etc.), and objects more or less intimately associated to the body (dress, seating furniture, etc.); in addition to (l) the regulatory conversational functions any of the categories can perform. 5.2.2 A quick comparison of human and animal kinetic repertoires shows that through them we can carry out not only activities geared to survival, defence, leisure, procreation, etc., but also sensible manifestations of our mental and spiritual endowments. Lorenz (1967), for instance, illustrates the kinetic abilities of different species for displaying ritualized actions of fight, of injure-preventing aggression, the fallow-deer chivalrous antler fight, the superiority display of fish, primates, canines, etc., the submissive attitudes (even the need for forgiveness after mutual aggression) of many species, the bodily movements of passivity and the facial expressions elicited by deprivation and bereavement among geese and chimpanzees, etc. One could cite other ethologists and animal behaviorists to illustrate the extent to which humans and animals share what following Sebeok’s felicitous term “zookinesics” (Sebeok 1972, 1977a) can be rightfully termed zookinesics (Poyatos 1983: 191). Van Lawick-Goodall (1973) described how chimpanzees can use and even shape certain tools and handle them in human-like fashion, and van Hooff (1972) documents the similarity between smiling and laughter in man and primates, also studied by Darwin (1872), while Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1979a, 1980) has amply discussed the similarities between human and animal ritualized motor patterns. Zookinesics, therefore, proves that movement constitutes by far the richest message-emitting system. However, the need to differentiate between zoosemiotics and anthropokinesics from zoosemiotics and what we can call anthroposemiotics seems obvious when we observe the interactive functions of our movements and positions as an inherent part of the triple language-paralanguage-kinesics structure, the most advanced socializing and communicational activity in the whole of creation, what truly shapes a culture and keeps it alive. 5.2.3 That social interaction depends on sound and movement is, therefore, an unquestionable principle, and when either dimension is lacking in our emitting or perceiving capabilities, daily existence is severely hampered. Besides, that lexicality, although based on verbal language, increases by the conceptual possibilities of that blend between words and paralanguage and kinesics. On the other hand, it has been seen in Volume I that not only can we perceive sound and movement directly and decode their signs audibly and visually, but also interpret them through other channels by virtue of our synesthesial capabilities, which greatly enlarges our relationship with

189

190

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

other human beings and with the general environment (e.g. we can ‘feel’ tactually and kinesthetically the consistency of another body by looking only at an arm, or ‘see’ the roughness of a façade). The articulatory possibilities of our body with itself as well as in personal interaction are also identified in Chapter 2.7, Volume I. Returning to that concept of human anatomy, even considering only the emitting possibilities of anthropokinesics, we can once more ponder the preponderance of movement over any other system by elaborating an exhaustive table-like representation of our anatomical possibilities for movement, just as we try to represent the sounds of a language, for we speak and move a language; and just as there are so many possible articulations in the phonatory areas, so are there a great number of visible articulations that facilitate four types of movements: a.those in which certain body parts adopt specific spatial positions without touching oneself (e.g. a cupped hand against the chest [the heart] to express an emotion); b.others with which we do contact our body, according to those anatomical possibilities, that is, combining, as in phonetics, an active organ with a passive one (e.g. /Mine!/), or to active ones (e.g. applauding); c.touching another person or animal (the Anglo-American ruffling of a young boy’s hair as an affectionate greeting); d.movements in contact with objects (e.g. drumming with the fingers on a desk). In this anatomical table, as appears in Fig. 5.1, ‘External Anatomy: Points and Areas of Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Articulations,’ we see, therefore, that each of those external body parts, regardless of how unimportant they may seem, is a potential component of our intrapersonal or interpersonal interaction — which can also produce sound — and that it would not be enough, for instance, to acknowledge only ‘fingers’ without specifying their parts and neglect certain significant behaviors (e.g. to caress someone’s cheek with the medial side of the forefinger), just as excluding the groins would ignore a very Spanish middle-class male behavior: [in a tavern] El muchacho del mono azul mahón […] Se rascaba ahora entre las ingles, levantando una pierna (Caballero Bonald, DDS, I, IV) Head Hair: frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal r/l, sideburn r/l long hair r/l Parietal: top, post, side r/l Occiput, r/l Temporal side r/l, Temple r/l Zygomatic process r/l Ear r/l: upper auricle r/l, upper/post edge r/l, lobe r/l

ear canal r/l, hair r/l Mastoid process r/l Mandible: angle r/l mental foramen r/l medial/lateral side r/l medial/lateral edge r/l Forehead: upper/lower central r/l upper/lower side r/l Eyebrow r/l: medial/lateral corner r/l medial/lateral hair r/l

Kinesics

Interbrow area Eye orbit r/l: upper/lower wall r/l lacrimal bone r/l lateral wall r/l Eyelid r/l: upper/lower medial/lateral Eyelashes r/l: upper medial lateral r/l lower medial/lateral r/l Eye r/l: eyeball r/l lacrimal/medial corner r/l Infraorbital area r/l: medial/lateral r/l Cheek r/l: cheekbone r/l medial area r/l, lateral area r/l Nose: upper/lower bridge, tip nasal bone side r/l, wing r/l nostril (nare) r/l, nostril hair r/l internarial cartilage Nasolabial furrow r/l: upper/lower r/l Maxillary area r/l mustache hair: central, side r/l Lips: upper/lower central, upper/lower side r/l, mouth corner r/l Philtrum Teeth: upper/lower incisors r/l upper/lower molars r/l Gums: upper/lower central side r/l Tongue: tip (apex), blade, dorsum Chin: upper, boss, dimple side r/l, underchin, jowl Arms Axilla (armpit) r/l, axillary hair r/l Arm r/l: upper/lower medial side r/l upper/lower lateral side r/l Biceps r/l: upper/lower medial side r/l upper/lower lateral side r/l Triceps r/l: upper/lower r/l Elbow r/l, inside r/l Forearms Anterior r/l: upper/lower, hair r/l Post r/l: upper/lower r/l, hair r/l Radial r/l: upper/lower r/l, hair r/l Ulnar r/l: upper/lower r/l, hair r/l Hands Wrist r/l: anterior/posterior r/l medial/lateral side r/l Palm r/l, back r/l Medial lateral edge r/l Ball r/l: medial/lateral r/l Fingers r/l: anterior/posterior r/l anterior/posterior side 1-2-3-4-5 r/l

191

medial lateral side 1-2-3-4-5 r/l Knuckles: r/l proximal/mid/distal 1-2-3-4-5 r/l Phalanges: prox/mid/distal 1-2-3-4-5 r/l Webs r/l: 1-2-3-4-5 r/l Tips r/l: 1-2-3-4-5 r/l Nails r/l: 1-2-3-4-5 r/l Cuticle/Quick r/l: 1-2-3-4-5 r/l Neck-trunk Neck: Adam’s apple anterior upper/lower r/l posterior upper/lower r/l upper lower side r/l lower-neck hollow r/l trapezius: lower anterior/posterior r/l Shoulder r/l: front r/l blade r/l:, corner r/l Clavicle r/l: medial/lateral end r/l Sternum: upper/lower, hair Thoracic area r/l: upper/lower r/l lateral side r/l, hair r/l Breast r/l: upper/lower r/l medial/lateral r/l nipple r/l, cleavage Costal side r/l: upper/lower r/l Waist r/l: r/l side Abdomen: upper/lower central upper/lower side r/l, navel Pubic area, pubic hair Groin r/l: upper/lower r/l abdominal/femoral side r/l Penis: shaft, glans Testes: lower/lateral side r/l Vulva Crotch Spine: thoracic upper/lower lumbar upper/lower Sacrum Coccyx, anus Back: thoracic upper/lower r/l lumbar upper/lower r/l Hip r/l: hip bone r/l, side r/l Buttocks r/l: upper/lower medial r/l upper/lower lateral r/l, cleavage Legs Thigh, anterior r/l: upper/lower r/l posterior r/l: upper/lower r/l medial side r/l: upper/lower r/l lateral side r/l: upper/lower r/l

192

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

thigh hair: upper/lower ant/post r/l medial/lateral upper/lower r/l Knee r/l: kneecap r/l, back r/l Shin r/l: upper/lower r/l medial side r/l upper/lower r/l Lateral side r/l: upper/lower r/l Hair: ant/post med/lat upper/lower r/l Achilles tendon r/l: upper/lower r/l medial/lateral side r/l upper/lower r/l Feet Ankle bone: medial/lateral side r/l Heel r/l: posterior/base r/l

medial/lateral side r/l Instep r/l: central proximal/distal r/l Arch r/l: medial/lateral prox/distal r/l Sole r/l: proximal/ball r/l Toes r/l: top/base 1-2-3-4-5 r/l medial/lateral side 1-2-3-4-5 r/l big toe r/l: proximal/distal joint r/l phalanges/joints r/l: 1-2-3-4 r/l web r/l: 1-2-3-4-5 r/l balls/tips r/l: 1-2-3-4-5 r/l Nail/Quick r/l: 1-2-3-4-5 r/l

Figure 5.1.External anatomy: Areas and points of possible interpersonal and intrapersonal articulations

5.3

On the phylogenetic and ontogenetic development of kinesic repertoires and their evolution and social stratification

5.3.1

It was pointed out in Volume I that the fascinating phenomenon of the co-structuration of external (kinesic) and internal (phonatory) articulations should be investigated from the point of view of ontogenetic development. The basic differences in the learning process of verbal and nonverbal behaviors by the native speaker as compared with the foreign one was also outlined (Chapter 5.6). However, and without trying to join any of the abundant disquisitions on glottogenesis, they should have considered, in my opinion, that communicative kinesic behavior would have developed as an inherent part of the basic triple structure, or at least of a primitive protolinguistic double structure made up of sounds possible in the vocal (kinetic)-auditory channel, many of which would fall within the paralinguistic alternants discussed in the previous chapter. As I pondered years ago (Poyatos 1983: 194–196) incited by my always inspiring encounters with Gordon Hewes (1973a, 1973b, 1974), he should have recognized, when trying to prove the gestural origin of language, that sounds and movements would have needed each other, not only because of the cognitive demands of a life constantly becoming more sophisticated and dependant upon social communication, but simply for natural reasons: movements could be perceived at a distance or when silence was necessary, but sound would be indispensable to overcome physical obstacles and, above all, to communicate in the dark (particularly before the use of fire, which must have increased the opportunities for social contact); without forgetting the capabilities and limitations of the deaf and the blind. In other words, what some defend as adaptive development and cognitive sophistication should have certainly been applied to both acoustic and gestural communication, without disregarding that perhaps audible kinesics lost status as the vocal-tract repertoire increased. Even

Kinesics

193

accepting McBride’s (1973) theory of communication progression from mime (acting out an event) through signs to speech, kinesic and paralinguistic behaviors must surely have coexisted, as he himself believes, to later remain as inseparable complements to verbal language. Furthermore, by acknowledging the biological and cognitive development of the vocal-auditory channel, I wish to point out the kinesiological-symbolic development of kinesic behavior, from rough, broad movements — of the whole body, the head, the arm or hand, to signify basic situations of danger, aggression-affiliation, protection-rejection, hunger, happiness, anger, etc. — to subtle and sophisticated articulations (as would happen ontogenetically to the phonatory ones) of the fingers (e.g. expressing ‘subtlety’ by lightly rubbing the first three), the eyelids (e.g. a slight wink), etc. In fact, what Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1988) — to whose work I was introduced by Hewes — called “innate motor patterns” would indeed constitute an excellent illustration for these thoughts. 5.3.2 It seems an incontestable fact that cultural advancement and technology have enriched the repertoires of gestures, manners and postures through the evolution of clothes, furniture, household utensils, etc. This can be attested by systematically comparing the kinesic repertoires (certainly not only what is included in the existing books on gestures) of educated and/or urban groups with those of the less educated and rustic. I always observed those of the latter as more limited and therefore lacking certain verbal behaviors (unable to express certain ideas properly or refer to certain objects by name) and paralinguistic behaviors (e.g. a subtle laugh, a light narial egression of irony). But this limitation becomes more obvious (since the two other systems need not function also) by the absence of certain acts within their kinesic repertoire, for instance: in gestures, an ironic brow-raising + slight nasolabial fold, or the ‘subtlety’ finger gesture mentioned above (for they do not possess the same concepts and their verbal denominators); in manners, as betrayed by greetings, gait style, eating and drinking, a woman’s hair-preening with a delicate brushing movement of index and middle fingers, instead of the whole hand, etc.; and in postures, like a man’s or woman’s leaning one arm on an chair arm with thumb under the chin and bent forefinger against the lower lip. In a word, due to their less frequent contact with people of greater verbal and nonverbal repertoires, they simply lack the versatility shown by those who have reached higher levels of socialization, and while certain behaviors would be observed only in lower-status people, even some of the same standard gestures may have a peculiar accent in their execution and parakinesic qualities. All of which confirms once more the internal cohesion of the language-paralanguage-kinesic structure from a functional, interactive and historical point of view, for all three systems have evolved within each culture.75 The girl sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand (Steinbeck, GW, XX)

194

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

las manos de la huespeda […] accionaban torpemente, mientras relataba. Eran unas manos gordezuelas, coloradas del agua helada de las coladas (Aldecoa, FS, 136)

5.3.3 As for dress fashion, in turn intimately associated to the changes in moral and religious values, it has always influenced kinesic behavior, determined, in the first place, by specific limitations or freedom imposed by certain garments or accessories (e.g. the crinoline, men’s tights), which we can infer not only from painting of the different periods (cf. Hogarth’s detailed series, “The Harlot’s Progress,” “The Rake’s Progress” and “Mariage á la Mode,” or any of the nineteenth-century and early twentiethcentury realistic paintings), books on social etiquette and deportment (cf. Wildeblood 1965) and narrative literature, but quite obviously from just perusing books on clothes.76 To this should be added aspects like the adaptation, for instance, in an oriental culture of western-style clothes (cf. Tohyama 1991: 192–198), since clothes and accessories, considered as nonverbal elements of interaction, can perform the following functions with respect to the size, form and visual characteristics of the body that wears them: confirm them or support them, enhance them, deemphasize them, and conceal them; which functions are in turn not only related to, and even determine, visually-perceived kinesic behaviors, as when swaying while wearing tight jeans or gliding under a long dress, but also to their specific social functions and even their possible audible realization: Rosa Dartle glided […] from another part of the room (Dickens, DC, XXXII)77 their daughters, remembering the maternal injunction […] had already commenced incipient flirtations in the mislaying of scarves, putting on gloves […] slight matters apparently, but which may be turned to surprisingly good account by expert practitioners (Dickens, PP, XXXV) I heard the door open again softly, and the rustling of a woman’s dress on the carpet moved towards me (Collins, WW, ‘The Story Begun by Walter Hartright,’ 34) He got up quickly as they entered, with a starchy crackle of his hard boiled shirt, and a solemn rustle of his black garments (Wolfe, LHA, XXXVI)

5.3.4 On the other hand, the personal development of kinesics (mentioned in Chapter 4.11, Volume I) has been receiving increasing interest, although not always jointly with language, let alone paralanguage, which is the only realistic approach.78 In this respect, the work of, for instance, von Raffler-Engel (1964, 1978, 1980b, 1981, 1994) and Feurstein (1981) — the latter in what he calls children’s “mediated learning experience,” that is, as affected by the people who surround them — deserve especial attention as pioneers in this area within nonverbal communication studies.

Kinesics

5.4

195

Basic principles for kinesic research: Categories, morphology, parakinesic qualifiers and intrasystemic and intersystemic co-structuration Even a perfunctory glance at the published studies of kinesics in any discipline reveals, despite the meritorious efforts of many, the lack of four basic theoretical principles which in turn inform any methodological application and, above all, allow the sort of progressive, fine-grained analysis that should always be carried out.

5.4.1 The first principle is the differentiation (introduced in Chapter 4, Volume I) between gestures, manners and postures. By gestures we should understand not only conscious movements (mainly of the head, the face alone, including gaze, and the extremities), but also unconscious and even uncontrollable ones (e.g. an emotional trembling), communicatively joined to or independently from verbal-paralinguistic language, alternating with or simultaneous to it, and constituting a main form of communication: smiles, winks, a sidelong glance, /Come here/, /He’s crazy/, etc. ‘Oh, but do stay and take a little! [tea]’ […]./ But he rejected the offer with a majestic wave of the hand (A. Brontë, TWF, XI) “Indeed! I should have been highly indignant if […]!” replied she, haughtily tossing her head (A. Brontë, AG, X) [After discovering a second murder] […] Sherlock Holmes, whose lips were compressed and his brows drawn down over his eyes (Conan Doyle, SS, I, VII) Ellen sank to her knees, with blanched face and dilating eyes, trying with folded arms and trembling hand to hide her nudity [after Colter tears off her blouse] (Grey, TLM, XIV) Kells threw up his hands as if it were useless and impossible to reason with this man (Grey, BL, XIV) Miss Crane’s thin red nostrils quivered with indignation (Wolfe, LHA, XXV) “I can’t feel his heart, mama,” he said with a nervous whicker of his lips (Wolfe, LHA, XX) Gerald flushed and his heavy jowl trembled slightly. “I don’t think you mean to be impertinent, Theo,” he said, “but you are (Wilson, ASA, I, II) “It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.”/ “Oh, no! She put her hand up to her mouth and all (Salinger, CR, VIII) “You did get kicked out! You did!” […] “You did! Oh, Holden!” She [Pheobe] had her hand on her mouth and all. She was very emotional (Salinger, CR, XXI)

196

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Manners, as more or less conscious and dynamic, mainly learned and socially ritualized according to a situational context, alternating with or simultaneous to words: how we don or doff a garment, walk with a swag, take food to the mouth and chew it, laugh, cough, perform a greeting, cross arms or legs (one thing being the posture itself and another the manner in which we adopt or release it), the Japanese navigating in a crowd with a horizontal hand perpendicular to the floor at one’s face level (a curious behavior when seen for the first time) while muttering ‘Chotto Shitsurei’ (‘Pardon me’), etc: Mrs Gamp […] came sidling and bridling into the room (Dickens, MC, XIX) The mariner produced a toothpick, and (saving his regard [too look at Mr. Marvel]) was engrossed thereby for some minutes (Wells, IM, XIV) In the intuitive graces she [Sister Carrie] was still crude. She could scarcely toss hear head gracefully. Her hands were almost ineffectual (Dreiser, SC, I) Ashley sipped [port] gingerly, and Gibbs, with his great red hands on the glass, gulped rather (Woolf, Y, 1880) Mr. Henchy began to snuffle and to rub his hands over the fire at a terrific speed (Joyce, D, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”).

Postures of the whole body, of the legs, trunk, hands or eyelids alone, are static (but moving through a manner), conscious or unconscious, equally ritualized and, as with manners, less utilized as part of an expressive repertoire, although, as with gestures and manners, they communicate gender, social status, cultural background, mood, etc.: “[…] The dead are in Paradise.”/ Then he hung his head, for he did not believe that Emil was in Paradise (Cather, P, V, I) Miss Woodburn laughed with her face bowed upon her wrist (Howells, HNFL, III, IV)

5.4.2 The second needed distinction, within each of the three categories, is between free and bound. By free is meant any kinetic act or position performed by one or more body parts in space, without touching other parts or any object: free gestures are, therefore, movements of the eyes and face, a head toss to shake the hair, /Victory/, etc: Mrs. Archer raised her delicate eyebrows in the particular curve that signified: “The butler — ” (Wharton, AI, V) ‘Hello, stranger!’ […]/ The rider responded with a curt nod (Grey, RPS, I)

free manners are they way we proffer a hand in a greeting, a /Hi!/, the way we walk (not its posture), yawn, stretch, etc.:

Kinesics

197

un caballero […] Hizo muchas reverencias a todos y con la mano una ceremonia, usada de los que beben en charco (Quevedo, SC)

free postures are the way we stand, squat, stoop, etc.: she [Rachel] carried her head as upright as a dart, in a dashing, spirited, throughbread way (Collins, M, VIII)

By bound must be understood any movement or position in which the hands touch each other or other body parts or any part contacts another body or object: bound gestures have been studied in Chapter 6 of volume I as self-adaptors (e.g. /It stinks/, /Hush/, crossing oneself), alter-adaptors (e.g. making the sign of the cross on someone else’s forehead in the Sacrament of Anointing) and object-adaptors (e.g. pointing with one’s eyeglasses, pounding on a desk): “By-the-way!” cried Fulkerson, slapping himself on the leg […] (Howells, HNFL, IV, I) “There’s Bishop Kane,” whispered Withers, nudging Shefford (Grey, RT, X)

bound manners are self-adaptors like hair-preening or scratching, alter-adaptors like hugging and delousing someone, body-adaptors like chewing gum or blowing out smoke, and object-adaptors like the way one handles a pipe or cutlery, knocks on a door or taps on a table with index and middle fingers to thank someone pouring tea in China or Hong Kong: “Well,” said Mr. Bradley, brushing his long mustache reflectively away from his mouth […] (Maugham, RE, XVII)

bound postures are self-adaptors like sitting with interlaced hands holding one’s knees or the back of the head, alter-adaptors like hugging or (applying the wider concept of interpersonal articulation) bowing at someone, object-adaptors like the various possible postures in using a chair, on grass or sand, or a woman’s consciously provocative leaning forward across a table from a man. This free-bound distinction, of obvious methodological usefulness, must be extended to include its relationship with other somatic systems in intersystemic constructions (i.e. free or bound to one or more of them), discussed further down: He lay down on his back on the wooden floor [of a truck] and he pillowed his head on his crossed hands, and his forearms pressed against his ears (Steinbeck, GW, XXI)

5.4.3 Something else that seems to be ignored in kinesic research is the triple-phase itinerary of any gesture, manner or posture, which even differentiates the performance of a similar gesture across several cultures according to socioeconomic status, sex, age, personality, etc., but whose relevance goes further. Gestures (using the term generically) are delimited materially and visually by other movements and positions

198

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

in a way that they all succeed each other in a position-movement-position, continuum that becomes communicative and interactive only if they are perceived by someone else, as in: She [Lady Deedlock] has thrown herself upon the floor […] her face buried in the cushions of a couch. She rises up, hurries to and fro, flings herself down again (Dickens, BH, LV) his apprehension passed into an incredulous stare, and this into the gesture of disgust with which he tore the paper in two and turned to walk quickly homeward (Wharton, HM, II, VIII)

Now each of those gestures, manners or postures follows this course: a.a formative phase that can be initiated in different static positions to later continue its course (sometimes as what is in reality a ‘manner,’ as the movement described in order to fold the arms), for instance, ‘how’ we come to signify ‘No, sir’ with the hand, to break off a piece of a bread roll to eat it, or even in a more subtle sequence: The serenity of her expression [Sally’s] was altered by a slight line between the eyebrows; it was the beginning of a frown (Maugham, OHB, XXI)

b.a central phase following, be it a movement (e.g. shaking the hand in the French ‘O, là, là!’) or a static position (e.g. a flirtatious wink, holding the temples with thumb and forefinger while trying to remember): “Sold him [as a slave]?” echoed both, lifting up their hands in dismay (Beecher Stowe, UTC, V) “I mean it, sir. Please don’t worry about me.” I sort of put my hand on his shoulder. “Okay?” I said (Salinger, CR, II)

c.a dissolving, final or disarticulating phase that ends before initiating the formative phase of the next gesture, manner or posture (i.e. a new articulation), or rather blends with it in an overlapping way, a manner in itself (e.g. ending a greeting, uncrossing the legs, the residual smile after a laugh): In the momentary firmness of the hand that was never still — a firmness inspired by the utterance of these last words, and dying away with them — I saw the confirmation of her earnest tones (Dickens, BH, LX)

The reality and relevance of this tripartite differentiation is constantly illustrated by photojournalism, in which the subjects were, at best, caught in the central phase of a kinesic behavior which might be easily (often as planned) misinterpreted negatively (e.g. the already losing candidate during a campaign, who is shown touching his head with a grimace, when he was simply in the central phase of preening his hair), even more in a compound gesture like:

Kinesics

199

He put his head on one side, shut his eyes, and lifted up his hand with the palm held level with his shoulder, which in the Greek sign language […] means ‘no’[…] a soft, deprecating, apologetic ‘no’ (Morton, TLB, VI, 2)

5.4.4 These three phases are closely related to the five parakinesic qualities, a totally indispensable component for observation and measurement in any serious anthropological, sociopsychological or clinical kinesic analysis, as well as for our own personal perception and use in interpersonal encounters, since they can modify the meaning of the message, besides revealing cultural or socioeducational backgrounds. Intensity, or muscular tension, akin to stress and articulatory tension (e.g. a /No!/ with a horizontal side-to-side hand movement and a headshake), can be most eloquent: There was a knock at the door; literally, three full knocks and a little one at the end./ “That kind of knock means half-and-half — somebody between gentle and simple” (Hardy, FMC, XXVI) She felt her sister-in-law stiffen with nervousness and clasp her little bag tightly (Woolf, Y, 1891) Robin stirred his coffee furiously (Wilson, ASA, I, IV), Adam’s hands were clenched and the blood was driven out of his white knuckles. “You make me doubt myself,” he said fiercely (Steinbeck, EE, XXIV, I) “No!” Viciously, Warren Trent stubbed out his cigar (Hailey, H, “Tuesday,” 2)

In fact, the intensity of different systems will combine in one expression: A broad-shouldered man […] spatted his knee with his palm. ‘I know it […]!’ he cried (Steinbeck, GW, XXIV)

But intensity can be found also in a multiple-system expression: noting how flushed he looked, and how his hand closed on a bit of paper as if he were going to screw it into a ball (Woolf, Y, 1880)

Pressure, which I first regarded as a characteristic of the intensity itself, I later recognized as the unconscious or very conscious interactional behavior independently qualifying our movements. We exert varying degrees of pressure (after all, clearly distinct from the other three cutaneous sensations of touch, pain, heat and cold) on inanimate objects (e.g. a steering wheel clasped by an impatient or angry driver), which, however, cab be visually perceived by others: Mrs. Lyons had resumed her seat. Her hands were grasping the arms of the chair, and I saw that the pink nails had turned white with the pressure of her grip (Conan Doyle, HB, XIII)

200 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

But it is above all during interpersonal contacts, particularly in greetings and goodbyes, as well as in expressions of feelings and emotions (e.g. an embrace), that pressure becomes more specifically communicative: He [March] now let Fulkerson have his hand, and they exchanged a cordial pressure (Howells, HNF, I, I) taking up his umbrella, he put his chilly hand into the agent’s, withdrew it without the faintness pressure, and went out (Galsworthy, MP, I, IV) The strong, warm pressure of his hand (Grey, DW, XVII) She took his hand and pressed it affectionately (Huxley, PCP, XII)

Obviously, a decrease in kinesic pressure can be as eloquent as an increase, most naturally linked in the following example to the concurrent interactive silence: He [Aron] was turning shy. She [Abra] could feel it in the relaxing grip on her arm and in his silence, and she could see it in his raised face (Steinbeck, EE, XLXIX, I)

To dispel any doubt in the reader’s mind as to the differentiation between intensity and pressure, it should be pointed out that a hand, for instance, can approach the touched object with great muscular tension in the hand and yet exerting the most delicate pressure in the touching act itself, as would happen, for instance, trying to assuage someone else’s suffering while overwhelmed by emotion. But, on the other hand, it should be noted that visible trembling, of obvious intensity, constitutes in itself a kinesic manifestation: There was a pause intense and real […] Then Gerald’s fingers gripped hard and communicative into Birkin’s shoulders, as he said:/ “No, I’ll see to this job through, Rupert […]” (Lawrence, WL, XIV) Gerald’s hands trembled with anger (Wilson, ASA, II, I)

Range, or spatial dimension of the movement (similar to syllabic duration), shortening or lengthening it (e.g. the /No!/ mentioned above, but with a short or ample hand movement): Rising from his seat, Dismukes made a wide, sweeping gesture, symbolical of a limitless expanse (Grey, WW, VIII) ‘Such an old Magician!’ Polly spoke in a thrilling whisper […] opening her eyes very wide, as though to express in dramatic pantomime as well as words the mysteriousness of the magical old man. ‘A wizard’ (Huxley, PCP, IV)

Velocity, or temporal dimension (similar to speech tempo and coinciding with it in the language-paralanguage-structure), can modify the meaning as well: I was sensible that someone was approaching me, with a light, but slow and hesitating tread (A. Brontë, TWF, III)

Kinesics

201

Miss Ophelia […] rattled away with her needles in a way that had volumes of meaning in it (Beecher Stowe, UTC, XVI) He drank up his tea. Some drops fell on his little pointed beard. He took out his large silk handkerchief and wiped his chin impatiently] (Woolf, Y, 1880) shaking his head slowly from side to side, and gazing abstractedly out of the grated windows before him, as if he were fondly recalling some peaceful scene of his early youth: ‘it seems but yesterday […]’ (Dickens, PP, XLII) Seldon […] slowly lit a cigarette […] to proclaim, by some habitual gesture of this sort, his recovered hold on the actual […] that, their flight over, he had landed on his feet (Wharton, HM, I, VI) It was a slow smile […] a very sensual smile and it made her heart melt in her body (Maugham, PV, II)

The Duration of the behavior should be regarded as distinct from (though closely related to) speed. Besides, a complete gesture can be formed by several repeated movements that we can perform slowly or rapidly, and its formative and dissolving phases can be more or less visible: a strange recital. She [June] heard it flushing painfully, and, suddenly, with a curt handshake, took her departure (Galsworthy, MP, II, IV) His hands moulded ample [women’s] curves of air (Joyce, U, 234) a huge man […] His slow gliding walk and slow speech (Doctorow, WF, III)

Naturally, one single action can conspicuously exhibit several of these qualifying features: She stepped towards him with a movement that was horribly cringing (Maugham, R)

On the other hand, while these qualifiers lend movements and positions their specific intention or meaning, they do it also with respect to what is being expressed verbally, as was mentioned when discussing the relationships between language and nonverbal systems (Chapter 2.9, Volume I): ‘No, my young friend!’ he interrupted, shaking his head and frowning and smiling both at once (Dickens, GE, XVIII) Professor Clun [referring to Elvira’s refusal to write an invited article] banged his pipe heavily on the ash-tray, “Well,” he said, “the Lord indeed mightily preserveth fools” (Wilson, ASA, I) [after Rachel takes her leave of her cousin Godfrey] He waited a little by himself, with his head down, and his heel grinding a hole slowly in the gravel walk; you never saw a man look more put out (Collins, M, ‘First Period,’ IX)

202 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

5.4.5 Lastly, another extremely relevant aspect of communicative behaviors — traditionally neglected in kinesic research and even clinical observation — is the relationship between each gesture, manner or posture and other behaviors within each of the other two kinesic categories or between them and any other sign systems. In the first instance we are witnessing intrasystemic co-behaviors we must acknowledge with respect to those we are analyzing or simply perceiving in our interaction with people. It can be the facial behavior in a phase of ontogenetic development, a case of depression or schizophrenia, a job interview, the gestures between two lovers sitting on a bench (as could have been added in Kendon 1975), or a person’s verbal-nonverbal expressive repertoire; but those concurring movements or positions of the hands, arms, shoulders and the whole trunk accompanying a specific behavior must not be judged as independent ’contextual’ elements, for we are witnessing a whole construct of bodily articulations that occur in a given situation. We may want to register, for instance, the eyebrow raising + smile of surprise of a person as another one shows up; but perhaps he or she has at the same time uncrossed the legs or the arms, or has leaned forward while saying (and ‘moving’), ‘Why, I didn’t expect you here today!’ Now those other kinesic behaviors possessing specific semantic values complete the kinesic portion (and a whole behavioral or ‘articulatory complex’) which is at the same time part of a the total audible-visual expression of happy surprise. Sometimes it can be a relatively simple combination, as in the first example (where, however, surprise and sarcasm blend), or more complex, as in the second, an apparent show of friendship which gaze contradicts: Mr Fairlie arched his eyebrows and pursed his lips in sarcastic surprise (Collins, WW, 180) ‘I know, old man,’ he [Burlap] said, laying his hand on the other’s shoulder with a gesture that disturbingly reminded Walter of [Bassiano, in The Merchant of Venice, showing friendship]. ‘I know what being hard up is’ […] another friendly pat and a smile. But the eyes expressed nothing (Huxley, PCP, XIII)

The intersystemic behaviors are, therefore, those generated by different systems (e.g., blushing and tears, words and gesture), intrasystemic and intersystemic behaviors together constituting then the truly complete expression. There can be in interaction intimate associations between kinesics and verbal and paralinguistic behaviors (e.g. /It was /this big/!, /Eeungh! [holding one’s nose]) as well as dermal reactions (e.g. the posture, blushing and nervous laughter of a shy girl) and chemical reactions (e.g. gestures during weeping, the way one wipes away tears): [when Sir Percival approaches Laura] She started violently, and a faint cry of surprise escaped her (Collins, WW, 193) Her cheek grew burning hot against my neck, and her arms trembled and tightened round me (Collins, WW, 204)

Kinesics

203

He [Jude] shook his head hopelessly, his eyes wet (Hardy, JO, II) She [Jennie] rose./ “Oh,” she exclaimed, clasping her hands and stretching her arms out toward him. There were tears of gratefulness in her eyes (Dreiser, JG, VII) “you mustn’t be afraid of thinking about her.”/ “Afraid?” he mumbled as though he hadn’t understood. But he had understood […] The blood rushed guiltily into his cheeks (Huxley, EG, IX)

5.4.6 The possibility of interrupted kinesic behaviors should be mentioned as well, for that unfinished gesture, manner or posture can be, when halted in its trajectory, as eloquent as the words that are never said in speech or an interruption of it: John wearily swung his leg over the pommel, but did not at once dismount. His clear gray eyes were wondering riveted upon the hunter (Grey, MF, XIX)

5.5

Personal kinesic configuration

5.5.1

Before dealing with gestures, manners and postures separately, and despite the fundamental importance of facial features as the basic communicational channel (discussed in Chapter 3, Volume I), the term kinesic configuration should be suggested as the person’s bodily repertoires of movements and still positions. When we perceive someone positively or negatively, we are judging not only his or her movements, but also the static kinesic totality, just as we judge language, paralanguage and silences, which once more proves the interdependence and indivisibility of the structure language-paralanguage-kinesics. It is, therefore, a whole definitional gestalt in which we appreciate a hierarchy of those features according to our personal tendencies and criteria, particularly esthetic, conditioned in turn by multiple socioeducational and cultural factors. We cannot imagine a single personal gage for judging the features of others that would not automatically exclude many of those gestalts. The more perceptive of literary writers, offer us, as analyzers of people, many examples, in many of which we inevitably find the paralinguistic features as an inherent part of the person’s configuration, and both static an dynamic characteristics — the way we remember a person — which the reader is asked to carefully ponder, for instance:79 [Mr Jobling] had a portentously sagacious chin, and a pompous voice, with a rich huskiness in some of its tones that went directly to the heart […] His boots […] creaked as he walked […] Perhaps he could shake his head, rub his hands, or warm himself before a fire, better than any man alive; and he had a peculiar way of smacking his lips and saying, ‘ah!’ at intervals while patients detailed their symptoms, which inspired great confidence (Dickens, MC, XXVII) [Rachel] she carried her head as upright as a dart, in a dashing, spirited, throughbread way — […] she had a clear voice, with a ring of the right metal in it, and a smile that

204 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

began very prettily in her eyes before it got her lips — and there behold the portrait of her (Collins, M, VIII) the pleasure he took in the set of her head, the way her hair grew on her forehead and the nape, her steady gaze when he spoke, the grave freedom of her gait and gestures (Wharton, R, XIII) Her body [Miriam’s] was not flexible and living. She walked with a swing, rather heavily, her head bowed forward, pondering. She was not clumsy, and yet none of her movements seemed quite the movement […] There was no looseness or abandon about her (Lawrence SL, V,II)

Obviously, the static and dynamic features discussed in Chapter 3.1 of Volume I are essential components of this configuration, and the reader is urged to review and ponder their characteristics at this juncture and in this context. Thus, the anatomical characteristics of a person have a definite bearing on our perception of his or her kinesics, mostly in the more dynamic one of gestures and manners. One’s kinesic configuration must be associated not only with the external features of the ‘speaking face,’ identified in Chapter 3 of Volume I. While it is true that the eyes and lips, for instance, become such objects of attention in, and qualifiers of, personal interaction, it is not less true that the functions played by the hands are in direct proportion to the sensitiveness of the cointeractant. And yet, we find no reference in general kinesic research to the visual anatomical features and kinetic style of a person’s hands while speaking: And he [Carewe, an educated executive] held out that long, shapely, speaking hand (Grey, BD, IX) His long aristocratic hands [S. I. Denham’s] lay serene on the desk or fluttered in delicate accentuation (de Mille, DP, XXIV)

On the positive side, the visually smooth texture of a woman’s hands, their shape and size and the length of their fingers, made visually dynamic in their continual execution of gestures and manners, can certainly influence a sensitive man’s interaction with her, even as nonspeech components of the encounter, as in the rather ‘modern’ brushing aside of her hair, at times too tense, others definitely overused, or, at best, simply engagingly delicate: She [Helen Wedwidge] pulled off her hat and with a beautiful impatient movement of the hand shook back the ruddy-brown curls of her hair. “Hideously hot!” (Huxley, EG, I)

In fact, woman’s attractiveness can very well lie in the static and dynamic presence of her hands: your hands [Isabel] are your most fascinating feature. They are so slim and elegant […] I’m always amazed at the infinite grace with which you use them. Whether by

Kinesics

205

nature or by art you never make a gesture without imparting beauty to it. They’re like flowers sometimes and sometimes like birds on the wing. They’re more expressive than any words you can say (Maugham, RE, V, IV)

5.5.2 Along with the principles so far outlined the researcher would do well to take into account the classification of the various standards made in Chapter 1.9, Volume I, that is: standard, extrastandard, infrastandard, etc. In Somerset Maugham’s last example we could imagine those praising words applied only to a refined person. And this refinement is sometimes natural, while others can be acquired, as Maugham himself admits: It might be that the grace of her gestures [Isabel’s], the felicity of her carriage, had been acquired by taking thought, but they had a look of perfect spontaneity (Maugham, RE, IV, I).

5.6

Gestures, I: Phrasing, simultaneity, congruence-incongruence, inter-masking Precisely because the bulk of kinesic research, as well as inventories and dictionaries, concentrate, in a rather simplifying fashion, on what here has been defined exclusively as gestures (to the detriment of manners and postures), certain fundamental but neglected aspects of this specific category must be outlined here as indispensable principles.80

5.6.1 First of all, gestures, like words, can occur in strings of what are perfectly coherent phrasal constructions, as Kendon (1983:18) pointed out when referring specifically to the different acts in the forelimbs, which we organize in dynamic “phrases” that include smaller phrases within what he terms “Gesture Units.” In the first example below we see the hands twice articulated with the knees (once producing an eloquent quasiparalinguistic sound as well), along with the expression in both his gaze face, then the arms and a new form of eye behavior followed by a meaningful postural change: Mr. Weller planted his hands on his knees, and looked full in Mr. Winkle’s face, with an expression of countenance which showed that he had not the remotest intention of being trifled with./ […] having accompanied this last sentiment [verbally expressed] with an emphatic slap on each knee, folded his arms with a look of great disgust, and threw himself back in his chair, as if awaiting the criminal’s defence (Dickens, PP, XXXVIII) that officer [policeman] yawned, stretched out his elbows, elevated himself an inch and a half on the balls of his toes, smiled and looked humorously at Jude (Hardy, JO, II, IV)

206 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

In fact, one can through gestures alone construct quite elaborate messages: The late arrival [when visually greeted at a concert] smiled back, blew a kiss, laid a finger to her lips, pointed to an empty chair at the other side of the room, threw out both hands in a little gesture that was meant to express apologies for being late and despairing regret at being unable in the circumstance to come and speak to Lady Edward (Huxley, PCP, II)

5.6.2 But, still more significantly, two or more gestures can occur at the same time as: a.simultaneous single-meaning gestures in the same or different body area. Even on the face alone, the elements of a multiple expression can complement and even qualify each other as other verbal and nonverbal systems can (Chapter 2.9, Volume I): “Why, my Lord, what have you done with your lovely partner?”/ “Nothing!
” answered Lord Orville, with a smile and a shrug (Burney, E, XII) Miriam looked up. Her mouth opened, her dark eyes blazed and winced, but she said nothing. She swallowed her anger and her shame, bowing her dark head (Lawrence, SL, VII) waking up on the train] her eyes continued to rest on him with a vague smile which appeared to light her face from within, while her lips kept their sleepy droop (Wharton, R, III)

Other times, this gestural simultaneity covers different body areas: But Jude’s mind seemed to grow confused soon, and he could not get on [reciting the Nicene’s creed]. He put his hand to his forehead, and his face assumed an expression of pain (Hardy, JO. II, VII).

b.Simultaneous multiple-meaning gestures in the same or different body area, as in: ‘Bah!’ cried John Westlock, with the utmost disgust and disdain the monosyllable is capable of expressing (Dickens, MC, II) Mr Tigg, who with his arms folded on his breast surveyed them, half in despondency and half in bitterness (Dickens, MC, VII) My guardian stopped and looked at him with a whimsical mixture of amusement and indignation in his face (Dickens, BH, XXXI) seguía él hablando con expresión de caricia y de celo […] seguro de vencer todas las dificultades (Espina, AM, I) “He committed suicide,” said Marie Hélène with a grimace of horror and disgust (Wilson, ASA, I, III)

The simultaneity of gesture and words can occur by the dominant superimposition of the former, thus giving a special tone to the verbal expression:

Kinesics

207

The heavenly gentleness of his smile made his apologies irresistible (Collins, M, ‘Second Period,’ II)

5.6.3 Given the above facts, this multiplicity can imply either congruence or incongruence among the various components (again, as among verbal and nonverbal systems), an observation that sensitizes us to the interaction processes on deeper levels, as in this instances of semantic congruence: I won’t bear it. No, I won’t” he said, clenching his hand with a fierce frown (Beecher Stowe, UTC, III)

5.6.4 Directly related to the concept of congruence or incongruence, and given the interactive experience we acquire as part of the cognitive processes, are the inter-gesture masking behaviors identified by Ekman (1981) — although referring only to the face — with respect to the expression of emotions, stemming from his model of the facial action units (Ekman 1976, 1982a; Ekman and Oster 1979). Ekman identifies various ways in which people (more often than we imagine) try to conceal the expressive kinesic behavior which is already conveying a specific emotion or thought by camouflaging it or masking it, even as consciously as we would the meaning of our words. We may try to mask that feeling or emotion with another one we do not feel, as in the first example, where bitterness is shown also by paralanguage, or the second, where the person wants to show contempt without being able to conceal his pleasure: [Mesía] Vio en el rostro de aquella mujer [Visita] una amargura que revelaban ciertos músculos, mientras que otros luchaban por borrar aquel gesto. Su voz temblaba un poco (Alas, R, VIII) Ataity made a disparaging grimace; but through the mask of contempt his brown eyes shone with pleasure (Huxley, EG, XV)

But it may happen that the emotion we try to hide makes us feel, for instance, shame, and then we also try to conceal this secondary emotion by masking it with a third one. Another reason for wanting to conceal an emotion is the fear of its being recognized, which varies according to the skill we have acquired in doing it and whom we try to deceive. Naturally, the fact that we decide to prepetrate this deception does not mean that we do not feel guilty and ashamed to do it, which is mitigated only by practice. We could add that we may also try to mask, unsuccessfully, what we feel by means of a neutral appearance or perhaps indifference; in which case it may even happen that we betray a complex mixture of feelings, as in: As soon as he [Mr. Dawson] set eyes on the patient [Laura] I saw his face alter. He tried to hide it, but he looked both confused and alarmed (Collins, WW, 390)

While Ekman refers only to kinesics, we should also acknowledge the possible addition of paralanguage and even verbal language in such situations. The words chosen and

208 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

how they are said can have a strong bearing on these more or less subtle masking processes, since often the three components of speech, given their inherent interrelationships, are mutually complementary in dissimulation and feigning acts: “He has everything to do with it as far as I am concerned,” March answered, with a steadiness that he did not feel (Howells, HNF, IV, VII)

Besides, even other sign systems (coughing, breaking eye contact, laughter, etc.) can perform these intended masking functions, such as blowing out smoke in this example: Los ojos fríos del dandy se animaron. Chupó el cigarro y arrojó el humo para ocultar con él sus emociones (Alas, R, VII)

5.7

Gestures, II: Anticipatory, hidden, microkinesics, phonic, objectual

5.7.1

A peculiar characteristic of conversational kinesics, which seems also to escape deeper study, is anticipatory kinesics, typical, first of all, of the nonverbal category defined as illustrators in Volume I. However, the first instance we should mention as anticipatory of speech — for it could be easily neglected — is the very speech movements, strictly within phonetics, that are often conspicuously formed in advance of the verbal or paralinguistic sound they are going to produce: Having identified that very specific and more subtle occurrence, we can now turn to the more conspicuous instances of anticipatory kinesics, occurred mostly as a gesture which quite frequently precedes the word or words that will, immediately or not so immediately, express the same verbally. The more it anticipates words, the more others can notice it and the more interactional consequences it can have, as with their possible reaction, equally preceding the words, or rather, independently of how what has already been ‘gestured’ will be expressed verbally, as when the listener completes the idea upon seeing the speaker’s gesture: ‘[…] If I sit here thinking of him,’ snarls the old man, holding up his ten impotent fingers, ‘I want to strangle him now (Dickens, BH, XXI);

or in this other example, as he perceives the sarcastic surprise before the words: ‘Oblige me by giving that man permission to withdraw,’ I said, pointing to the valet./ Mr Fairlie arched his eyebrows and pursed up his lips in sarcastic surprise./ ‘Man?’ he repeated (Collins, WW, ‘The Story Continued by Vincent Gilmore,’ III, 180);

or anticipated by the woman’s head and mouth gestures in: “Mr Jadwin!” she exclaimed. “[…] Why, I hardly know the main […]”/ But Mrs. Cressler shook her head, closing her eyes and putting her lips together./ “That don’t make any difference, Laura. Trust me […]” (Norris, P, II)

Kinesics

209

Other times, unless the gesture is an unambiguous emblem in any context, it may be correctly interpreted only when followed by a verbal explanation, as happens with the shaking of the head in: “Collie, we could have made a team,” Eitel admitted, and then shook his head in a small imperative motion as if to destroy the possibility forever, “But you did too many unpleasant things […]” (Mailer, DP, XVI)

Kendon (1990a), though limiting his observations to gestures, observed this anticipatory character referring to the fact that “gesture waits for speech,” in specific cases of descriptive gestures, as in the first example above (a kinetograph, or imitation of movement). In the other two, however, we find a much more subtle and significant realization of this phenomenon in an interpersonal encounter; quite relevant, as can be seen, in both real-life interaction and in the interaction we find in a literary text through our recreation as readers. On the other hand, we can also observe the anticipatory nature of certain manners, and even postures: She [Rachel] approached Mr Godfrey at a most unlady-like rate of speed […] her face […] unbecomingly flushed (Collins, M, ‘Second Period,’ ‘First Narrative,’ II); The rider […] made a rapid movement, singular in that it left him somewhat crouched, arms bent and stiff, with the big black gun-sheaths swung round to the fore./ ‘Lassiter!’ (Grey, RPS, I)

In fact, any type of personal signs (blushing, heaving, etc.) can announce and determine the tone of the subsequent interaction.81 5.7.2 If we consider the fact that our kinesics is perceived not just by another person who sees us, such as our interlocutor, but by ourselves (as long as we are conscious of it), we realize we cannot ignore what should be identified as hidden gestures. They include facial and manual gestures unseen by others which express positive or negative thoughts and emotions we want to conceal more or less consciously. The gesture, nevertheless, is there, and, an offence, for instance, will still be an offence even if unseen, as would our rejection or mocking smile. Truly hidden gestures are: a.facial and manual gestures made voluntarily or involuntarily with our backs turned toward others: Ruthie mushed her face at his back, pulled out her mouth with her forefinger, slobbered her tongue at him (Steinbeck, GW, XX)

b.gestures of tongue and teeth that are performed mostly with a closed mouth: He [Basil Ramson] ground his teeth a little as he thought of the contrasts of the human lot (James, B, III)

210

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

c.gestures, mostly within microkinesics (not what Birdwhistell [1970: 139] understands by this term), displayed at a certain distance and therefore unperceived: [happy to finally be in England] he wanted to hold her hand and tell her with quick little pressures that they were sharing the English countryside (Lewis, B, IX)

d.the manual ones performed under our clothes, of which we ourselves feel the eloquent parakinesic qualities of hidden kinesics, that is, muscular tension and duration (and, in the first example, a voice qualifier): The girl (Sybil) grew white, and trembled. She clenched her hands together, and her voice seemed to catch in her throat. ‘You are not serious, Dorian?’ she murmured (Wilde, PDG, VII) [Soames] walked on faster, clenching his gloved hands in the pockets of his coat (Galsworthy, IC, II, II)

e.those in which pressure is the only perceivable sign: I was beginning to comment on its beauties and peculiarities [a painting’s], when, playfully pressing the hand he still retained within his arm, he interrupted me with-/ ‘Never mind the picture (A. Brontë, TWF, XVII) Rosie gave my arm a friendly little pressure when […] I placed a piece of silver on a shapeless lap or in a skinny fist (Maugham, CA, XVII)

f.others that can also remain visually unnoticed, while being perceived kinesthetically (as happens with many kinesic acts), such as an eloquent heaving chest (sometimes a voluntary kinesic behavior) during emotional breathing: her hands got no further than his chest, and fluttered there […]. She felt a heave of his deep chest (Grey, MF, XXIV)

5.7.3 What I would like to identify as microkinesics is found mostly among gestures: [Winifred] Clenching her lips, she nodded (Galsworhty, IC, I, IX) “I don’t believe that” […]/ He laughed, for he had seen the quick tightening of her mouth (Steinbeck, EE, XI, III) Now I haven’t met your husband,” he said, and she knew he [the sheriff] noticed the slight movements of her tightening muscles (Steinbeck, EE, XIX, III) Adam’s face was bent down, and his jawbone jutted below his temples from clenching (Steinbeck, EE, XXIV, I) The corners of his mouth [Julius’] were turned slightly up in a sardonic smile (Steinbeck, EE, XVIII, I)

Kinesics

211

5.7.4 Our repertoires of sound-producing gestures, which we can label phonic gestures, that is phonokinesics, as they acquire a language-like quality, are very distinctly differentiated, both culturally and personality-wise: ‘I Don’t care that, ma’am,’ said he, snapping his fingers, ‘for Jinkins. Don’t suppose I do’ (Dickens, MC, X) ‘Make haste! Go along’ cries Judy, with a stamp upon the ground (Dickens, BH, XXI) “Order, order, gentlemen,” cried Magnus, remembering the duties of his office and rapping his knuckles on the table (Norris, O, II, IV) he snapped his fingers in her face [Mrs. Dale’s], “go on and do your worst. I will get Suzanne in the long run” (Dreiser, G, III, XIV) with the fork in her hand se came and snapped her fingers softly and viciously in Temple’s face (Faulkner, S, VII) “Come into money, have you?” he [the man at the shop] cried, chuckling and slapping his thigh with a loud report. “Well, you have come to the rigth man (Markandaya, NS, XXVIII)

5.7.5 Finally, we should consider the many objectual gestures (among the object-adaptors seen in Chapter 6.18, Volume I) in which we manipulate something as part of a compound kinesic behavior, a clear kinesic act, even in a situations like these: ‘[…] Do you know what that tune is, Mr Smallweed?’ he adds, after breaking off to whistle one, accompanied on his table with the empty pipe (Dickens, BH, XXI) ‘Rosedale — good heavens!’ exclaimed Van Alstyne, dropping his eye-glass (Wharton, HM, XIV) Dr. Winskill […] sat in his consulting room, his elbows on his desk sliding a silver pencil backwards and forwards from hand to hand (Wilson, ASA, I, IV) “I awreddy got it,” Sunny [the prostitute] said. She waved five bucks at me. “See?” (Salinger, CR, XIV)

5.8

The smile Although, given the existing culture-oriented literature on gestures, this section is meant to contain only the above theoretical principles, there is however a specific gesture, the smile (treated also below in conjunction with gaze, and throughout this chapter), which deserves especial attention and can be briefly presented as an incentive to promote more in-depth discussion of gestural occurrences. Even a cursory review of some literary illustrations will bring forth the true nature of the

212

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

smile — both by itself and in association with the surrounding behaviors — and her interactive functions: a.how many types of interactive encounters are initiated by smiling, and how specifically brief interactions (e.g. asking and giving directions, buying and giving an ice-cream) can be, with marked cultural and subcultural differences, punctuated or qualified by smiling: [Mr. Tigg] smiled affably […] in a manner that was at once waggish, conciliatory, and expressive of approbation (Dickens, MC, VII)

b.how a smile can be seen in parts of the face other than the lips, particularly in the eyes: She [Eugenia] looked at him a while, smiling with her lips, but not with her eyes (James, E, VIII) She smiled with her lips and with her eyes […] ’Why not?’ asked his wife, her blue eyes still pleasantly smiling (Maugham, CA, V)

c.and also spread over the whole face: he [Larry] had a smile of great sweetness. It was not a brilliant, flashing smile, it was a smile that lit her face as with an inner light (Maugham, RE, I, VII)

d.how the smile can be superimposed to language and qualify whole stretches of it in ‘smiling speech’ (as discussed in Chapter 3.1.3, Volume I): Mr Pecksniff smilingly explained the cause of their common satisfaction (Dickens, MC, VI) said the colonel’s sister smilingly (Grey, LT, II)

e.how it can blend with other forms of expressions in what at first sight would seem incongruous: Rose was unable to continue for a moment […] smiling through her tears, she said (Wilson, ASA, I, II)

f.how that blend can be with an otherwise unseen, but felt, behavior: ‘Elfride, do you forgive me?’ said Stephen with a faint smile […] and he took her fingers lightly in his own./ With her head thrown sideways in the Greuze attitude she looked a tender reproach […] and pressed his hand. Stephen returned the pressure threefold (Hardy, PBE, IX);

g.how the smile blends specifically with gaze behavior, discussed later: During the colloquy Jennie’s large blue eyes were wide with interest. Whenever he looked at her she turned upon him such a frank, unsophisticated gaze, and smiled in such a vague, sweet way, that he could not keep his eyes off of her for more than a minute at a time (Dreiser, JG, I)

Kinesics

213

Magdaline [a Navaho girl] her warm glance and the gleam of her perfect white teeth. Her bronze face […] (Grey, CD, VI) [William de Mille] His face was severe even in repose, and his mouth firm in preoccupation. But the lights blazed behind the eyes and his lips were cross-hatched with lurking smiles (de Mille, DP, V)

h.how smiling can, voluntarily or involuntarily, act as a disclaimer: ‘Are you penitent? […]/ ‘Heart-broken!’ he answered, with a rueful countenance — yet with a merry smile just lurking within his eyes and about the corners of his mouth (A. Brontë, TWF, XXIV)

i.how the most subtle smile can positively counter a surrounding serious facial expression: a smile of exceeding faintness played about her lips — it was just perceptible enough to light up the native gravity of her face (James, B, I)

j.how it can alter an otherwise negative impression previously made by the person: Jonathan’s smile, which came quickly, accompanied by a warm light in the eyes, relieved Helen of an unaccountable repugnance she had begun to feel toward the borderman (Grey, LT, III)

k.finally, there is what quite simply and most accurately Aldoux Huxley refers to as “anatomical smile,” in fact, ‘the smiling gesture’ that betrays an unfelt feeling: “Poor Goggler! How fiendish we were to him!”/ “That’s why I’ve always pretended I didn’t know who he was,” said Staithes, and smiled an anatomical smile of pity and contempt (Huxley, EG, XX)

In short, the smile is perhaps the human gesture which affect us the most, whether we perceive it with a fine sensitiveness or in a more obvious way: Oh that those lips had language! Life has pass’d With me but roughly since I heard thee last. Those lips are thine — thy own sweet smiles I see, The same that oft in childhood solac’d me. (Wm. Cowper, “On the Receipt of My Mother’s Picture,” 1.1) She had a terrifically nice smile. She really did. Most people have hardly any smile at all, or a lousy one (Salinger, CR, VIII)

214

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

5.9

Manners: The style of our movements and positions and their perception and social norms cross-culturally

5.9.1 When defining manners, as contrasted with gestures and postures above, it was already seen that they present the subtlest aspect of our kinesic repertoires, of the movements of each one of us, man or woman, not only in the presence of others but even when alone. Thus, before discussing ‘social manners,’ filtered through our own personalities and circumstances and mainly learned, we must pay especial attention to that visual manifestation in us which seems to elude a clear identification and yet represents the most significant aspect in us: how we do something, the way or manner in which we execute a gesture (not the gesture proper) or adopt a posture (to become such posture); or any other action, for instance: how we greet at a distance, cross and uncross arms or legs, walk, scratch when itching or as a random behavior, take a cigarette to the mouth, draw on it or blow out smoke, greet someone, sneeze, cough, blow the nose, drink from a glass, toss aside a strand of hair, etc. Each of those acts can be carried out differently, thus identifying a person, a mood or state of mind, or even a culture. What I have emphasized in these examples indicates manners: ‘What’s the matter now?’ he asked, lounging carelessly into the boat-house (Collins, WW, 260) Jett was clambering down from the [waggon’s] seat above (Grey, TH, XIII) Jasper Stringwell-Anderson crossed his legs elegantly and observed Gerald closely through narrowed eyelids (Wilson, ASA, I, II) [a lawyer in court] the way he flung his arm out (Woolf, Y, ‘1891’) Young Toolley conducted […] bending in swan-like undulations from the loins and tracing luscious arabesques on the air with his waving arms (Huxley, PCP, II)

In the next example, a single element, the apron, identifies first its habitual use by a person as component of a posture, then qualifies a manner alluded to, and finally becomes the component of another manner, how she cries: Mrs. Gerhardt had her apron in her hands at the time, her nervous tendency to roll it coming upon her […] fear mastered her completely; she lifted the apron to her eyes and began to cry (Dreiser, JG, IX)

Depending, of course, on the sensitiveness of the beholder, the personal execution of a manner, like any other act in the individual’s kinesic repertoire, can have a marked influence on an interaction: “And this is Joan.”/ The girl held out her hand, and as he took it, her slender body swayed away from his alien presence in a movement of shyness that was yet adorably graceful. That movement was the most beautiful and at the same time the most touching thing he had ever seen (Huxley, EG, XVI)

Kinesics

215

5.9.2 We must at this point, at least in passing, emphasize again the eloquence of the parakinesic qualities of intensity, range, velocity and duration, discussed earlier, for they affect all manners by qualifying them as effectively as they do gestures, whose precise eloquence and execution originates, after all, in the brain, as explain these descriptions, particularly Hawthorne’s in the first type of behavior: –

knocking on a door: Rat tat./ ‘I am afraid that’s not a London knock,’ though Tom. ’It didn’t sound bold. Perhaps that’s the reason why nobody answers the door (Dickens, MC, XXXVI) Mr Bailey […] expressed the lively nature of his feelings in a knock: the like of which had probably not been heard in that quarter since the great fire of London (Dickens, MC, XXVIII) Her hand [Hepzibah’s], tremulous with the shrinking purpose which directed it, had smitten so feebly upon the door that the sound could hardly have gone inward. She knocked again […] She had struck with the entire force of her heart’s vibration, communicating, by some subtile magnetism, her own terror to the summons […] She knocked a third time, three regular strokes, gentle, but perfectly distinct, and with meaning in them; for, modulate it with what cautious art we will, the hand cannot help playing some tune of what we feel, upon the senseless wood (Hawthorne, HSG, XVI)

–

gait: She [Rachel] approached Mr Godfrey at a most unlady-like rate of speed, with her hair shockingly untidy, and her face, what I should call, unbecomingly flushed (Collins, M, ‘Second Period,’ ‘First Narrative,’ II) [Mrs. Acton] As with her charming undulating step she moved along the clean, grassy margin of the road, beneath the thickly hanging boughs of the orchards (James, E, XI) I heard her footsteps, slow and listless, as she dragged toward the door […] the steps became heavier and with a steady slovenly clumping of her slippers she approached the door […] (Mailer, BS, XVI)

–

handling an object: pouring out a glass of the same in a long stream, skilfully directed from the jug to the tumbler, so as to produce much foam without spilling a drop (A. Brontë, TWF, IV) an announcement from the Irishman, who flinging open the door, cried in a loud voice: […] (Dickens, MC, XVII) He […] raised an outspanned hand to his spectacles and, with trembling thumb and ringfinger touching lightly the black rims, steadied them to a new focus (Joyce, U, 141)

216

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

–

greeting someone: I [a man] whipped out a white pocket-handkerchief and wafted it, with a French grace, past my nose, bowing at the same time./ “Quel charmant jeune homme!” murmured Madame Pelet in a low voice (C. Brontë, P, VIII) Mr. Cannister stood up and touched his forehead over his eye with his finger, in respectful salutation of Elfride, gave half as much salute to Stephen (Hardy, PBE, IX) Baskerville seized me by the hand and wrung it heartily (Conan Doyle, HB, V) “Mr Wells, welcome to the Village of Peace!” exclaimed Mr. Zeisberger, wringing the old missionary’s hand (Grey, SB, X) The borderman bowed gravely to Helen, with a natural grace and yet a manner that sat awkwardly upon him (Grey, LT, II)

In fact, simply performing one of the many acts we hardly acknowledge in the course of a day carries the seal of our personal style, conditioned, of course, by a host of personal, social and cultural variables: The mirror was in shadow. She rubbed her handglass briskly on her woolen vest (Joyce, U, 69)

5.9.3 According to the definition of the three basic categories of kinesic behaviors, only by adding the learning of ‘manners’ and ‘postures’ to that of ‘gestures’ can we acquire the nonverbal intercultural fluency discussed in Chapter 1, Volume I. If we think of the extensive and complex repertoires of manners that can certainly differentiate cultures, we cannot fail to see the limitations (apart from the inclusion of some greetings) of those otherwise very useful inventories of mostly “gestures,” as they would not really provide us with the emitting and perceiving (i.e. correctly interpreting) intercultural fluency to which a wider repertoire of “manners” would contribute. Therefore, we can see the especial relevance of all the kinesic acts we call social manners, starting with basic situations like eating and drinking and whatever relates to those activities, which identify the different social (besides personal) styles, some of which are discussed below in order to suggest a more substantial sociological and cultural research in each area.

5.10

Manners as research topics

5.10.1 One of the most fascinating cross-cultural topics — closely associated to language and paralanguage (e.g. situational pitch registers) — is that of greetings, yet very little has been studied systematically (cf. Youssuf et al. 1976; Collet 1983; Tohyama 1983,

Kinesics

1993: 205–209); in a Japanese nonverbal behavior dictionary being prepared by Tohyama and Ford [Tohyama 1998], and from a sociopsychological and ethological perspective (e.g. Kendon and Ferber 1973; Youssouf et al 1976), for which the national literatures offer a wealth of examples. There can be notable differences between closecontact cultures, such as around the Mediterranean, and those with much less contact, such as Oriental cultures, but in all of them people use them as salutations and to open encounters at any social level, and their characteristics and manner of execution can be crucial for their success. Years ago I prepared for my students the data sheets which (reduced in size here) appear as Figs 5.2a, b, c, d and e, ‘Data Sheets for Fieldwork on Greetings.’ Their purpose is to classify the different relationships encountered in a given culture and, to enhance the value of the inventory, include any additional comments on the origin of and reason for certain greetings, as well as on the absence of aspects like touching, kissing, walking hand-in-hand, etc. A few examples will illustrate some of the relationships and situations indicated in this classifications: First Encounter. In Sudan, two men shake hands, but if one of them is young, he takes the older one’s hand in his two; man and woman shake hands too, but whoever is younger must stand up if they were seated, and two women hold both hands; they still (in first and subsequent encounters) kiss the Coptic priest’s right hand (as I remember children and some adults doing in Spain until the mid-twentieth century). In the Persian Gulf countries, where a firm handshake is the most common greeting among men, it is quite appropriate if as foreigners we accept and give a hug, and a man will honor us by kissing us in both cheeks (on occasions up to five times, according to the affection expressed), although the handshake is also combined with brushing each other’s cheeks; but with a woman from outside the family they only shake her hand briefly and gently. Most generalized in Arab countries is taking the palm of the right hand to one’s heart after the handshake. In Ghana (and always smiling, as in many cultures), two women or two men shake hands, sometimes also man and woman. In Hong Kong, two young men shake hands and exchange business cards, while the elderly greet each other only verbally. In China, an adolescent male does not shake hands with an older man, but just greets him with a verbal ‘Hello, uncle.’ In Spain, both men and women shake hands, but a much friendlier greeting is for the man and the woman, or two women, to kiss (or just brush) both cheeks; in addition to which the kissing of a married woman’s hand is quite common among the upper classes and those who emulate and seek such status. Close Friends. In Ghana, two men shake hands and man and woman after a long absence embrace as well, while two women shake hands and perhaps hug after a long absence. In Turkey, two middle-aged men after a long absence greet verbally and kiss each other’s cheeks; man and woman greet verbally, kiss cheeks and hug. In Sudan, two men shake both hands after a short absence; man and woman kiss on one cheek and hug, come apart, greet verbally and hug again, repeating this up to five times, and

217

218

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

COUNTRY:

AREA:

SOCIAL BACKGROUND:

DATE:

1. FIRST ENCOUNTERS MAN-MAN

young-young young-older older-older

MAN-WOMAN

young-young young-older older-older

WOMAN-WOMAN

young-young young-older young-older

MAN-ADOLESCENT

man-boy man-girl

WOMAN-ADOLESCENT

woman-boy woman-girl

ADOLESCENTADOLESCENT

boy-boy boy-girl

MAN-CHILD

man-boy man-girl

WOMAN-CHILD

woman-boy woman-girl

CHILD-CHILD

boy-boy boy-girl girl-girl

MAN-BABY WOMAN-BABY MARRIED COUPLES

man-man man-woman woman-woman

LOWER STATUSHIGHER STATUS

man-man man-woman woman-woman

OTHER RELATIONSHIPS, SITUATIONS, CULTURAL COMMENTS

Figure 5.2a.Questionnaire for fieldwork on greetings

from six to nine times after a long absence. In the Persian Gulf countries, both men and women kiss (or just touch) on both cheeks, depending on the degree of intimacy. In Spain, men embrace and women kiss each other’s cheeks at all ages, but even among ordinary male friends, they may clap each other’s back or side with one hand while shaking hands or as the only behavior. Lower Status-Upper Status (virtually nonexisting differences in western cultures). In Sudan, where north and south differ, northerners have no friends from the south, as they are regarded as socially inferior. In Japan,, seeing a Japanese colleague greet

Kinesics

219

COUNTRY:

AREA:

SOCIAL BACKGROUND:

2. ACQUAINTANCES MAN-MAN

young-young young-older older-older

MAN-WOMAN

young-young young-older older-older

WOMAN-WOMAN

young-young young-older older-older

MAN-ADOLESCENT

man-boy man-girl

WOMAN-ADOLESCENT

woman-boy woman-girl

ADOLESCENTADOLESCENT

boy-boy girl-girl

MAN-CHILD

man-boy man-girl

WOMAN-CHILD

woman-boy woman-girl

CHILD-CHILD

boy-boy boy-girl girl-girl

BRIEF ABSENCE

DATE: LONG ABSENCE

PASSING

MAN-BABY WOMAN-BABY MARRIED COUPLES

man-man man-woman woman-woman

LOWER STATUSHIGHER STATUS

man-man man-woman woman-woman

OTHER RELATIONSHIPS, SITUATIONS, CULTURAL COMMENTS

Figure 5.2b.Questionnaire for fieldwork on greetings

another, he confirmed, as I had suspected, that he, being a full professor, expected an assistant professor to bow more times to him. In Calcutta, as a morning greeting, I saw an employee touch the sandal of the director of the academic institution where I was staying without interrupting our conversation: ‘But Huzoor!’ said Hari, touching the foreman’s black boots with his hand and taking the touch of the beef hide to his forehead. ‘Be kind’ (Anand, C, IV)

Lovers. In Sudan, where public demonstrations of affect are avoided, they hug and kiss

220 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

COUNTRY:

AREA:

SOCIAL BACKGROUND:

3. CLOSE FRIENDS MAN-MAN

young-young young-older older-older

MAN-WOMAN

young-young young-older older-older

WOMAN-WOMAN

young-young young-older older-older

MAN-ADOLESCENT

man-boy/girl

WOMAN-ADOLESCENT

woman-boy/girl

ADOLESCENTADOLESCENT

boy-boy boy-girl girl-girl

MAN-CHILD

man-boy/girl

WOMAN-CHILD

woman-boy/girl

CHILD-CHILD

boy-boy boy-girl girl-girl

BRIEF ABSENCE

LONG ABSENCE

DATE: PASSING

MAN-BABY WOMAN-BABY MARRIED COUPLES

man-man man-woman woman-woman

LOWER STATUSHIGHER STATUS

man-man man-woman woman-woman

LOVERS

man-woman

OTHER RELATIONSHIPS, SITUATIONS, CULTURAL COMMENTS

Figure 5.2c.Questionnaire for fieldwork on greetings

only in private, and greetings are discreet even after a long absence. In China, at this writing, lovers never kiss in public, a restriction which the government approves as a good hygienic measure. Relatives. In China, where cousins and uncles are regarded as brothers and fathers, more affect is shown to them than to actual brothers; husband and wife embrace only after a long absence. In Hong Kong, husband and wife avoid showing affection in public, but hold hands briefly if they pass each other; a mother touches her son on the shoulder as a greeting, and after a long absence she hugs him after, while his father just

Kinesics

221

COUNTRY:

AREA:

SOCIAL BACKGROUND:

4. RELATIVES

BRIEF ABSENCE

LONG ABSENCE

DATE: PASSING

HUSBAND-WIFE MOTHER/FATHER-BABY FATHER-SON

boy/older

FATHER-DAUGHTER

girl/older

MOTHER-SON

boy/older

MOTHER-DAUGHTER

girl/older

BROTHER-BRO/SISTER

children/older

SISTER-BRO/SISTER

children/older

GFATHER-GSON/GDAUGH children/older GMOTHER-GSON/GDAUGH children/older COUSINS

male-male/fem fem-male/female

young/ older

UNCLE-NEPHEW

boy/older

UNCLE-NIECE

girl/older

AUNT-NEPHEW

boy/older

AUNT-NIECE

girl/older

FATHER-IN-LAW-SON-IN-LAW FATHER-IN-LAW-DAUGHTER-IN-LAW MOTHER-IN-LAW-SON-IN-LAW MOTHER-IN-LAW-DAUGHTER-IN-LAW BETWEEN PARENTS-IN-LAW OTHER RELATIONSHIPS, SITUATIONS, CULTURAL COMMENTS

Figure 5.2d.Questionnaire for fieldwork on greetings

touches his shoulder. In Kenya, husband and wife shake hands after a not very long absence, but embrace after a long one. In Turkey, after a long absence, father and son and brothers and sisters hold both hands and kiss on both cheeks, father and daughter embrace and kiss, and grandchildren of any age kiss their grandparents’ right hand and take it to their foreheads (only the metacarpal area touching), but hug and kiss them whenever they meet them in the street; father-in-law and son-in-law kiss on both cheeks and hug. In India, in certain sectors of society, we see how the son-in-law “bent[s] respectfully to touch his mother-in-law’s feet [upon her arrival]” (Banerji, PP, 47). In Shri Lanka, before leaving the house in the morning or going to bed, children kneel

222

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

COUNTRY:

AREA:

SOCIAL BACKGROUND:

5. OTHER RELATIONSHIPS

BRIEF ABSENCE

MASTER-SERVANT

male female

MISTRESS-SERVANT

male female

MALE SUPERIORSUBORDINATE

male female

FEMALE SUPERIORSUBORDINATE

male female

MALE TEACHER/PROFESSORSTUDENT

male female

FEM. TEACHER/PROFESSOR STUDENT

male female

CLERGY/PASTORLAY PERSON

male female child

CLERGY/PASTORS/RELIGIOUS

male female

FEM. RELIGIOUSLAY PERSON

male female child

passing

LONG ABSENCE

PASSING

mutually

MALE RELIGIOUSLAY PERSON

MILITARY INTER-RANKS

DATE:

mutually street fields indoors

STRANGERS public conveyances waiting-rooms social gatherings OTHER RELATIONSHIPS, SITUATIONS CULTURAL COMMENTS

Figure 5.2e.Questionnaire for fieldwork on greetings

before their parents, bow with folded hands on the breast and touch their toes for the parents to bless them by touching their heads. In Finland, I observed how mothers visiting a children’s camp greeted the boys by touching them on the shoulder and saying the equivalent to ‘Hi, how are you?’ In Spain, hugging and cheek-kissing (more like a cheek-to-cheek touch) is the standard practice between close relatives, who naturally are surprised to see the standard father-son handshaking in the United States or Canada:

Kinesics

223

His mother kissed him affectionately […]; his father gave him his customary greeting, a hearty handshake (Dreiser, JG, XXXIV)

To these specific situations, I will add, for instance, that in the campus of Istanbul’s Bogazici University I saw same- or different-sex students kiss on both cheeks. Although hand-shaking seems to become more and more universal, I never saw it in the lobby of a large Tokyo hotel among the oldest generation, but only among middleaged business men, particularly with foreigners, and almost never among themselves, who use traditional bowing, which, according to the other person’s status and the respect one wishes to show, will vary in angle (‘eshaku,’ ‘futsurei’ or ‘saikeirei’) and in their mutual repetition (Morsbach 1988a; Tohyama 1991: 205–208). In Nigeria, the younger or lower-status woman kneels before the other person, even a wife does before her husband. In Japan and China, relatives hardly ever touch after early childhood, and in Malaysia it would trigger comments if one of my Malaysian Chinese or Malay students embraced his or her mother after a long absence. The popular Spanish greeting (although not refined for many) is an upward chin movement toward the person, as in the first example, unacceptable among Anglo-Saxons, who use precisely the opposite, nodding: las saludó sin moverse, con gesto del mentón (Martín Gaite, EV, I, I) Horsemen and horsewomen riding cheerfully by, nodding to their social acquaintances (Dreiser, G, II, XLI) I watched him [Herman Teppis] walk away, nodding his head to the people who swarmed to greet him (Mailer, DP, VIII)

At any rate, the fact that different greeting behaviors define many cultures proves how essential they are for acquiring the intercultural fluency needed in a first contact with any culture, particularly those most different from ours: ‘Pronam,’ Kalo greeted the visitor, folding palms together (Bhattacharya, HWRT, II)

Apart from cross-cultural differences, there are certain parakinesic qualifiers, mainly pressure, in each form of greeting, particularly in the handshake (along with the verbal and paralinguistic ones): She took his hand and pressed it affectionately (Huxley, PCP, XII) he [Soames] put his chilly hand into the agent’s, withdrew it without the faintest pressure (Galsworthy, MP, I, IV)

But it is through the parakinesic qualities of the handshake that we can all identify the person’s social background, particularly when it is perceived as personally and socially negative, as happens usually with repeated pumping or, at the other extreme, a flaccid or limp hand::

224 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

he [Joe, uneducated] caught both my hands and worked them straight up and down, as if I had been the last-patented Pump (Dickens, GE, XXVII) When you took her hand [Mrs Barton Trafford’s] it was like taking a fillet of sole (Maugham, CA, XIV)

Parakinesic qualities of greetings can also change according to circumstances (although the most meaningful pressure of the handshake or embrace can be used deceptively): Miss Chancellor’s hand was at once cold and limp; se merely placed it in his, without exerting the smallest pressure (James, B, I) she put her beautiful hand out of the window […] she wrung his hand hard […] His heart was full of joy; it leaped; he thought it would burst […] the praise she had given him, that crush of the hand (Howells, HNF, V, V) [he shook my hand warmly] (Mailer, DP, VIII) They shook hands formally (Mailer, DP, XVI)

Often pressure can be precisely a sought word-like qualifier and one that defines the true nature of a behavior: He [Darrow] took her hands [Sophy’s] and pressed them together between his, counting on a friendly touch to help out the insufficiency of words (Wharton, R, VII)

Having for many years greeted people in quite a few different cultures, I find Spain’s different-sex double cheek-to-cheek touch or kiss much less susceptible of being properly qualified parakinesically (when one wishes to make the greeting warm enough, unless one firmly holds the person’s shoulders or hugs afterward) than, for instance, the Anglo-Saxon embrace, meant only as affectionate, unless pretending. In fact, varying the qualifiers of an embrace (see 5.11 below) can convey feelings much more eloquently, while the cheek-to-cheek contact, with its most often perfunctory touching of cheeks, becomes a standard impersonal behavior, except when people may simultaneously hold each other’s shoulders. On the other hand, greetings can be associated with, for instance, the wearing of a cap, hat, beret, etc.: with cultural variants: ‘[…] till then — care of yourselves’; and lifting the pinched-up hat a few inches from his head, and carelessly replacing it very much on one side […] (Dickens, PP, II) El alguacil se tocó la gorra con el índice en señal de saludo (Sánchez Ferlosio, J, 100)

5.10.2 Closely associated with the personal contact usually involved in greetings in many cultures are two topics that would require a whole monograph cross-culturally: walking hand-in-hand in public, as is common among Muslim male friends in Arab and African countries — about which they have to be warned when coming to my University — and among girls in southern European and Latin American cultures, and

Kinesics

225

even a northern European culture like Denmark, yet perceived as homosexuality in North America; and holding hands while conversing oudoors, as we see in India and in Arab countries (even only little fingers, as men do in Morocco), while only lovers, married couples, and children with adults would do it in others. 5.10.3 Two other basic situations of much cultural significance that also fall squarely within manners are giving and taking. While the use of the right or left hand is rather irrelevant for a North American or European, Muslim Arabs do it exclusively with the right (apologizing if unable to do so, for the left hand is the impure one, used for very private tasks), and with both in Japan, China or Malaysia. In the Caucasus, when taking from someone else something like a cigarette or money, the recipient often touches the giving hand with the lateral side of the other hand.

5.10.4 Of particular interest within manners is gait. The way (‘manner’) we walk, is an important permanent or circumstantial and situational cluster of kinesiological and visible characteristics, culturally differentiated, historically conditioned by dress, social etiquette and moral rules (cf. Wildeblood 1965) and, as with facial features, through the different age periods. But, as must be observed in many of the examples that follow, there is also a ‘posture’ in the way we walk. The variety of permanent or circumstantial gait styles is reflected in the wide variety of terms used to refer to them: ambling, bouncing, bundling, clomping, clumping, dawdling, dragging, flinging, flouncing, floundering, gliding, halting, hobbling, limping, lounging, lumbering, lurching, mincing, paddling, plodding, scurrying, scuttering, sauntering, shambling, skipping, slithering, staggering, stalking, stamping, striding, strutting, stumbling, swagging, swinging, tottering, tramping, tripping, trotting, trudging, waddling, walloping, etc. In addition, some people swing their arms more than others or not at all. The following conditioning factors should be differentiated for gait: the immediate environment, as determined by town layout (e.g. walking in a very narrow and crowded street) and the interior of buildings, public conveyances, etc.: The hall was very narrow […] She [Miss Birdseye] sidled about her visitors, and at last went round to open for them a door (James, B, IV) Miss Warren staggered down the train […] as she lurched along the line of first-class compartments (Greene, ST, II, I)

personal traits, often consonant with other verbal and nonverbal characteristics: here Tom came lounging in, and stared at the two (Dickens, HT, IX) Miss Mowchar, waddling up to me, bag in hand, and laughing on me as she came (Dickens, DC, XXII)

226 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

[Rachel] carried her head as upright as a dart, in a dashing, spirited, throughbread way (Collins, M, VIII) The man shambled down the passage in his slippers (Wilde, PDG, XIII) Zena came into the room with her dragging down-at-the-heel step (Wharton, EF, VII) She walked with a swing, rather heavily, her head bowed forward, pondering (Lawrence SL, V, II) a slut’s pert wiggle of her hams as she passed by (Wolfe, LHA, I) [Steve] would walk down the avenue with a preposterous lurch, and a smile of strained assurance (Wolfe, LHA, V) And beaming forgivingly on one and all [at a gathering], Mrs. Mcavity waddled back to the table (Lewis, M, XI) Lulu [a Hollywood actress] seemed to bounce when she walked, her shoulders swayed in a little rhythm with her hips, her neck curved (Mailer, DP, IX) a huge man […] His slow gliding walk and slow speech […] resonantly basso (Doctorow, WF, III)

attitudinal or circumstantial characteristics can affect how we walk, particularly before opening an encounter (e.g. hastening to greet someone), as its onset, and after closing it (e.g. departing in a rage), as its offset: the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go [tripping or skipping, NAB], making a jingling with their feet [their anklets tinkling with every step, NAB] (Isaiah 3: 16, NKJ) ‘[…] I will not sit here and hear such comparisons made.’ With that she stalked out, and made the door bang after her (Dickens, DC, VIII) [Harthouse] […] got up, saying in an indolent way, “Oh really?” and dawdled to the heartrug (Dickens, HT, II, V) His wife […] quietly glided out of the room (Collins, WW, “The Second Epoch,” VIII, 336) She [Aunt jukey] bent and kissed her niece hungrily, and with little, mincing steps passed away (Galsworthy, MP, I, VIII) Ralph strode the corridor haughtily… He did not know he was mutely saying […] “I’m not the greasy and tattered hobo who arrived in town this morning […]” / His heels clicked aggresively on the shiny stone pavement. But [unaccostumed to fine hotels] Joe Easter’s footsteps were shuffling and afraid (Lewis, M, XXV) he did not see her [at the station […] he felt utterly let down as he clumped after the porter with his bags (Lewis, D, XX) [at a Berlin train station, 1920s] the bundle-lugging third-class passangers who plodded through the echoing immensity of the trains-shed (Lewis, D, XXIX)

Kinesics

227

he kissed her, a terrible clinging kiss, and lumbered over to the roadway (Lewis, D, XXXV) He did not, unfortunately, leave her in any heroic and dignified way. He flounced put of the stateroom like a child in a tantrum […] he knew that only by childish violence could he escape from her logic (Lewis, D, XXXVI)

mood and emotional state, which may even reflect our thoughts and state of mind: ‘[…] Make haste! Go along’ cries Judy, with a stamp upon the ground (Dickens, BH, XXI) She stopped [talking], her pale face darkened, and she stole back with a quiet, stealthy, cat-like step to her chair (Collins, WW, VIII) He [Sir Percival] was walking rapidly, swinging his stick, his head erect as usual (Collins, WW, 211) How tired and sad you do look — though I always know beforehand when you are in that state: one of your feet has a drag about it as you pass along the pavement (Hardy, HE, VIII) “No’m,” said the negress sullenly, slatting flatfootedly down the kitchen (Wolfe, LHA, XI) She [Mrs. Dale, in anguish] ambled shufflingly across the piazza (Dreiser, G, III, XV) in the lazy warm day they ambled over pine needles to a shining river (Lewis, D, XXII) For an hour Sam tramped the apartment, too lonely to think (Lewis, B, XI) his thoughts [Dodsworth] blundered and writhed while he [devastated by his wife leaving him] ambled after her through the station (Lewis, D, XXIX) Kalo returned home, guilt weighing on his mind, and because of it he had to put on airs, swagger (Bhattacharya, HHRT, XX) My father strode along as he did when he felt good, his shoulders moving from side to side, it was almost a dance (Doctorow, WF, XXX)

physiological or pathological state, mental or physical: [I] observed a pronounced curvature of the spine […] the little girl was terrified of him [her father][…] the physical attitude of the girl was but the reflection of her moral attitude of fear […] their gait […] reflect their sate of mind (Tournier 1983: 63–64)

self-consciousness, when one thinks is being observed, which may induce us to walk differently while it lasts: seeing he was being noticed, threw back his shoulders, and he came into the yard with a swaying strut like that of a rooster about to crow (Steinbeck, GW, IX)

228

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

men who passed us stared at Mrs. Driffield. It occurred to me presently that they must think her pretty too. I began to walk with a swagger (Maugham, CA, XIV)

social status, reflected at times in a conscious behavior: he [Traddles] conducted me, with tottering steps, to the Misses Spenlow’s door (Dickens, DC, XLI) [at the rural market] men whose heads in walking swayed as the trees in November gales (Hardy, MC, XXII) Liddy glided out, closed the door softly (Hardy, FMC, XLIII) Helen Ledwidge approaching with those long springy strides of her across the terrace (Huxley, EG, I) He [Frank] bobbed up and, waddling over to Larrie’s chair, he refilled the boy’s glass with whisky (Wilson, ASA, II, I) Dos tranviarios pasan con las manos en los bolsillos, la colilla entre los labios (Cela, VA, II)

occupation, not only while exercising it, but often, from force of habit, at other times as well: [a butler] He wore a sleek black suit and had a discreet skating walk (Dos Passos, 42P, ‘Janey,’ 329) The policeman […] sauntered slowly down toward […] another officer sauntering up from […] (Howells, HNF, V,II) the cramped short steps of a rider unused to walking (Grey, RPS, I) Hari [a coolie] walked bent-backed and bandy-legged (Anand, C, IV, 260)

5.10.5 As essential for intercultural fluency are the social manners involving eating, drinking and smoking. By the first one is not meant only ‘table’ manners, as one can sit on the floor, as in an traditional Arab culture, on cushions at a low table, as in Japan, or stand for ‘tapas’ by the counter of the ubiquitous Spanish bar. Although traditionally one eats with the hand in, for instance, India, Black African cultures and Arab cultures, good and bad manners are well established, and we can observe that people wash their hands before and after eating (even if napkins are used) and that only the two last phalanges and the thumb of the right hand should be used, never licking the fingers or using the left hand (the impure one), unless (e.g. in Ghana) one is using a spoon at the same time or must take the water 3glass. As for chopstick-using cultures, two Japanes students hastened to show me how I should and should not handle mine: not to take them too low, twirl them gracefully If I had to use the other ends to cut something with them and take it to my plate, and

Kinesics

229

leaving them on my chopstick stand or parallel to each other on the bawl’s edge. It is also generally good manners to slurp long and audibly as a compliment, although some do it only with pasta; the bowl is always raised with both hands to eat from it, and if it contains soup with pasta one must take a few sips from the liquid before using the chopsticks for the solid food, approaching the bowl to the mouth to make it easier; and rice must be kept always white (i.e. clean).82 In Hong Kong, where one has a spoon for the soup, chopsticks must be put down before using it, and tapping on the table with index and middle fingers while someone pours tea or wine for us is a way, in both China and Hong Kong, of expressing thanks in that specific situation.83 Naturally, the handling of knife and fork in the many cultures where they are traditionally used is a true gauge for judging a person’s upbringing, but much more to differentiate cultures, typically European as contrasted with the United states and Canada, for a majority in the latter two use both utensils in a way that seems most unmannerly and awkward to, for instance, the immense majority of Spaniards down to low middle class and even lower.84 Beyond the culturally prescribed eating and drinking manners, some characteristics can be just personal, whether permanent or circumstantial: She [Fay] ate the fruit more slowly, nibbling daintily, her smaller finger curled away from the rest of her hand (West, DL, XI) My uncle, chewing his roast beef with an air of disapproval, looked sullenly at his plate (Maugham, CA, V)

In addition to the proper or improper eating of specific foods (e.g. fish, fried eggs, spaghetti), there is the handling of saltshaker, pepper shaker, oil and vinegar cruets, as well as toothpicks where they are culturally and socially allowed, although they are mostly relegated to very familiar settings or are displayed by not very refined people, as in: For half an hour they sat in the morris chairs in the living-room, sucking toothpicks thoughtfully passed by Joe, while in the kitchen Alverna washed the dishes (Lewis, M, XII)

But, above all, there are eloquent personally and socially differentiated behaviors associated with napkins, in napkin-using cultures, and with the lack of them (or their not being even unfolded, which results in more or less concealed alternate ways to wipe their obviously soiled fingers): He rose, patted his lips with the napkin, placed the napkin beside his cup and went to the piano (Doctorow, R, XXI)

As for drinking, the behaviors associated with it can also vary cross-culturally and socially: he took a deep draught, and then smacked his lips, drew a long breath, and refilled his glass (A. Brontë, TWF, IV)

230 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

said the elder Mr. Weller, shaking up the ale, by describing small circles with the pot, preparatory to drinking (Dickens, PP, XXIII) [drinking at the inn] lifting the cup, Coggan tilted his head gradually backwards, with closed eyes, that his expectant soul might not be diverted for one instant from its bliss by irrelevant surroundings (Hardy, FMC, XLII) ‘What do you think has happened to Basil?’ asked Dorian, holding up his Burgundy against the light (Wilde, PDG, XIX) Big Bill grasped his cup around the top so that the spoon stuck up between his first and second fingers. He drew in a snort of air with the coffee to cool it (Steinbeck, GW, XV) [Miss Reba] raised the tankard and drank and drew the back of her hand across the mouth […] lifted the tankard and looked into it, oscillating it gently (Faulkner, S, XXIII) said Mrs. Treadwell, gently whirling her stein of beer to make the foam rise again (Porter, SF, II) Juan se bebe el vaso de un trago, chasca la lengua, y se limpia la boca con el dorso de la mano (López Pacheco, CE, XIII) Lucas terminó de beber y se secó los labios con la palma de la mano, chascando la lengua (Caballero Bonald, DDS, I, II)

Smoking a cigarette with or without a cigarette holder, or a cigar or pipe, etc., not only conditions certain manners but determines certain attitudinal and efficacious interactive functions: He [Tom] smoked with great gravity and dignity for a little while (Dickens, HT, II, III) Willie Goff drew in on his cigarette, lighting it with dry smacking lips (Wolfe, LHA, XXIV) Lester looked, lit a cigar in a far-off, speculative fashion, and looked out of the window (Dreiser, JG, L) Ignatius Gallagher puffed thoughtfully at his cigar (Joyce, D, ‘A Little Cloud’) Lord Edward […] had taken his pipe out of his mouth, he had lifted his head and at the same time slightly cocked it on one side. He was frowning, as though making an effort to seize and remember something (Huxley, PCP, III, 39) he [Popeye] took out a cigarette and struck a match on his thumbnail without noise and lit it (Faulkner, S, XXIII) “Ah,” said Theo, knocking his pipe out on the heel of his shoe, “if I really thought that, you know…” (Wilson, ASA, I, II)

Kinesics

231

Fletcher tapped a cigarette on his left thumb nail, put it between his lips and lit it, tossing the match on to the hearth (MacLennan, S, XXXI) Marion sat down and tapped a cigarette carefully on his platinum case [before speaking]. ‘I saw Dorothea yesterday’ (Mailer, DP, VI) he smoked a cigarette which he held between his thumb and forefinger, palm up, in the European style (Doctorow, R, VII) Mely abría la boca y se dejaba salir el humo lentamente, sin soplarlo siquiera (Sánchez Ferlosio, J, 215)

Here we should remember the conversational functions of other tobacco-induced behaviors: “[…] Can’t hear of it, John.” Mr. Weston spat his tobacco with a gesture of finality […] “Could you […]?” he asked, biting off a fresh chew of tobacco (Grey, CD, XVI) “I’m — — if he’ll ever rope Old Tom [a cougar],” burst out Clark, ejecting a huge quid of tobacco (Grey, LP, XI) Haines detached from his underlip some fibres of tobacco before he spoke (Joyce, U, 20) Gant […] swinging […] in a stout rocker, spitting clean and powerful spurts of tobacco-juice […] into the hissing fire (Wolfe, LHA, VI)

5.11

Postures: Our static and dynamic positions

5.11.1 As for postures, their almost total absence in cultural inventories (except, for instance Tohyama and Ford’s future dictionary [Tohyama 1998]), reveals again a very shortsighted preference for ‘gestures’ and a total neglect of their cultural value, above all communicative, let alone their personal and social aspects. Apart from their general world distribution, according to biological, cultural, environmental, nutritional, etc., aspects (Cf. Hewes 1955, 1957, on standing, sitting, squatting, and kneeling crossculturally), the most important perspective for today’s average speaker-interactor in intercultural contact is what pertains to social norms, that is, the postures we should or should not adopt. We may think, for instance, of the growingly relaxed diplomatic protocol as regards postures; of how insulting it is to show the soles of the feet or shoes in Arab cultures (or making them too visible to others), instead of keeping them flat on the floor when sitting on a chair or sofa, (or hidden if sitting crossedlegged on the floor); or of the absurd association, among the average North American lower and middle class, between a man’s leg-over-knee posture and homosexuality. Even some conversational postures in certain situations can differentiate cultures as well as social status:

232

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

When supper was over and the dishes dipped and wiped, the dark had come, and the men squatted down to talk (Steinbeck, GW, XVII)

But there are other aspects for observation and research, such as: the adoption of specific postures for performing different activities, such as walking, horse-riding, working in different occupations that are gradually disappearing (e.g. the traditional foot-driven potter’s wheel), or which still identify specific cultural, social and personal characteristics; the fact that there are postures of the trunk, legs, arms, hands and even fingers which we deem ‘distinguished,’ ‘refined,’ ‘rustic,’ ‘effeminate,’ ‘manly,’ which can characterize pathological states as well; that, consciously or unconsciously, we adopt postures of superiority, dominance, submission, spiritual recollection, etc.; that we must be cognizant of the regulatory function of our postures in different interactive situations, such as interviews, etc., which can also vary among cultures and be therefore an important element in the acquisition of perceiving (i.e. interpreting) cultural fluency. On the other hand, we find certain hasty generalizations even in serious research, such as about the arms-akimbo posture, as when Mehrabian (1969) only says that it is adopted more before people of lower status or whom we dislike, when in fact we can easily observe it less among higher-status people; hence the tendency to represent in that posture the irate small-town uneducated woman (as the ‘Ma Kettle’ of an old American film series): […] said the furnity [a country dish, sold by her at a tent] woman, joining the rest with her hands on her hips (Hardy, MC, I) [Nance, a working woman] standing with her hands on her hips (Hardy, MC, XX) She [Coral] put her hands on her hips and faced the woman because the nature of the quarrel brought to mind her mother, arms akimbo, exchanging a few words with a neighbour, who had suggested she was carrying on with the lodger (Greene, ST, III, III)

To mention three more socially differentiated postures we can observe cross-culturally in lower-status people: most common among women in Latin and Mediterranean cultures, the stance with one forearm across the waist and the elbow of the other perpendicular to it and the upper phalanges of the closed hand propping a cheek in a pensive or distressful and anguished attitudes85; the crossed-arms stance adopted by children and adolescents of both sexes when introduced to higher-status persons, often advancing one foot, then changing or shuffling feet (the shyer ones looking down); and this foot shuffling among the humble male subordinates in front of their superiors or when anxious from shyiness or embarrassment, as in: [before his boss] Fainy shuffled his feet. He had a husk in his throat […] standing first on one foot and then the other (Dos Passos, 42P, ‘Mac,’ 34)

Kinesics

233

Meanwhile Joe stood behind them uncomfortably resting his weight now on one foot, now on the other (Lewis, M, XXV)

What is obvious is that one must never lose sight of the cultural background and must avoid hasty generalizations. When, for instance, Goffman (1961) wrote that higherstatus men sit more relaxingly and put their feet on the desk, slouch on their seat, etc., he was actually referring to North America, and when the American authors Nieremberg and Calero (1973) assure us that a man who walks with hands clasped behind his back reveals worry, we should not forget how common that posture has always been (now, however, in decline) among men (almost never in women) in Latin American and Mediterranean cultures, and generally in Europe. Finally, without losing sight of the cultural background, one must avoid the sort of rather categorical and ready-made social psychology found in popular magazine articles and in materials used in workshops aimed at equipping participants for better communication, for instance: leaning back on your seat and crossing your arms indicates disinterest, while the opposite indicates interest; as if one could not communicate as positively and pay as much undivided attention while leaning back with crossed arms (and also feign it by leaning forward), but looking at the other person steadily, as when leaning forward: Fortunata le oía embelesada, puestos los codos sobre la mesa, la cara sostenida en las manos, los ojos clavados en el narrador (Galdós, FJ, III, IV)

5.11.2 Without attempting at all a classification of postures by their social functions, the following instances and examples should suggest some of those functions and the possibility of dealing with this subject much more in depth and exhaustively: sitting styles, conditioned by clothes, furniture, socioeducational background and situational context: Mr Guppy sits on the edge of a chair, and puts his hat on the carpet at his feet (Dickens, BH, LV) Martin […] found that gentleman seated moodily before the dusty grate, with his two feet on the fender, his two elbows on his knees, and his chin supported, in a not very ornamental manner, on the palms of his hands (Dickens, MC, XIV) she [Fay] climbed on a chair and straddled it with her arms folded across the top of its back and rested her chin in her arms (West, DL, XI) se recostaba en la enramada, basculando su silla y dejándola en vilo sobre las patas traseras (Sánchez Ferlosio, J, 273)

standing styles, involving more than one body part and affected also by clothes and socioeconomic background: [Mr Jinkins] with his hands in his pockets, and his legs planted pretty wide apart, he led the laughter, and enjoyed the conversation (Dickens, MC, IX)

234

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

She looked the image of her father, standing there with her hands behind her back (Woolf, Y, 1880)

social habits, which can equally identify socioeducational level and culture: The stay-at-home mothers stood gossiping at the corners of the alley, as the twilight sank, folding their arms under their white aprons (Lawrence, SL, I) Pa […] squatted down in the dust […] One foot was flat to the ground, the other rested on the ball and slightly back, so that one knee was higher than the other. Left forearm rested on the lower, left, knee; the right elbow on the right knee, and the right fist cupped for the chin […] his chin in his cupped fist (Steinbeck, GW, X) Jonas assented, and said after a short silence, first spreading out his legs, and sticking one arm akimbo to show how perfectly at home he was (Dickens, MC, XXVII) Ernesta [small-town woman] estaba escuchando, sentada casi de perfil y en el borde de la silla (Aldecoa, FS, 322)

as affected by clothes and accessories, having thus evolved markedly over the centuries: Floyd’s thumbs were hooked over his belt […] Tom’s hands came up, and his thumbs hooked over his belt (Steinbeck, GW, XX) standing formidable upon the landing in her mackintosh, she looked with steady and sinister serenity at Mrs Dalloway (Woolf, MD, 91)

as characteristic of an occupation
: The preacher began to speak in a quiet, friendly tone. His face was kind and he joined gently the fingers of each hand, forming a frail cage by the union of their tips (Joyce, PAYM, III)

as key components of specific attitudes and situations
: ‘[…] Do you know, now,’ said Mr Pecksniff, folding his hands, and looking at his young relation with an air of pensive interest […] (Dickens, MC, VI) Mark twisted his face in a tight knot, and with his head very much on one side pondered upon this question as if he felt it an extremely difficult one to answer (Dickens, MC, XV) He [Mr. Littimer] remained calm and silent, with his eyes fixed on the ground, and the tip of every finger of his right hand delicately poised against the tip of every finger of his left (Dickens, DC, XLVI) Morel [while his wife is crying] sat with his elbows on his knees, his hands gripped together till the knuckles were white. He gazed in the fire, feeling almost stunned (Lawrence, SL, I)

Kinesics

235

And she, with her little finger in her mouth, would ponder these sayings (Lawrence, SL, VII) Bill, his stubby fingers locked on his chest, heard contentedly (Malamud, T, 80–81)

5.11.3 Three specific types of postures should be mentioned. One is the microposture adopted by only a minor body part (fingers, one finger, one or both eyelids, etc., as in delicately feminine holding of a cup with fingers of both hands loosely around it), specifically the lips (e.g. pursed outwardly or inwardly most of the time as a personal permanent or habitual characteristic),86 the brows (e.g. puckered), one or both hands, or one or both feet (e.g. stretching or contacting the instep): los labradores [listening to Sancho] la boca abierta, esperando la sentencia suya (Cervantes, DQ, II, LXVI) a vague smile which appeared to light her face from within, while her lips kept their sleepy droop (Wharton, R, III) Helen remembered that singular stillness, intentness of his face (Grey, MF, XVII)

Another one is the dynamic posture, that is, when a basically static posture contains a moving element, or the whole body moves in a posture: a nervous tic in one leg while being crossed-legged, moving the thumbs while keeping both hands intertwined, shifting a body part between two points (which could be regarded as a combination posture-manner: And he [as a frustrated clown] sat rocking himself over the fire, as if he was in pain (Dickens, HT, IX) Después [Nicolás] meditó un rato, las manos cruzadas y dando vuelta a los pulgares uno sobre otro (Galdós, FJ, II, IV) Cuando don Cayetano volvía la espalda, pues hablaba girando con frecuencia sobre los talones […] (Alas, R, XXXVIII) corn-headed children, with wide eyes, one bare foot on top of the other bare foot, and the toes working (Steinbeck, GW, 26) ‘Hallelujah,’ said Granma, and she rocked a little, back and forth, trying to catch hold of an ecstasy (Steinbeck, GW, VIII) She stood on one foot, caressing the back of her leg with a bare instep. Her arms were clasped behind her (Steinbeck, GW, XX) The men looked up at him, and then down at the ground, and their feet moved restlessly and they shifted their weight from one leg to the other (Steinbeck, GW, XXV)

236

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

She [the prostitute] sort of sat down sideways on the chair that went with the desk in the room and started jiggling her foot up and down. She crossed her legs and started jiggling this one foot up and down (Salinger, CR, XIII)

A third type is that of contact postures (i.e. alter–adaptor behaviors, studied in Chapter 6.16, Volume I), such as the habit among Nigerian or Moroccan male friends of walking hand-in-hand in public, or arm-in-arm, as was mentioned earlier, very much in practice before in some of the less touching cultures: They were walking back leisurely; Martin arm-in-arm with Mr Jefferson Brick (Dickens, MC, XVI) [after seeing Little Billy off, Taffy and the laird] sorrowfully, arm-in arm, with trailing umbrellas […] (Maurier, T, IV, 111) Women […] walked arm in arm on their way to the fine shops or theatres strung along from Fourteenth to Thirty-fourth streets (Dreiser, SC, XXXI)

5.12

Gaze as kinesic behavior

5.12.1 The behavior of the eyes, that is, the many movements and postures of the pupils, eyelids and eyelashes (apart from the possible complement of the eyebrows) has not been sufficiently studied, despite a rich literature on gaze (e.g. Kendon and Cook 1969; Argyle and Cook 1976; Exline and Fehr 1982; Webbink 1986).87 However, gaze, framed by the eyelids and eyelashes and partly by the eyebrows (all permanent features or postures which can be made dynamic in interaction), produces a repertoire of gestures, manners and postures and, as was seen above, articulates intimately with other body parts in many true gestalts to complement, confirm or contradict the signals emitted. In fact, in some persons more than in others, the eyes can be a salient feature among the other characteristics of the body and in fact the whole personality: Everything about her [Lavinia] had dried, contracted, been volatilized into nothingness, except her watchful gray eyes, in which intelligence and comprehension burned like two fixed stars (Wharton, AH, III) his grey eyes had an air of fixed absorption in some secret worry, broken at intervals by a rapid shifting scrutiny of surrounding facts (Galsworthy, MP, I, I)

But, in a more significant way, the eyes, to begin with, are an essential part of the ‘speaking face,’ as discussed in Chapter 3 of Volume I. Gaze, thus, blends negatively or positively, with the words and their paralinguistic qualifiers uttered through that face, with its facial features and with any facial or manual gestures (e.g. knitted brows, a smile, a hand propping the chin) in many different ways of looking at people or anything else and even at an anticipated or imagined subject (sultrily, bashfully,

Kinesics

237

sideways, contemptuously, glowering, fluttering large eyelashes, squinting, in a sideways glance, lasciviously, etc.); in fact, :even expressing words and, for instance, laughter, which never occur as such: Holmes leaned forward in his excitement and his eyes had the hard, dry glitter which shot from them when he was keenly interested (Conan Doyle, HB, III) Her old gray eyes were sharp with anger. The idea! The idea! (Wolfe, LHA, XXV) Her eyes were quite wide […] with an innocent, surprised look in them which was wholly unconscious with her (Dreiser, G, III, IV) a caressing sound in his deep, rich voice [Charles Townsend’s], a delightful expression in his kind, shining blue eyes, which made you feel very much at home with him (Maugham, PV, XIV) From shallow and unwrinkled orbits the eyes [Beatrice Gilray’s] looked out, shining […] the shape and tilt of the nose […] the bright beadiness of the eyes, the pouting mouth, and round defiant chin (Huxley, PCP, X) “But I shall never speak to you again.”/ For a few seconds they looked at one another in silence. Anthony had gone very pale. Close-lipped and crookedly, Mary was smiling; between the half-closed lids, her eyes were bright with malicious laughter (Huxley, EG, XXX), Laura Dearborn’s pallour […]. Set in the middle of this paleness […] her deep brown eyes glowed lambent and intense […] her friends always found that they must look squarely into her pupils (Norris, P, I)

But, consciously or unconsciously on the part of the beholder, there are also intersystemic blends in interaction involving gaze and, for instance, perfume, cosmetics or other nonverbal signs (e.g. tearful eyes, blushing). In addition, while we perceive the eyes of many persons simply as some organs of vision that look at us, there are others whose regard seems to come from the deepest and most intimate recesses of the person, as if allowing us to look right into them: her eyes [Kitty’s] with their long lashes were so starry and yet so melting that it gave you a catch at the heart to look into them (Maugham, PV, VIII)

5.12.2 The sensitive reader will have already noted in the first examples above that, when in interaction, our eyes can establish the kind of interpersonal physical contact that was legitimately identified in Volume I (Chapter 2.7) as a true interpersonal articulation, experienced by all of us; in fact, in a very peculiar way, even from behind: I do believe that they ever met again […] When I saw him […] he [Marchese Oracio Pucci] kindly asked bout my mother (Vita Sackville-West], without mentioning his early adoration for her, but I felt his eyes upon my back as I left the room (Nicolson, PM, 82)

238

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Naturally, adding to gaze additional bodily contact (e.g. looking someone in the eye during embracing or grabbing his forearm or wrist) will sensibly increase the intimate nature of an interaction, even in a possible and equally intimate fourfold combination language-paralanguage-kinesics-proxemics: the first two (the eyes and physical contact) nonverbal and the third verbal: She […] turned her face full on me, and reaching across the table, laid her hand firmly on my arm./ ‘Not because you are a teacher […]’ (Collins, WW, 96)

5.12.3 To better evaluate the basically dynamic and kinesic nature of gaze, I will mention in passing some of the movement types (drawing from, but adding to, Argyle and Cook 1976: 16–26) which I have always identified in my psychology course, for they represent the interactive versatility of gaze. First, even what we call fixating our gaze, that is, ‘staring,’ at someone or something stationary, is not really a single static position, but a series of involuntary movements successively concentrating on the areas of greater visual positive or negative attraction. Perceiving complex objects, we “fixate in turn a number of points of maximum interest for periods of about one-third of a second, linked by ‘saccades’ (one kind of those involuntary movements), in a repeated cycle” (Argyle and Cook” 1976: 18, and Fig. 1.4, showing how a male subject looks mainly at the eyes and mouth of woman’s photograph); pupil dilation (e.g. in dim light; of a man before a photo of a naked woman or a woman of a partially clothed muscular man; in a hungry person as a response to food stimuli; during a problemsolving effort) or pupil constriction (e.g. in bright light; by very unpleasant stimuli) (cf. Hess et al 1978, on pupillary behavior); long-range pursuit (e.g. following our cointeractant even without head rotation); vertical or horizontal long-range scanning of our co-interactant (e.g. wrongly so, for instance, by a man while interviewing a woman), which can become, for instance, an unspoken-of feedback channel; environmental scanning even while talking to others, following dynamic or static objects (e.g. people, our host’s living room), but also used, or sensitively allowed by us in others, for the relief of anxiety or concealment of emotions; false fixation (i.e. feigning a blank gaze consciously lost in mid-air); blinking, which can be periodic (to lubricate and protect the eyes, and while anxious, making a memory effort, in concentrating attention, etc.), reflex (e.g. from cornea irritation, a sudden noise or flash of light, confusion), and even voluntary (e.g. while flirting)88; and gaze aversion, as when passing from an external to an internal object, when ‘going into the past’ while reminiscing, (which is difficult while keeping eye contact), and most typically (even with strangers at a distance) avoiding to stop our gaze on someone. 5.12.4 We all possess a repertoire of interactive eye gestures, similar to facial or manual gestures (many as true unambiguous emblems), from those of the veiled Tuaregs of

Kinesics

239

the Sudan desert, who require undivided visual attention, to the rapid double blinking of Nigerian Ibo, Yoruba and Hausa mothers to make their daughters sit properly or stop doing something. Many are these gaze or eye gestures, some of which we may just refer to as ‘a flash,’ or ‘a brightening’ of the eyes: the flash of his dark eyes [Mr. Weston’s] seem top set my face Anne’s] on fire (A. Brontë, AG, XXIV) Tête Rouge, utterly confounded at this sudden attack [a false accusation], stared at Deslauriers for a moment in dumb amazement, with mouth and eyes wide open (Parkman, OT, XXVI) Wilson’s shrewd, light eyes gleamed with an idea (Grey, MF, XXII) Her glance [flirtatious Alverna’s] was alreday a kiss (Lewis, M, XVIII) Her old gray eyes were sharp with anger. The idea! The idea! (Wolfe, LHA, XXV) Her eyes dilated, became exposed and palpitating./ ‘No!’ she cried half laughing in terror — ‘no!’ (Lawrence, SL, V) [the buyer] gave a long poem of tragic character, in which he rolled his eyes, put his hand on his chest, and acted as though he were in great agony (Maugham, OHB, CIV) The policeman […] gave a stare as we passed, sometimes of suspicion; but sometimes also there was a twinkle of comprehension in his eyes (Maugham, CA, XVII) ‘What do you think of him?’ she [Mrs. Rampion] asked, leaning forward toward her guest with a sudden brightening of the eyes (Huxley, PCP, IX) He [Lee] raised his head and his fat lids let only two sparks from his eyes show through. “We’re controlled, we Chinese,” he said. “We show no emotion […]” (Steinbeck, EE, XXVI, II) He looked inquiringly at Peter, but Royal Edwards gave a cautioning nod as their waiter returned (Hailey, H, “Wednesday,” 8) For the first time there was a flicker of disquiet in Dixon’s eyes (Hailey, H, “Wednesday,” 11) Sir Edgar’s little wrinkled face was set in complacent lines, his beady eyes looked at Gerald ironically (Wilson, ASA, II, I) John’s dark eyes narrowed in anger (Wilson, ASA, II, I) Inge’s eyes rounded with fright. “Don’t let him speak of me like that […]” (Wilson, ASA, II, III) her eyes [Miss Reba] began to fill with a sad, unutterable expression, of baffled and patient despair (Faulkner, S, XXV) He [Martin Pemberton] had light gray eyes which spasmodically widened from the slightest stimulus (Doctorow, W, I)

240 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Still within ocular gestures, we can use our gaze randomly (in fact, more than other gestures), and quite often even unconsciously, including a fixating attitude: “No — not always!” he said, shaking his head gloomily as he contemplated a crumb on the table (Hardy, MC, XXXIV)

Naturally, the gestures of the brows — not as varied as those of eyes and eyelids, but capable of quite a repertoire (cf. Ekman 1979b) — tend to blend into a whole with our gaze behaviors: [After a second murder has been discovered] I stared in silence at Sherlock Holmes, whose lips were compressed and his brows drawn down over his eyes (Conan Doyle, SS, I, VII) His eyebrows would arch and then contract to a frown and he would seem for a moment to be looking not at the world but into it (Doctorow, W, I)

The gesture within the facial repertoire with which the eyes blend themselves most intimately is the smile (discussed earlier), which, far from appearing only in the area of the mouth and cheeks, can respond to a whole facial blend: [Rachel] had […] a smile that began very prettily in her eyes before it got to her lips (Collins, M, VIII) “Girls are uncommon coy critters,” said he, with a grave smile in his eyes (Grey, LT, III) her eyes were bright with malicious laughter (Huxley, EG, XXX) Laura glances at him with a faint, apologetic smile (Williams, GM, I, i) El ayudante encendió un cigarrillo y lanzó una sonrisa y el humo juntos (López Pacheco, CE, II, XX)

5.12.5 As gaze manners, we could mention, together with many other cultural characteristics, the use of eye contact as part of greetings, combined with other kinesic behaviors (hand-clasp or -wringing, cheek-kissing, hugging, smiling, etc.), with language and paralanguage (lower or higher pitch registers, depending on the situation and each person’s attitude), and even with silence. Only during Japanese bowing can we observe the absence of direct eye contact during greetings, much more so when it denotes respect for a higher-status person (cf. Tohyama 1991: 206) 5.12.6 As for eye postures, both our daily experience as well as literature offer us many other examples of social manners based on the postures and movements of the eyes: Preguntóle su madre que le dijese la verdad, si quería bien a don Juan de Cárcamo. Ella [Preciosa], con vergüenza y con los ojos en el suelo, le dijo que [she had liked him] (Cervantes, G)

Kinesics

241

She [lady Dedlock] bows her eyes rather than her hand, the movement is so slight and curious; and he withdraws (Dickens, BH, XLVIII)

One is the static eye posture, with a specific eyelid opening, which can express different attitudes and affect those of our cointeractants as much as our standing or sitting postures do: ya se había puesto don Quijote de hinojos junto a Sancho, y miraba con ojos desencajados y vista turbada a la que Sancho llamaba reina y señora [a village woman] (Cervantes, DQ, II, X) She sat silent, with lowered lashes (Wharton, R, XX) “Good-by,” he said, clasping her hand. His glance was clear, warm, beautiful, yet it was sad (Grey, MF, XIV) Inge’s large blue eyes grew round with fright (Wilson, ASA, I, IV) Carmen alzó las cejas y abrió mucho los ojos en signo de estupefacción (Aldecoa, FS, 184)

Posture of the eyes is what in photography — aside for painting from a posed model — remains in the static face of a portrait. Whether the subject posed for the photographer or chose his or her body posture and gaze behavior, only the eyes that look into the lens barrel are the ones that will make us beholders experience that our gaze is met in intimate interaction. A sensitive photographer would ask the subject to look away from the lens only if that is meant to convey a certain feeling or attitude on the part of the subject, and elicit a specific feeling in the viewer, but not just arbitrarily. Otherwise, the look-away portraits routinely done by so many mediocre photographers are quite absurd, to say the least, and make us feel like telling the subject, ‘Look at me when I’m looking at you?’89 As for the aforementioned gaze in mid-air, it is, by its static character, an attitudinal posture like those of the rest of the body: The pupils of his eyes [Clym’s], fixed steadfastly on blankness, were vaguely lit with an icy shine (Hardy, RN, V, VII) Quedóse la señora un rato suspensa […] la mirada perdida en el horizonte (Galdós, TC, II, VIII) Her eyes met his […] Tom’s glance became what hers was--steady, almost a stare without consciousness, a look of depth and gravity for which neither was responsible (Grey, TH, II)

At times we combine ocular gesture and posture as we would other kinesic behaviors: She posed in the door, her hand held drooping before her shoulder, too obviously

242 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

showing off to be offensive./ “Do you like me?” she murmured — clinging voice, eyes caressing, moist seeking eyes (Lewis, M, XI) [Anne] An infinity of slightly malicious amusements lurked in those little folds, in the puckers about the half-closed eyes, in the eyes themselves, bright and laughing between the narrowed eyelids (Huxley, CY, III)

5.12.7 Our regard, then, possesses as much eloquence and interactive regulatory functions as other kinesic behaviors, whether overtly or subtly veiled: ‘Not lately,’ I added, in a careless tone, but sternly repelling her odious glances with my eyes (A. Brontë, TWF, XIII) she, pacing the room in a state of strong excitement, with her hands clasped tightly together, breathing short, and flashing fires of indignation from her eyes (A. Brontë, TWF, XV) Little Billy would look up from his work as she [the model Trilby] was sitting to Taffy or the Laird, and find her gray eyes fixed on him with an all-enfolding gaze, so piercingly, penetratingly, unutterably sweet and kind and tender, such a brooding, dove-like look of soft and warm solicitude, that he would feel a flutter at his heart (Maurier, T, II, 51) There was a look of contempt in the steady searching gaze that he turned on Dorian (Wilde, PDG, XIV) they felt that the peace that passeth understanding90 had looked at them from her eyes (Howells, HNF, V, XVIII) He [Soames] was seldom, indeed, far from Irene [his wife] […] following her about with his eyes, in which were strange expressions of watchfulness and longing (Galsworthy, MP, I, I)

Perhaps one of the more dramatic instances of intense interactive-regulatory gaze we find in literature is that of the unfaithful wife whose pearl necklace her husband believes to be imitation, when Somerset Maugham’s Mr. Know-All suddenly realizes he is about to reveal the truth and decides to perform his heroic, self-redeeming feat of discretion: He [Mr. Kelada] was about to speak [and confirm that her pearls were real] Suddenly he caught sight of Mrs. Ramsay’s face. It was so white that she looked as though she were about to faint. She was staring at him with wide and terrified eyes. They held a desperate appeal […] Mr. Kelada stopped his mouth open. You could almost see the effort he was makiing over himself./ “I was mistaken” (Maugham, MKA)

A very sensitive kind of professional interaction in which gaze is crucial is that between medical personnel and patients. There are times when we can even reach mutual understanding without words by just quietly looking at each other at an

Kinesics

243

intimate distance sitting on the patient’s bed. But we should also know that we must never look someone in the eye when that person wants to disclose something very intimate, bring up a difficult or embarrassing subject, or recall painful memories, for we must grant them some ‘visual privacy’ in such situations. Much more can be said about the eyes in interaction with patients, but one should add that we must never exchange knowing glances with others in front of patients, for they are more vulnerable than we imagine to whatever may communicate. Surgeon William Reed (1995: 148), regarding eye contact with patients, quotes his colleague, German psychiatrist Karlfried Graf von Dürkheim: They are aware of the importance of the kind of eyes they would see when awakening from their treatment. Eyes of love, care, and concern differ from those which are impersonal or irritated and upset. One’s eyes speak prayer.

5.12.8 We have seen in the preceding examples some of the many positive and negative functions of both eye contact and gaze aversion, besides which we can identify a few others. More frequent eye contact is characteristic of: extroversion; intimacy of both gaze, proxemics and subject discussed (all perhaps enhanced by an equally intimate atmosphere); enhancing and trying to lend more credibility to what is said verbally; feigning credibility; the ‘knowing look’; its effect (e.g. mutual attraction) according to its duration and perhaps the silent absence of words; as aggressive action; trying to overpower or dominate others; the ‘evaluating stare’ of our interlocutor while talking to us (e.g. liking, disliking, status-identifying), which may even escape him; assent communicated only by the eyes being averted; sociability denoted by direct eye contact in brief interactions (e.g. at a box office or teller’s counter, paying a bus driver, greeting a stewardess). Gaze aversion can communicate: introversion; avoiding opening an interactive channel; avoiding revealing thoughts trough gaze; distraction; withholding information and hiding certain feelings and emotions; hesitation; embarrassment; avoiding negative comments by someone else; while confessing certain facts; when certain chronic patients become institutionalized; as a characteristic behavior in neurotic, depressive or autistic persons; or (depending on our sensitiveness) our positive attitude toward other people’s anxiety: suddenly her cheeks became a rosy read. She instantly looked another way./ […] Havill noting her countenance, he allowed his glance to stray into the street (Hardy, L, Book the Second, II) Mrs. Waythorn reddened under his gaze [when her husband mentions her former husband]. They looked away from each other (Wharton, OT, I) “[…] It seems to me as if you had been — shall I say it?--trying to give me a chance. Is that so?”/ She dropped her eyes and did not answer. […] ‘I thank you for trying’ […] (Howells, HNF, V, XV).

244 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Cross-culturally, we can observe that gaze-aversion constitutes a social norm, for instance: in Japan, two persons engaged in a dispute avoid meeting each other’s eye, to the point of turning their backs on one another (cf. Tohyama 1991: 208), and generally the Japanese interactor does not look a respected person in the eye, but at the throat area; in Nigeria, where one does not look the older of or higher-status person in the eye; the Navajo Indians traditionally do not look directly at you while conversing; Kenya’s Luo son-in-law and his mother-in-law speak with their backs turned to each other; Ethiopians lower their gaze out of respect (easily misinterpreted by members of many other cultures as submission), just as in black African cultures, and among AfroAmericans, a pupil must not look a teacher in the eye (Johnson 1971: 17–18), which still causes problems when the white teacher may take it, for instance, as acceptance of guilt; neither must the traditional Nigerian bride look steadily at the bridegroom, as it would be regarded as loose morals, while the Nigerian woman tends, in general, to avoid eye contact with her husband in public and even at home.

5.13

Touching people and things as kinesic behavior

5.13.1 Ever since we are born and suddenly lose the continuous protecting contact of our uterine existence we enjoyed until then, we begin to establish new contacts with ourselves and whatever surrounds us, that is, people and the objectual or artifactual world that envelopes us, which as children be begin to explore, discover, and also be warned against in certain instances (cf. Frank 1957). The very development and use of interpersonal tactile kinesic experiences, called haptics, varies greatly between touching and nontouching peoples (Montague 1971). Apart from our intrapersonal contacts with clothes, mentioned earlier, the many ways in which we touch others and objects (which naturally may include also the texture of their clothes) have been identified and amply illustrated in Chapter 6.17 and 18 of Volume I as the two nonverbal categories of alter-adaptors and object-adaptors (cultural differences having been also acknowledged there and when discussing greetings). Thus, this section will only touch briefly upon them as kinesic behaviors resulting from spatial shifts that cause intimate proxemics.91 We must remember that physical contact with another person can be mediated by an object and thus be virtually established through kinesthetic perception, as when we sit on the side of a patient’s bed. As a pastoral care visitor in a large hospital (Poyatos 1999: 31–32), I soon realized that the mere fact that we sit there on our own initiative can develop an instant and welcome bond between someone who suffers and a compassionate heart. I always shook hands with patients, and when I prayed for them I often laid my hands on them, or just put a hand on their hand or held it between mine, for I always found it difficult not to, as I try to do it with them and not just for them.92 Many a time you feel their own hand (parakinesically) squeezing yours, and, naturally, you gage the value of that pressure.

Kinesics

245

Another important environment where personal touch is very important is the elementary school, but unfortunately physical contact between teachers and pupils differ radically between touching and non-touching cultures, and the latter have exacerbated their nontouch rules in detriment of more personal and sensitive relationships. Sherwood Anderson was not exaggerating about his character, schoolmaster Adolph Myers, savagely driven out of a small Pennsylvania town because his hands, caressing the shoulders of the boys, playing about the tussled heads […] were a part of the schoolmaster’s effort to carry a dream into the young minds (Anderson, WO, “Hands”)93

5.13.2 When we admire the visual characteristics of an object, be it person or thing, visual synesthesial assumption plays a crucial role by allowing us to undergo an intellectual evaluation of texture and shape, which our hands seem to touch through our eyes. But when the actual experience is realized in active touch (exploring, holding, stroking, caressing, pressing, etc.), our sensations of curves, protuberances, flat surfaces and corners are truly felt by the stimulation of the skin (of fingers, hand or hands, arm or arms, etc., depending on the object), along with our kinesthetic appreciation, and instantly evaluated in the brain (cf. Gibson 1962). Naturally, interpersonal tactual kinesics is enhanced by eye contact: She put her hand upon his arm, and looked into his eyes. Don’t touch me!’ he cried (Wilde, PDG, VII)

The qualifiers of kinesic behavior, identified earlier, become even more crucial in interpersonal contact. We could list, for instance, as a sort of ‘anatomy of the embrace,’ the following qualifiers: the relationship between the two; the situational context; the location of the embrace (by the shoulders, or frontal, or around the waist, etc.); eye contact or its absence; with or without words and their paralinguistic qualifiers; most importantly, its intensity (determined in the first place by duration and pressure, by the words or their absence, and by gaze); its pressure (i.e. the eloquent difference between looseness and tightness); its duration (for what means mutual friendliness in a three-second hug may radically change the longer it lasts); and whether or not there are witnesses. At any rate, looking only at the positive and more sensitive ways of social interpersonal touching, when someone wilfully touches us, we should realize that it is not just a hand that touches us, sensitive as it is as an interactive instrument, but the mind that generates it and moves that hand, which triggers our own intellectual evaluation of it as the object of the behavior: He caught her hand, and she felt in his the vibration of feeling that had not yet risen to his lips. ‘Lily, can’t I help you?’ he exclaimed (Wharton, HM, II, XII)

246 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

But personal contact can also be mediated touch, that is, through any object we may be manipulating while interacting, the intended contact still eloquently present: “Then stay with me a little longer,” Madame Olenska said in a low tone, just touching his knee with her plumed fan. It was the lightest touch, but it thrilled him [Archer] like a caress (Wharton, AI, VIII)

5.14

The methodology, limitations and problems of cultural and subcultural kinesic inventories

5.14.1 In closing these brief but rather essential comments on gestures, manners and postures, several aspects will hopefully be clear: a.that the three categories deserve more extensive inclusion in cultural inventories, whether individually or jointly, for it is the only way the kinesics of a culture can be truly identified and studied; b.that the three must be approached not only in their social evolution and historical aspects (Critchley 1939; Wildeblood 1965; Elias 1978; Herzfeld 1983; Collett 1984), but through the literature of the different periods and studies of it (cf. Korte 1997 [1993]; Poyatos 1988a, 1992b, 1994a, 1994b, 1994c, 2002 in press, and in this volume, and I and III; Lateiner 1992; Newbold 1992; Holoka 1992); old travels (e.g. those of Ibn Battuta [Gibb 1929]) and accounts of New World discoveries and studies of it (Hewes 1974; Romera Castillo 1989); the arts and studies of it (Gombrich 1966, 1972; Cupchik 1988; Golder 1992), most particularly Christian art and written texts concerning the Churche’s liturgy and prayer (Schmitt 1987, 1990, 1992); fields like classical oratory (e.g. Quintilian [86]) and ancient and modern law, the latter masterfully dealt with by Hibbits (1992, 1995a, 1995b); and as social etiquette and interactive behaviors (Scheflen 1964a, 1964b, 1972; Wildeblood 1965; Mehrabian 1969; Schiffrin 1974; Givens 1978; Sparhawk 1978); c.that, as a long-needed complement to the not so immediately useful books on etiquette (e.g. Bauer 1959; Befu 1974; Bevans 1960; Fenwick 1948; Post 1965; Safire 1983; Vanderbilt 1956; and, for instance, on British posh-class attitudes, as in LeePotter 2000), we should produce in each culture (which would afford most interesting cross-cultural comparative studies) others on the etiquette of the lower classes, unjustly neglected, for higher-up people can and should adopt it more easily; d.the realistic sources of narrative literature, as is profusely illustrated throughout the three volumes, and more specifically in Volume III; e.silent and sound feature films of the different cultures. It has been pointed out that gestures constitute, with very few exceptions (e.g.

Kinesics

247

Tohyama 1998, on an ongoing project by him and Ford),94 the only material (i.e. excluding manners and postures) of scientific and literary kinesic research,95 as well as of the existing inventories and ‘dictionaries’ (including those designed for foreignlanguage teaching).96 But, having alluded in general to their limitations, the present section elaborates on a previous attempt to suggest the methodology for the elaboration of cultural inventories (Poyatos 1975b; reedited by Kendon [Poyatos 1981], 1994b: 218–233). 5.14.2 Data sources Apart from personal observation, the classified and studied material can come from the following sources: the more reliable existing inventories and illustrated research articles, live informants, television, photography, painting and sculpture, newspapers and magazines, and literary descriptions and comments. For economy’s sake they are not discussed here, as Fig. 5.3, ‘Data sources and recording techniques for kinesic inventories,’ indicates clearly enough the functions of each one. SOURCES

DATA SOURCES FOR KINESIC INVENTORIES FUNCTIONS

LIVE INFORMANTS

provide cultural and subcultural material, confirm accuracy of data and act it out

TELEVISION, CINEMA VIDEOTAPE

visual and audiovisual general kinesics up to complex kinesyntactic constructs

NEWSPAPERS MAGAZINES

visual ilustration of general kinesics for only mono-kinemorphemic behaviors if caught in their central phases

PHOTOGRAPHY

SKETCHES

illustrates synchronically and diachronically diachronically gestures, manners and postures if caught in their central phases illustrate basic central phase of gestures, manners and postures

NARRATIVE LITERATURE

possible verbal descriptions of complete behaviors; cultural comments of synchronic and diachronic value

THEATER (stage directions)

possible verbal descriptions of complete behaviors, complemented by dialogues

PAINTING SCULPTURE

depiction of gestures, manners and postures in their central phases

Figure 5.3.Data sources and recording techniques for kinesic inventories

248 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

5.14.3 Informants Although the researcher’s cultural fluency is quite essential in the case of a foreign culture, one or two informants (ideally male and female) who must posses above all, as Samarin (1967:34, 36) wrote, “patience, honesty, dependability” plus “the ability to be analytical.” These qualities are of the essence, for the functions of informants should be, in my own experience of them: (a) make sure that they are giving us what seems to be culturally standard and never what they themselves do or not do because of their own personality and social background; (b) clarify certain social and situational aspects; (c) confirm the degree of frequency of certain behaviors; thus, (d) a foreign kinesicist does not have to wait for the occurrence of something observed once; (e) if educated enough, read and interpret the literary examples we have been collecting, act them out if necessary and show the actual synchrony between verbal, paralinguistic and kinesics behaviors; (f) identify our still or video illustrations; and (g) be shown our photographs and sketches to ascertain their accuracy. 5.14.4 Selection of material Unquestionably, manners and postures, in addition to gestures, should be identified as such, whether in independent sections or subdividing those dealing with each topic and subtopic, for instance, ‘Eating’: ‘Manners’ (eating, drinking, use of cutlery, chopsticks, fingers, napkins, eating bread, etc.); ‘Postures’ (e.g. sitting and standing in different settings (informal, formal, church). In fact, although a cultural inventory must indeed include what is ‘picturesque’ as the gestural phraseology of each culture, its aim should be, far beyond what is more obvious, to present the cultural style, which greatly depends also on manners and postures — among which we would certainly find those one must learn in order to behave like the natives of any given culture, often associated to specific tasks and attitudes, as when drinking from a Spanish traditional wineskin if that now more uncommon situation should arise for a visitor to Spain: los hombres […] retorcían el culo de la bota y el chorro hilado pasaba justo entre los labios entreabiertos (López Salinas, M, 49)

Of paramount importance in a cultural inventory is the clear identification of what constitutes nonverbal good manners (often involving concomitant verbal expressions) among the humbler strata of society — as was pointed out earlier — that is, their standard, as we may want to observe those manners on certain occasions and establish a better rapport. 5.14.5 Direct observation This is, of course, the only valid one, but it comprises several acceptable modalities in two types of mutually complementary approaches:

Kinesics

a.live interactive situations in various loci: without eliciting the behaviors ourselves; or participating and observing at the same time, the ideal fieldwork stand; b.also live but noninteractive situations, for instance: identifying certain basic culturemes in another culture, or as nonaxial participants who just observe an encounter. In the noninteractive one there can be a far phase (performers being within visual, and perhaps even hearing, range, as at a park or beach) and a close phase (still as nonparticipants but perceiving all verbal and nonverbal signs, as from people at the next table in a sidewalk café). As in any other mode of data gathering, the frequency of the behaviors must be carefully ascertained, as we as foreign researchers may erroneously judge quite standard what is not. 5.14.6 Classification of material The only exhaustive classification that can include any situation at all is the ideological one, that is, arranged by topics and situations in turn presented alphabetically, for instance: greetings (from a far distance, passing someone in the street or in interiors, etc.; eating and drinking (/to drink/, /to eat/, /hunger/, at the table, drinking from culturespecific containers, cups, mugs, etc.); about persons (personal features: /skinny/, /slender/, /fat/, /ugly/, /handsome/, /attractive/, etc. A Roget’s type of thesaurus in any language offers much classifiable topics and can be complemented with many of the idioms and phrases contained in regular dictionaries, as they are actually verbal-kinesic (and paralinguistic) expressions. But, to avoid the traditional limitations, we should not forget the more subtle ones, such as the speech markers or conversation regulators. Finally, the kinesic dictionary must carry, as does Meo-Zilio and Mejía’s (1980, 1983), a final index, in which to find all the kinesic acts classified by the word that describes them best (e.g. ‘summoning,’ ‘distance greeting,’ ‘hungry’), or the verbal expression that usually accompanies the gesture or manner (e.g. ‘See you later,’ ‘Not at all,’ ‘I don’t know’). 5.14.7 Illustration The possibilities and limitations of the various systems we can use for the illustration of kinesic behaviors can be outlined following Fig. 5.4., ‘Illustration media for kinesic inventories.’ Among the best examples of sketches or drawings I know, for their kinesic expressiveness and realism, are, in this order: Nierenberg and Calero’s (1971) very complete line drawings, along with Efron’s (1972), who used excellent drawings taken from film frames (as did Scheflen [1964a, 1964b, 1965] for his postural studies), Yau (1992b), Koechlin (1985, 1991, 1992), and the future dictionary by Tohyama and Ford (Tohyama 1998); those by Mel Pekarsky, vividly suggesting the essential facial and kinetic American style, in the second edition of Saitz and Cervenka’s (1973), and adding directional lines and arrows when necessary; the also very expressive in Mascaró’s

249

250 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

(1981) article; the simpler but sufficiently expressive sketches of Amade’s (1957) and Diadori (1990, 1993), the latter with lines, arrows and multiple images; and, less realistic, but still illustrating the gesture eficaciously enough, those of Sparhawk (1978) and Coll, Gelabert and Martinell (1990). As for photographs, which usually represent also facial expression characteristically accompanying sometimes manual gestures, they are all sufficiently realistic (e.g. Barakat 1973; Cestero 1999; Diadori 1990; Morris et al 1979; Rector 1986; Rector and Trinta 1985; Scheflen 1972; Schneller 1988, 1992; Cestero 1999; Payrató 1994), and some, like those by Meo-Zilio and Mejías (1980, 1983), include directional lines. Still photos, of course, can be gotten from film (e.g. Eible-Eibesfeldt 1972, 1988), newspapers and magazines, when they have successfully captured the central phase of the behavior, not before (formative phase) or after (dissolving phase). Videotape illustrations (e.g. Archer 1991),97 is, naturally, the ideal medium (though not as accessible as printed ones) and their greatest advantage is that they provide complete visual and acoustic images in perfectly synchronized linguistic-paralinguistic-kinesic constructs and that they can be observed repeatedly. A printed inventory, therefore, can include, besides any in-text illustrations (some perhaps traced from videotape), the tape itself. 5.14.8 Verbal description Not all gestures, manners and postures require visual illustration, but they do need a complete, though succinct, verbal description (like those by Meo-Zilio and Mejía) which should include: the pertinent parakinesic features (range, speed, etc.), proxemic relationship between interlocutors in some instances, chronemic behavior (the Spanish embrace between male friends, so often initiated before its execution and at a certain distance), their more standard realization, and any verbal-nonverbal combination possible within the language-paralanguage-kinesic structure (see Chapter 4.10, Volume I), for there may be not only an accompanying fixed verbal expression but quite a conspicuous facial gesture accompanying always the manual one being described; cultural comments in some instances (for which confidence in the informants and the researcher’s own cultural fluency are essential) with regard to the origin, social level, situational context, frequency, the possible nature of some kinesic behaviors as intercultural borrowings, and any instances of risky false cognates between cultures, for which the researcher must be familiar with as many inventories as possible. In addition, one must avoid: incomplete descriptions, by omitting not only certain ‘kinemes’ that may precisely characterize the behavior, but the verbal and/or paralinguistic expression that may form a standard construct with the kinesic one; on the other hand, unnecessary details that are not even standard practice; ambiguity by presenting, for instance, a sole version of hugging between Spanish men, when it

Kinesics

251

actually varies according to the situational context; and ignoring language-paralanguage-kinesics combinations. 5.14.9 We must recognize, therefore, the multidisciplinary responsibility, not only with respect to these kinesic inventories and dictionaries, but the possibility of elaborating true kinesic atlases which, naturally, would include any word (or paralanguage)-andgesture combination, tracing what I would call ‘isokinegraphs’ (cf. Morris et al. 1979), similar to the isographs that on a linguistic map indicate uniformity in the use of phonemes, words, etc., actually registering, when so needed, any fixed verbal-nonverbal constructs. We are lacking not only kinesic atlases, not only of specific cultures, but of more concrete areas within a culture, such as Southern United States, North and South Anglophone India, Quebec, or, as minutely illustrated in the following example, Southwestern Spain: [Don Gabriel, a traditional mature Andalusian, tasting a vintage sherry-type wine] Cogió la copa y metió la nariz dentro, oliendo despaciosamente el vino. Luego la levantó a la altura de los ojos e hizo resbalar el líquido hacia los bordes del cristal, girando la mano. Se mojó los labios, dando un sorbito y paladeando la pastosa frialdad de la solera. Terminó la copa a pequeños tragos (Caballero Bonald, DDS, I, VII)

5.15

Conclusion This chapter has attempted to outline — with many unavoidable limitations — what I consider useful in my contribution to field kinesics. It is a field that I always conceived of as interdisciplinary, which, deeply rooted in cultural anthropology and linguistics, has seen many fruitful applications in the behavioral and clinical sciences and in literary analysis. As with language, kinesics must be integrated among the other bodily systems and we must acknowledge its multisensory perception and its transmission through space and time, as part of speech, but also independently of it as an anthropokinesic system. Kinesics involves the whole of our external anatomy with equally interdisciplinary consequences, and it is subject, as language is, to a maturational curve which, as its social stratification, cultural distribution and historical development, still awaits much investigation. Trying above all to emphasize the interdisciplinary relevance of what has traditionally been excluded in studies of ‘gestures’ (as the more picturesque visual behaviors in each culture), the distinction between gestures, manners and postures has been established as fundamental — as have been a certain theoretical and methodological principles (heretofore lacking in the existing kinesic literature) — for any cultural, sociological, psychological, clinical, historical, artistic or literary study. Among the many applications in different areas and disciplines that are suggested throughout the three volumes, especial attention is given to the study of speech and speech transcription, foreign-language teaching,

252

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

conversation and interpretation, in Volume I; the elaboration of cultural inventories, and the various levels of interaction, in Volume II; and literature (the responsibility of the translator being mentioned in all three volumes), particularly the novel, the theater script and its performance, and the cinema, in Volume III. 5.16

Topics for interdisciplinary research 1.Ontogenetic development of gestures, manners and postures: innate and learned features. 2.Historical development of gestures, manners and postures through literary and artistic documents. 3.The relationship of kinesics with furniture and dress, and their evolution. 4.Social stratification of kinesic behaviors. 5.Gender differences and deviations in kinesic behaviors. 6.A cultural inventory of greetings. 7.A cultural kinesic inventory through a national literature. 8.A cross-cultural inventory of greetings in the novel and the theater. 9.Historical evolution of greetings. 10.Kinesic good manners in the lower social strata. 11.Postures: cultural, social and clinical approach. 11.A kinesic atlas of a given country. 12.Kinesic naturalness, and lack of it, in the theater and cinema. 13.Kinesics on the stage and in films: limitations and historical evolution. 14.Kinesics in silent films and its parallel presence in the novel of the period. 15.Kinesics in children’s books illustrations. 16.Kinesics in comic strips and books. 17.A Kinesics in film comedies. 18.Kinesics and lost signs and messages in film dubbings. 19.Kinesic repertoires in specific professions. 20.Kinesics in the army. 21.Youth kinesics. 22.Intercultural kinesic borrowings. 23.Kinesics in newspapers and magazines 24.The candidates’ kinesics in political campaigning and debates. 25.A cross-cultural study of kinesics from television.

Chapter 6

The sound co-activities of language From audible kinesics to environmental sounds

The murmur of the air in the far-off tree-tops had a strange distinctness; it was almost articulate (James, E, VII) But the little mound of nickles and dimes and quarters chinked pleasantly in his pockets (Wolfe, LHA, X) What oppressed him [Sigmund Freud] about New York was its noise. The terrible clatter of horses and wagons, the clanking and screeching of streetcars, the horns of automobiles (Doctorow, R, VI)

6.1

The need to study the sounds beyond speech: Bodily and environmental Having covered the nonverbal aspects of speech in Volume I and in the first three chapters of this one, we have analyzed so far all those communicative elements, at the core of which is speech, in their broadest and most realistic audible and visual dimensions. But there remains still a fascinating domain where we find a number of sounds, seemingly in the periphery of speech, but eloquent enough for us to react to them in interaction with other people and with the environment, whether consciously or, even more, unconsciously. It is a domain whose communicative wealth has also been quite neglected, if not unsuspected, by linguists and philologists, who truly need to investigate all that material, classify it and establish the possibilities and limitations of each language; not only for ‘speaking’ of those sounds, or writing the words that denote them, but for evoking the peculiarities in both listeners and readers. It also lends itself to an in-depth contrastive psycholinguistic study leading to an even more realistic perspective of daily experience, treated in the next chapter: the structural capacity possessed, from an interactive point of view, by the sounds we all hear (and listen to, according to each individual’s receptive sensitiveness) from morning to night, but whose presence we may recognize only if they interfere with the normal flow of our conversations; but not when they act at the very least as their ‘background,’ thus not appreciating their structurally contextual value and their intermingling with the silences that delimit them. Their study, merely introduced here, covers the sounds

254

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

externally produced by our movements and, as a necessary complement, those of the surrounding environment. In the evening when the son sat in the room with his mother, the silence made them both feel awkward. Darkness came on and the evening train came in […] In the street below feet tramped up and down upon a boarded sidewalk […] Over on Main Street sounded a man’s voice, laughing. The door of the express office banged. George Willard […] fumbled for the door knob. Sometimes he knocked against a chair, making it scrape along the floor (Anderson, WO, “Mother”) The glaring hall was full of a blue haze of smoke, the sound of men’s voices, the click of silver coins and the rattle of roulette wheels (Grey, BD, I)

6.2

Audible kinesics or phonokinesics within interactive and noninteractive body movements, and the elaboration of a cultural inventory for each language

6.2.1 To really evaluate the forms and functions of paralanguage and kinesics, it is essential to see them in a context wider than the one identified heretofore as the basic triple structure language-paralanguage-kinesics, and then enter the area we can quite legitimately call phonokinesics, that is, the audible kinesics we produced as we move. The purely kinetic possibilities of the human body have been identified in the virtually exhaustive anatomical chart in Fig. 5.1, Chapter 5, distinguishing four types of movements according to whether we contact ourselves, other people, animals or objects. We now need to address another aspect of those movements, namely, their production of sound of communicative value in social interaction. 6.2.2 The following nonexhaustive inventory, or dictionary of phonokinesics, based on the English language — which seems to possess greater capabilities for the verbal evocation of such sounds — is meant only as a guide for similar projects (Poyatos 1988b, 1993a: Chapter 1). At any rate, inventories for other languages would reveal a fascinating topic, even for contrastive studies, which in any case would differentiate: (a) sounds that evoke the person’s movement but do not refer to the movement itself (e.g., ‘I could hear the furious clatter of his typewriter, as opposed to ‘He was pounding on his typewriter furiously’; (b) the person’s production of sounds that evoke the characteristics of the movement, as ‘He rattled the door handle’; and (c) the reference to a specific movement in cases in which it is not seen, as in ‘I heard him turn the key in the lock cautiously, which specifies the turn of the hand synesthesially evoked by the low and slow friction sound.98 Naturally, this inventory would grow with the addition of all the adjectives and adverbs and adverbial phrases (e.g. ‘He wrung my hand enthusiastically, -violently, -energetically, -in a hurry, etc.), evoking also different parakinesic qualifiers. Each action in the inventory is identified as a transitive and/or intransitive verb (e.g. ‘He hangs his head in shame’), sometimes complemented by an adjective (e.g.

The sound co-activities of language

‘She did a mincing step’), an adverb (e.g. ‘She walked with a shoving gait’) and a noun (‘She gave him a tap on the shoulder’). The action is often qualified in order to emphasize the interactive effect of the audible perception of its specific performance, as it can evoke personality characteristics and various attitudes and emotions, as in ‘She was stirring her coffee nervously.’ In addition, since there may be many nonAnglophone readers, some entries are clarified by one or more equivalents added parenthetically, as in: ‘She flittered (moved rapidly and lightly) about the house,’ or ‘She scuffed along (with a dragging motion).’ Another perspective would be based on a taxonomy of the sounds, whether their generating actions are seen or unseen by others as the person produces them, and on the unseen activities (which naturally presupposes the previous visual experience in order to synesthesially identify the movement), as in ‘The skirts of the nervous debutants swished and rustled across the room.’ Since the movements could only be evoked, and not seen, only the quasiparalinguistic, but most communicative, qualities of the resulting sound would be of relevance. Such a perspective would certainly complete the exhaustive study of human bodily-generated sound production, which should include the individual as well as the cross-cultural communicative effect of those sounds on people. The latter aspect should intrigue researchers in a very special way: how we are affected by all those quasiparalinguistic sounds, how we interact with them, and how their specific acoustic characteristics acquire an almost human quality; in addition to the fact that we know they are being produced with specific bodily activities of equally specific characteristics which we can evaluate in many ways, be it by a desired woman, a detestable person, a psychopath, etc. Readers should ponder this aspect as they peruse the inventory, imagining those activities performed with qualities and in degrees not offered here, and considering their communicative effects in their own culture. 6.2.3 An important observation is that some of the sounds emitted when engaged in those movements are perceived only by us, as when we touch ourselves (e.g. during hair- or arm-preening) — as part of the intrainteraction mentioned later — or objects in a delicate way or too far from our co-interactants (e.g. stroking a chair’s velvety arm), or by the touched person only (e.g. a delicate caress). However, our mind associates those sounds to the actions that generate them and evaluates them as interactive components of the specific encounter or situation. Father Cowley brushed his moustache often downward with a scooping hand (Joyce, U, 243) She stood on one foot, caressing the back of her leg with a bare instep (Steinbeck, GW, XX)

255

256

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

An english inventory of visual and visual-audible movements B99 Bang vi.t •He banged against the wall, •-with his fist on the table, *-the door; adv *He closed the door with a bang. Bat vi.t °He batted him with his fists, He didn’t bat an eye. Batter vt °They battered him mercilessly. Beat vt °He beat him until he knocked him down, *He was beating the clay with a piece of wood. Belt vt °He belted him (with his fist) across the face. Biff vt °She biffed (cuffed) the child’s face. Bite vi.t •She bit into the apple, She bites her lip when she hesitates; n •She gave it a big bite. Bounce vi.t •She bounced into the room noisily, *He bounced the ball forcefully. Brush vt +She brushed her hair back with her hand, °He brushed her arm lightly, •some flecks of dust from the chair, *-her teeth vigorously; n °She felt a light brush on her arm. Bump vi.t °She bumped against me, °-me; n •I heard a bump against the floor and then the child began to cry. Bundle vi •He bundled (moved hastily) across the house. Bustle vi •She bustled (busily, noisily) across the house; n •I could hear the bustle in the upper rooms. Butt vi.t °The wrestler butted him in the stomach, He butted the wall with his head like a ram!; n He expresses his anger with a butt of his head. C Chatter vi +His teeth chattered from the cold. Chew vi.t •He was chewing slowly, -gum in class, -his pencil. Chomp vi •He was chomping on something. Chop vt °He chopped his opponent savagely; adj °He was massaging his back with light chopping blows. Clap vi.t +He was clapping happily, +-his hands; n °He slapped his neck affectionately with a clap, °He gave me a clap on the shoulder; n +He summoned the waiter with a clap. Clatter vi.t +He was clattering his teeth, +His teethclattered; n *I could hear the clatter of his typewriter. Click vt +He was clicking his teeth, +-his fingernails together, -his fingernails against his pencil; vi Her teeth clicked as she walked. Clinked vi.t *We clinked our glasses, *All the glasses clinked delicately/enthusiastically in the toast; n *I heard the clink of fine glass. Clip vt °He clipped her (with a quick, sharp blow) across the head. Clomp vi •He clomped down the corridor in his heavy boots.

The sound co-activities of language

Compress vt She compressed her lips in pain. Crack vt *He cracked the whip lightly, then loudly. Crawl vi •-across the whole room. Creep vi •He was creeping up the stairs on all fours, He crept through the crowd unnoticed, She crept up to me during the party. Crumple vt •He crumpled the newspaper in anger. Crunch vt •He was crunching potato chips. Crush vt •He crushed the beer can with his hand. Cuff vt °He cuffed (slapped) his face, °-his ear. D Dart vi •She darted across the room in a panic. Dash vi •He dashed out of the house and ran, *-something violently into the drawer and closed it. Dawdle vi • He indolently dawdled to the door. Diddle vi •She diddled along (moved back and forth jerkily). Drag vt •He dragged his feet as he walked. Drop vi.t •She dropped to the floor unconscious, -her head on the pillow, -her eyelids, She dropped her jaw open in unbelief. Drum vi +He kept drumming with his fingers on his belly, •-on the table. E Edge vi •He edged (walked sideways) awkwardly toward the door. F Fall vi •She fell down, -forward, -back, His mouth fell open in bewilderment. Flail vi •The crippled man flailed along (walked in an uncoordinated way); adv •He walked with a flailing gait through the snow. Flap vi.t •She flapped into a chair, •He flapped his arm against the water. Flick vt +He flicked my ear from behind, •-a crumb with her fingers; n +She struck the child’s ear with a flick. Fling vi.t •She flung (quickly) out of the room, He flung his arms about her, *He flung the book on the table. Flip vi.t *-the box shut (with a quick jerk). Flitter vi •She flittered (moved rapidly and lightly) about the house. Flop vi •He flopped onto the couch exhausted, •-his hand on the table; adv •He walked with a flopping gait. Flounce vi •She flounces girlishly across the room remembering her young days. Flounder vi •He floundered around awkwardly. Flutter vi •She fluttered nervously about the house, -her eyelids flirtatiously. Flump vi •The fat man was flumping along the hall.

257

258

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

G Gliding vi She glided elegantly across the hall in her long dress Gnaw vi.t •He was gnawing on a piece of candy, •-an apple,-his lips. H Halt vi •He halted (walked with uneven, limp gait) along. Hobble vi •He hobbled (halted), -unsteadily on one leg. Hop vi •He hopped on one foot. Hug vt °They hugged each other tensely; adv °He greeted me with a hug. Hurl vt *-his cap to the floor in anger. Hurtle vi •He hurtled up the flight of steps and stormed into the room. Hustle vi.t +-them (pushed) very rudely. J Jab vi.t °He kept jabbing his opponent with quick blows. Jerk vi.t •He jerked abruptly as he walked, •He walks with a jerk. Jiggle vt *He jiggled the door handle softly, then violently. Jog vi.t •He jogged along heavily (in slow, heavy manner),*The beggar jogged his plate to make the coins jingle, *-the piggy bank to see how much he had. Jostle vt °He was jostling (pushing roughly) people in thecrowd. Jump vi •She jumped from joy, -to his feet when he saw me. K Kick vi.t +-him in the shin; n •He gave his car a kick. Knock vi.t •He knocked on the door, +-his knees nervously, *He knocked the lamp down, *-the ashes out of his pipe. L Lap vi.t •He bent down and lapped the water, •-the water up loudly. Leap vi •He leaped in the air from joy, -to his feet. Limp vi •She limps after the accident; adv •She walks with a limp. Lumber vi •The big man lumbered up the stairs, — like an elephant. Lump vi •The man with his heavy load was lumping along up the street. Lurch vi •She lurched down the coridor of the moving train. M Massage vt °She was massaging his back; n °She was giving him a good massage. Mince vi •She was mincing around the room as in a delicatedance; adj •She did a mincing step around the room. P Paddle vi •He paddled (toyed with his fingers) absently on the table, •-(walked) like a toddler across the room. Pat vt °He patted the child’s cheek affectionately, +-his (own) thigh impatiently, *He

The sound co-activities of language

was patting the dough with a wooden spatula. Peck at vi •-at the table with the handle of her teaspoon. Pelt vt °The children pelted (beat, pound repeatedly) eachother. Pitter-patter vi •Stop pitter-pattering all over the room! (with quick tapping steps); n •I could hear a pitter-patter upstairs; adv •He walked with a pitter-patter. Plod vi •A very obese man, slowly plodding along. Plop vi •She plopped down into the chair exhausted. Pluck vt •He was plucking the strings of his guitar, •He plucked the cat-gut, which twanged and buzzed, •-a chicken in a hurry. Pound vi •He was pounding on the door insistently, °The little boy pounded and kicked and finally won the fight, +He pounded his knee with his fist, +-his chest proudly. Puff vi.t •He puffed at his cigar/pipe, He puffed out his cheeks, -chest. Punch vt °He punched me on the face, •-his pillow. R Rap vi.t •She rapped nervously on the door, •-on the table; n •He opened the newspaper and gave it a sharp rap with the back of his hand. Rattle vi.t *The door rattled, it was him, *He rattled thehandle; n I heard the rattle. Reel vi •He reeled as if he were drunk and fell on the floor. Rub vt +He rubbed his hands together in anticipation, +-his nose trying to remember, °-her back with sun lotion. Run vi.t •He ran fast, +-through his hair nervously, °-hisfingers down her back seductively. S Saunter vi •He sauntered along, swinging his cane, The policeman sauntered toward us. Scamper vi •They scampered (walked quickly) through the garden. Scrape vt •She scraped the ground (with her feet). Scratch vi.t +Don’t scratch or you’ll itch even more, +He scratched his face. Scud vi •She scudded across the lawn swiftly (as if skimming along it). Scuff vi.t •She scuffed along (with a dragging motion), •She sat scuffing the floor with her feet, +The teacher scuffed the back of his neck; n •I could hear her scuffing upstairs. Scuffle vi •He scuffled (dragged his feet) as he walked. Scurry vi •He scurried (walked hastily) along and disappeared. Shake vi.t *He was shaking the piggy bank. Shamble vi •The poor man shambled into the luxurious mansion (walking clumsily, hardly lifting his feet). Shove vi. •He walked with a shoving gait. Shuffle vi.t •She shuffled along the room, •-her feet impatiently, He shuffled embarrassedly. Sink vi •She sank into her chair and cried, •-to her knees. Sit vi He sat quietly, -up in bed, He sat down.

259

260 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Slam vt *He slammed the door angrily, *-the box into the cupboard; adv *He closed the door with a slam. Slap vt °He slapped him on the back, °-his face, °-across the face, +-his (own) thigh laughing at the joke, •-his hand on the watermelon, *He slapped the hamburger onto the hot plate; n °He gave him a slap on the back. Slide vi.t *He slid the bolt open slowly, He slid the handalong the top of his new car. Slip vi.t •He slipped on the ice and fell, °She slipped her fingers through his hair. Slump vi •He slumped down in his chair and bowed his head pensively. Smack vi.t +He smacked his lips after drinking, *He made the snowball smack loudly against the window, °He smacked the face of the child sharply. Snap vi.t +He snapped his fingers, *He snapped the lock closed, *-the whip loudly, +He could play a tune by snapping his cheek. Sock vt °He socked him unexpectedly and knocked him down. Spank vt °She was spanking the child. Spat vt +He spatted his knee with his palm and got updecidedly, °-my knee. Splash vi •The child splashed on the surface of the water. Squeak vi *He made the door squeak mysteriously, •He made his shoes squeak loudly and rapidly. Stagger vi •He staggered from weakness and then fell. Stalk vi.t •She stalked haughtily out of the room, -the chicken trying to catch it. Stamp vi •He stamped in anger, •The flamenco dancer stamped on the floor. Step back vi •He stepped back startled. Stir vi.t •He stirred in his bed and opened his eyes, *-his coffee nervously. Stomp vi.t •He threw it on the floor and stomped on it with rage. Stride vi.t •He strode haughtily across the room, He strode the street, He strode to pass over the puddle. Strike vt +She struck him on the face, •-her head against the cupboard, *-a match on the sole of his shoe. Stroke vt °He stroked her hair gently, +-her (own) arm flirtatiously while she talked, •She was stroking the velvet cushion sensually. Strut vi •He strutted with a swagger to show his contempt; adv •He walked with a strut. Stuff vi •He stuffs his hands violently into his pants’ pockets, then jerks them out again. Stumble vi •He was so weak that he stumbled terribly. Swagger vi •Putting on airs, he began to swagger down the street; n He walks with a proud swagger. Swap vi.t •He swapped quickly to his left, +-him in the hand. Swat vt +He swatted the child in the hand and told him not to touch. Sweep vi.t +She swept her hand through her hair, *She swept her fingers over the keyboard, •-the crumbs off the table; adv •He put it away with a sweep of his hand.

The sound co-activities of language

T Tap vi.t •He kept tapping on the table with his fingers, •-with his feet, *He tapped a stick against my window, *The blind man tapped his cane on the pavement as he went on impatiently, +He tapped his temple to signify he was smart; +*He could play a tune by tapping the edge of his teeth with his fingernail or with a pencil; n °She gave him a tap on the shoulder. Tear vi •He tore down the stairs in a big hurry, *He tore at the curtains and brought them down to the floor. Thresh vt +He was threshing his arms to fight the cold. Throw vt He threw his cap on the floor in anger, She throws her arms around him. Thud vi +He thudded on his chest proudly; adv °He hit him with a thud, •-the cushion with a thud. Thump vi.t +He thumped on his chest, •He thumped the sandbag; adv °He hit him with a thump. Thwack vt °He thwacked (whacked) him on the face with the back of his hand. Toss vi.t •He tossed about in bed all night, •He tossed about the room. Totter vi •She tottered (unsteadily) on the step, •-away but then regained his balance. Tramp vi •He tramped (firmly and heavily) down the street. Trample vi •He trampled (tramped) heavily. Tremble vi He was trembling all over. Trot vi •I starting trotting when I saw him come toward toward me. Trudge vi •He kept trudging laboriously across the muddy path. Tumble vi •She tumbled out of bed half awake. Twirl vi.t •She twirled around the dance floor, -her hair with two fingers. W Waddle vi • He waddled up to me with his fifth drink in his hand, She waddled [swaying from side to side] toward her, laughing at her all the time. Wallop vi.t •He walloped along clumsily. Wamble vi •He wambled unsteadily from dizziness. Whack vt °He whacked her on the face, *The piano lid as hard as he could; n He gave her a good whack. Whirl vi •They whirled around the dance floor, He whirled quickly to face the man behind him. Whisk vt •He whisked off the crumbs from her lap. Whop vi •He whopped on the couch. Wriggle vi.t •She wriggled nervously in her chair, -her foot. Z Zigzag vi •He zigzagged to avoid the bullets.

261

262 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

6.3

The sound of self-adaptors: Hearing our contact with ourselves The strictly somatic sounds produced by self-adaptor movements (Vol. I, Chapter 6.15) are the closest, organically and anatomically, to the linguistic and paralinguistic ones because they are true bodily articulations, according to the broad concept of articulation offered in Volume I, Chapter 2.7. Their acoustic characteristics are associated mainly with movements we can identify by reviewing the aforementioned anatomical chart in Fig. 5.1. The hands (palm, lateral side, second knuckles, fist, back of fingers and their balls) are the most versatile active agents, capable of a great variety of audible movements beyond the few for which each language has coined words.100 Some of these are: brushing hand-to-hair/any surface caressing hand-to-any surface chattering teeth-to-teeth chopping hand-to-any surface clapping hand-to-hand clicking teeth-to-teeth, fingernail-to-fingernail, -to teeth cracking hand-to-knuckles crunching teeth-to-object-to-teeth drumming fingers-to-surface flapping hand-to-ear gnashing teeth-to-teeth grating teeth-to-teeth grinding teeth-to-teeth gritting teeth-to-teeth knocking knuckles-to-skull patting hand-to-surface pounding fist-to-surface punching fist-to-surface raking fingers-to-hair/hairy surface rubbing hand-to-body/hand running fingers-to(through) hair/(along) surface scratching fingernails-to-surface slapping hand-to-surface snapping finger-to-finger, teeth-to-teeth stroking hand-to-surface sweeping hand-to(through)-hair tapping fingers-to-surface thudding hand/fist-to-surface

The vocal (linguistic and paralinguistic)-narial tract repertoire has its own limitations for expressing many at times ineffable semantic nuances, despite a seemingly bound-

The sound co-activities of language

less lexical and paralinguistic repertoire. But an energetic slapping of the thigh can qualify a verbal statement as much as an equally intense paralinguistic modifier; in fact, it can even replace it, or accompany it, even suggesting body build and certain personality features. And it is that intensity that we can carefully measure as someone gnashes his teeth in anger, drums with his fingers, thuds on his chest or rubs his hands in excited anticipation. In fact, they are sounds that function as ‘auxiliaries’ of the basic triple structure language- paralanguage-kinesics with the same communicative values paralinguistic ‘alternants’ have. Actually, since they are produced by the same soundgenerating body that produces and coordinates language, paralanguage and kinesics, they become veritable extensions of paralanguage and perfectly segmental components of interaction. He [Scully, the hotel keeper] slapped his knee impressively, to indicate that he himself was going to make reply (Crane, BH, IV) “Wall, you can marry Latch,” rejoined Keetch, vigorously slapping his leg (Grey, LWT, VI)

There is one difference, however: unlike paralinguistic modifiers (e.g. creaky voice, coughing while talking) and alternants (e.g. a click, a throat clearing, a sigh), they can act as both, coinciding or alternating with verbal language, just as kinesic behaviors do. In addition, the frequent synchronization of, say thigh-slapping or hand-rubbing, can perform, when accompanying verbal paralinguistic constructs, the same typical functions played in discourse by kinesic and paralinguistic language markers. This confirms once again the mutually inherent nature of movement and sound within the language-paralanguage-kinesics structure and how the whole body contributes to its finely structured communicative totality. In other words, both performer and cointeractant perceive the symbolic acoustic quality of the activities themselves along the communicative stream — as with a hand-rubbing sound, which can be increased in intensity as would voice volume — for there is a perfect congruence between those kinesic actions and the verbal-paralinguistic ones when the two co-occur: movement intensity is akin to voice volume and articulatory tension, range in space is similar to lengthening or shortening (drawling, clipping) of syllables, and visually perceived speed is like speech tempo. It is clear, then, that the structural and communicative qualities of those visual components of our speaking warrant their inclusion in the kinesic level of the total transcription suggested in Chapter 5 of Volume I.

6.4

The sound of alter-adaptors: Hearing the contact between bodies We can conclude, therefore, that alter-adaptors partake of similar communicative qualities as self-adaptors, as they can also qualify in an additional paralinguistic fashion

263

264 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

what is being expressed verbally and paralinguistically (or replace those two modalities altogether) as we touch the other person. Again, their acoustic characteristics and their contactual movements possess that mysterious language-like quality which is decoded in interaction in systematic, learned ways. Those audible actions and the articulations that produce them are: batting hand-to-body beating hand-to-body biffing hand-to-body brushing hand/arm/leg-to-body bumping body-to-body caressing hand-to-body clapping hand-to-neck/back/buttocks clipping hand-to-head cuffing hand-to-body flicking fingers-to-body fondling hands/arms-to-body hugging arms and chest-to-chest and back jabbing fist-to-upper body kicking foot-to-body patting hand-to-body punching fist-to-body raking fingers-to-hair rubbing hand-to-body running hand/fingers-to-surface/hair scratching fingernails-to-body shoving hand/arm-to-upper body slapping hand-to-body slipping hand/fingers-to-hair/between two body parts socking fist-to-upper body spanking open hand-to-buttocks stroking hand-to-body surface sucking mouth-to-body swapping hand-to-body swatting hand-to-body sweeping hand-to-body surface thudding hand/fist-to-abdomen/torso/back whacking hand-to-body

We see that the movements symbolized by these words belong to the participants’ repertoires of free and bound movements (i.e. with and without contact) developed ontogenetically beyond their own bodies according to socialization skills and exposure to interpersonal situations. Finally, besides the aspects just discussed, such as their

The sound co-activities of language

visible and even acoustic synchronization within the triple structure languageparalanguage-kinesics (and their echoic evocation in many instances), the concept of bodily ‘articulation’ must be brought up again, for those speech-related kinesic behaviors, so often part of the triple structure (e.g., a pat on the shoulder with a verbal encouraging expression) qualify as interpersonal articulations. Two facing interactive bodies with their articulatory systems can engage each other in a great number of ways as alter-adaptors, both in a tactual-visual-manner and in a tactual-visual-audible one as well, and the communicative functions they perform will depend much, of course, on the degree of socialization and sensitivity of the participants: The two combatants […] crashed together like bullocks. There was heard the cushioned sound of blows, and of a curse squeezing out from between the tight teeth of one (Crane, BH, VI)

6.5

The sound of body-adaptors and their intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions The audible actions through which we can come in contact with body-adaptors — objects and substances most immediately attached to the body (Chapter 6.17, Volume I) — are very limited, but can be most eloquent in interaction, for instance: biting teeth-to-object (bread, apple) brushing hand-to-object (clothes) chewing teeth, tongue, cheeks-to-object (food, tobacco) chomping teeth, tongue, cheeks-to-object (food) crunching teeth-to-object (food) patting hand-to-object (clothes, shoes, pipe) rubbing hand-to-object (clothes) slapping hand-to-object (large fruit, clothes) sliding hand-to-object (clothes) stroking hand-to-object (large fruit, clothes)

These few actions, however, should not be neglected, since they provide two distinctive audible experiences: One comes from the contact with solid food and pseudonutritional products like hard candy, that is, objects on which we can bite, chew, chomp or crunch. Doing so may reflect, according to their speed and intensity, for instance: certain feelings, as when we may, intentionally or not, convey contempt or derision by chewing and crunching (again, part of our expressive repertoire in an ontogenetic way), social status (e.g., the careless smacking and chomping accompanied sometimes by audible nasal breathing), childishness (e.g., the noisy biting and crunching of hard candy), and even certain pathological instances of those behaviors:

265

266 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Wemmick was at his desk, lunching — and crunching — on a dry piece of biscuit (Dickens, GE, XXIV) He crammed his mouth with fry and munched and droned (Joyce, U, 13) abriendo moderadamente sus bocas al mascar, exhalando breves ruidos mandibulares (Martín Santos, TS, 154)

The other one occurs when we touch our or someone else’s clothes. Ostwald, in one of his inspiring discussions of human sounds (Ostwald 1973), mentions in passing some of those sounds, but two deeper dimensions are obvious. One is the interpersonal, social one, and the other is the intrapersonal, and their perception as we perform certain behaviors and after we do. He states that “the body contains its own power source, is driven by a built-in executor, and has ears to receive and a brain to evaluate its own performance” (28). The hands can slide over one’s or someone else’s velvet or silk dress and produce the characteristic swishing sound, rub on corduroy or denim and let us hear their soft rustling, glissando (as Ostwald calls it) effect, brush our woolen sweater up and down and emit that peculiar muffled tone, etc. At a deeper intrapersonal level — identified in Volume I, Chapter 6.17.2 — (perhaps affecting an interpersonal encounter), those acts, performed with varying speed and intensity of friction, are conscious or unconscious contacts with our own body. They are mediated only by the fabric, and their sound is perceived simultaneously to the tactile reception conveyed to the brain by our skin organs and by the manual perception of texture and the kinesthetic perception of shape and size. In addition, both are enhanced sometimes by certain unconscious or very conscious narcissistic tendencies. The tactile-audible realization of body-adaptors is, therefore, the most important aspect of our intrapersonal interaction and an important one in interpersonal encounters, as in intimate ones. Much research can be done regarding that aspect of clothes, how it can affect face-to-face interaction, and even its historical development, including the appearance and disappearance of certain tactile-audible experiences determined, for instance, by a tight underwear, the crinoline, long skirts, jeans, leotards, etc. The rustle of her pretty skirt was like music to him (Dreiser, SC, XXI)

As for the same activities in the form of alter-adaptors, both the sounds and the sensations of active touch are still present, but here the articulations are between the two bodies, and, as with self-adaptors, they can be controlled through speed, intensity and, of course, by alternating them with silences and stills (as when the hand rests motionless at times on those sound-producing textures). Which means we should acknowledge also the often subliminal linguistic and paralinguistic-like quality they possess, as though, for instance, in an interpersonal intimate encounter those sounds could not only accompany what we say and how we say it (paralanguage), but fill the

The sound co-activities of language

intervening silences with eloquent sounds beyond, and as extensions of, our words, sometimes expressing the ineffable, even out of awareness.

6.6

The sound of object-adaptors: When things talk back to us as we touch them Another kind of movements that can produce sound is that of our contact with cultural artifacts (e.g., furniture, a bell) and organic and inorganic objects of the surrounding environment (e.g., the floor, the wall, a tree, a watermelon), performed mostly with the hands and the feet: Yossarian knocked on wood, crossed his fingers, and tiptoed out of the tent to move the bombline (Heller, C22, 123) my mother, reclining, held the paper at the spine with one hand and slapped the pages left and right with the back of the other (Doctorow, WF, II)

These activities possess the communicative qualities that, performed while speaking, qualify them as an integral part of the triple structure language-paralanguage-kinesics in discourse (e.g., pounding on a table during a discussion as an emotional language marker), or acquire a verbal-like eloquence by themselves. That is why they sometimes appear in their own right as powerful communicative, segmental elements (e.g., the pounding by itself, or an impatient and insistent rapping on a table), as in this triplesign occurrence: He heard thudding footfalls, a cry and then a rip of cloth [from a struggle between a man and a woman] (Grey, MR, X)

In addition, they can provide peculiar tactile and even synesthesial experiences, as when stroking the velvet arm of an upholstered chair (perhaps while interacting with an opposite-sex person), or the tingling sensation associated with the mere visual perception of someone scratching a plaster wall. The more common occurrences are: banging hand beating hands brushing hand, forearm, foot bumping upper body drumming fingers flapping hand flicking fingertips flopping trunk, body knocking knuckles patting hand pounding side of fist

267

268 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

punching fist raking fingers rapping knuckles rubbing hand shuffling feet scratching fingernails scraping feet sliding hand, forearm, foot slapping hand splashing hand stamping feet stomping feet striking hand, head sweeping palm, edge of hand tapping fingers, feet thudding hand thumping fist, foot, knee, chest, back tramping feet trampling feet wiping fingers, hand whisking hand

Through the frequency, intensity and duration of the contact we can infer with varying reliability certain personality traits, and, with more accuracy, mood, emotional state and medical state, as when hearing the characteristic footsteps of the different types of gait (e.g., dragging, floundering, halting, hobbling, hopping, kicking, plodding, scraping, shuffling, tottering, tramping), the gentle or authoritative door-knocking that can ‘speak’ as clearly as words, contemptuous finger-drumming, the slow, sensual figure-tracing stroking of a smooth surface, etc. She rapped imperatively at the window (Lawrence, SL, I) He [Lester, at a restaurant, trying to talk Jennie into accepting money] idly thrummed the cloth with his fingers (Dreiser, JG, XXII)

An exhaustive study of sound-producing object-adaptors would include, in addition, musical percussion instruments, task-performing activities like punching and slapping dough while kneading, hammering on an anvil at a forge, etc., thus touching on the fascinating historical approach, suggested later, as well as on the cross-cultural perspective.

The sound co-activities of language

6.7

The sound of object-mediated activities: Audible body extensions The category that would complete an exhaustive study of bodily generated sounds would be the one including those produced when we manipulate objects or artifacts that truly act as extensions of our body in order to contact something else. Their acoustic characteristics depend, of course, on the material those artifacts are made of as well as that of the objects they contact. Among many others (not precisely associated with speech, but equally eloquent) are: banging beating brushing clacking clanging clanking clattering clicking clinking creaking crunching jiggling jingling knocking patting rattling rustling scraping screeching slamming slapping smacking snapping squeaking squelching swishing tapping thumping tinkling

He banged the door, He closed the chest with a loud bang The fiddlers beating their bows on their violins She was brushing her teeth vigorously The latch opened with a loud clack and I started He threw the shovel at him, but it hit the wall with a clang The heavy metal door closed with a clank. I could hear the furious clatter of his typewriter. I can imagine the clattering of those ancient chariots! Her heels clicked forcefully on the pavement They clinked their glasses gently while staring at each other Every step of those stairs creaked. My boots were creaking all the time I heard the rejected sheets crunching in his nervous hand She was jiggling the door handle His hand kept jingling the coins in his pocket He knocked the ashes out of his pipe against the desk She was patting the dough gently with a wooden spatula The door handle rattled insistently. His cup rattled against its saucer when he was nervous. The carriage wheels rattled She made her long skirt rustle as she walked I could hear his scraping the paint off hurriedly He made his tires screech on purpose He slammed the door furiously, -the book closed She slapped the hamburger onto the grill, -the wall in excitement She made the snowball smack loudly against my back He snapped the lock into place, -her with a rubber band His new shoes squeaked embarrassingly. The door squeaked slowly My wet shoes squelched as I walked. I heard the swishing of her corduroy pants He tapped a stick against my window to wake me up The officer’s night stick thumped on each door He made his bunch of keys tinkle loudly. He tinkled his glass with the knife to call our attention. The very American morning sound of the milkman’s bottles tinkling towards the house

269

270 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

While the basic characteristics of those sounds depend only on the material and consistency of both the manipulated object and the object they come in contact with (e.g. wood against wood, glass against glass, wood against dough, metal against metal, meat against metal, metal against wood), it is again the parakinesic somatic qualifiers of intensity, range and velocity, that qualify them with their meaningful intentionally or intentionally communicative qualities, as in: ‘He slammed the door angrily,’ ‘He walked out furiously kicking the floorboards with his heels,’ ‘We could hear the slow scraping sound of the old man’s shoes,’ ‘He kept tapping the table nervously with his fork,’ ‘By the slow, spaced rattle of her dishes I could tell her mind was fixed on that idea only.’ We again find the mysterious language-like effects of our auditory experiences, which we associate with the emotions and intentions generated in a brain that originally caused them to sound the way they did, whether that language-like quality lies in their loudness, speed or resonance: Mr. Jaggers never laughed […] he sometimes caused the boots to creak, as if they laughed in a dry and suspicious way (Dickens, GE, XXIV) The scratching of Eleanor’s pen irritated him (Woolf, Y, 1880) Dante […] shouted down the room, her cheeks flushed and quivering with rage:/ — Devil out of hell! […] Fiend!/ The door slammed behind her (Joyce, PAYM, I) Tommy guffawed, scraping his chair along the floor (Faulkner, S, VIII).

It is clear, then, that these sounds may suggest people’s specific feelings or states, as in: the little mound of nickles and dimes and quarters [collected by the young boy Eugene from selling the magazine] chinked pleasantly in his pockets (Wolfe, LHA, X) Mr. Dedalus’s cup had rattled noisily against its saucer […] that shameful sign of his father’s drinking bout (Joyce, PAYM, II)

This happens even more when we execute the sound-generated actions with a very conscious communicative intention, as in: She [Abra] slammed the door just loud enough to register her anger (Steinbeck, EE, LV, III) [at the opening of the ballet Rodeo, 1942] The fiddlers were beating their bows on their instruments. The others were standing up yelling […] “this is an ovation […]” (de Mille, DP, XXIV)

In summation, there should be no doubt that all those sounds are much more than just ‘noises,’ and when they happen in interaction (but interaction can be also imagined, accompanied perhaps by soliloquy) they are far from being marginal to it. The person who walks into our room and slams the door behind may have communicated already the central message of our encounter; what he is going to verbalize later — or rather,

The sound co-activities of language

271

what he is going to express through certain verbal-paralinguistic-kinesic structures — has already been encoded by his body and conveyed by such mediating agents as the door banging against its frame, a powerful component of the interaction, which will be supported by her voice and manners, that is, his speech. That interaction, in fact, has undoubtedly started already, even though not strictly conversationally, before any words are uttered; and if the slam closes the interaction instead, its intensity then expresses all the emotional content of that encounter: in the heat of my anger […] I […] called to him as harshly as possible […] and dashed out again without waiting for a word of answer. I banged the door after me (Collins, WW, 204–205).101 Lavinia’s bell rung furiosuly, twice […] “Lavinia!” she [Mrs. Jaspar] called, in a high irritated voice (Wharton, AH, III) le veillard saisit une sonnette, entrebilla la porte donnant sur la maison, et agita la sonnette nerveusement, avec une sorte de frénésie sé et en méme temps un visage très dèterminé, comme s’il donnait le signal d’une attaque à main armée (Montherlant, C, I)

6.8

The sounds of the environment as potential interaction components In order to realistically complete this presentation of communicative movements, the sounds studied until now in this chapter must be seen also as part of an still broader communicative complex suggested in Fig. 6.1, ‘The interrelationship of human and environmental sounds, which Chapter 7 will develop more at length in conjunction with the study of silence and stillness. ENVIRONMENTAL SOUNDS MECHANICAL SOUNDS OBJECT-MEDIATED SOUNDS OBJECT-ADAPTOR SOUNDS ALTER-ADAPTOR SOUNDS BODY-ADAPTOR SOUNDS SELF-ADAPTOR SOUNDS LANGUAGE PARALANGUAGE KINESICS

Figure 6.1.The interrelationship of human and environmental sounds

272

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

In Fig. 6.1. we see, beyond what the body can initiate: the sounds of the artifactual world, whether generated by themselves as some sort of mysterious organisms (e.g., a whirring engine, a ticking clock) or in contact with other objects (e.g., the clanking of an old type of train crossing a metal bridge in the stillness of night), and even beyond all those man-deviced sounding elements, the natural environmental sounds, such as the rumbling storm, the howling wind, the pattering of rain or the murmuring brook. What is important to establish is that any of these sounds can become components of a personal interaction at one time or another, even though sometimes their effect on the encounter may go totally unnoticed at a conscious level. In other words, beyond all the body-generated sounds discussed earlier, one must acknowledge the presence of the mysterious language-like effects of the many artifactual, strictly mechanical, and even environmental sounds. We are all familiar with examples found in narrative literature, and also carefully synchronized in films, and with their possible consequences in our interactions. Even their effect on the verbal-paralinguistic-kinesic activities of speech is something not to be underestimated by the linguist, as they may interrupt it (e.g. the unexpected thunder) or break its regularity, because it to become more intimate (e.g., the sound of rain softly pattering on a window pane), etc., and, at the very least, accompany or trigger one’s thoughts. All long-known objects, even a mere window fastening or a particular doorlatch, have sounds which are a sort of recognised voice to us — a voice that will thrill and awaken, when it has been used to touch deep-lying fibres. (Eliot, MF, III, IV) There was no sound through the house but the moaning wind […] the faint crackling of the coals, and the click of my snuffers as I removed at intervals the long wick of the candle (E. Brontë, WH, XVII). The murmur of the air in the far-off tree-tops had a strange distinctness; it was almost articulate (James, E, VII) The tree [ash-tree] shrieked again. Morel liked it./ ‘It’s music, he said. ‘It sends me to sleep,/ But Paul and Arthur and Annie hated it. To Paul it became almost a demoniacal noise […] This terror [of the vastness in front of the house, when they were in bed] came in from the shrieking of the tree and the anguish of the home discord/ caught up by the wind in full force (Lawrence, SL, IV) Unos pies arrastrándose y unas manos torpes abriendo cerrojos (Laforet, N, I)

6.9

The echoic repertoires and the expressive richness of language It has been seen that many of the words evoked by the movements-made-sound, identified in five groups, are imitative utterances. A comparative study of languages would throw much light and broaden the perspectives of a field like comparative

The sound co-activities of language

linguistics by revealing not only the expressive capacity of different languages, but the very necessity of the general speaker to follow an acoustic (perception)-imitative (phonetic) process, in addition to the need of the speaker-writer to possess a representable imitation. This is but the need to coin verbal utterances to directly evoke those sounds (e.g. ‘We heard the crunching of his footsteps in the snow’), beyond the additional mental process required by words whose evocation is only indirect (e.g. ‘He left with a slam of the door’). Outside this verbal repertoire there are still the many paralinguistic utterances identified earlier as alternants, among which only some attain verbal status by generating a verb and a noun (e.g. to zoom/a zoom, to crunch/a crunching, to squelch/a squelch). What must be emphasized, reviewing once more the five above groups, is the expressive-evocative economy in phrases like ‘He slapped his face’ (instead of ‘He striked his face’), ‘They kept slurping their soup’ (instead of ‘They kept eating their soup noisily’), ‘The dismal howling of the wind’ (instead of ‘The strong sound of the wind’). Still, however, there is here another semiotic level in the pseudoechoic quality developed by certain words through use until they come to evoke a very specific sound because they even possess a certain imitative component, as in Spanish ‘portazo,’ although not as complete as ‘slam.’ This said, we must acknowledge the extraordinary richness of English — made apparent by the chapter on alternants and by this one and the next — in sounddenoting verbs, and above all the variety of acoustic effects for differentiating similar sounds that cannot be evoked by just one word. In Spanish, for instance, “El topetazo de su pie duro sobre el suelo tenía una violencia y sonoridad excepcionales” (Galdós, FJ, III, VI) cannot really evoke any specific acoustic quality as would, for instance, English ‘thump.’ Likewise, one has to refer to the ‘chocar’ of wineglasses in a toast, when English has a specific ‘clinking’ of glasses, but we just cannot achieve the desired effect by writing ‘Los dos amantes hicieron chocar sus copas suavemente’ — as in “chocaron las copas, expresando con igual calor su afecto a la simpática familia” (Galdós, Miau, VII) — since ‘chocar’ lacks the etymological onomatopoeic element ‘to clink’ has: ‘They clinked their glasses.’ As for English ‘to ring/jingle a [small] bell, Spanish has to resort to something as vague as ‘Tocó/Hizo sonar/le dio a la campanilla’ (instead of just ‘He rang/jingled the bell’), or to ‘El timbre [electric bell] sonaba insistentemente, rather than the more evocative ‘The bell kept ringing, expressing much better ‘the sound of a whole situation.’ This section can be fittingly closed with two audibly eloquent, but quite typical, English examples: Presently came a dragging, bumping sound, then a crash of a log dropped upon the fire. A cloud of sparks shot up, and many pattered down to hiss upon the damp ground […] flames sputtered and crackled (Grey, MF, VII) as Americans […] replaced their cracked old gurglers with the swishy new models (of toilets), they found themselves forced to flush and flush again […] Soon they wanted the thunderous woosh of their old […] toilets back (Time, April 10, 2000)

273

274 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

6.10

The segmentality of audible movements Wit regard to the segmental nature of audible movements, suggested in the preceding pages, we must concede, first, that we must acknowledge any of these behaviors as a potential effective component of an interactive encounter (leaving aside for now noninteractive situations), as will be seen in the next chapter. It should follow that those behaviors, clearly delimited by silences and cessations of movement, may often appear as perfectly integrated in the linguistic-paralinguistic-kinesic structure, accompanying all three elements or replacing them with a totally lexical value. Since the sounds produced by those movements are very much like paralinguistic alternants (which, like alternants, are qualified by characteristics similar to paralinguistic features, mainly pitch, resonance, volume and duration), and since the movements themselves appear as clearly and visibly definable as kinesic behaviors (that is, subject also to parakinesic qualifiers of intensity, range, speed and duration), it is therefore quite apparent that the visible-acoustic behaviors discussed occur at perfectly segmental levels, either simultaneously to the basic structure language- paralanguage-kinesics (of which they can be part) or adjacent to their audible or visual components. The following examples illustrate these two possibilities: Audible self-adaptor behaviors 1. /slapping one’s knee/ + ¡I remember now!102 2. /pounding on the chest/ ¡I did it alone, I did! Audible alter-adaptor behaviors 1. /slap on his back/ + ¡Good work! 2. /slapping his back/ ¡I’m so happy to see you! Audible body-adaptor behaviors 1. /rubbing one’s pants/ + Well… I don’t know 2. /rubbing hard on one’s pants/ ¡Well, let’s see how we do it! Audible object-adaptor behaviors 1. ¿¡Are you there!? + /knocking on door/ + ¡Answer me! 2. /knocking on door/ ¿¡Are you there!? ¡Open up, Tom! Audible artifactual behaviors 1. ¡Open up, will you!? + /jiggling the door handle/ + ¡I know you’re there! 2. /scrubbing the floor/ + Yes, I remember him + /scrubbing again/ 3. /while tapping the table with a fork/ Well, we’ll see what we can do

The sound co-activities of language

It must be noted that when movement precedes or follows language, what is expressed kinesically could also be expressed verbally-paralinguistically. We also see that instead of slapping one’s knee we might say something like ‘¡Yes, of course!’; instead of slapping someone else’s back, we might say ‘Well!’; instead of rubbing one’s pants back and forth, one might say ‘Well, let’s see!’ But it is also true that the visible-audible behaviors, like conversational kinesic behavior, do not always convey a different message, but rather reinforce the verbal one (which does not make it necessarily ‘redundant’ but ‘complementary.’103 Other times, however, the nonverbal behavior may carry an independent message, or what truly qualifies the verbal part, as when an emotion is expressed with a nonverbally rather than verbal behavior. At any rate, we can see once more why these nonlinguistic sound-producing behaviors must occupy such an important place in the realistic, total transcription of interaction and discourse. Although some novelists have attempted to represent them, particularly since the nineteenth century, most of the times they have only described them, either using their names, if available, or with periphrastic descriptions when there is no single term to identify them. That is why on occasions the influence of cartoon soundgraphs has served to break that inertia and try to give those sounds written and visual form.

6.11

Culture, history and ontogeny of audible corporal movements

6.11.1 A more extensive study of the various somatic and extrasomatic sounds beyond language and paralanguage would include certain interdisciplinary perspectives that are only outlined here as an incentive and guide for deeper research. From the cultural perspective, if we consider the sensory involvement to which we are differently subject according to culture (Poyatos 1983: 358–59) — even trying to categorize the sound-producing behaviors just discussed into what in Volume I, Chapter 1 have been identified as ‘culturemes’ — we would find, besides certain rather universal acts, others that typify specific cultures. Witness, for instance, the social meanings attached to finger-snapping (an offensive kind of audible beckoning in some cultures), the friendly back-clapping between two Spanish male friends, vigorous hand-rubbing in expectation, the various percussion instruments used for music or signals, the beggar’s coin-jingling, the chewing and spitting of betel in India, or the peculiar sounds of crafts or percussion instruments that betray different ways of performing those actions, object-mediated movements like the furious horn-honking in southern European countries, or the Turkish cigarette vendor who walks among the tables of an outdoor café jingling the coins he carries in a small bag, environmental sounds like horse hoofs, the cawing of crows in Indian cities, etc. Tom entered […] with a radiant smile upon his face; and rubbing his hands, more from a sense of delight than because he was cold […] (Dickens, MC, XII)

275

276 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Moynihan […] rose in his bench and, clacking noiselessly the fingers of his right hand, began to call […]:/ — Please, teacher! (Joyce, PAYM, 193)

6.11.2 But this same perspective admits, especially in fields like literature, linguistics and cultural anthropology, a historical approach. One can say that each generation loses and gains certain sounds due to changes in social habits and technology, although some persist only when some of the functions of the behaviors that generate them have survived: [in the combat between Pedro Bermúdez and the Infante don Fernando] Abraçan los escudos delant los coraçones,/ […] batíen los cavallos con los espolones (Poema del Cid, v.3615)

Even during the twentieth century, many in European Mediterranean cultures have witnessed the disappearance of, for instance, the winnowing machine that from the village threshing floors would let us hear its clattering in the quiet summer nights, a sound that could sometimes evoke the tiresome movement of the person cranking it. The following example from nineteenth-century England serves as a comment to the communicative value of those bodily-generated mechanical sounds that are part of the audible experience of each period: ‘Squish squash!’ echoed the milk in the great cylinder [of the butter churn], but never arose the sound they were waiting for […] the milk in the revolving churn at that moment changed its squashing for a decided flick-flack (Hardy, TD, XXI)

Likewise, today’s younger generations must try to imagine, through a book or, better, a movie, the experience of travelling on an old train, albeit excluding the olfactory and kinesthetic experiences that were part of it: On the train she [Mary French] […] reread The Jungle [Upton Sinclair’s equally realistic novel] lay in the Pullman berth that night too excited to sleep, listening to the rumble of the wheels over the rails, the clatter of crossings, the faraway spooky wails of the locomotive […] (Dos Passos, BM, 125)

6.11.3 But, besides the historical perspective, there is undoubtedly a daily sound schedule in each culture which identifies the various tasks of its people. Ostwald (1973), in passing and from another point of view, mentions this suggestive cultural fact when referring to the very American morning sound of the milkman rattling up the steps (because of the glass bottles in his wire basket),104 and the many noises as “by-products” of people’s labors during the day. To which we could add, for instance: the also most North American sound of the rolled-up newspaper thrown by the paper-boy or girl onto the house porch while walking or bicycling along the street; the occasional sounds of the night, such as the passing train; the faraway ambulance or police siren; the wooden stick of the old Spanish city night-watchman hitting the pavement twice in

The sound co-activities of language

answer to our clapping for him to open the street door of an apartment building. Literature offers numerous examples of this audible repertoire in each culture throughout the day, as in this highly sensorial description of early twentieth-century San Francisco: Occasionally a cable car passed, trundling heavily, with a strident whirring of jostled glass windows […] Between seven and eight […] Everywhere was the smell of coffee and the frying of steaks. […] school children invaded the street, filling the air with a clamor of shrill voices […] From noon to evening […] a vast and prolonged murmur arose — the mingled shuffling of feet, the rattle of wheels, the heavy trundling of cable cars […] the newsboys chanted the evening papers. Then all at once the street fell quiet […] A band of Salvationists began to sing before a saloon […] the occasional footfalls of a policeman and the persistent calling of ducks and geese in the closed market (Norris, M, I) the paper-carrier went by whistling, and the rolled-up Advocate thumped the front door (Lewis, B, I, II)

6.11.4 As for the ontogenetic development, just as one attempts to study the individual’s maturation of the linguistic, paralinguistic and kinesic repertoires, the developmental aspects of somatic and artifactual sound production should be incorporated into the communication research and as part of the study of the various nonverbal categories, for it would shed much light upon the gradual appearance of those extralinguistic expressive behaviors. Beginning with the typical childhood self-exploration of one’s body and its almost unlimited choices among self-adaptor articulations, it gradually becomes more selective. The enrichment of the cognitive and communicative capabilities determines the use of behaviors like finger-drumming, self-patting, selfslapping, finger snapping, etc., as specific interactive situations begin to recur and innate tendencies and learning begin to shape that repertoire until it reaches maturity. The same would apply, for instance, to the intentionally communicative use of slow, contemptuous or derisively noisy chewing, or the conscious audible rubbing of one’s clothes, among body adaptor behaviors, to object-adaptors like door-knocking, tablerapping, table-banging and pounding and floor-tapping, and to perfectly integrated conversational props like pencils and cutlery. Those sounds and their meanings become gradually incorporated into the person’s repertoire, while unseen noninteractive and task-performing behaviors (e.g. walking, writing, hammering) may allow us to guess the age of the developing person with much accuracy, as they do his or her mood or state of health. At the same time the basic triple structure language-paralanguage-kinesics has been also growing into maturity until the adult person has at his disposal the whole arsenal of expressive behaviors, not only as speaker-actor but (something so often neglected) as listener-observer.

277

278

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

6.12

Conclusion The human body is a communicator far beyond our knowledge of language and even of paralanguage, kinesics, proxemics and the other communication modalities that have attracted much attention already. While attempting to probe those messageconveying systems — with which we believe to exhaust our communicative possibilities — one is liable to neglect the fundamental fact that our bodies articulate with themselves, with other bodies and with their surrounding environment in ways that are intimately related to other somatic systems, and that many of those contactual movements produce sounds that should not be shunned in any in-depth investigation of human communication. This chapter has identified and outlined a research area that should incite further research as an important part of nonverbal communication studies for a realistic approach to, and a true understanding of, the communication process, whether in real-life situations or in the perception and evocation contained in a literary text. But this study — based in the differentiation of self-adaptors, alteradaptors, body-adaptors and object-adaptors — should stand side by side with that of paralanguage and kinesics and, in many instances, as intimately associated with the basic triple structure language paralanguage-kinesics, therefore also with verbal language. In a word, rather than ignoring all those intriguing sounds as marginal curiosities with respect to language, the serious researcher must strive to develop many of the topics that will have been suggested already. Linguists should not insist, for instance, on diachronic studies of language while neglecting a whole series of extralinguistic sounds that always accompanied it in each historical period. In other words, when, through a systematic and exhaustive study, we become sensitized to these sounds that we produce and that surround us in our daily existence and in our interactions, the world of communication is enormously enriched and the exchange of signs and messages becomes even more real; while many of them would otherwise pass unnoticed, or seem not too relevant, as in the case of literary creation and its recreation through reading.

6.13

Topics for interdisciplinary research 1.An inventory of audible movements in a given language. 2.Interactive emission and perception of sound self-adaptors and alter-adaptors in their co-structuration with language and paralanguage. 3.A comparative study of the echoic vocabulary in different languages: possibilities and limitations. 4.Sound object-adaptors in their relation to interactive discourse. 5.Sound object-adaptors: a historical perspective.

The sound co-activities of language

6.A social and psychological perspective of object-mediated sound movements. 7.Phonokinesics in the theater. 8.Noisy cultures: sociological perspective of environmental sounds as integral or contextual elements in interaction and noninteraction. 9.Phonokinesics in cartoons and comic books. 10.Environmental sounds in literature. 11.Cross-cultural study of environmental sounds through literature: a sociological and communicative approach. 12.Environmental sounds in the theater since the Romantic revolution: text and sound. 13.Ontogenetic development of sound movements: emission and perception in their co-structuration with language. 14.Sound movements in the total transcriptions of interactive discourse. 15.Sound movements and environmental movements in the novel. 16.Human-like sounds in the daily environment: conscious appreciation and situational context. 17.A history of cultural environmental sounds: written descriptions and visual evocation through artifacts and the arts. 18.Unwritten phonokinesics and environmental sounds: proposed verbs and nouns. 19.Written forms vs periphrasis: direct evocation and literary functions. 20.Animal-like artifactual and environmental sounds. 21.Urban and rural artifactual and environmental sounds. 22.The implementation of phonokinesics and environmental sounds in linguistic studies and curriculum. 23.The lyrical qualities of environmental sound references. 24.Phonokinesics and environmental sounds in poetry: a cross-linguistic, crosscultural approach. 25.The perception and functions of environmental sounds in the cinema.

279

Chapter 7

Silence, stillness and darkness as the communicative nonactivities opposed to sound, movement and light porque en aquel sitio el mesmo [mismo] silencio guardaba silencio a sí mismo (Cervantes, DQ, II, LXIX) silence, haunted by the ghosts of sound — strange cracks and tickings, the rustling of garments […] the tread of dreadful feet (Dickens, BH, XXXII) The water of the brook made a noise like silence (Wolfe, LHA, XXIX) in the rushing reverberating express, noise was so regular that it was the equivalent of silence, movement was so continuous that after a while the mind accepted it as stillness (Greene, ST, I, II)

7.1

Semiotic forms of silence and stillness in a culture and its environment At a 1977 Viennese Symposium of Semiotics on the typology of signs, I tried to suggest the status of silence and stillness as the nonactivities resulting from the absence of sound and movement in the sensible exchange between two human beings as socializing organisms.105 That approach, however, could not comprehend the complex panorama of what unravels in a deep analysis of silence and stillness (more conveniently defined at the end of Section 6.3), which, as happens in this chapter, leads us to acknowledging their intimate relationship with light and darkness. In fact, that analysis must derive from the realization of their frequency in the daily happening of living things and their environment, that is, of their inevitable alternation with sound and movement, since they define each other as activities and nonactivities. Thus, an initial and rather impressionistic appreciation is suggested in Fig. 7.1, ‘Semiotic forms of silence and stillness,’ which shows the three possible agents generating sound and silence and movement and stillness: people, animals, and nature, to which should be added that mixed domain we can identify as cultural environment. Human existence and whatever surrounds us and other organisms, as well as the natural environment of both, flows in a succession of sound and movement and their

282

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

AGENT

SOUND AND SILENCE

MOVEMENT AND STILLNESS

Human

Language Paralanguage Audible kinesics (phonokinesics) Other body sounds Direct/indirect acts upon objects/substances

Linguistic/ paralinguistic visible movements Kinesics Direct/indirect acts upon objects/substances

Animal

Articulated/nonarticulated paralanguage-like sounds Autonomous audible movements Direct/indirect acts upon objects/substances

Paralinguistic-like visible movements Zookinesics Direct/indirect acts upon objects/substances

Cultural environment

Interiors Exteriors

Interiors Exteriors

Natural environment

Independent activities Contact activities

Visible independent activities Contact activities

Figure 7.1.Semiotic forms of sound and silence and movement and stillness

absence, that is, their passive opposites, silence and stillness. Both ourselves and many of the things that surround us produce two things in a continuum of mutual, or physically independent, interactive activities (but not necessarily exempt from semiotically interactive effects): on the one hand, sounds (themselves varying in nature) that alternate with silences of varying duration and meaning; on the other, movements, also varying and of similar characteristics: The wheels [of a wagonette with two cobs] died away down the drive while Sir Henry and I turned into the hall, and the door clanged heavily behind us […] In the […] fireplace […] a log-fire crackled and snapped (Conan Doyle, HB, VI)

In other words, everything exists in a constant fluctuation between what is heard or not heard and moves or does not move, and this alternation between activity and nonactivity106 occurs, in the first place, in that indispensable and definitional continuum, the essential tool and core of human communication, that is, the triple structure of speech: words-paralanguage-kinesics. But speech is in turn framed in a context we also observe as tripartite, for it includes the animal kingdom and the natural environment, to which is added that other environment which is perceived as what we could legitimately call ‘cultural environment’: the sounds, above all, and their absence, which, independently of their origin, seem to sensorially confirm our own daily existence. Following Fig. 7.1, we must identify each category of activity and nonactivity according to their active or passive agents, trying to bring them to life through literary examples which, as in other areas treated, prove the reality of this topics (including literature itself, the subject of Volume III).

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

A. Human acts Sound and silence a.The sound of words and paralanguage, and their absence: El silencio fue allí el que habló por los dos amantes (DQ, II, LXV) ‘Thank you,’ retorted Merry, singing at her needle. ‘I am quite aware of that, my love’ (Dickens, MC, XI) ‘She is worthy of the sacrifices I have made,’ said Martin, folding his arms, and looking at the ashes in the stove [silently], as if in resumption of some former thoughts (Dickens, MC, XIV) Mescal spoke no words; her black lashes hid her eyes; she was silent, but there was that in her silence which was eloquent (Grey, HD, VI) Spandrell delayed his laughter long enough to whistle for a taxi […] He was still silently laughing when they climbed in (Huxley PCP, XII)

b.Audible movements (phonokinesics) and their soundless realization: He clicked his fingers and called, and they [the children] came with bright curious eyes, twittering like sparrows (Markandaya, NS, XXV)

c.Other somatic sounds, uncontrollable at times, which, besides their clinical symptomatic value, acquire special significance in social interaction; and, depending on how the person attempts to hide them or mask them, serve to evaluate his or her degree of sensitiveness and upbringing, as happens with intestinal rumbling, etc.: le pareció [Sancho] que no podía mudarse [pass gas] sin hacer estrépito y ruido, y comenzó a apretar los dientes y a encoger los hombros, recogiendo en sí el aliento todo cuanto podía (Cervantes, DQ, I, XX) Noggs […] fell into a grim silence, and rubbed his hands slowly over each other: cracking the joints of his fingers, and squeezing them into all possible distortions (Dickens, NN, I)

d.Sounds in contact with objects or substances (the latter such as food, drink, the water we step on, all of which can reflect people’s attitudes and feelings), directly or indirectly produced, as well as their absence: La lluvia […] y el chapoteo de los pies en las charcas (Valle-Inclán, SP, 79) le veillard saisit une sonnette, entrebilla la porte donnant sur la maison, et agita la sonnette nerveusement, avec une sorte de frénésie sénile (Montherlant, C, I) Ellen heard Colter’s spurs jangle, as if he had uneasily shifted his feet (Grey, TLM, XI) She heard a trampling of feet in the hall, a rasping of chairs (Faulkner, S, VII)

283

284 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

he [Popeye] took out a cigarette and struck a match on his thumbnail without noise and lit it (Faulkner, S, XXIII) He could hear the flat pat flap pat of a woman making tortillas. (Dos Passos, 42P, ‘Mac,’ 348) It was lovely the way the tissue paper rustled when she unpacked them [the dress and hat] (Dos Passos, BM, 192) [David] had fairly good manners; he did not wolf or gulp or gobble or crunch or talk with his mouth full (Porter, SF, III)

Movement and stillness a.Visible movements in linguistic and paralinguistic production, that is, actually of a kinesic nature, and their absence: déjenme decir unas ciertas palabras al oído […] Y llegándose a él, le dijo, casi sin mover los labios […] (Cervantes, G) growled Mr. Grimwig, speaking by some ventriloquial power, without moving a muscle of his face (Dickens, OT, XLI) ‘¡Arcachón!’ [a summer resort] En el retumbante son de esta palabra, más chic y simpática aún si era emitida por la nariz, iba como envuelto un mundo de satisfacciones elegantes (Galdós, LDB, XXIX)

b.Nearly all of kinesics, and its absence, a meaningful contrast particularly noticeable in the first example below from Collins, when Hartright, speaking to Mrs. Catherick, finally breaks her cold reticence precisely during her silence: I saw her temper smouldering in her eyes — as plainly as I saw her hands grow restless, then unclasp themselves, and begin mechanically smoothing her dress over her knees […] There was a momentary flash on her firm, square face, a momentary stillness in her restless hands, which seemed to betray a coming outburst of anger that might throw her off her guard (Collins, WW, 507) Gerhardt stood there motionless another minute or so, his jaw fallen and a strange helplessness upon him (Dreiser JG, VI) Lilian Portway flashed her eyes in scorn (Wilson, AA, I, III)

c.Movements in contact with objects or substances (the latter such as food, drink, the snow), and their absence: Lester looked, lit a cigar in a far-off, speculative fashion, and looked out of the window (Dreiser JG, L) She went plodding heavily over the sand that was soft as velvet (Lawrence, SL, XIII)

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

B. Animal acts In like manner, the animal organisms that surround us interact cospecifically or intraspecifically for their own survival, which often results in sound and movement and silence and stillness. The field initiated by Sebeok (1972) as “zoosemiotics” has analyzed the sign-coding mechanism of the simpler species. We know, however, that, far from the complexity of human interactive or noninteractive social activities, “animal movement […] is fundamental to their whole appearance, their whole biology, life history, their brain and ‘mental development,’ in short to their very nature” (Thorpe 1974: 43). Thus, between, on the one hand, the periodic contractions of the sea anemone, the change of pace of the woodlouse, the light-conditioned turning of the flatworm or the vibrations of the spider’s web, and on the other the flying of birds, the ritualized greeting movements of chimpanzees (cf. van LawickGoodall 1973: 239–240) or the human smile (cf. van Hoof 1972) lies one of the most fascinating topics in the whole of creation, namely, the movements of life, whose very nature is defined by the fact that they alternate with periods of stillness. And, second only to living movement, are the living sounds of many species, though not all, for no sounds have been observed in the animals just mentioned. But, again, between the tapping and bubbling of certain crabs, the cracking of the snapping shrimp and the songs of birds, the calls of elephants or chimpanzees and our linguistic-paralinguistic repertoires, there is a vast number of communicating or noncommunicating sounds. Some of these species combine sound or movement, or both, with systems like chemical and luminous signals; but those which emit certain specific scents through the olfactory molecules called pheromones, like the fire ant, or light emissions, like the firefly, are endowed with movement and/or sound abilities as well. Both humans and other species are capable of producing --among all those sounds and movements typical of very simple or very complex organisms and those of nature — countless sounds when in contact with their congeners (e.g. aggression, affiliation, affect), with the natural or built environment (e.g. different footfalls according to terrain or floor, splashing in the water) and with natural or built objects, to produce sounds (e.g. musical instruments, bells). Sound and silence a.Articulated or nonarticulated paralanguage-like sounds, which may acquire humanlike qualities (cf. Darwin 1872: 83–93; Thorpe 1972, 1974), and their absence: No se oía en todo el lugar sino ladridos de perros […] De cuando en cuando rebuznaba un jumento, gruñían puercos, mayaban gatos (Cervantes, DQ, II, IX) her back slightly arched […] she rubs against her master with a purr (Darwin 1872/1955: 56–57, Fig. 10) On the roof of the hotel a group of pigeons cooed incessantly with subdued, liquid murmurs, very plaintive (Norris, O, I, VI)

285

286 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

she could only hear […] a cow lowing; a bird chirping, and […] the liquid call of an owl going from tree to tree looping them with silver (Woolf, Y, 1911) She heard the mournful cooing of turtledoves (Grey, TH, VI) The crickets and frogs […] with their chirping and trilling (Grey, TH, XIV) a string of yearling turkeys came cluck-clucking into the grove (Grey, DF, XXIII) Out there coyotes were yelping their sharp wild notes (Grey, TH, VI) Birds sang, trilled, warbled, or whistled their plaintive songs (Grey, LT, XIX) [at a café] A fat gray cat with a tail that lifted like a plume crossed the floor to our table and curved against my leg to purr each time she rubbed (Hemingway, FA, XXXVII) At twilight […] when in the darkened elms along the street there was the August sound of the cicadas (McCullers, MW, II, II) The silence of the birds betokened a message. That mysterious breathing, that beautiful life of the woods lay hushed, locked in a waiting, brooding silence (Grey, LT, XIII)

b.Autonomous audible movements that only through previous experience can we visualize when we only heard them (e.g. the fluttering of birds), and their absence: The vultures (over the dead buffalo] flapped their broad wings (Parkman, OT, XXV) Yellow birds flitted among the hazel bushes (Grey, LT, VII) Ruffed grouse rose with great bustle and a whirr (Grey, LT, VII) the big bats darted overhead with soft swishing of wings (Grey, WW, XXI)

c.Audible movements in contact with objects and substances, which, if unseen, we recognize from experience: Rabbits stamp loudly on the ground as a signal to their comrades […] also when made angry (Darwin 1872: 94) You may hear the water as it gurgles down his [the buffalo’s] capacious throat (Parkman, OT, XXV) the heavy monotonous tread of the approaching [buffalo] bull […] [the buffalos] would trot […] their hooves and horns clattering together as they moved (Parkman, OT, XXV) [while ploughing] He heard the horse-hoofs […] crushing down […] into the loam […] the working of the smooth brown flanks in the harness […] the champing of bits, the click of iron shoes against pebbles […] the sonorous steady breaths wrenched from the deep, labouring chests, strap-bound, shining with sweat (Norris, O, I, IV)

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

wood-peckers hammered in the dead hard-woods (Grey, LT, VII) the soft, dull, steady pads of the hoofs of the horses (Grey, MF, XIX) elle entendit […] des piaffements, les cahots de la carriole qui s’éloignait (Mauriac, TD, XI) the swish of [the wild turkey’s] heavy wings […] The gun banged. A tremendous flapping followed […] The whir of wings and crashing of branches ceased (Grey, FC, V)

Movement and stillness a.Visible paralinguistic-like movements, shown during the loud barks an pant-hoots of interacting chimpanzees (van Lawick-Goodall, 1973: 241), the lip-smacking, teethchattering, hisses, squeals and geckers of other primates (van Hooff 1972: 213–216), or the dog’s snarling (Darwin 1872: 117), and their absence. b.Zookinesics and other communicative movements (cf. Darwin 1872; Lorenz 1967; van Hooff 1972; van Lawick-Goodall 1973), whose absence can also communicate as specific signals: [his dog] much pleased to go out walking. He showed his pleasure by trotting gravely before me with high steps, head much raised […] tailed carried aloft (Darwin 1872:57) His look of dejection [Darwin’s dog when taken out, but not on his favorite path] consisted in the head drooping much, the whole body sinking a little and remaining motionless […] the tail by no means wagged (Darwin 1872: 59–60) the restless stamp of horse (Grey, HD, I) The animals [bullocks], refreshed, began stepping jauntily again, tossing their heads (Markandaya, NS, I)

c.Movements in contact with objects and substances of their environment (possibly revealing a given culture and even changing through history), identified also by their sound, and their absence: estaba uno con dos mulas, que por el ruido que hacía el arado, que arrastraba por el suelo, juzgaron que debía de ser labrador (Cervantes, DQ, II, IX) the hunter […] hears the heavy monotonous tread of the approaching bull (Parkman, OT, XXV) the clicking sound of horses in a rapid trot (Grey, RPS, II) Clip-clop! clip-clop! clip-clop!/ The horse stopped outside (Grey, RT, XV)

C. Cultural environment In our perception of everything that surrounds us, between the specific human and animal sounds and movements identified above and those of the natural environment

287

288 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

(a category in their own right), we find mainly sounds, but also movements (blended, of course, with other sensible signs), that can even identify specific cultures and certainly some historical periods: those we perceive sensorially throughout our daily existence, that accompany us in solitude, please us, annoy us (more so if we imagine a controllable human origin), alarm us, or simply accept as sounds inherent in our environment. It is true that they are all originated directly or indirectly by human or animal activities (e.g. the sound of a bugle or telephone, the movements of semaphore lights, a horse’s hooves), or by mechanisms we set in motion (e.g. the screeching of tires on the pavement). But they appear as quite independent in our perceptual experience, and thus constitute a sort of grid or context we can generically call cultural environment or context. This would fall quite conveniently into the cultureme model (Chapter 1, Volume I), but only as two broad basic culturemes: ‘Interior’ and ‘Exterior,’ since the realms ‘Urban’ and ‘Rural’ may blend into each other. It would not be realistic either to try to put together in one category or cultureme, for instance, ‘Mechanical Sounds’ (e,g, a train, the clicking of a keyboard), since they are possible in both exterior and interior environments, although either of them can be singled out for any specific study. Sound and silence a.Interiors, that is, mostly buildings, pulsate with the life betrayed by sounds of different nature and by the intervening silences, with which mingle in many instances characteristic smells of building materials and artifacts: the hideous and discordant din that resounded from every corner of the market (Dickens, OT, XXI) Mrs Snagsby is so perpetually on the alert, that the house becomes ghostly with creaking boards and rustling garments (Dickens, BH, XXV) there was no sound in particular; but […] the building hummed with life (Woolf, Y, 1880) [in the western saloon] Liqueur flowed like water, and gold thudded in sacks and clinked musically in coins upon the tables (Grey, WW, VI) [interrupting the monastic silence, even more so during the night] a dull, resonant sound […] TAK-tak-tak-tak — one long note followed by three short ones […] a monk hitting a wooden semantron […] a large plank of wood […] in the Greek Church, to call monks to prayer (Morton, TLB, IX, 5) Certain successions of such sounds seem to narrate a whole situation, as in: Loud voices and boisterous laughter, rattle of dice and scrape of chairs and clink of gold, burst in mingled din from an open doorway (Grey, RPS, XVIII)

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

He [Paul] tried to step lightly. The first stair cracked like a shot. He listened. the old woman stirred in her bed. The staircase was dark […] Every step creacked […] He fumbled with the door at the bottom. The latch opened with a loud clack. He went through into the kitchen, and shut the door noisily behind him (Lawrence, SL, XII) The (jail cell] door closes in, clashes, the clash and clang of the key as the Jailor locks it again; the three pairs of footsteps sound and begin to fade in the outer corridor (Faulkner, RN, III)

a.Exteriors, all day and, more conspicuously, all night, bring to us what constitutes whole natural and cultural repertoires of sounds and silences: oyeron que daban unos golpes a compás, con un cierto crujir de hierros y cadenas, que, acompañados del furioso estruendo del agua […] seis mazos de batán, que con sus alternativos golpes aquel estruendo formaban (Cervantes, DQ, I, XX) dans le désert de l’avenue, les voitures de maraîchers montaient vers Paris avec les cahots rythmés de leurs roues, dont les échos battaient les façades des maisons, endormies […] des ronflements lontains de carrois (Zola, VP, I) A loud report followed; then the whistle and zip of a bullet as it whizzed close by (Grey, LT, XIII) the heavy hooves of van horses clopped slowly down the road. For a moment wheels ground on the road; then they died out and the silence was complete (Woolf, Y, 1880) crossing and recrossing the bridges over the Chicago River, in the jingle and clatter of traffic, the rattle of vans and loaded wagons […] and the hooting of towboats with barges and the rumbling whistle of lakemasters waiting for the draw (Dos Passos BM, ‘Architect,’ 484) Noises at twilight had a blurred sound, and they lingered: the slam of a screen door down the street, voices of children, the whirl of a lawnmower from a yard somewhere (McCullers, MW, II, II)

The combinations or successions of interior and exterior sounds of very different nature, not only maintain (depending, of course, on our own sensitiveness) a rich and engaging flow of varying audible sensations and magnitude, but can themselves be enhanced by silence, sometimes the silences of people in interaction: there were long spaces of taciturnity, when all exterior circumstance was subdued to the touch of spoons and china, the click of a heel on the pavement under the window, the passing of a wheelbarrow or cart, the whistling of the carter, the gush of water into householders’ buckets at the town-pump opposite; the exchange of greetings among their neighbors, and the rattle of yokes by which they carried off their evening supply (Hardy, MC, XXVI)

289

290 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

The church clock struck eleven. The air was so empty of other sounds that the whirr of the clock-work immediately before the strokes was distinct, and so was also the click of the same at their close (Hardy, FMC, XXXII) The faint hum of the insect, the intermittent murmur of the guitar, the mellow complainings of the pigeons, the prolonged purr of the white cat, the contented clucking of the hens — all these noises mingled together to form a faint, drowsy bourdon (Norris, O, I, VI) The faraway plaintive note of a thrush accentuated the silence (Grey, ST, XVIII) The shop [pub] was very quiet […] Now and again a tram was heard swishing along the lonely road outside (Joyce, D, ‘A Painful Case’) An El train clattered raspingly through the empty Sundayevening streets (Dos Passos, BM, ‘Charley Anderson,’ 12) From a puddle somewhere in the freight yards came the peep peep peep of toads. Up on the hill an accordion was playing. From the yards came the heavy chugging of a freight locomotive and the clank of shunted freightcars and the singing rattle of the wheels (Dos Passos, 42P, ‘Mac,’ 71) There was no talk at supper. The quiet was disturbed only by the slurp of soup and gnash of chewing (Steinbeck, EE, III, IV)

c.Indoors perception of exterior sounds, as illustrated by the last examples above and others, affect the perception of an interior and even makes those exterior sounds become intimate components of the dwellers’ indoors life by their positive or negative effects (e.g. chirping of birds vs. roar of airplanes): He [Darrow] leaned his head back with closed eyes and listened to the drumming of the rain (Wharton, R, VIII) plashing drops of rain streaked across the window […] drumming on the housetop with a hurried beat (Grey, CD, XII) The silence remained unbroken save for the moan of the rising wind outside, the rattle of hail, and the patter of rain drops on the roof (Grey, BZ, I) a sound of rain falling, and the gutters chuckling and burbling as they sucked up the water (Woolf, Y, 1880) The swarm of sound, the rush of traffic, the shouts of the hawkers, the single cries and the general cries, came into the upper room of the house (Woolf, Y, 1910)

d.Sound, light and smell sensations of both interior and exteriors can blend in either environment (even more so if enveloped by the silence): Through the stir and motion of the commoner streets; through the roar and jar of many vehicles, many feet, many voices; with the blazing shop-lights lighting him on, the west wind blowing him on (Dickens, BH, XLVIII)

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

[a passing train] leaving in the air a taint of hot oil, acrid smoke, and reek of escaping steam (Norris, O, II, II)

Movement and stillness a.Interiors have their own rhythm in their moving artifactual components, which condition our own pace within them: we would get in the elevator and it would go up very slowly clicking at all the floors (Hemingway, FA, VII)

b.Exteriors also motivate us, positively or negatively, as we perceive what moves in them: a healthy walk […] preferable to that rumbling, tumbling, jolting, shaking, scraping, creaking, villainous old gig (Dickens, MC, XII)

It must be noted that the silence of a quiet building can acquire a listening quality if it alternates with human and other sounds, particularly when an external disruptive sound occurs: a faint closed noise from the house: voices and laughter […] The sound stopped quickly as the negro rapped: the shabby house seemed to listen (Wolfe, LHA, XXIX)

D. Natural environment But, besides sounds and movements and silences and stills produced by us and animals, and those of the cultural environment, we live surrounded by noncontinuous sounds and movements of our natural environment which alternate with periods of silence and stillness; and our own behaviors, like those of animals, can be in turn conditioned by those activities and by the nonactivities of silence and stillness, as well as by the contextual circumstances of both. Sound and silence a.Independent activities that, even if not seen, can affect us by betraying their generating agents, and blending even with smell as a relevant, active component: As the night wore on, the thunder died away, but still rolled gloomily and mournfully in the distance (Dickens, MC, XLII) A camp-fire soon crackled with hiss and sputter, and fragrant wood-smoke filled the air (Grey, LT, I) The dry earth was ticking under the sun and the crickets rasped (Steinbeck, EE, XIII, III)

b.Contact activities generated between natural elements or natural and man-made elements: the little lake was the colour of sunshine; the plash of the oars was the only sound, and they found themselves listening to it (James, E, VII),

291

292 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

The murmur of the air in the far-off tree-tops had a strange distinctness; it was almost articulate (James, E, VII) La lluvia redoblando en los paraguas (Valle-Inclán, SP, 79) The wind came through the tree fiercer and fiercer. All the cords of the great harp hummed, whistled, and shrieked (Lawrence SL, IV) A gentle, barely perceptible wind sighed among the leaves, like rustling silk (Grey, LT, XIII) elle entendit […] la pluie sur les tuiles, sur les vitres brouillées, sur le champ désert (Mauriac TD, XI)

Movement and stillness a.Visible independent activities of elements that seem to have a life of their own and even inspire different feelings: She looked up and saw the clouds moving between the roofs, dark clouds, rainswollen; wandering, indifferent clouds (Woolf, Y, 1891)

b.Contact activities that cause sounds generated by active and passive agents, which experience allows us to recognize even if not seen: [a brook] rush and gurgle over the stones (Grey, LT, XXII) The autumn wind […] twitched the leaves off the trees, and down they fluttered […] or sent them floating, flaunting in wide curves before they settled. In towns coming in gusts round the corners, the wind blew a hat off; there lifted a veil high above a woman’s head (Woolf, Y, 1891)

After these examples, the following by Huxley, is a perfect illustration of personnatural environment interaction, showing the parallelism between our silences and nature’s silences, and even between our feelings and those that seem to permeate the mysteriously humanized environment, sometimes generating a deep and intimate symbiosis between both; it also seems then that silence and stillness acquire sensible form, when sometimes, as on an additional plane, we feel the words and emotions that remain inside us. Besides, we truly feel here that silence referred to by Cervantes when he wrote that “en aquel sitio el mesmo [mismo] silencio guardaba silencio a sí mismo” (Cervantes, DQ, II, LXIX): The sky was still overcast, and beneath the low ceiling of grey cloud the air was soft and as though limp with fatigue […] In the woods […] the stillness was oppressive, like the intentional silence of sentient beings […] An invisible tree-creeper started to sing […] They [Brian and Joan] walked on hand in hand; and between them was the silence of the wood and at the same time the deeper, denser, more secret silence of their own unexpressed emotions […] suddenly they were in a narrow cleft, hemmed in by high walls of impenetrable, black-green foliage. It was a solitude within a

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

solitude, the image of their own private silence visibly hollowed out of the greater stillness of the wood […] listening […] to each other’s breathing and all the words that hung unspoken between them (Huxley, EG, XIX)

We shall see in the next chapter how people try to imitate the movements of their congeners, animals and objects, and even of the environment, but above all its sounds. In a word, sound and movement are the preponderant sensible activities in both people and nature, which we also appreciate intellectually. In like manner, our mental activities condition not only our own production of sounds and movements, but their absence (e,g, the haste that impels us to furiously hit a typewriter or computer keyboard), as well as those of the animal species, particularly tamed or domesticated (e.g. the eagerness with which someone spurs a horse); and, naturally, the sounds and movements of our objectual environment (e.g. the slowness with which, due to despondency, we may handle a tool). Lastly, enveloped in the sensory perception of the natural environment, its various manifestations often include the conscious appreciation of the temperature, which seems to permeate the other sensations of sound, movement and smell, as in this example: a sweet fragrance rose from the wild grasses. The sappy scent of the bracken stole from the wood, where, hidden in the depths, pigeons were cooing, and from afar on the warm breeze came the rhythmic chiming of church bells (Galsworthy, MP, I, IV)

7.2

Darkness and silence as opposed to light and sound There is undoubtedly a physical and esthetic relationship between sound and the degree of light intensity and sound, as we see and hear in the deafening sounds of a Spanish fair, and, at the other end of the scale, the softer sounds enveloped by semidarkness or total or almost total darkness in this scene: There was a silence. The evening darkened in the room. Noiselessly, and with silver feet, the shadows crept in from the garden. The color faded wearily out of things (Wilde, PDG, VII) In this room sat an elderly lady writing by the light of two candles with green shades […] There were two large antique rings on her forefinger, against which the quill rubbed in moving backwards and forwards, thereby causing a secondary noise rivalling the primary one of the nib upon the paper (Hardy, HE, I)

But there is an even more dramatic aspect of this association. Dickens makes us observe: Upon this wintry night it is so still, that listening to the intense silence is like looking at intense darkness […] all is heavier than before (Dickens, BH, LVIII)

293

294 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

True, for, just as we perceive light and sound as activities, as something alive, darkness and silence evoke for us the emptiness of what is dead or, at most, asleep and inactive, as if life had been arrested. In the above examples we find — as in real life — situations in which personal or person-environment interaction occurs in the dark, sometimes coinciding with silence. In any case, negative feelings seem to dominate over the positive ones in such situations: Clint [in the caravan] sustained his first fear of the night, the loom, the loneliness, and the unknown (Grey, FC, II)

It is no wonder that in numerous passages throughout the Bible, God — besides the fact that in the beginning of the biblical narrative of creation, “darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2, RSV) — make us see and fear sin and not knowing him as death and darkness (for which Dickens’ images above would be most apt symbols), that is, the opposite to life and light. That is why the apostle Paul refers to “sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5, NKJ), while John assures us that “the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness still” (1 John 2:8–9, NKJ). The Psalmist had already called sinners “Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Psalm 107:10, NKJ),107 and King David, protected by God from his enemies, sang: “For you will light my lamp; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness” (Psalm 18:28/29, NKJ),108 and Isaiah, announcing the Messiah, would later tell us: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:2, NAB; 9:1 only in NAB). That is why Peter would speak of Christ as he who “called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Pet 2:9, NKJ), who says of himself: “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12, NKJ), thus proclaiming that “the light has come into the world, and men liked darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19, NKJ); in other words, the opposite of him, who is life, is the darkness of sin, thus “he has delivered us from the dominion of darkness” (Colossians 1:13, RSV). There are hundred of images with which, in the realm of spiritual reality, both Jewish and Christian Scriptures use darkness to symbolize the separation from God (also sin and spiritual death), while light represents union with him. As for our personal and environmental interactions, darkness envelopes the sounds we perceive through it, which then sound differently than in the light, whether human sounds, sounds of our built environment, or sounds of nature: the dismal wailing of babies at night (Crane MGS, III) The wind howled dismally all night, and strange cracking and groaning noises sounded here and there (Collins, WW, 179) As the night wore on, the thunder died away, but still rolled gloomily and mournfully in the distance (Dickens, MC, XLII).109

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

It is a fact that darkness seem to humanize nonhuman sounds in a mysterious way, evoking loneliness and emptiness and, in the end, death: Ghostly and dark the room became, and full of lowering shadows […] the house was quiet as a sepulchre; the dead of night was coffined in the silent city (Dickens, MC, XXV) All the time I lay awake, the house was as quiet as the grave (Collins, M, ‘First Period,’ XI)

Besides, darkness, not only silence (as we have seen earlier), enhance noncontinuous sounds, as happened quite characteristically aboard steam-engined trains, which, in addition, seemed to drive us inexorably through that darkness: On the train she […] lay in the Pullman berth that night […] listening to the rumble of the wheels over the rails, the clatter of crossings, the faraway spooky wails of the locomotive […] (Dos Passos, BM, 125) Vibra el soplo estridente de la máquina que desaloja vapor, cruje con recio choque una portezuela, algunos pasos vigorosos repercuten en el andén, silba un pito, tañe una campana, y el convoy trajina, resuella y huye, dejando la pequeña estación muda y sola, con el ojo de su farol vigilante encendido en la torva oscuridad de la noche (Espina, EM, I)

Conversely, continuous sounds help us listen to silence better: All the time I lay awake, the house was as quiet as the grave. Not a sound stirred but the splash of the rain, and the sighing of the wind among the trees as a breeze sprang up with the morning (Collins, M, ‘First Period,’ XI).

What in reality happens is that in the dark we seem to hear silence better and ‘listen’ to it too, in a total way, for it blends with that darkness that allows us to perceive only what is audible; thus, we hear silence itself, which is what Cervantes meant in the aforementioned example: “porque en aquel sitio el mesmo silencio guardaba silencio a sí mismo” (Cervantes, DQ, II, LXIX). And Dickens evokes the same sensation in the other example quoted above, in which silence and darkness are complemented by the cold of the winter, thus constituting a triple and negative sensory experience: Upon this wintry night it is so still, that listening to the intense silence is like looking at intense darkness (Dickens, BH, LVIII)

The same happens in this other example, in which the person’s passivity is reflected in her silence, her immobility and the cold (lack of life’s warmth) of her body: She neither moved nor said a word when he was gone — she sat by me, cold and still, with her eyes fixed on the ground (Collins, WW, 194)

In our conscious or unconscious urge to listen, certain sounds acquire an unsuspected significance in silence:

295

296 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

a great silver hunting clock […] The boy listened to it […] Tick — tick -tick — tick! […] it went on inexorably; and every time it ticked a man died! [the boy thought] […] ‘Dying, dying, dying!’ said the watch: ‘dying, dying, dying!’ (Schreiner, AF, I, I) The camp-fire died out, and at length the quietness of late night set in. The wind mourned and lulled by intervals […] the wild cry of a night bird (Grey, UPT, IV) from far off in the darkness came the faint answering note of a trailing mate (Grey, RPS, II)

In Simonopetra Monastery, in Mount Athos’ unique world, when night falls, silence falls, and it blends with darkness, and in the middle of the night, even sounds unheard before stand out in that silent darkness: and after nightfall just fathomless darkness in a silence enhanced only by the sighing of wind in the trees below and the intermittent call of a night bird (Poyatos, MA, 671) It was still dark […] three o’clock. The sound went TAK-tak-tak-tak […] a monk hitting a wooden semantron […] to call monks to prayer […] struck with a wooden mallet (Morton, TLB, IX, V)

But not everything is negative in silence and darkness. After all, the fusion of those two very sensible realities can also unite two human beings, in a unique and often sought way, with the sort of intimacy that, perhaps for different reasons, they would never reach in the light. El silencio fue allí el que habló por los dos amantes, y los ojos fueron las lenguas que descubrieron sus alegres y honestos pensamientos (DQ, II, LXV) Many times she allowed the dark to fall upon them, refraining from lighting the lamp. The dark discreet room, their isolation (Joyce D, ‘A Painful Case’)

7.3

Silence and stillness as an affirmation of culture If we now concentrate on people as God-endowed socializing organisms, we will recognize that sound and movement and silence and stillness constitute the very pillars of culture (since culture is communication), and that they are, in most cases, of a communicative nature. On the other hand, since a culture is in reality an immensely intricate series of sign complexes, sound and silence and movement and stillness are the most important complexes of all in a live culture. In Chapter 1.1 of Volume I, Crusoe and Friday are mentioned as the minimal social aggregate that could be called a culture. Their main communicative activities are sound and movement, and their importance as live culture is confirmed by their intermittent absence, that is, by the silences and times of stillness produced by the two human beings that formed that culture. But once the sounds and movements of a culture cease, the very concepts

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

‘silence’ and ‘stillness’ seem questionable because, if we project them into the future as permanent, they cannot be said any more to represent the temporary absence of activities, that is, what precisely makes them be, by opposition, what they are, silence and stillness. Yet, are they really? Once people are not present any longer and no interaction takes place, sound and movement are not cultural activities anymore, there remaining only the static material products of that culture, of that disappeared social exchange. However, since these considerations would lead one into a philosophicalsemiotic discussion beyond the present one, this chapter concentrates on everyday silence and stillness in our interaction with people and with the environment. I should point out that one of the reasons why I became increasingly interested in silence and stillness was the treatment traditionally given to the so-called ‘unfilled pauses’ in speech, as they seemed to me to be charged with meaning; also because of the concept of ‘zero sign’ developed in semiotics as the “very absence” of a sign (Sebeok 1974: 241), which I also saw as filled with meaning, neither of them lacking a significant, nor therefore a signified. As I studied sound and movement as verbal language, paralanguage and kinesics, I had to acknowledge more and more the ability of silence and stillness to perform structural and communicative functions, as well as their importance as sign-producing nonactivities in social interaction, consciously or unconsciously encoded and decoded and, at the very least, acting either as redundant or complementary information. In fact, the term ‘nonactivity’ might be regarded as negative and questionable, unless we understand it only as the absence of sensibly perceived activities; for, if we say that they produce signs, that is in itself an activity. Finally, I also realized that the absence in us of our few chemical signs (e.g. tears, saliva), dermal signs (e.g. blushing) and thermal signs (rises and falls of body temperature), could never be as significant as the absence of sound or movement (except perhaps on some occasions, such as in moments of intense grief, during a medical diagnosis or at a psychotherapy interview), since they are almost always secondary systems and not so predictable as the activities of language, paralanguage and kinesics.

7.4

The true status of silence and stillness in interaction Once we acknowledge the preponderance of sound and movement in our daily life and in our environment, as well as the resulting alternatives of silence and stillness — which, first of all, serve to confirm them by their absence — the next step in a progressive approach that would later afford a more refined analysis in specific areas is to look into the interactive forms and functions of silence and stillness. Evidently, they both act as systems in their own right, subject even to the same coding rules and mechanisms that govern verbal language, paralanguage and kinesics. Based, then, on social interaction, we must consider silence and stillness, first, in the strictly anthropomorphic context of the basic triple structure language-paralanguage-kinesics within

297

298 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

human communicative activities. After that, we would identify them semiotically as signs and sign processes, their coding, and finally the concrete functions they perform in the various forms of interaction, and their co-structuration with other interactive somatic sign systems. What further supports the specific nature of silence and stillness within a communication situation is the dichotomy segmental-nonsegmental of the speech components, including paralanguage and kinesics and, therefore, silence and stillness (see Chapter 4.7 and 9, and Fig. 4.2). In fact, an interactive conversational silence can often have a very lexical value and add information to what has been or will be said in words: Rosedale still stood before her in an expectant attitude, and she continued to face him in silence […]. The look put the finishing touch to what her silence implied (Wharton, HM, I, VIII)

Once the origin and forms of silence and stillness have been discussed, this is the time (as was mentioned at the beginning of the chapter) to define them. Silence is, along with stillness, one of the two basic nonactivities of the existence and interaction of organisms and their environment, resulting from the absence of sound and limiting communicative or noncommunicative audible segments, marking their beginning, duration and conclusion, and linking them to each other. Stillness is, along with silence, one of the basic nonactivities of the existence and interaction of organisms and their environment, resulting from the absence of movement and limiting communicative or noncommunicative visible segments, marking their beginning, duration and conclusion, and linking them to each other. Some similar definitions could be offered without any difference that would allow us to give stillness less semiotic and communicative weight. But stillness has received much less attention than silence (or rather none); which is not surprising if we think that other basic aspects of human communication and interaction have also been neglected. This would justify any efforts to gain for stillness the same research attention silence deserves — just as in the last thirty-some years they have tried to study movement almost as much as sound — for one is inconceivable without the other. Both appear intimately associated and co-structured within the same constructs as mutually complementary systems coded and decoded in the same fashion, whether consciously or unconsciously. To think otherwise is to perpetuate a rather shortsighted attitude with respect to communication, which linguists must avoid, for they must acknowledge that the study of language is, by definition, the study of communication, and that communication is far more than what many still understand as language. If silences have received more attention because they give the sounds they delimit a specific dimension (whether linguistic, musical, mechanical or environmental), it is necessary to analyze and evaluate stillness, first in the socializing, communicating person, and then in whatever surrounds that person.

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

7.5

The realistic approach to interactive pauses

7.5.1

Linguistics has wasted many research opportunities offered by silence. It has concentrated solely on certain silences of discourse, the so-called internal junctures (within a word), external junctures (between words) and terminal junctures (at the end of sentences), and on some attitudinal silences that fall within the type of study proposed here, due to culture, personality and situational context. Rarely have linguists referred to silence as a component of interaction, thus missing the fact that when speech is interrupted by a ‘pause,’ at least one of the other two co-occurring activities, paralanguage or kinesics, still fill that apparent (never semiotically) gap. This confirms once more the semantic and structural characteristics of language, paralanguage and kinesics among themselves and with respect to silence and stillness. Interestingly enough, the punctuation system — so limited otherwise — developed and handed down through the centuries (certainly not through interest on the part of linguists and writers) provides us with more indispensable information on the communicative and social forms and functions of silence and stillness than the fields of phonetics and linguistics put together, particularly through literary representations and descriptions of their occurrences, mainly in the novel.110

7.5.2 The inaccuracy — particularly from a semiotic point of view — of the poorly studied dichotomy ‘filled pause’ (e.g. ‘Er…’) vs. ‘unfilled pause’ leads many into disregarding, first, the communicative value of nonverbal paralinguistic and kinesic messages, since, for one thing, ‘Er…’ is a paralinguistic alternants of great lexical value; and, in addition, it is hard to imagine it orally emitted without any gestural accompaniment of doubt or hesitation, or at least a purely contextual kinesic behavior which also fills the communicative segment. But even the so-called unfilled pauses are not at all unfilled. If we review the model offered for the transcription of speech (Chapter 5, Volume I) and glance at Fig. 8.1 in the next chapter, dealing with interaction, we clearly see that any interruptions in the participants’ speech flow during an encounter are certainly ‘filled by something.’ In fact, that something consist mainly in: paralanguage (e.g. a disdainful narial aspiration, an turn-requesting ingressive tongue-click): Mr Jefferson Brick expectorated and laughed; the former copiously, the latter approvingly (Dickens, MC, XVI) –¿No lo comprendes, ¿eh? -Miguel hizo una pausa y resoplo por la nariz, suspirando […] Pues yo tampoco […] (Sánchez Ferlosio, J, 174)

kinesics (e.g. a smile, a beckoning gesture, a facial emotional reaction): Los que hasta entonces no la habían visto [Marcela] la miraban con admiración y silencio (Cervantes, DQ, I, XIV)

299

300 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

‘And so,’ he said, when he had gazed at his friend for some time in silent pleasure, ‘so you really are a gentleman at last, John […].’ (Dickens, MC, XII)

paralanguage and visible or audible kinesics (e.g. gaze and smile, a commiserative sigh and head-shaking): She [Mrs. Corney, the matron, courted by Mr. Bumble] fixed her eyes upon the little teapot. Mr. Bumble coughed again, and smiled slightly […] [she makes him tea] Again Mr. Bumble coughed, — louder this time than he had ever coughed yet (Dickens OT, XXIII) Isidora le miró con ira, y respiró fuerte apretando contra el talle el lío de ropa (Galdós, D, II, XVIII)

a chemical reaction (e.g. sweat during an anxiety pause, silent tears): It being dark, Thomasin allowed her emotion to escape her by the silent way of tears, which could roll down her cheeks unseen (Hardy RN, V) A few tears gathered in her eyes [Laura], and dropped over her cheeks slowly as she paused and waited for his answer (Collins, WW, 192)

a dermal reaction (e.g. emotional blanching or reddening, goose-flesh): Jennie paled, put her thumb to her lip and stood irresolute, not knowing how to meet the situation (Dreiser JG, XIV) Me quedé mirando a Jane con impertinencia./ — Es usted muy buena conmigo./ Se encendieron sus mejillas un momento. Esperó a que desapareciese su rubor para contestarme (Delibes, SCA, II, V)

a proxemic shift (e.g. approaching the interlocutor as a nonverbal reaction to his words, backing up in amazement). any activity external to the interaction and breaking its flow by provoking the pause, which somehow affects the participants, therefore doubly filling that silence with what happens and with the reaction to it: En esto estaban, cuando sintieron un sordo estruendo y un áspero ruido, que por todos aquellos valles se estendía (Cervantes, DQ, II, LXVIII) [the man and woman at the beach in the dark of night] They walked along, their feet sinking into the sand, their voices drowned in the pound and hiss of the surf (Dos Passos BM, ‘Charley Anderson,’ 84)

any activity external to the interaction, not breaking its flow
: Se hablaban en voz baja con tímida mesura, y en los momentos de silencio oíase el péndulo de un reloj (Valle-Inclán, SP, 33)

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

a mental activity by the person who keeps silent o remains still, an activity we can always recognize (but may not identify), and which, if it is provoked by something said or done, will be precisely what fills the pause: Se repuso de aquella sorpresa en un triste silencio […] Después, con paciencia y con dolor, habló María suavemente (Espina, DM, II, IV) ‘And so,’ he said, when he had gazed at his friend for some time in silent pleasure, ‘so you really are a gentleman at last, John. Well, to be sure!’ (Dickens, MC, XII)

In Dickens’ example, we see that the silence acts as a needed preamble to the discourse following, just as sometimes we abandon the words to keep emitting them during the silence, or prolong in our silence the intensity of their being read: The reading of the letter was completed by Betterdge in silence. After carefully putting it back in the envelope, he sat thinking with his head bowed down, and his eyes on the ground (Collins, M, ‘Third Narrative,’ V)

We can state, therefore, that there is true continuity, not interrupted by pauses, between the beginning and end of an interactive encounter, since we evidently must not consider only the behaviors that we, perhaps erroneously, believe to be the main ones. In fact, any of the activities seen in Chapter 2 of Volume I can perform important interactive functions and, combined with words, even syntactical functions within the various types of pauses.111 Summing up (and daily experience attests to it), there are no ‘pauses’ or ‘interactive silences’ of any type we can truly call ‘unfilled’; or, put differently, a pause or silence would not be such, because, by definition, it is really an interactive segment with specific structure determined by the co-occurrent behaviors (and the intensity and duration of those behaviors), which in turn affect the preceding behaviors (in their decoding) and the succeeding ones (in both encoding and decoding). The last two examples heading this chapter, from Cervantes and Collins, prove the possible eloquence of interactive silences, as does this one also by Collins: What answer could I make? I could only take her hand and look at her with my whole heart as well as my eyes would let me (Collins, WW, 280)

These interactive silences and stills are, therefore, the ones linguists, semioticians and others should study in depth, trying to understand their coding processes, their functions within the mechanism of interaction (especially in conversation) and their relationship with the systems of somatic and extrasomatic signs that operate in a given situation. 7.5.3 On the other hand, it is different to speak of a silence or still not limited at their ends by interrelated behaviors, nor associated to those behaviors. They are not acoustic or visible ‘pauses,’ controlled by the speakers or provoked by an external agent, and

301

302 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

actually occur only as ‘noninteractive silences and stills,’ that is, before, between or after interactive exchanges. Such is, therefore, the silence that follows the natural end of a conversation, until, for instance, a new interlocutor comes forth; or the silence produced when suddenly the street sounds cease to be heard. Likewise, a noninteractive movement is, for example, the one that follows the last words in a conversation, not provoked by anything said: The perfect silence which ensued upon the bustle and departure of the coach, together with the sharp air of the wintry afternoon, roused them both at the same time (Dickens, MC, VI)

7.6

The coding of silence and stillness Once the concept of interactive pause is clear and we abandon the notion of ‘vacuum’ with which we have traditionally associated it, we can try to define not only the interactive functions of silence and stillness that provide a structure to those deceitful ‘gaps,’ but their semiotic basis as well, that is, their transmission between sender and receiver, and the characteristics of the coding-decoding process between the two. In the first place, we must review several general aspects of communication mentioned in Chapter 2 of Volume I: a.that our listener can be more conscious of our silences than ourselves; b.that sometimes those silences are complementary and not redundant (e.g. after having said that we don’t know what to say, the silence adds information, as a complementary message, by its duration and co-structuration with our kinesics, even stillness); and that even when sometimes our gestures, frequent pauses and static postures may be redundant, they could express a personal style characterized precisely by redundancies; c.that words are not always necessarily the primary system in an exchange, and that a silence may very well contain the main message, while language, paralanguage or kinesics simply support it (or duplicate it as true redundancy); d.that, as for the sign-meaning relationship, a silence or still is almost always arbitrary (since we must look for the meaning in the preceding or succeeding behaviors and not in the simultaneous co-activities themselves), and that they could be iconic if, for instance, we would want to signify precisely the absence of sound with silence or stillness (e.g., Question: ‘What did he tell you? — Reply: ‘[silence]’; ‘If you see the mouse, [silence + stillness]’);112 e.that they can also be intrinsic sign constructs, as when we give silence or stillness as a reply, or to indicate to our interlocutor that he must keep quiet or still (e.g. while hunting).

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

7.7

303

The functions of silence and stillness The semiotic and communicative analysis of interactive silences unravelled for me the three basic functions indicated in Fig. 7.2, ‘The functions and qualifiers of silence and stillness.’ SILENCE

STILLNESS AS SIGNS PROPER AS ZERO SIGNS

of sound

of movement AS CARRIERS of the preceding activity

of sound (language, paralanguage, audible kinesics)

of movement (kinesics)

of other activities AS ANTICIPATORS of succeeding activities AS RECEPTACLES for light sound & other signs AS ENHANCING FRAMING for the visual environment Qualified by Intensity

Duration Co-structuration with preceding simultaneous succeeding activities

Figure 7.2.The functions and qualifiers of silence and stillness

Continuous evenness

304 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

7.7.1 As signs proper Silence and stillness can be decoded as signs proper, as when we read in a novel that ‘there was in her silence/stillness all the anguish of the situation.’ In this case, that nonactivity is not understood as ‘absence’ of sound or movement (which would be ‘zero sign’), nor as a replacement for sound or movement, just as the momentary static pose of a ballet dancer is not. The meaning, the true message, is not given by the ‘lack’ of the expected signs but by the silence itself, or the still position, without reference to anything else, as in: “[her mother] envuelve a la muchacha en la caricia de un silencio” (Espina, MM, I, XI), where that silence caresses as would the mother’s hand or the caressing words. In this way, they are encoded as sign clusters in their own right, in fact, as segmental elements shaped by paralinguistic and kinesic qualifiers, like words or gestures are by paralinguistic and kinesic features, respectively. Would that we knew how to use the pure interactive silence without feeling compelled to verbalize anything! But few interlocutors know how to be united, whatever their relationship, by noninterlocution, as in the first example below; or without even the bond of eye contact, as in the second, but perhaps most united through their conscious perception of silence and other signs there present: “[…] let’s be quiet, then; it’s the best way of talking” (Wharton, R, XVI) […] Her rings [Mrs Luna’s, doing crochet] flashed and twinkled in the light of the hearth […] a silence of a few moments had fallen upon their talk, and Adeline […] appeared also to feel the charm of it, not to wish to break it (James, B, XXII)

Among Alaska’s Kotzebue Eskimos, the lack of verbal response contains a specific meaning that we usually do not perceive, and among the more traditional Canadian Maliseet and Micmac Indians of New Brunswick, mature men meeting for the first time approach looking at each other in silence (what none of my Micmac or Maliseet students would do).113 Another real-life example is the profound experience of silence related by the influential Swiss psychiatrist Paul Tournier, in this case with eye contact, when neither his words nor those of the dying woman were necessary: But at this stage my essential task was not in the sphere of therapeutics; it was not even to talk; during those two hours no word had passed between the patient and me. We looked into each other’s eyes, and there passed between us, quite simply, a slow smile of understanding. She knew [the dying patient], with complete certainty, that I understood her (Tournier 1974: 180)

In the animal kingdom there are many messages contained precisely in the silence of some species, for instance, when elephants are about to attack, or when some birds keep silent: The far-off drowsy drum of a grouse intruded on the vast stillness. The silence of the birds betokened a message. That mysterious breathing, that beautiful life of the woods lay hushed, locked in a waiting, brooding silence (Grey, LT, XIII)

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

The obvious question is whether more than one silence or motionless position can occur side by side as can sounds and movements, succeeding each other without necessarily being delimited by pauses. Speech, for instance, or kinesic behavior, can change without any intermediate activity or interruption, but their modifying elements do change and are perceived as volume, pitch, nasality, etc., or as kinetic intensity or range of movement. Silence and stillness, however, cannot vary in a sensible way in themselves, apart from duration (determined by the activities that delimit them), since they are nonactivities from a physical point of view. In other words, their nature is negative only physically, but never semiotically; otherwise we would have to say that the silence of contemplative prayer is an empty period of ‘nothing,’ when it is not so, as attested by the experience of many and by a vast mystical literature. In a word, silence and stillness (so often together) can be interpreted by virtue of the physical activities or simultaneous purely intellectual activities and, in lesser degree, by the preceding an succeeding ones. What makes sound and movement what they are and defines them as such is what changes, but all that changes in silence and stillness is what surrounds them. 7.7.2 As zero signs Silence and stillness can also act as zero signs and signify precisely “by their very absence” (Sebeok 1977b: 118 [for silence]), that is, by the lack of sound and movement when those activities could be expected. This is the case when someone responds with silence to our greeting or question, when we intentionally want to avoid saying something,114 or when we do not want to verbalize it; even when we phone someone and think they do not want to pick it up at the other end, when we knock on a door and nobody comes to it, or when we never hear the thunder after the lightning: She knocked and waited. There was no sound. She turned the handle […] She stood for a moment listening (Woolf, Y, ‘1891’)

The same thing happens kinesically and with respect to the movements that surround us (e.g. the motionless stance of expectancy or shock, a person’s sudden halting while walking). In all instances, therefore, those silences and stills send forth messages through the absence of the very activities they replace. We could also differentiate between positive zero sign, whose message we know, and negative zero sign, decoded only as absence of activity. But a zero-sign silence generates in turn, in both receiver and sender: first, a mental activity which is the personal perception by the receiver of that absence of communicative audible activities, mainly language (e.g. the lack of response to a greeting, or to ‘Do you love me?’); and second, according to the situation, the thought of the person who is producing the silence:

305

306 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

And then came the horror of the sudden silence, silence everywhere […] Was it a silence of blood? (Lawrence, SL, IV)

7.7.3 As carriers of the preceding activity From the point of view of social interaction, this is the most interesting semiotic aspect — although quite ignored, to my knowledge — of silence and stillness. It consists in their capacity to act as carriers of the activity just perceived, which should generate a great deal of thought, not only within semiotics but in linguistics, communication, psychology and philosophy. If a long pause follows a rotund ‘That’s a lie!’ or ‘I love you,’ those words prolong themselves more intensely in our mind, carried over and enlarged by the silence, which, serving as their receptacle, amplifies them and makes them more conspicuous and much better defined in their meaning; it is like hearing them in an echo, like a sort of mental playback, and thus their effect is greater than if the person just kept talking: Todo quedó en silencio, un silencio donde todavía vibraban las ondas de las últimas palabras (Delibes, SCA, II, XV)

Naturally, this effect can be given in a totally intentional way by the speaker that produces the silence, who wants to allow the listener time to evaluate his words in their full meaning: “Yes suh. I felt right sorry for her […]”/ “You [a Negro in court in a US Southern town] felt sorry for her [a White], you felt sorry for her?” Mr. Gilmer seemed ready to rise to the ceiling./ […] paused a long time to let it sink in (Lee, KM, II, XIX).

We find an scriptural example of this significant function of silence when Jesus finishes the reading of Isaiah’s prophetic words about himself in the synagogue of his hometown: Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and he eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:20–21, NAB)

On the other hand, it may be precisely words that follow a conversational silence, suddenly breaking it and therefore becoming much more significant than if they were said among other words in the flow of speech: The words were projected sharply against Lily’s silence […]. In ordinary talk they might have passed unheeded; but following on her prolonged pause they acquired a special meaning (Wharton, HM, VIII)

As for movement, a threatening gesture, a smile, an intent and unblinking stare toward the interlocutor, or an embrace, are accentuated by the stillness that may follow. As with silence, that stillness is the nonactivity dominated by the reverberating sensation

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

of kinesthetic, dermal and visual signs that gradually vanish (susceptible, like sound, of reappearing later), but much more slowly than if the stare, smile or embrace had been just links in a chain of activities. Naturally, the effect of the silence is intensified when it is simultaneously accompanied by stillness, and vice versa, quite a frequent situation, since sound and movement are two activities that usually cease at the same time — causing a double nonactivity — just as gesticulation normally accompanies verbal language (further proof of the internal cohesion of the triple structure of speech): Anthony took her hand and pressed it. “Poor Helen!”/ She stood for a few seconds, motionless and without speech, averted; then suddenly shook herself as though out of sleep. He felt her limp hand tighten on his (Huxley, EG, I)

In a situation described by Dickens, which before illustrated noninteractive movement, we now find the carrying effect in our environment due to the simultaneity of silence and stillness: The perfect silence which ensued upon the bustle and departure of the coach, together with the sharp air of the wintry afternoon, roused them both at the same time (Dickens, MC, VI)

7.7.3.1 Apart from the interactive situations discussed below, one of the most interesting applications of the carrying function of silence is in story-telling and story-reading to children, or any similar situation, such as the oral narrative of the medieval minstrel. I have always emphasized this fact in class — mainly for students from Education, Nursing, those working in day-care centers or as baby sitters, and present or future parents — for it is something that either we do out of an instinctive sensitiveness toward others or we do not. When we finish reading or telling a peak passage of the story, in which, for instance, the child is told that the wolf jumps on Red Riding Hood’s grandmother and swallows her, the reader or teller often makes the mistake of continuing to read or tell the story. But that is just when we must allow a moment of silence, perhaps showing the child the book illustration that offers the visual form of what he is repeatedly giving life to in his imagination; for, if we do not give such an elementary opportunity to our listeners, they are going to keep imagining the scene anyway, only confusedly superimposing that preceding scene to the following scenes of the narrative, which we have not duly interrupted.115 7.7.4 As anticipator of coming activities When sound has ceased, it can serve as a receptacle for a possible sound that may or may not follow, and the intensity of this silence will increase in direct proportion to the tension caused by expectancy, in other words, by the suspense:

307

308 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

the firing abruptly ceased. A silence fraught with suspense ensued, strange after the heavy shooting (Grey, TH, XVI)

7.7.5 As a receptacle for light sounds and other signs This can happen in different ways. Silence allows us to perceive bodily-generated sounds of such a light intensity that we could not hear them otherwise: She heard the sound of the old lady’s dress in the corridor (Collins, M, ‘Fifth Narrative’)

Soft as they are, however, such sounds can certainly affect us in different ways by becoming components of a personal interaction: At long intervals the prolonged drone of an insect developed out of the silence (Norris, O, I, VI) A snipe […] uttering his tweet-tweet, and his little cry, breaking in so softly on the silence (Grey, SB, IV) He heard the Mormon grind his teeth. There was silence for a little space while neither man looked at the other (Grey, RT, XI) Then there was a pause [after hearing voices in the house]. Maggie could hear sodawater squirting into a tumbler; the chink of a glass; and then the lights went out (Woolf, Y, 1907) a gulping sound behind her made her turn. It was Milly […] the tears slid slowly down her cheeks (Woolf, Y, 1880)

But this interaction can be with the environment, and those sounds can affect us in ways suggested by the adjectives (sometimes combined with adverbial expressions) included in these examples: I heard, through the dead silence, the soft drip of the rain and the tremulous passages of the night air through the trees (Collins, M, ‘Fourth Narrative’)

Zane Grey very sensitively documents this very real interactions with our environment (which, interestingly, could vary according to geographic areas and culture): only the cheery sputter of the wood-fire broke the silence (Grey, HD, XII) The bees hummed, the wind moaned, the leaves rustled, the waterfall murmured (Grey, CC, IX) Over the forest was a deep calm. A gentle, barely perceptible wind sighed among the leaves, like rustling silk (Grey, LT, XIII) Into this peace and calm suddenly broke the high-keyed yelp of a coyote, and from far off in the darkness came the faint answering note of a trailing mate (Grey, RPS, II)

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

the almost inaudible sigh of breeze […] a silence which brought much to the ear that could hear […] penetrated by faint and distant sounds, by mourning wolf, or moan of wind in a splintered crag. Weird and low, an inarticulate voice, it wailed up from the desert […] the mysterious call of cañon and desert night (Grey, HD, XII)

On the other hand, it can be precisely a loud sound which can violently interrupt the physical (but not uncommunicative) vacuum of silence: That silence was broken by the screeching blood-curdling yell of the Sioux (Grey, UPT, III) then silence; then the terrible, the soul-annihilating roar of escaping steam [of a train] (Huxley, EG, IX)

In addition, that interruption can impede not only our appreciation of environmental silence, but also of the sounds that would enhance it: The roar of the receding aeroplane had diminished to a raucous hum, and suddenly the ear found itself conscious once again of the shrill rasping of the cicadas (Huxley, EG, XIII)

This phenomenon, however, is not limited to the perception of soft sounds, for sometimes what helps us to perceive other sensations as well is precisely the silence that envelops everything, especially as regards smells and even light sensations, which, again, we might not notice otherwise. This fact, that sound as ‘noise’ can prevent us from even ‘thinking’ of such images, has many implications in everyday life. While it is true that both light images and odors are there with or without silence, when silence does occur they, depending on our own individual sensitiveness, acquire special relief in our consciousness because excessive sound does not overwhelm and distract us from them, as it usually does when we are interacting with people and with many types of environments.116 Thus, any sign that does not tend to monopolize our attention becomes much more conspicuous during a silence than it does ordinarily, and the same thing happens with more delicate smells and with certain light images. This is what happens with the clock, burnt wood, scent of flowers and pipe smoke in this description: Deep quiet sank in the room. The clock ticked above the dresser, a piece of charred wood fell now and then in the stove, and the faint sharp scent of the geraniums mingled with the odor of Ethan’s smoke, which began to throw a blue haze about the lamp (Wharton, EF, V)

7.7.6 As an enhancing framing for the visual environment At times silence allows us to experience more vividly the things that surround us, since, as less active elements (though not precisely semiotically), they cannot be robbed of

309

310

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

our attention by the more commanding presence of sound, something for which a light sound would not be responsible. This is what happens in this example, in which the tense nature of the dialogue makes the vacuum produced by its sudden absence bring other things to the fore: [during the sheriff’s questioning of Kate] The little room with its dark mahogany bed, its marble-top wash stand with bowl and pitcher and a door for the pot, its wallpaper endlessly repeating little flowers — little roses — the little room was silent, the sound sucked out of it (Steinbeck, EE, XIX, III)

7.8

Qualifiers and intersystemic co-structuration of silence and stillness, and sound enhancement of silence

7.8.1 Although Chapter 8 treats more in detail the various aspects of interaction, two qualifiers of silence and stillness from the point of view of both personal interaction and interaction with the environment should be mentioned here, as they seem to be absent in otherwise interesting studies of silence (e.g. Bruneau 1973 [with a copious body of references], 1979; Johannensen 1974; Lehtonen and Sajavaara 1985; Nwoye 1985; Saville-Troike 1985; Tannen and Saville-Troike 1985). The first qualifier is intensity, determined by the characteristics of the elements immediately preceding, simultaneous to or succeeding the silence or the stillness; for instance, the strength of the message conveyed by the ‘I love you’ (in turn qualified by voice type, pitch, volume, etc.) that has just contributed to elicit the silence, and perhaps the almost tearful shine in the intent stare that has become reciprocal, plus the simultaneous stillness: She [Temple] could hear silence in a thick rustling as he [Popeye] moved toward her through it, thrusting it aside and she began to say Something is going to happen to me (Faulkner, S, XIII)

Hardy is most conscious of the intensity of stillness: “I love you to love me”/ “Won’t you say anything more explicit?”/ “Not a single word!”/ Somerset emitted half a sigh; he wished she had been more demonstrative, yet felt that this passive way of assenting was as much as he could hope for. Had there been anything cold in her passivity he might have felt repressed; but her stillness suggested the stillness of motion imperceptible from its intensity (Hardy, L, Book the First, XV)

The intensity of silence can be also progressive as the sound dies down, in such a way that the gradual disappearance of sound is being replaced by the increasing silence until it becomes total silence. This is what happens, for instance, when a theater audience gradually quiets down before the curtain rises or parts, or when other sounds keep diminishing or receding in the distance:

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

For a moment wheels ground on the road; then they died out and the silence was complete (Woolf, Y, 1880)

The second qualifier of silence and stillness is their duration, which in turn modifies intensity (the more intense, the longer the silence lasts) and can perform the carrying function discussed earlier, determining therefore the effect of the words just said or of something unexpected. In Wilde’s example below, not only does silence act as a receptacle for the sound at the door (particularly for Campbell), but the humming of the fly and the ticking of the clock intensify it more and more as it prolongs itself: As the hall door shut, Campbell started nervously […] For nearly twenty minutes, neither of the men spoke. A fly buzzed noisily about the room, and the ticking of the clock was like the beat of a hammer./ As the chime struck one […] (Wilde, PDG, XIV)

But we know that silence in itself, without any surrounding elements, causes anxiety as it lengthens and that it elicits certain behaviors precisely to counteract that tension, as in the Dickens’ scene partially quoted earlier: As he [Mr. Bumble] slowly seated himself, he looked the lady [Mrs. Corney [the matron, courted by him]. She fixed her eyes upon the little teapot. Mr. Bumble coughed again, and slightly smiled./ Mrs. Corney rose to get another cup and saucer from the closet. As she sat down, her eyes once again encountered those of the gallant beadle; she coloured, and applied himself to the task of making his tea. Again Mr. Bumble coughed,--louder this time than he had coughed yet (Dickens, OT, XXIII)

Intensity and duration, however, are sometimes mutually determined. The prolongation of a silence allows us to feel the anxiety that intensifies it on account of an interior struggle that withholds the words, as Dr. Tournier tells us of a patient: long silences marked her struggle against resistance within […] One was aware of a great sense of relief in her. I thanked her for her confidence and courage. We prayed together. When she left […] her eyes were shining (Tournier 1983: 23)

On the other hand, the duration of a silence can be quite consciously manipulated in order to create anxiety in another person. Besides, there are some very important cross-cultural differences which certainly call for the kind of intercultural fluency discussed in Chapter 1 of volume I. 7.8.2 One specific qualifier of sound and movement which only repeated observation led me to acknowledge it is the continuous evenness of a same sound or a same movement. Just as a pervading odor can cause olfactory fatigue after a while and thus escapes our consciousness, an unchanging sound or movement (e.g. the unbroken rush of traffic, the uninterrupted flapping of a flag) can also become like silence and stillness, respectively; an effect that disappears as soon as they become irregular, as Greene notes in his second acoustic image of a train:

311

312

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

in the rushing reverberating express, noise was so regular that it was the equivalent of silence, movement was so continuous that after a while the mind accepted it as stillness (Greene, ST, I, II) Nor were the noises of the train regular enough now to be indistinguishable from silence. There were many tunnels (Greene, ST, I, II)

7.8.3 As for co-structuration itself, it is the relationship between a silence or static pose and the preceding, simultaneous or succeeding elements, at the deeper levels of interaction, suggested in Fig. 7.3, ‘Co-structuration of silence and stillness with the surrounding elements,’ that is: Verbal and nonverbal activities of speaker and listener simul-

SILENCE preceding

succeeding STILLNESS

taneous Conditioning background

Figure 7.3.Co-structuration of silence and stillness with the surrounding elements

a.the preceding element, that is, what has been said or not said, done or not done, as in: Bientôt un cri d’indignation chez les uns, chez d’autres le silence de l’étonnement annoncèrent une sensation générale. On rennaisait [in the guard of honor] le petit Sorel (Sthendal, RN, XVIII) [When Brander asks Jennie for the watch he gave her, now pawned by her family] There was a strained silence (Dreiser, JG, V)

b.the simultaneous elements, even the thoughts we imagine as taking place in another person’s mind (which, independently of their existence, they can still affect us), but also the ones that do not occur at all (e.g. what we expected but was not realized): El odio silencioso y reconcentrado le seguía en su camino. Apartábanse las mujeres frunciendo los labios, sin dignarse saludarle (Blasco Ibañez, B, IV)

c.the succeeding elements which, whether they really occur later or not, can trigger the silence beforehand because of what we expect will happen, and even affect it (for instance, prolonging it)117, as happens with the expectant silences of an audience during a trial:

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

The room sighed, its collective breath hissing in the musty silence […] The room sighed, a long hissing breath [when evidence is shown] […] The room expelled its breath, sucked it quickly in and held it again (Faulkner, S, XXVIII)

Naturally, although these factors have been discussed here as interactive, there is also an intimate relationship between the various elements within the same person who, for instance, is silent, since we can be affected by our own words, by our own silence and by any voluntary or involuntary personal activity (our tears, thoughts, etc.): Guardó silencio como si el eco de la habitación le hubiese advertido y censurado su franca locuacidad (Delibes, SCA, I, III)

7.8.4 We should introduce now what in Chapter 3.8 of Volume III will be said, in the context of literature, regarding the compatibility of silence and sound when sound does not disqualify silence as such but enhances it, thus gaining greater value: all was quiet save for the tinkle of a cow-bell in the pasture (Grey, BZ, IV)

We see, however, that it could not be the sound of words, since the idea suggested by that sound would trigger our mental activity with respect to those words. Sounds that can enhance the existing silence without interfering with it at all are: a.a light body sound, such as a light throat-clearing, a sigh, a low sob: The silences between them […] the sharp ‘pop’ of his lips as he let out the smoke (Lawrence, SL, III)

b.a sound indirectly produced by a manipulated object, which lets us imagine, even if unseen, the person’s activity, which in the third example totally breaks the continuity of silence because of the person’s state of irritation: The sweep and dash of the brush on the canvas made the only sound that broke the stillness (Wilde, PDG, II) the only sounds in the room were the ticking of the clock and the subdued shrillness of his quill [Dr. Kemp’s, restless], hurrying […] (Wells, IM, XVII) The scratching of Eleanor’s pen irritated him (Woolf, Y, 1880)

c.a soft mechanical sound (e.g. a faraway bell, the distant humming of an airplane, as in these two situations, similar to Well’s above): Se hablaban en voz baja con tímida mesura, y en los momentos de silencio oíase el péndulo de un reloj (Valle-Inclán, SP, 33) The clocked ticked, the fire clicked; not another sound had been heard in the room, or in the house (Dickens, BH, III)

313

314

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

d.natural environmental sounds, particularly when perceived in the distance or softly, even combined with other isolated sounds, as in: The sullen murmur of the bees […] seemed to make the stillness more oppressive (Wilde, PDG, I) The scream of an eagle, the bleating of sheep, the bark of a coyote were once more the only familiar sounds accentuating the silence of the plateau (Grey, HD, VIII) She did not hear a sound except the tinkle and babble and gentle rush of the brook (Grey, BL, VI) The waiter came and took away the things [with sounds preceding silence]. After a while we were very still and we could hear the rain. Down below on the street a motor car honked (Hemingway, FA, XXIII)

Several of these different sounds can blend in the person’s experience of the surrounding silence: There was no sound through the house but the moaning wind […] the faint crackling of the coals, and the click of my snuffers as I removed at intervals the long wick of the candle (E. Brontë, WH, XVII)

When silence happens all of a sudden or rapidly, it is the contrast with the preceding sounds or noises that enhances it and help us hear it as silence, a most powerful effect in both real life and in literature: When she had drawn he curtains in both rooms, a profound silence seemed to fall upon the drawing-room. The world outside seemed thickly and entirely cut off. Far away down the next street they heard the voice of a street hawker droning; the heavy hooves of van horses clopped slowly down the road. For a moment wheels ground on the road; then they died out and the silence was complete (Woolf, Y, 1880) [the train] resuella y huye, dejando la pequeña estación muda y sola, con el ojo de su farol vigilante encendido en la torva oscuridad de la noche (Espina, EM, I)

We should note in the last example that quality of silence isolating the silent place, as also in: a suspirant and peaceful following silence which seemed to isolate the spot, and out of which a moment later came the sound of an automobile passing along the road and dying away (Faulkner, S, I)

7.8.5 On the other hand, it is precisely silence that can enhance some sounds when heard against it, or as enveloped by it. This is certainly true of certain sounds of negative characteristics, above all socially, which silence makes stand out and more conspicuous, sometimes particularly embarrassing, even forcing us to drown them in any kind of noise,

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

as when we fail to repress belching or hiccuping, or uncontrollable intestinal rumbling: [the prostitutes] Consumían en un prudente silencio, abriendo moderadamente sus bocas al mascar, exhalando breves ruidos mandibulares (Martín Santos, TS, 154)

But a particularly bothersome contrast of sound against silence takes place at night, as when neighbors’ voices, laughs, telephone bells, etc., seem to acquire a negative, even aggressive character: New York’s terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at night. You can hear it for miles. It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed (Salinger, CR, XII)

7.8.6 A situation observed in several of the preceding examples is that of more or less distant sounds, but not nearby, which serve to enhance the silence that surrounds us in an immediate physical way: des ronflements lontains de carrois […] (Zola, VP, I) De fuera apenas llegaba vagamente, y eso como un pálido rumor, el ruido lejano de la ciudad (Baroja B, III, VI) The far-off drowsy drum of a grouse (Grey, LT, XIII) Far away […] the voice of a street hawker (Woolf, Y, 1880)

These sounds acquire more value than if they happened much nearer to us, since, consciously or unconsciously, they gain an identity that produces an especial effect on the listener. We observe this phenomenon in this scene from Dicken’s Bleak House
: Both sit silent, listening to the metal voices, near and distant, resounding from towers of various heights, in tones more various than their situations. When these at length cease, all seems more mysterious and quiet than before (Dickens, BH, XXXII)

In its next chapter, Dickens illustrates the last aspect of silence I would like to comment on in this section: when we enhance silence by whispering. When we speak in a normal voice loudness, or screaming, we drown certain sounds that our voices of conversationalists simply erase from the reality that surrounds that conversation, but when we whisper or mutter we allow them to remain at least in the periphery of our exchange: One disagreeable result of whispering is, that it seems to evoke an atmosphere of silence, haunted by the ghosts of sound — strange cracks and tickings, the rustling of garments that have no substance in them, and the tread of dreadful feet, that would leave no mark on the sea-sand or the winter snow (Dickens, BH, XXXII)

The fact that Dickens refers to this situation negatively in his literary reasoning does not deprive many similar situations of the totally positive semiotic value, depending on the nature of the perceived sounds. Besides, one could add to Dickens’s words: ‘and

315

316

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

silence evokes, and even triggers, the whispering.’ But, at any rate, that enveloping reality is kept more complete during interaction when the voices are softer. The same thing happens in environments like the streets of a large city, full of urban sounds, as opposed to those in a village, where we can still hear the warbling of sparrows and the cooing of pigeons, totally drowned in the smothering city sounds.

7.9

Positive and negative functions of interactive silences Since conversational pauses were identified in Chapter 7 of Volume I, only a few comments will suffice which I included in one of my nonverbal communication courses when discussing some practical aspects of silences (cf. Baker 1955, for some of them). They are meant also as an incentive for future work in any of the fields dealing with personal interaction, bearing in mind the communicative processes identified heretofore and hoping the reader will easily think of other positive or negative instances.

7.9.1 Among the positive functions of silences in our interaction with others or with the environment, are, for instance: a.the environmental natural silence, during which we can listen to some almost subaudible sounds that enhance it, and in which we perceive in a special way not only isolated words — which, rather than breaking the silence seem to become permeated by it — but the eloquence of a breathing that is restful, strained, or emotional, a sigh, an ingressive narial friction of resignation, a light sob, a brief anxious throat-clearing, and many more paralinguistic alternants which, rather than interrupting the silence, are enveloped by it and make it far more significant. b.the silence of rapport, during which, since no words are needed for communication, mutual feelings grow in depth precisely because of this intimate sharing of the silence; it is the interactive silence of true friendship, of romantic love, of the nurse whose sensitiveness goes beyond what she has been taught as ‘procedural’: let’s be quiet, then; it’s the best way of talking” (Wharton, R, XVI)

c.the silence of compassionate love, which brings us closer to someone else rather than separating us, maintained when faced with the other person’s suffering, or with a patient to whom there is nothing to say any more: she [a physician with a terminal patient] realized that he did not want a flood of words from her […] he wanted real, deep, burning companionship. She spent with him a whole hour of complete silence, and that hour is for her now one of the most beautiful of her life (Tournier 1974: 180)

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

d.the therapeutic silence that can truly makes us better by pacifying us, assuaging an emotion, giving us the opportunity to undistractedly reflect on something; much more so when not in company of others (even if their presence is heard at a distance), even better when surrounded by a non-aggressive natural environment: The quiet in the house, and the low murmuring hum of summer insects outside the open window, soothed me (Collins, WW, 295)

e.the concert-audience silence which follows, for instance, the end of Mahler’s ninth symphony, when its listeners know how not to break with their stridently contrasting applause the spell of its pianissimo conclusion and of the carrying, listened-to silence that should follow; f.the professional silence that must be offered for instance, in so many situations between doctor or nurse and their patients, in employment or social-work interviews, when a comment on our part has triggered an emotional reaction (perhaps shown only in a flitting emotional facial contraction), or after a decision-making question. To avoid making any of these silences conspicuous and perhaps embarrassing for the other person, we must try to somehow busy ourselves (e.g. sipping a glass of water, calmly shifting posture, even blowing the nose or getting up to get something or diverting our attention to something on our desk); during a therapeutic interview, the clinician may need to assist the client by, for instance, supporting his or her own silences, instead of terminating them prematurely when a difficult confession is taking place. g.the sought silence of divine union chosen by mystics and ascetics sthrough the centuries, as did my intimate friend, the late surgeon turned hermit and Bible scholar Brother Anthony, living in the woods of a Trappist monastery in Eastern Canada, who writes: Silence is a great teacher and teaches best those who listen attentively to the voice of His words (Khamor 1995: xii)

7.9.2 As negative functions, silences are actually used in social interaction more than we would desire, for instance: a.to express negative attitudes, such as refusing to communicate with someone, an eloquent form that generally implies lack of eye contact as well (e.g. at the table), not returning a greeting, communicating negative personal feelings, etc.; b.as manipulative silence, intentionally used, knowing that the anxiety it causes is in direct proportion to its duration, until succeeding in reducing a person’s efficacy during, say an interview or business or academic meeting; c.the oppressive silence, because of the environment, or a recent emotional or threatening encounter, etc.:

317

318

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Ghostly and dark the room became, and full of lowering shadows. The distant noises in the streets were gradually hushed; the house was quiet as a sepulchre; the dead of night was coffined in the silent city (Dickens, MC, XXV) that strange, oppressive, and vast silence of the wild (Grey, UPT, 3)

7.9.3 But the worst silence of all, which nobody could ever enjoy, is the silence of forced solitude and isolation. We tend to identify silence itself with it, but with a difference. One thing is the silence of the solitude that may surround us physically and even invade us unexpectedly, as when all of a sudden we become conscious of solitude in a great expanse of nature: The whole empty world seemed haunted. Rustlings of the sage, seepings of the sand, gusts of the wind, the night, the loneliness (Grey, UPT, XIII)

But even that solitude can be avoided when we know we can come out of it. Billy Graham, trying to sensitize us to the much worse solitude of today’s society’s outcasts, refers to this physical solitude and silence with regard to “The Loneliness of Solitude” that we may even experience as a strange pleasure: I have felt the loneliness of the ocean where there is never a sound except the booming of the surf along rock-strewn shores. I have felt the loneliness of the prairie with only the occasional mournful howl of the coyote. I have felt the loneliness of the mountains broken only by the sighing of the wind (Graham 1995: 66)

That silence, under favorable circumstances, can even become poetic and enchanting to a person, like a balm that enhances the peace he or she feels, while for another it may constitute the bitter experience of unavoidable solitude that oppresses and depresses. Those who today find themselves in such a situation need to hear something, even sounds that can accompany them like voices without being voices, or the voices from the television that maybe one just wants to hear, not listen to. Many institutionalized persons, and those who must live alone, like so many shut-ins, avail themselves of the company of radio and television (a recourse impossible before their advent, and far beyond its informative functions).118 7.9.4 In the final analysis, what this chapter has attempted to show is that any silence or stillness, of any duration and in whatever context and under whatever circumstances, is very far from being something meaningless or semantically independent, for it is always affected not only by the verbal and nonverbal activities of the co-interactors (preceding, simultaneous, and succeeding), but by our own. Sometimes our conversational partner becomes unexpectedly silent, still, or both, and our ‘What did I say/do?’ is much more frequent than ‘What am I saying/doing?’ However, his silence or stillness, or both — although sometimes the person tries to fill the former by toying

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

with something, drawing at a cigarette, preening one’s hair, looking around, etc. — may exteriorize his reaction to, or anticipation of, what I am saying, doing, or both, or what he knows or imagines) I am going to say or do (even if I never do). Even so, the semiotic process is more complex than all that, because, for instance, the silence of the other person can be elicited by my preceding, simultaneous or succeeding activities or nonactivities. It can be my words, paralanguage or kinesics (e.g. laughter, weeping, a murmur of disapproval), a chemical reaction (e.g. tears), a dermal reaction (e.g. blushing of embarrassment), immediately preceding his silence; but they can also occur at the same time, fill that never empty silence and communicate during that length of time, besides having triggered it; and, on other occasions, follow his silence in such a way that silence is already an anticipated reaction, which I may or may not perceive and react or not react to.119

7.10

Our attitude toward silence and cross-cultural differences and problems Silences, not only in conversation but in general, are something everybody feels uncomfortable about during an interaction in western cultures, causing anxiety as soon as it lasts beyond a few seconds, because we tend to think that something must be ‘happening’ all the time, that we must ‘hear’ o ‘see’ others, do something for interaction to be interaction, that silence is not a ‘happening’: Miss Fairlie seemed to feel the oppression of the long pauses in the conversation, and looked appealingly to her sister to fill them up (Collins, WW, 93) The young man seemed glad of any excuse for breaking the silence (Hardy, PBE, VI) In the evening when the son sat in the room with his mother, the silence made them both feel awkward (Anderson, WO, “Mother”)

During a theater performance, silences produce a form of what in the professional parlance is called ‘stage fright,’ particularly in the poor actor, who, having no lines to speak, does not know how to resort to, for instance, the feigned naturalness of supposedly unconscious behaviors, whether participatory or not, and relate to what is going on the stage.120 Even in the Bible we find, for instance, through the Psalmist, how people fear God’s silence, and this is how we call it when we think that He is not responding to our prayer or does not free us from our anguish: This You have seen, O Lord; Do not keep silence. O Lord, do not be far from me (Psalm 35:22, NKJ) ¡God, do not be silent; God, be not still and unmoved! (Psalm 83:1, NAB)

In the Book of Revelation 8:1 we find a silence of tragic foreboding while seven angels prepare to sound their trumpets, to which follows a series of escathological disasters:

319

320 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour (RSV)

In reality, silence seems to frighten us even when we come before God in prayer. We can speak and speak to him, even in true worship, but who can stop those words that are still uttered in our mind? Saint Faustina Kowalska wrote in her Diary
: Silence is so powerful a language that it reaches the throne of the living God. Silence is His language, though secret, yet living and powerful (#888). In silence I tell You everything, Lord, because the language of love is without words (#1489).

Yet very few western Christians can stand silence in church, as evidenced by this experience (full of nonverbal communication indeed) of a Catholic priest raised in the Chaldean rite of the Mass (different from the Latin rite), who would keep silence for five minutes after Communion: in the parish where he grew up, it was customary to keep at least 15 minutes…He soon recognized, however, that that was unthinkable in America…For most Americans this silence was unbearable beyond the first 30 seconds. Assuming the priest had fallen asleep, the folks in the pews would begin to let their kneelers fall loudly to the floor, or they’d slam shut their hymnals, or they’d jingle their keys (Aquilina 2001: 7)

As for conversational silence with eye contact, it causes even greater anxiety, that is why we try to camouflage it. Words are said sometimes just to avoid it and fill it with something, and when they are lacking, we struggle to break it verbally or paralinguistically. For instance, in Spanish, by emitting a typical ‘En fin, —’ ‘Bueno, —’ ‘Pues, sí, —’ and with paralinguistic alternants like throat-clearing, a cough that we feign or force beyond the physiological reflex, etc., even, in a familiar setting, someone saying, ‘¡Qué callados nos hemos quedado todos!’; in English, with a drawled ‘Mmm!,’ or ‘Well —’ or a ‘Well’ between an audible pharyngeal ingression and egression, etc., or someone humorously (avoiding embarrassment) saying, ‘Don’t everybody speak at once¡’; and we all smile, if smiling is not inappropriate, or pay much attention to something trivial, etc. And if another person is causing a silence, we usually hasten to fill it for him: Before he could bring himself to correct an error […] she went on, as if to escape the embarrassment of silence (Hardy, L, Book the First, VII)

However, we know how, for instance, the Japanese, the Chinese or the North American Indians value the different silences of interaction that perform multiple functions: The Indian [Nas Ta Bega] clasped Shefford’s hand and held it in a response that was more beautiful for its silence. So they stood for a moment […] (Grey, RT, IV)

I heard among the more mature Maliseet Indians of Canada how irritating it can be for them when we ‘whites’ resume our speech too soon after only a few seconds of silence,

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

during which perhaps they are even formulating the answer to a question of ours (which they understood perfectly well and we do not need, to make it worst by repeating it. This is exactly what happens if in an interaction with the Kotzebue Eskimos of Alaska; my student Janet Murphy “mistook no reply for feedback for some misunderstanding of what I said. I soon learned that no reply often conveyed a specific message.”121 The same I have been able to experience in Japan, confirmed by Morsbach (1988: 207).122 Morsbach, recognizing that the value of silence as communication of what could be conveyed verbally can be found in other cultures, compares western aversion to silence with its functional versatility among the Japanese, one of the communicative problems for westerners when interacting in the East (cf. also Oliver 1971, on Asian cultures). This is in reality silence ‘as signs proper,’ as was defined earlier.123 In the end, the book of Ecclesiastes assures us that there is A time for keeping silent, a time for speaking (3:7, JB).

7.11

Conclusion Aware of the constant fluctuation between what is heard or not heard and moves or does not move, and in view of the need to study it much more in depth than it seems to have been done, I have discussed in this chapter — which complements the discussion of environmental sounds begun in Chapter 6.8–the thoughts on silence and stillness, particularly the former, that for over twenty years continued to crop up within my interdisciplinary approach to nonverbal communication. While at first I would approach silence from the otherwise quite legitimate point of view of language, I would more and more see it as an essential constituent of any interactive or noninteractive situation, understanding interaction as an exchange of signs that far transcends the interpersonal to cover our interactions with the environment in all its manifestations in its fascinating dimension as a ‘silent’ or ‘silenced’ reality. Thus, to my early treatments of silence and stillness I have added, and illustrated, the identification and classification of all the types of sounds and movements and of their opposites, silences and stills, in the following realms: human, animal, the general ‘cultural’ environment (artifactual, interiors, exteriors, including light and sound images), and the natural environment, acknowledging also the eloquence of light and darkness in their relation to sound and stillness. Only when we ponder — as hopefully the reader has done in the examples provided beyond what editorial limitations preclude — the interrelationships among those realms, do we truly discover the awesome and always eloquent reality of silences. Even looking only at interactive silences, the are not semiotic or communicative vacuums (thus, the limited traditional treatment of ‘pauses’ is discussed here), and not only can they communicate by themselves, carrying the most important part of the total message, but also qualify, semiotically and

321

322

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

semantically, the surrounding elements. Therefore, the coding and specific functions (positive as well as negative) of silences and stills, as well as their qualifiers, are given due relevance. Within interaction — far from regarding it as a mere lacuna among verbal or nonverbal activities — we can analyze silence as part of the speech structure and, in the practical realm of social interaction, interpret it in its full signification. It is obvious, however, that other research perspectives and applications await study, among other areas, in social work and psychotherapy, in business and academic meetings, in conversation (Chapter 7, Volume I), and in narrative literature and the theater (Volume III), and last but not least, in intercultural studies, given the often unsuspected different attitudes found cross-culturally toward conversational silences.

7.12

Topics for interdisciplinary research 1.Somatic and extrasomatic sensible activities and nonactivities during interactive silences. 2.Problems of interactive silences in intercultural communication. 3.The silences of language: grammatical pauses and attitudinal silences in the language-paralanguage-kinesic structure. 4.Visual signs of speech during conversational silences and stills. 5.Silence and stillness in speech transcription: limitations and possibilities of punctuation systems. 6.Presence and use of interactive silences and stills: social stratification. 7.Interactive silences and stills in professional interviews: positive and negative functions. 8.Pathology of silence and stillness. 9.Silence and stillness in the repertoires of political oratory: verbal messages and personal visual image. 10.The communication of silences in the theater and the cinema: a comparative study. 11.Past and present of silence and noise in the community dwellings: urban architecture and rural architecture. 12.Everyday silences and sounds: urban life vs. rural life. 13.Ontogenetic development in the perception and use of interactive silences. 14.Cultures as defined through their sounds and silences: a cross-cultural study. 15.Sound and silence in music: the esthetic continuity. 16.Silences, sounds, and noises of the environment as components of urban an rural life. 17.Structuration of silences with other components of interactive encounters.

Silence, stillness and darkness — sound, movement and light

18.Silences in the novel: a cross-cultural comparative perspective. 19.The enhancement of sounds in silence: a study across environments. 20.The meaningful silences in the animal kingdom. 21.Sound and silence in nature: the poetics of ecology. 22.The application of the cultureme model to the identification of sounds and silences and movements and stills: an intercultural perspective. 23.Light and darkness and sound and silence with relation to other sensible signs: reality and metaphor. 24.Walking through a historical place: a cultural and social evocation of sounds and silences, movements and stills. 25.The evocation of sounds and silences in painting and photography.

323

Chapter 8

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction What happens or does not happen among people and between them and their environment

A glad heart lights up the face (Proverbs 15:13, NAB) Havill’s face had been not unpleasant until this moment, when he smiled; whereupon there instantly gleamed over him a phase of meanness, remaining until the smile died away. It might have been an accident; it might have been otherwise (Hardy, L, Book the First, VIII) judging that one of the charms of tea is the fact of drinking it together, she proceeded to give the last touch to Mr. Gryce’s enjoyment by smiling at him across her lifted cup (Wharton, HM, I, II)

8.1

The gaps and risks in the study of communication and the need for a realistic approach to interaction Over the last thirty years I studied the different communication systems discussed in these first two volumes, that is, verbal language, paralanguage, kinesics and all the somatic sign and message-emitting channels, in their two basic dimensions of space (proxemics) and time (chronemics). This unravelled for me the unsuspected complexity of what, already since the 1950s, but above all the 60s, was being studied (mainly in the United States and England) as face-to-face interaction.124 I saw that, despite the recognized complexity of daily social exchanges, beyond the structures they discussed — hence the term ‘structural approach’ (e.g. Scheflen 1969, 1980; Duncan 1980; Kendon 1973, 1980a) — there were still deeper levels in any of those exchanges which were, and still are, ignored o neglected as merely ‘incidental,’ ‘contextual’ or ‘marginal.’ Even when I developed and explicated the realistic approach to speech as ‘the basic triple structure language-paralanguage-kinesics,’ I was discovering — though often at deeper hidden levels — a fascinating grid of signs and sign systems that carried much communicative weight and played important interactive functions as powerful

326

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

components of those exchanges. In other words, I had gone as far as seeing ‘language’ in a broader and more realistic fashion. However, as far as ‘communication’ was concerned, I myself was running the risk of perpetuating a very limited manner of looking at interaction which hindered disciplines like psychology, linguistics, psycholinguistics, developmental studies, the communicative skills of clinical subjects, the relationship between perception and interaction, our interaction with the environment, the latent interaction in representational painting (never foreign to psychology), and even the literary creation and its recreation through the deeper processes of reading discussed in Volume III. On the other hand, there had been identified at most a series of interactive facts in a cause-effect sequence that dismissed what did not ‘happen’ and even more what would or would have not happened, had an activity or nonactivity taken place, let alone what had not happened yet and what was not even going to happen; in sum, as if all that were foreign to a personal encounter, or between the person and the environment, and only what happens and is perceived counted. This thought made me, therefore, deepen my approach to interaction, which made it increasingly evident that the only realistic analysis would be one that acknowledged all the possible components of an interaction from among the sign systems identified in the present model.125 I thus began to conceive of interaction only in an integrative way as: the conscious or unconscious exchange of behavioral or nonbehavioral, sensible and intelligible signs from the whole arsenal of somatic and extrasomatic systems (independently of whether they are activities or nonactivities) and the rest of the surrounding cultural systems, as they all act as sign emitting components (and as potential elicitors of further emissions) which determine the specific characteristics of the exchange.

It was evident to me that if I should pursue a fine-grained semiotic approach to everything that happened or did not happen in interaction, our knowledge of it and the research possibilities would increase immensely. This chapter, then, is a theoretical model that will hopefully suggest a number of methodological avenue, by identifying: the possible personal and extrapersonal components of face-to-face interaction and our interaction with the surrounding natural, built or artifactual environment; their sensory perception and how the physiopsychological synesthesial associations operate also as such components; how both sensible and intelligible components can function independently or in double or multiple compounds; which are the elements that constitute the qualifiers of the interactive activities and nonactivities; and in which manner interactive components can be associated to other preceding, simultaneous or succeeding components. Once more, the reader will find that literature, particularly the novel, is, if searched perseveringly enough, an invaluable and almost inexhaustible source of inestimable illustrative data.

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

8.2

The components of interaction: Internal and external, personal, objectual, and environmental According to the definition of interaction just offered, the researcher who attempts to pursue an exhaustive analysis of an encounter must confront a whole panorama of possible interactive components, among which he will identify those that clearly seem to occupy a specific location between the beginning and end of that encounter. We will always obtain an incomplete image of a given interactive situation if we try to analyze what exactly happens — to later determine how and why things happen the way they do — without first carrying out as detailed and exhaustive a search as possible of all the components of that situation and hastily decide that any one of those components does not play an interactive function, instead of assuming it does until proven otherwise. While saying ‘all the components’ may be an illusion in the opinion of some (for there may be rather hidden components or signs which may escape us), it should be obvious that working from a model like the one offered here would undoubtedly minimize the risk of what to our research would be a sort of crippling incompleteness that would seriously affect our findings and conclusions on any aspects of interaction. Figure 8.1, ‘Components of personal and environmental interaction,’ attempts to at least outline at a glance the extraordinary variety of the sign sources and systems to which one is exposed in the many types of interactions with others and with the organic or inorganic elements that surround us. Each reader will identify any given type of interaction, whether an employment interview, a doctor-patient exchange or an encounter in a novel whose explicit and implicit components (personal, cultural, etc.) should be considered in a literary analysis. Without this kind of exhaustive and realistic concept of interaction, we would invariably see certain ‘gaps’ in the course of it. But there are no such gaps, for there we find nonverbal signs with specific functions (e.g., a co-interactant’s distracted look, the presence of someone’s threadbare clothes). But if do not acknowledge them we will inevitably fail to perceive a series of interrelationships — not only between verbal language and nonverbal elements (even within speech itself), but also among the latter — which actually contain important sign clusters and messages and in turn elicit other activities or nonactivities. These variety of sign systems and a thoughtful pondering of the table will suggest the manifold interdisciplinary perspective that can be developed through this model for the study of the various modes of interaction.126 The first basic differentiation is between two fundamental categories of interaction components: internal, that is, active or passive elements (but never semiotically passive) that can be exchanged among the participants, or that at any rate have a direct relationship with that exchange, as with language, consciously or unconsciously interactive perfume, or social status); external, in other words, behavioral or nonbehavioral activities (as well as a series of static elements) which, unlike the internal components, cannot be part of that mutual personal exchange, but rather surround the

327

328

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

I

N

T

E

R

N

A

L Behavioral

Basic triple structure

LANGUAGE PARALANGUAGE KINESICS

audiovisual tactile kinesthetic

Proxemics and touch Activities Other internal/ social/clinical Nonexternal body perception behavioral bodily sounds Chemical:tears, body odor, sweat Dermal: blushing, blanching Thermal: temperature rises & falls

Personal sensible bodily components

Behavioral Nonactivities

Personal sensible bodyrelated components

Nonbehavioral

Shape, size, consistency, weight Color: skin, hair, eyes Facial features Static Dynamic

Bodyadaptors

Food, drink, tobacco, masticatories Clothes, jewelry, glasses, pipe Cosmetics, perfume, shaving lotion

Objetadaptors

Pipe, lint, crumbs Anatomical furniture, table

Static displays and/or mentales

Silence Stillness

Environmental elements:grass, sand, water, dust Personal Activities Real or imagined mental activities intelligible components NonAge, personality, mood, emotional state activities Culture, status, religious & moral values E

X

T

E

R N A L Behaviordoor, phone, footsteps, traffic conditioned TV, radio, music, smells Contextual or Mechanical Clock, machinery, computer, train Sensible interfering objectual & activities Environmental Rain, wind, water, animals environmental Environment heat, cold, furniture, lamps, rugs components Contextual or objectual Decorative objects, books, souvenirs interfering nonactivities Built or architecture: spaces, texture, natural color, lighting, temperature environment terrain, landscaping, flora, fauna

Figure 8.1.Components of personal and environmental interaction

encounter proper (e.g. the neighbor’s TV, the rain pattering on the window pane and enhancing intimacy or well-being, architectural spaces which condition the interactions within their confines). i. internal components A. Sensible bodily personal components. They are produced by somatic activities or nonactivities and comprise three groups:

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

1.Personal sensible behavioral activities a.First of all, the basic triple structure of speech
: verbal language (i.e. variable lexicomorphologico-syntactical sign structures with their basic prosodic features); paralanguage (voice modifiers, voice types and independent word-like utterances: voice registers, voice types, throat-clearings, moans, momentary silences, etc.); and kinesics (movements and positions of eyes, face, trunk and extremities, perceived visually, audiovisually, tactually and kinesthetically). Kinesics, however, may be hidden from view, but is still perfectly linked to the person’s other verbal and nonverbal behaviors: She clenched her hands and felt the hard little coins she was holding (Woolf, Y, “Present Day”)

b.Then, proxemics, resulting from kinesic activities and certainly conditioned (though at times covertly) by room size, room density and furniture layout, the latter affecting interaction by exerting on it a positive sociopetal effect (attracting toward the center, what makes a room inviting and ‘cozy’) or a negative sociofugal effect (not inviting to a gathering), as well as from exterior urban design.127 Proxemics, the conceptualization and conscious or unconscious behavioral structuration of interpersonal and personenvironment space, includes physical contact: I [Laura] held her away from me in astonishment […] ‘Don’t be angry with me, Mariam,’ she said, mistaking my silence./ I only answered by drawing her close to me again. I was afraid of crying if I spoke (Collins, WW, 186–187)128

c.Thirdly, two types of body sounds beyond language and paralanguage, but voluntarily or involuntarily adding to them their own eloquence of social or clinical significance, thus overlapping the nonbehavioral type: internally generated, such as intestinal rumbling (which may cause embarrassment), the asthmatic’s bronchial whizzing (perhaps provoked by the presence of our cat, or by the anxiety caused by the situation, both become components of that interaction); or produced externally as the following four kinds of behavior: –

self-adaptors, that is, audible behaviors contacting ourselves (e.g. slapping one’s thigh): oyendo lo cual, mi amigo, dándose una palmada en la frente y disparando en una carga de risa, me dijo:/ — Por Dios, hermano, que ahora me acabo de desengañar de un engaño (Cervantes, DQ, I, ‘Prologue’) ‘Oh, Mammon. Mammon!’ cried Mr Pecksniff, smiting his forehead (Dickens, MC, IV) “Wall, you can marry Latch,” rejoined Keetch, vigorously slapping his leg (Grey, LWT, VI)

329

330

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

–

alter-adaptors, audible behaviors contacting someone else (e.g. slapping, which involves two semiotic levels: the action and its humiliating sound; affectionate or deceitful back-slapping): ‘[…] Cheer up, man,’ he continued, giving Lord Lowborough a thump on the back (A. Brontë, TWF, XXXVIII)

–

body-adaptors,129 audible behaviors involving the handling of food, drinks, masticatories (chewing gum, betel, kola, and associated behaviors), clothes (crunching on something, the swishing of a long dress), and those objects and substances themselves: I heard behind me, a click of the iron gate and a rustle of female garments (A. Brontë, TWF, II) exclaimed the undertaker, as he emptied his glass and smacked his lips (Dickens, MC, XIX) The silk of her dress rustled sharply […] she was standing only one step above him [on the stairs], very close (Huxley, EG, XX)

–

single and object-mediated object-adaptors, that is, audible behaviors contacting any of the many things that surround us (either directly or through another mediating object-adaptor), including the ground, the walls, furniture, etc. (e.g. banging on a desk, door-knocking), and the objects themselves: Holmes […], as minute followed minute without result […]. He gnawed his lip, drummed his fingers upon the table, and showed every other symptom of acute impatience (Conan Doyle, SS, I, VII) Ferrier heard his heavy steps scrunching along the shingly path (Conan Doyle, SS, II, III) She heard a trampling of feet in the hall, a rasping of chairs (Faulkner, S, VII)

2.Personal sensible nonbehavioral activities, uncontrollable bodily reactions (often reflexes) that are perceived olfactorily, visually, dermally and even gustatorily, at times with central functions as conveyors of messages of social or clinical value. a.Chemical reactions like physiological sweat due to room temperature, not to be mistaken for emotional sweat (e.g. the palmar sweat observable during an interview or interrogation); silent tear-shedding, or blended with accompanying language, paralanguage or kinesics (e.g. with visible signs of self-control); pathological odors like organic failure, tissue deterioration, the schizophrenic’s crisis perceived by some therapists, and even imminent death:130 a Cardenio se le mudó la color del rostro, y comenzó a trasudar […] y estarse quedo, mirando de hito en hito a la labradora, imaginando quién era ella [Dorotea] (Cervantes, DQ, I, XXVIII)

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

Suddenly his throat contracted, the tears came into his eyes, the muscles of his chest tightened in spasm after violent spasm (Huxley, EG, LIII)

Personal odors, perhaps combined with artificial ones (which we tend to perceive as natural in some people), are susceptible of intimate interaction through time (hence their chronemic aspect), as happens with the deeply felt smell of a garment that intensely evokes for us its deceased or absent owner and causes painful or pleasant retrospective interaction: On the other hand, there are numerous negative interpretations — intentional or not, but interactive — of natural or artificial body odors, out of racism, superiority toward those of lower social strata (or by the latter as a reaction to that superiority, to those who ‘smell well’), and even moral status (e.g. the ‘cheap’ perfume of certain women). b.Dermal reactions, mainly reddening, emotional blushing (both perceivable also by dermal contact in an intimate proxemic situation), blanching or paling, permanent pallor (highly appreciated in the Romantic period, as documented in literature), and skin papillary erection (goose flesh): At her first words the colour had rushed to his forehead; but as she continued she saw his face compose itself and his blood subside (Wharton, R, XVIII) The effect [of Peter’s words] was as if he had slapped the Duchess across the face. Her lips moved uncertainly. Visibly, she paled (Hailey, H, “Thursday,” 18)

Typically, blushing may trigger a second and deeper blushing, or it may provoke its attempted masking by feigning a different emotion (cf. Ekman 1981): She flushed slightly, and then, conscious of an embarrassment new and strange to her, blushed rosy red (Grey, LT, IV) Blushing, he did his best to smile it off. “Angry? Why on earth should I be angry?” But she was right, of course. He was angry (Huxley, EG, XXXIII)

c.Thermal reactions, mainly rises and falls in body temperature; not, for instance, as the logical result of crowding, but in social or clinical situations where they can act as interactive signals, accompanied usually by another physiological activity: I heard her breath [Laura’s] quickening — I felt her hand growing cold (Collins, WW, 191)

3.Personal sensible behavioral nonactivities, which can be as important as what is being expressed verbally or through gestures and postures, whether individually or combined with other components. There are two types: a.Silence and stillness, which, as discussed in the previous chapter, are far from being communicative or semiotic gaps in our interaction with others or with the environment: Se hablaban en voz baja con tímida mesura, y en los momentos de silencio oíase el péndulo de un reloj (Valle-Inclán, SP, 33)

331

332

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Again there ensued a silence, except for Nels’ cough, and tapping of his pipe upon the table, while Madge sat there, strung and tense, her heart bursting [without being seen] (Grey, MR, XII) a momentary stillness in her restless hands, which seemed to betray a coming outburst of anger that might throw her off her guard (Collins, WW, 507)

a.The static bodily characteristics of shape, size, consistency, weight and strength, color of skin, hair and eyes, and specifically facial features (see Chapters 2 and 3 of Volume I), can play extremely relevant roles in an encounter, to which must be added the other person’s muscular strength, perceived tactually and kinesthetically, whether consciously or not: He still held her hand […] A sense of his strength came with the warm pressure, and comforted her (Grey, LT, VI) His slight corpulence [Roy Kear] only added to his dignity. It gave weight to his observations (Maugham, CA, II)

Since the speaking or silent face is the main channel of communication, one must distinguish the four kinds of facial features discussed in Chapter 3 of Volume I), namely: –

permanent, that is, position, size and shape of brows, eyelids and eyelashes, nose, cheeks, mouth, forehead, chin and mandible, to which can be added the long-term presence of a beard or moustache, conspicuous sideburns, or hairdo: The nurse […] was a lanternjawed grayfaced woman with tight lips (Dos Passos, MT, I, I) with fat little squirrel cheeks and a mouth perpetually primed in contemptuous judgement […] in all ways smug and insufferable (Doctorow, WF, XIII)

–

changing, formed over time by aging, work, suffering, hardships or motor habits, such as wrinkles and folds, blotches, deformations, etc., which usually act as intellectually evaluated components of an interaction: His neck was ridged with muscles acquired from a life-long habit of stiffening his jaw and pushing it forward (MacLennan, TS, I, XI)

–

dynamic, subject to positive or negative perception by others as part of the triple structure language-paralanguage-kinesics, thus confirming or negating judgements based solely on their static state (perhaps in a portrait), of great importance in, for instance, the formation of first impressions; […] I thought you disliked her,’ he quietly added, curling his classic lip with a slightly sarcastic smile (A. Brontë, TWF, VI)

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

Because his movements [Roy Kear’s] were a little more deliberate than they had been, you had a comfortable feeling of confidence in him; he filled his chair with so much solidity that you had the impression that he sat upon a monument (Maugham, CA, II) [Reginald Portway] His mobile, handsome features took on a look of understanding compassion, then changed to lively interest (Wilson, ASA, I, IV)

–

artificial, actually enhancements or de-emphasizers of the natural features, as with lipstick, false eyelashes, clipped eyebrows, nose-rings, prescription glasses and sunglasses, or status-identifying symbolic marks: Wearing the vermilion mark of marriage at the central parting of her hair, as a woman must, she would gain freedom, freedom to live her own way (Bhattacharya, HHRT, XXVI)

These distinctions within facial features are quite important in interaction at various social levels, since they can elicit a positive or negative appreciation they would not suggest while remaining motionless before talking; or in a photograph, when the apparent ugliness or neutral aspect of a face is sometimes transformed into beauty while alive in interaction; on the other hand, some attractive permanent features are made unattractive by some kinesic speech habits (perhaps even cultural habits). All this can have decisive consequences in any speaker, not only in forming a first impression (e.g. in a job interview, a teacher in front of his or her pupils, a doctor and the patient), but in future encounters, therefore quite important for the person with, for instance, severe features (perhaps a teacher) to be cognizant of it and just try to soften them verbally and nonverbally in interaction: An ill-made, high-shouldered man, with lowering brows, and his features crushed into an habitually sour expression (Dickens, HT, II, IV) His sensual lips broadened into a contemptuous grin (Wilson, ASA, I, II)

B. Sensible body-related personal components There are three types of components differently associated with the body and operating in interaction either as static elements or as behavioral manifestations through them when they become part (or rather, conditioners) of our kinesic activities, at which point they are communicating at two mutually complementary sign levels: by their own characteristics and by the associated behavior. 1.Body-adaptors, as the substances and objects most intimately related to the body which, consciously or unconsciously, can influence our co-interactants negatively or positively. a.Nutritional products like food and drink, through which we, consciously or not, manifest our social status in good or bad manners, as well as emotional state, mood, etc.: Charley [a girl] swallows a great gulp of tea in token of submission (Dickens, BH, XXI)

333

334

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

At least he had fairly good manners; he did not wolf or gulp or gobble or crunch or talk with his mouth full (Porter, SF, III)

b.Pseudonutritional products and smoking tobacco, the former mainly masticatories like tobacco, chewing-gum, Indian betel or African kola, whose use reflects personal, social and cultural characteristics, from anxiety to the reddish semicircles left on walls by northern night watchmen’s kola in Ghana (quite an iconic identifier); as for cigarette and pipe smoking, these two objects determine a wide gamut of socially perceived behaviors (refined, masculine, feminine, mannish, effeminate). They can become conspicuous interaction components for those unfamiliar with a culture, as I experienced the first time a colleague in India kept speaking to me exactly as in the second example: he smoked a cigarette which he held between his thumb and forefinger, palm up, in the European style (Doctorow, R, VII) His mouth had opened in a kind of grin, the teeth red with the juice of betel leaf (Bhattacharya, HHRT, II)

In addition, we must not neglect the powerful affiliative effect that the smoking together of two persons of either sex can have for the interpersonal attainment of mutual social intimacy based on that sharing, as does the sharing of the same drink or food, even its olfactory perception: He [Waythorn] opened his cigar case and held it out to his visitor [his wife’s first husband], and Haskett’s acceptance seemed to mark a fresh stage in their intercourse. The spring evening was chilly, and Waythorn invited his guest to draw up a chair to the fire […] The two were enclosed in the intimacy of their blended cigar-smoke (Wharton, OT, V) A hospitable smell of supper filled the air (Howells, RSL, VI)

c.Clothes and accessories like belts, footwear, purses, etc., historically determining our behaviors and communicating our esthetic preferences, mood, intentional social functions (the tightness of a dress, hat-tipping), pathological self-neglect, etc., some even producing interactive sounds that are rarely heard today, as in this early twentieth-century example: He [Sir Percival] eyed me with one of his blackest looks, and thrust his hands savagely into the pockets of his riding-coat (Collins, WW, 413) She laid her white gloves in a business-like way on the table (Woolf, Y, 1910) The rustle of her pretty skirt was like music to him (Dreiser, SC, XXI)

d.Jewelry constitutes a unique type of body-adaptors which, as with clothes, may consciously condition our behaving with, and thinking of, our co-interactors who wear it, and which blend with our verbal and nonverbal delivery:

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

Mr. Waterbrook, pursing up his mouth, and playing with his watch-chain, in a comfortable, prosperous sort of way (Dickens, DC, XXV) Fran was a rather theatrical star in her white satin with a rope of pearls about her gesticulatory right arm…and she was also a little strident and demanding (Lewis, B, X)

e.Perfume, cosmetics, paint and tattoos, and other body markings, which can act as powerful interaction components (particularly depending on their qualifying intensity), whether unconsciously or very consciously, and be perceived as very exclusive and expensive or very cheap; or, as with clothes also, as sexual or romantic attractants, always correlating with language, paralanguage and kinesics, and undoubtedly with a possible prolonged temporal dimension, as with a man’s intimate remembrances of a feminine perfume that can intensify his avocations: a little gust of perfume was cool on his cheek — and she was standing only one step above him, very close (Huxley, EG, XX) Only the observant might have noticed lines of strain and weariness in her face which cosmetics and an effort of will power had not obscured entirely (Hailey, H, “Wednesday,” 1)

f.Objectual body-adaptors, such as culturally differentiated eating, drinking and smoking utensils (e.g. fork and knife, chopsticks, a water pipe), a toothpick, a cigarette holder, eyeglasses, a walking stick, an umbrella, crutches, walkers, not only become ‘objectual kinesics’ and may characterize a person’s image (Chaplin’s hat and stick, Churchill’s cigar), but above all reveal attitudes and states which can consciously or unconsciously influence our co-interactors’ thoughts and behaviors (e.g. if irritated by our using some of these objects as conversational props): Elvira stubbed out her cigarette angrily on a plate. ‘I think all that’s rather awful really’ (Wilson, ASA, II, I)

2.Object-adaptors, apart from strictly body-adaptors, cover a wide range of categories of artifacts which we can manipulate as kinesic behaviors and may have a bearing on the interaction by constituting added signs and messages (thus additional information) that can also affect the exchange: writing with a pen, a pipe used as a conversational prop, a hat tipped or waved as a greeting, the bread crumb or lint that seems to occupy us in a tense situation, a chair sat upon in different ways, the desk behind which one may feel more secure with certain visitors, the ledges and steps on which many sit, etc. a.Anatomical furniture. How we behave in relation to a chair, sofa, cushion or bed (e.g. sitting on its edge, with feet on it, slouching, tensely clasping it) can disclose much about the person and even his or her attitude toward us: In the library he found a small effaced-looking man [his wife’s first husband, trying to see his young daughter] with a thinnish gray beard sitting on the edge of a chair […]

335

336

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

occupying a chair in the usual provisional way. Waythorn always felt grateful to him for not leaning back (Wharton, OT, III, V) ‘Sit down!’ said Mr. Jordan, irritably pointing Mrs. Morel to horse-hair chair. she sat on the edge in un uncertain fashion (Lawrence, SL, V) “How d’you do, Mrs. Hurd fluttered?” said Fran, and it worthy of Lady Ouston at her politest and rudest. Fran pronounced it “Howjduh,” and her voice rose at the end in a quiet brusqueness which finished Mrs. Hurd completely./ Mrs. Hurd fluttered […], then sat forward in her chair, refused the cake she most wanted […] (Lewis, B, XI) se sentó […] a horcajadas sobre una silla de tijera puesta del revés, los brazos cruzados sobre el indeciso espaldar (Caballero Bonald, DDS, II, XII)

b.Tools and work artifacts, handled in specific culture- or trade-identifying ways, but also attitudinally while interacting or even as a lingering effect of a previous encounter: As the woman departed, he [Frank] resumed his scrubbing, but without the same angry violence (Wilson, ASA, II, II)

c.Other object-adaptors, such as manipulating a rolled-up newspaper or slapping its pages while reading it, fidgeting with bread crumbs, flicking real or imaginary lint, touching a fence as we walk by, tapping on a table or counter: ‘[…] Do you know what that tune is, Mr Smallweed?’ he adds, after breaking off to whistle one, accompanied on his table with the empty pipe (Dickens, BH, XXI) the Colonel took up his cup, saw there was nothing in it, and put it down firmly with a little chink (Woolf, Y, 1880) The scratching of Eleanor’s pen irritated him (Woolf, Y, 1880) my mother, reclining, held the paper at the spine with one hand and slapped the pages left and right with the back of the other (Doctorow, WF, II)

3.Environmental components, such as grass, rocks, sand, or water, which elicit peculiar postures and movements: Temple [walking in the sand] struggling and lurching on her high heels (Faulkner, S, V)

C. Personal intelligible components, which communication research, while looking not too exhaustibly for sensibly apprehended ‘things’ and ‘happenings’ in interaction, have traditionally neglected. However, there is an obvious reality made up of certain activities and nonactivities, both at an apparently hidden semiotic level initiated at the same time as the sensible exchanges, which continue to operate in the interaction, either uninterruptedly (as if through the behaviors and nonbehaviors, activities and nonactivities we are perceiving) or intermittently.

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

1.Mental activities and the next category, nonactivities, constitute the deepest and most hidden realm of an interpersonal or person-environment interaction, which can even be imagined on our part but still become powerful components of the interaction. For instance, I may react verbally or nonverbally upon realizing quite unequivocally that another person (by his words, paralanguage, how he touches my arm while conversing, or how she keeps me standing instead of motioning me to a chair) regards me as an inferior, or ‘corny’ in my attire, or not too bright after making a regretted blunder; but even if I am mistaken in thinking that that person thinks that way of me, I will react as I do, which is something to always consider in our social and professional interactions, since at times our interlocutor may behave the way he does precisely because he is imagining that we are thinking what actually he is not. In other words, something that has not happened at all becomes most real in our mind and consequently a decided component of our interaction. On the other hand, that anxiety, for instance, might be elicited by the conviction of a real inferiority in front of someone who, however, is not thinking what we believe he or she is: She felt that Darrow was looking at her and reading her thoughts, and the colour flew to her face (Wharton, R, XII) What was he thinking? Had she made a fool of herself? Her voice faltered, the blood rose to her cheeks, she looked down at her plate; and for the next few minutes he would get nothing but short mumbled answers to his questions, nothing but the most perfunctory of nervous laughs (Huxley, EG, XXVI)

2.Nonactivities, ‘thought of ’ through the same mental reactions elicited by our cointeractants’ real or nonexisting thoughts, are represented by factors we rightly or wrongly associate with those persons, such as cultural or religious background, age, true or apparent personality traits, socioeconomic and socioeducational status, mood, moral values, religious beliefs, etc. Each of those nonactivities, unconsciously or subtly consciously, condition our verbal and nonverbal behaviors, that is, our selection of vocabulary, paralanguage and kinesics, and the very topics we may want to discuss. If we set out to analyze an encounter, or even just reviewing it in our mind, we will miss certain important facts by not considering at least the possibility of these internal relationships, discussed below again: She spoke with girlish shyness, which increased as he stared at her (Grey, LT, IV) It was one of those irritating smiles that seem to say: “My friend, what can you know of suffering?” There was something very patronizing and superior about it and intolerably snobbish (West, DL, XXII) Babbitt, revolving his hat like a defaulting tenant, winced so visibly that Maxwell condescended:/ “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but […]” (Lewis, B, XXII, I)

337

338

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

[in front of his superior] Both hands clutched his cap, and as he looked at the floor he kept turning the cap between his thumbs and forefingers, slowly around and around […] Finally Blanchard’s Adam’s apple moved up and down as he cleared his throat (MacLennan, S, XXVI).

ii. external components D.Sensible objectual and environmental components are the components that are not exchanged in the interpersonal encounter but can acquire very specific interactive value and even act as stimuli for the behavioral and attitudinal exchanges. There are two broad categories, whether they are activities or nonactivities and contextual to or interfering in some way with an ongoing interaction. 1.Contextual or interfering activities occurring in the periphery of the encounter and not always perceived by the participants; but if they are, it is only as elements contextual to the interpersonal interaction and without any concrete bearing on it. They can be produced or generated by three types of elements. a.By a behavior, such as door-knocking, door-slamming, the ringing of the telephone, footsteps, passers-by in the street, traffic and other urban sounds, the neighbors’ television, the smells of their cooking and the sounds from their homes, the clicking of a typewriter in the next office, ambience music in a public place, etc.: no reinaba allí [a large collective office] el silencio propicio al trabajo mental; antes, todo se volvía cierres de puertas, risas, traqueteo de loza y cafeteras, gritos y voces impacientes (Galdós, Miau, XXI) There would be the swift, slight ‘cluck’ of her needle, the sharp ‘pop’ of his lips as he let out the smoke, the warmth, the sizzle on the bars as he spat in the fire (Lawrence, SL, I, III) He could hear the flat pat flap pat of a woman making tortillas (Dos Passos, 42P, “Mac,” 348) Munshin tried to say something more […], but the noise of the telephone was too distracting (Mailer, DP, VII) McLeod started to yawn, but he did not finish./ For there was a scratch upon the door […] his reaction was extreme — all blood left his face. He transfixed for many seconds while the scratching repeated (Mailer, BS, IX) What oppressed him [Sigmund Freud] about New York was its noise. The terrible clatter of horses and waggons, the clanking and screeching of streetcars, the horns of automobiles (Doctorow, R, VI)

b.By mechanical artifacts, such as the tick-tick of the pendulum clock that can even enhance silence, the faraway sound of a night train or airplane, an ambulance’s siren possibly signifying pain and death, etc.:

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

the ticking of the clocks and the crisp burning of the fires alone disturb the stillness in the rooms (Dickens, BH, XXXI) On the train…too excited to sleep, listening to the rumble of the wheels over the rails, the clatter of crossings, the faraway spooky wails of the locomotive (Dos Passos, BM, 125)

c.By the natural environment (including animals), as the rain’s soothing or enervating sound against the window panes, the howling of the wind, the breaking of the waves, the crashing of thunder (triggering the romantic embrace as a cinema stereotype), the murmur and gurgling of a brook, the chirping of birds, etc.: The whipping air made him stretch out his hands to the fire (Grey, RT, III) the rain fell gently, persistently, making a little chuckling and burbling noise in the gutters (Woolf, Y, 1880)

2.Contextual or interfering nonactivities. These nonactivities — intimately related, as will be seen, to factors like age, interactional fluency, attention rate, and psychological configuration — are semiotically active manifestations,131 always present as signs in their own right, yet hardly ever mentioned in communication studies. As happens with the contextual components, the participants’ susceptibility to allow themselves to be influenced by these elements varies quite markedly depending on developmental factors, socioeducational status and the nature of the encounter; that is why, if we just take for granted that neither speech nor certain nonverbal elements are being affected in a given situation, we will miss some important relationships between the two. a.The objectual environment’s nonactivities which elicit our judgement and firstimpression forming, particularly in the home: furniture, rugs, lamps, original art or reproductions, reading material (type of books, newspapers and magazine subscriptions, etc.), heirlooms, photos and diplomas in a doctor’s or lawyers’s office (whose waiting-room may even announce their fee), a lavishly set dinner table which may even intimidate lower-status guests and affect their verbal and nonverbal behaviors and attitudes, or an awe-inspiring environment: a large, lofty room, with a magnificent carved ceiling […] a carpet […] so thick and soft that it felt like piles of velvet under my feet […] a picture of the Virgin and Child […] bearing Raphael’s name (Collins, WW, 65) The room was propitious to meditation. The red-veiled lamp, the corners of shadow, the splashes of firelight on the curves of old full-bodied wardrobes and cabinets, gave it an air of intimacy increased by its faded hangings, its slightly frayed and threadbare rugs (Wharton, R, XIII) he [Basil Ramson] had never seen an interior that was so much an interior as this queer corridor-shaped drawing-room […] so much organized privacy […] so many objects that spoke of habits and tastes (James, B, III)

339

340 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

b.The built environment, included also in the two quotations above, can act as a contextual or interfering element, that is, encouraging, intimidating, soothing, etc., and thus predispose us, consciously or unconsciously, to certain attitudes toward those with whom we are interacting. This happens, for instance, with the effect of a theater’s architectural characteristics on its audience; but, even more crucially, with domestic architectural spaces, whose influence on our daily life is ignored by so many architects insensitive to that important reality, who build ‘living spaces’ without the adequate spatial distribution that would positively condition the intimate states and interactions of those who are going to live in them.132 The same happens with the associated elements of color (e.g. ‘discreet,’ ‘gaudy,’ ‘harsh,’ ‘unnerving’), lighting (e.g. conducive to intimate verbal and nonverbal interaction, or the opposite), temperature (e.g. causing physiopsychological well-being), music (e.g. interfering with customers’ wellbeing in so many stores, particularly in cultures like Italy, France and Spain), even the texture and smell of the building materials themselves (e.g. the unmistakeable odor of the old North-American frame house). she allowed the dark to fall upon them, refraining from lighting the lamp. The dark discreet room, their isolation, the music that still vibrated in their ears united them (Joyce, D, ‘A Painful Case’)

c.The natural environment, some of whose characteristics are actually natural activities, affects us always in greater or lesser degree through its terrain, vegetation and animal life, for instance: an open landscape that inspires freedom (or agoraphobia to some), while being at the bottom of a ravine may exert an oppressive influence, the many sounds of the natural elements, as well as the sight and sounds of animals: la soledad, el sitio, la escuridad [‘oscuridad’], el ruido del agua con el susurro de las hojas, todo causaba horror y espanto (Cervantes, DQ, I, XX) The whole empty world seemed haunted. Rustlings of the sage, seepings of the sand, gusts of the wind, the night, the loneliness (Grey, UPT, XIII) The dull roar of the rapids borne on a faint puff of westerly breeze was lulled into a soothing murmur (Grey, HD, XI)

d.A blending of environmental and personal components, as in: [Jolyon and Irene] On that walk […] the twittering of chaffinches […], the perfume of weeds being already burned, the turn of her neck, the fascination of those dark eyes […], the lure of her whole figure, made a deeper impression than the remarks they exchanged. Unconsciously he held himself straighter, walked with a more elastic step (Galsworthy, IC, I, XIII)

We must not neglect in any of the categories discussed the importance of light effects133 in the perception of all that surrounds us; even negatively if, for instance, we are

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

blinded by the sun through a window, or if backlighting impedes normal interaction with another person: The group […] about the tea-table. The lamps and the fire crossed their gleams on silver and porcelain, on the bright haze of Eiffe’s hair and on the whiteness of Anna’s forehead, as she leaned back in her chair behind the tea-urn (Wharton, R, XVI)

In the following example, natural light conditions the interior light and atmosphere: the sunlight was tempered by large blinds […] the light thus produced was deliciously soft, mysterious, and subdued […] helped to intensify the deep silence, and the air of profound seclusion […] (Collins, WW, 65),

Having completed this summary of the possible interaction components, it must be remembered that the internal signs can be exchanged in either direction by the participants, while the external components are only perceived by them, not emitted. But, again, they must be indicated in a faithful transcription or description of an encounter.

8.3

Neutral function and effective function of interaction components If we imagine these elements, we see that, despite their reality, they can play two different functions: Neutral function, as often happens with the sound of passers-by or a door-slam: a thick drunken voice […] Then the door slammed./ They listened./ […] They could hear heavy footsteps lurching up the stairs in the next house. Then the door slammed (Woolf, Y, 1910)

Effective function, which truly affects our encounter consciously or unconsciously, as may happen with the ticking of the clock, the pattering of the rain or that doorslamming we know to be intentional; in which cases the interaction researcher must register them as true components, particularly when we clearly ascertain their effect, or if perhaps for clinical reasons we have elicited some of these elements ourselves (e.g. trying to identify the anxiety threshold). On the other hand, many of the contextual components may have an adverse effect on the encounter when they constitute interferences, which is generally the case with footsteps, or the neighbor’s TV or cooking smells, all typical forms of invasion of privacy.134 This means that the moment those elements cease as contextual to become interfering, they creep, so to speak, among the internal, exchangeable components of our interaction, even of a conversation (eliciting or affecting verbal expression, gestures, silences, etc.), along the communicative continuum, although as ‘forced components’ which we did not choose: The wind howled dismally all night, and strange cracking and groaning noises sounded here and there, and everywhere in the empty house (Collins, WW, 179)

341

342

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

the dismal wailing of babies at night, the thumping of feet […] hoarse shoutings […] the rattling of wheels on the cobbles […] the screams of the child and the roars of the mother (Crane MGS, III) Whenever a wolf mourned, or a cat squalled […] or a stone rattled off the cliff, the fugitives started up (Grey, UPT, 3) At dusk the drums of calamity began: their grave, throbbing rhythms came clearly through the nigh (Markandaya, NS, VII)

8.4

Sensory channels, time, vision, and synesthesia

8.4.1 After identifying all the elements that at one time or another can variously combine in the course of an encounter, the next step would be to determine their sensory perception as well as their intellectual perception. For the former, the reader is referred to the discussion of the auditory, visual, olfactory, tactile, kinesthetic and gustatory perceptual mechanisms in Chapter 2 of Volume I. 8.4.2 Three essential dimensions must be acknowledged in order to understand the totality of semiotic interactive processes, namely, time, vision and synesthesia. While sight, hearing and olfaction are the so-called distant senses (touch, hearing, kinesthesis and taste are the proximal ones), and although the only signs transmitted through time are those perceived olfactorily and gustatorily (sight and hearing are of spatial perception), it is important to note — because of their intimate relation with the mutual costructuration of interactive components, discussed later — that, within the temporal limits of a personal encounter, there is unquestionably a chronemic dimension to the auditive, visual, tactile and kinesthetic types of perception, as part of a process of intellectualization mentioned below. One word, a guffaw or a brief subtle laugh, a gesture, a look, a handshake, an embrace, the sound of an aggressive door-slam, or a silence, depending on its intensity (seen later as one of the qualifiers of components) and its importance in the encounter, will remain consciously or unconsciously in the receiver’s mind after happening, that is, while other components are already operating in the interactive continuum between the two ends of the encounter, emission and reception.135 ‘Just what I supposed,’ said Tom. ‘Quite natural!’ and, in his great satisfaction, he took a long sip out of his wine-glass (Dickens, MC, VI) The Indian [Nas Ta Bega] clasped Shefford’s hand and held it in a response that was more beautiful for its silence. So they stood for a moment […] (Grey, RT, IV) Still she did not answer; only looked at him and once more slowly shook her head. How many negations were expressed in that single movement! (Huxley, EG, XIX)

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

8.4.3 The second important dimension is the visual perception of the internal or external components of the interaction, from gestures to furniture. When conversing with a person, for instance, we use mostly macular vision (covering 12°-15° horizontally and 3° vertically), exploring mostly his face and sometimes looking at certain areas of it136; but by means of peripheral vision (90° on each side of the sagittal plane, that is, 180°, and 150° vertically) we can ‘be aware’ of certain personal characteristics, of people’s bodies — without necessarily staring, a negative behavior — or of the environment. Any of these may have a bearing on our interaction, even when they are registered at the threshold of conscience, therefore becoming components of the interaction, for instance: having had a glimpse of an expensive watch on our cointeractant, noticing someone entering the room, peripherally seeing the dinner table set for us, some pretty legs, a hand that toys nervously with something, perhaps because of us. This means that, through peripheral vision we are consciously registering (some people do not like missing anything at a gathering), or perhaps in the threshold of consciousness (but not without interactive consequences) that someone is looking our way, people’s comings and goings, a person’s most conspicuous gestures, all telling us ‘what’s going on,’ the elegance of a room, or the increasing cloudiness outside. His attentive face [Sir Percival] relaxed a little. But I saw one of his feet, softly, quietly, incessantly beating on the carpet under the table, and I felt that he was secretly as anxious as ever (Collins, WW, 190)

8.4.4 As for the essential and multiple phenomenon of synesthesia in our perception of people and environment (amply discussed in Chapter 2, Volume I), certain sounds, for instance, denote the characteristics of unseen objects, the softness of an upholstery contrasts with the general ‘roughness’ of a rustic person in that environment (while we will associate it better with an equally soft feminine voice), and the presence of an interlocutor elicits always, on a conscious or unconscious level, all sorts of indirect synesthesial associations: Low-padded thuds told him horses were coming […] he knew the hoofs of the horses were muffled (Grey, RPS, II) He tipped the keg, and the slap and gurgle of water told of the quantity (Grey, TH, XIV)

8.5

The intellectual evaluation of sensible signs This attempt to understand the complexities of discourse and of any of its surrounding activities would fail if we thought exclusively of sensory perception, for very often the sensibly perceived signs undergo a process of intellectual evaluation, or ‘intellectualization.’ Although the sociopsychological and linguistic implications of this assertment

343

344 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

would take many pages, it can be succinctly represented diagrammatically as in Fig. 8.2, ‘Intellectual evaluation of interactive sign perception.’ Using the example of a man-woman interaction (which my students were always willing to imagine), simultaneously to the mutual perception of their respective sensible signs as they are emitted (words, voice timbre, gestures, postures, perfume, shaving lotion, clothes, physique), they are also being ‘thought of’ and ‘evaluated’ by each of the two. It is as if he, for instance, were saying with the silent language of the mind: ‘You are talking to me, telling me _____ with a voice of _____ characteristics, and with those gestures, activating those facial features of yours (which I really like), while letting me be aware (even though I don’t look directly) of your figure and your posture, and while I smell the fragrance of that perfume; I like the sound of your voice as you talk to me, I’m attracted by the way you accompany your voice with the hands and with the eyes, and by the way those facial features move as they say that right now; and I see all those things as perfectly befitting your whole self, and I become even more aware of it through that perfume that envelops your voice, eyes, face, hands, as you tell me what you are telling me. Yes, it is all those things together that make me like you…’

Added to those direct sensations are, of course, the synesthesial ones; and beyond those internal personal components of the encounter, it is the mutual orientation of the twosome, the characteristics of the place (in semi-darkness and with soft music, in silence and with faraway sounds, or with rain softly drumming on the window panes), and perhaps the satisfaction derived from the physicopsychological effects of shared food and drink, as well as the feeling of intimacy and privacy (even the ‘public privacy’ attainable in some situations and places), which will complete that series of semioticcommunicative processes. But verbal language cannot be isolated in the analysis of the encounter, not even the basic triple structure of speech, nor any of the systems that SPEAKER

LISTENER >

SENSIBLE SIGN EMISSION

SENSIBLE SIGN PERCEPTION

≠

≠

EVALUATION OF ONE’S OWN SIGNS

SENSIBLE SIGN PERCEPTION

EVALUATION OF SENSIBLE SIGNS

<

>

SENSIBLE SIGN EMISSION

≠ EVALUATION OF SENSIBLE SIGNS

≠ EVALUATION OF ONE’S OWN SIGNS

Figure 8.2.Intellectual evaluation of interactive sign perception

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

operate in the encoding-decoding exchanges between the two. Should we analyze the whole encounter, or parts of it, we would see that when one of them takes the speaker’s turn,137 his or her own delivery (language, gestures, orientation, proxemic shifts, etc.), including the very topic, may have been conditioned in greater or lesser degree by what the other has said or not said, done or not done — which is sensibly apprehended and intellectualized — and by all those verbal and nonverbal signs identified earlier as interaction components. Those conditioning functions must be annotated also in a fine speech transcription, which should never ignore the co-structurations of verbal and nonverbal elements. Granted, it takes much insight and intuition (always an indispensable tool) and a great capacity for observation, ingredients that are of the essence to understand in all its depth both speech itself and the whole mechanism of conversation. On the other hand, to say that the more active participant in the encounter, the speaker, carries out a lesser activity in this sense does not imply that there is only one sign emitter, since, as in the scenario just described, he or she is also participating sensorially and intellectually. The diagram in Fig. 8.2, ‘Intellectual evaluation of interactive sign perception,’ suggests that both speaker and listener can be very conscious of their own sign emissions and that often they are evaluating themselves as well as they speak or listen; in other words, one can be talking to the other knowing full well the effect of his or her own verbal and nonverbal emissions, from words and gesture to dress, which is enhanced by reciprocal mutual feedback signals: ‘You are being attracted by the way I talk to you and look at you, while you listen to me, and I can tell by gaze and your slight smile, so I keep doing it.’ After observing and experiencing this process in real life for years, I found in Edith Wharton a most subtle description of it, beginning with the man’s intellectual evaluation and showing the woman’s mental activity as speaker, and then the encouraging effect of her discovery on her: But as she talked she began to see that Dairy’s face gave back no reflection of her words, that he continued to wear the abstracted look of a man who is not listening to what is said to him. It caused her a slight pang to discover that his thoughts could wander at such a moment; then, with a flush of joy she perceived the reason./ In some undefinable way she had become aware, without turning her head, that he was steeped in the sense of her nearness, absorbed in contemplating the details of her face and dress; and the discovery made the words throng to her lips. She felt herself speak with ease, authority, conviction. She said to herself: “He doesn’t care what I say — it’s enough that I say it — even if it’s stupid he’ll like me better for it…” She knew that every inflection of her voice, every gesture, every characteristic of her person — its very defects, the fact that her forehead was too high, that her eyes were not large enough, that her hands, though slender, were not small, and that her fingers did not taper — she knew that these deficiencies were so many channels through which her influenced streamed to him; that she pleased him in spite of them, because of them […] and for the first time she felt in her veins the security and lightness of happy love (Wharton, R, XII)

345

346 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

8.6

Free and bound interactive components

8.6.1 An interactive encounter is, therefore, a continuum formed by verbal and nonverbal, behavioral and nonbehavioral, sensible and mental activities and nonactivities (including silence and stillness), all associated to the surrounding extrasomatic systems. Furthermore, each of those somatic or extrasomatic, external or internal acts has its specific spatial and temporal locus in the development of that continuum. It is obvious, then, that before looking for the qualifying features of any of them (language, gestures, etc.), its encoding and decoding and its possible significant interrelationships with other components, one should consider the concepts ‘free’ and ‘bound’ and then ‘momentary’ and ‘permanent’ with regard to the occurrence and flow of the encounter. By free component we must understand the occurrence of that component when it does not seem to be related to any other in a way that might affect the interaction and elicit other behaviors, for instance: a sort of ‘neutral’ dress that elicits no particular behavior, a shared couch between two strangers in a waiting room, a plush office when interacting with an equal-rank associate, a man functionally puffing at his pipe. Although those elements do not fall outside the encounter, as they are part of it by their very presence, they are not associated to others significantly either. A bound component, on the other hand, can be any behavioral or nonbehavioral activity or any nonactivity or manifestation of somatic or extrasomatic static signs which we see as related to at least another component. Now these related components can be from the verbal and nonverbal repertoires of the same person, from two or more participants, or between a person or persons and the environment, and their association can be in the form of a sequence (indicated below with >) or as simple relatedness (indicated with — ), for instance: a person’s lingual click Tz + eye-wink at a woman > her smile; a woman’s sensually feminine way of blowing cigarette smoke + her hair-preening + her penetrating perfume > the man’s verbal language-paralanguage-kinesics; the silence of a place + the clock’s ticking > the two participant’s silence + the sigh of one of them; a pipe used as an authoritarian speech marker > the irritated tone of his interlocutor; a person’s speech — what he or she believes the other one thinks of it; smooth rhythm of speech--equally relaxed gestures — the tranquillity of the place — the ticking of a clock. Naturally, any of those components can be also significantly related to any of the intelligible ones, as with the fragrance of a perfume + social status, or a woman’s hairdo + the United Pentecostal Church (not to be ignored in, for instance, an interview).138 She […] turned her eyes upon me with a dawning smile, most sweetly melancholy, and a look of timid though keen enquiry that made my cheeks tingle with inexpressible emotions (A. Brontë, TWF, LIII), ‘[…] I [Ada] would have married him just the same, Esther. Just the same!’/ In the momentary firmness of the hand that was never still — a firmness inspired by the

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

utterance of these last words, and dying away with them — I saw the confirmation of her earnest tones (Dickens, BH, LX)

This type of binding is quite obvious in any interaction: The church-cleaner looked at Sue, gaped, and lifted her hands; she had evidently recognized Jude’s companion (Hardy, JO, V, VI) Ugh! uttered the savage before her, turning sharply. He brandished a tomahawk before her eyes (Grey, LT, XVII)

But we must remember that sometimes this binding of interaction components can be so momentary and flitting that, depending on our interactive sensitiveness, it may even go unnoticed: At the word Father, I saw his former trouble come into his face. He subdued it, as before, and it was gone in an instant; but it had been there, and it had come so swiftly upon my words (Dickens, BH, XVII) “I guess things’ll straighten out,” he added/ There was no answer but a quick throb of her lids (Wharton, EF, VIII)

At any rate, we should distinguish between an association of only two interactive components (e.g. her look and his look, a proxemic shift and a shift in voice intensity), which we can call dual binding, and the situation in which two or more components of whatever origin are clearly bound, either behaviorally or nonbehaviorally, that is, as multiple binding, for instance: a man interviewing a female candidate as his possible secretary, his almost unblinking eye contact + his impeccable clothes + his motionless posture while he smokes a cigarette very slowly, may be responsible for her fidgeting with a ring + her slight accelerated speech + throat-clearings and intermittent gazebreaking, the behaviors of both related in turn to the permanent characteristics of his lavishly decorated office. “What time’ll I come round for Mattie?”/ Ethan was standing near the window, mechanically filling his pipe while he watched Mattie move to and fro. He answered: “You needn’t come around; I’m going to drive her over myself.”/ He saw the rise of colour in Mattie’s averted cheek, and the quick lifting of Zeena’s head (Wharton, EF, VIII) La discusión tomaba carácter personal y agresivo; solía esto ocurrir a las horas de la sobremesa; las tazas del café chocaban furiosas contra los platillos; don Manuel, trémulo de coraje, vertía el anisete al llevarlo a la boca; tío y sobrino alzaban la voz mucho más de lo regular, y, después de algún descompasado grito o frase dura, había instantes de armado silencio, de muda hostilidad, en que las chicas se miraban, y Nucha, con la cabeza baja, redondeaba bolitas de miga de pan, o doblaba muy despacio las servilletas de todos, deslizándolas en las anillas (Pardo Bazán, PU, XIII)

Evidently, in order to analyze an encounter’s verbal-nonverbal development we need to identify such component clusters in order to determine their mutual co-structurations and,

347

348

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

more importantly, how those co-structurations reveal the semiotic-communicative cohesion and therefore the full meaning and value of the components (which would otherwise escape us, even if we did acknowledge them), but independently of each other. This component analysis shows two things as well: (a) that the encounter consists of a succession of semiotic clusters, bound pairs and free components, in other words, that it is susceptible of a segmentation as will be seen below; and (b) that the elements defined below as permanent — overriding the flow of the others (e.g. perfume, dress, room temperature, facial features) — are not necessarily bound for the whole duration of their presence, but perhaps only, if at all, when other permanent or temporary components are interactionally associated with them. We also realize the relativity of the concept ‘free component,’ for most likely, if we repeat the analysis of the encounter more than once (perhaps viewing a videotape repeatedly, despite its limitations of the medium), we will find hidden binding associations we missed the first time. In the case of the secretary’s interview, there might have been a quick vertical scanning of the female by the man, which she perceived; or perhaps his crossed-legged posture has lasted too long and has caused in her the physiological need to uncross hers, which she would have done by the so-called ‘mirroring’ principle (the mostly unconscious adoption by one person of another’s posture) if he had been a better interviewer and had provided her with the opportunity to do so by uncrossing them himself. In other words, a behavior that first we thought ‘free’ has now been identified as ‘bound,’ and this can happen with any other intelligible element, even rightly or wrongly imagined thoughts, mood, etc., and finally any external components seen earlier as contextual. 8.6.2 In a fine semiotic analysis we would do well to differentiate free and bound components on four distinct levels: a.within the basic triple structure language-paralanguage-kinesics, a basic level for the study of speech, as well as for the methodology of nonverbal communication in foreign-language teaching; b.between the strictly somatic sign systems (including the triple structure), which allows us to probe much more deeply into the psycholinguistic mechanism of interaction and, for instance, into the possibilities and limitations of the deaf or blind interactant: “[…] I saw a friend of yours getting kissed.”/ […] Mattie blushed to the roots of her hair and pulled her needle rapidly twice or thrice through her work, insensibly drawing the end of it away from him (Wharton, EF, V);

c.between the sensible somatic and extrasomatic sign systems, through which we can see the great complexity of discourse in its total context, and the typical limitations of the reduced interaction (discussed below) imposed by blindness, deafness, lack of

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

limbs with which we express so much, etc.: [In the small town of Durón] Un viejo […] la chaqueta de pana echada sobre el hombro, […] mira para el suelo y da unos golpecitos a los cantos con el bastón (Cela, VA, VIII, 147)

d.the free and bound realizations between clusters of sensible and intelligible signs, that is, the most elusive level, which, on the other hand, discloses an otherwise hidden dimension of interaction and specifically of the mechanisms of conversation, truly curtailed, for instance, for the blind, who cannot associate the visual signs with, for instance, social status or moral values.

8.7

Momentary and permanent interactive components The next stage in this theoretical and methodological approach to face-to-face and environmental interaction is to establish the basic temporal dimension of its components in order to further ascertain the degree in which their occurrence may be relevant in its development, which requires the differentiation between momentary and permanent. Momentary components are those of a short or very short duration: a word, a sigh, a nod, a crossing of legs, a blush, consistency or strength as we squeeze a person’s arm (intellectually evaluated) or as he or she clasps our hand, and in general most of the gestures and manners and short-duration postures and certain proxemic attitudes; normally, chemical, dermal and thermal reactions; body-adaptor and object-adaptor behaviors; most of the real or imagined mental activities; sensible external behavioral components like a glimpse in someone’s home of an oil portrait by a famed artist; the peal of thunder during a conversation, a brief blackout, etc. On the other hand, since the status of components does not depend only on their emission or on how long we are exposed to them, but on our perception, the passing experience of an otherwise permanently present element (e.g. seeing a Bible on a patient’s bedside table) constitutes a momentary component because it becomes one only when we perceive it. Permanent components cover the whole encounter or a good part of it: a person’s voice timbre or hoarseness, long-lasting postural and proxemic behaviors (perhaps conditioned by furniture layout), pallor, smell of sweat, sensual lips, unpleasant permanent facial signs, gum-chewing during an encounter, the tightness of a dress, a perfume, real or imagined components (e.g. status), behavior-based environmental and artifactual components (e.g. the neighbor’s music or cooking smells). In the following example, Judy’s presence constitutes a permanent component since her arrival: Mr George, smoking not quite as placidly as before, for since the entrance of Judy he has been in some measure disturbed by a fascination […] which obliges him to look at her (Dickens, BH, XXI)

349

350

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

However some of those permanent components can be variable, such as voice intensity, being seated or standing, conversational distance, mood, etc.; in other words, sometimes we can ‘change things,’ facilitating or impeding the optimal development of an ongoing interaction, for instance: by shifting our posture when we interview someone in order to facilitate the relief in that person of the physiological need of doing just that, or anticipating a person’s blushing and de-emphasizing it by averting our gaze in order not to provoke further anxiety and a typical secondary emotion: suddenly her cheeks became a rosy read […] noting her countenance, he [Havill] allowed his glance to stray into the street (Hardy, L, Book the Second, II)

Other times they are invariable, as with a nasal or high-pitched voice, a heavy armchair, social status, personality, body odors or interior decoration: a carpet […] so thick and soft that it felt like piles of velvet under my feet (Collins, WW, 65)

These are, therefore, two characteristics that inform the total interpersonal exchange by the longer or shorter effects they may have upon the participants and the interaction as a whole.

8.8

The qualifying features of interactive components: Location, intensity, duration As I proceeded in my study of interaction, I realized that in any kind of analysis, whether of spoken discourse or another activity or nonactivity, I needed to acknowledge, besides its components, the three qualifying features I considered basic: location, intensity, speed and duration. Location is the position of any somatic, extrasomatic or environmental activity or nonactivity between the beginning and the end of the encounter. We could say that only those components that do not cover the whole interaction (that is, the momentary ones), can be regarded as moveable, if we think that they can ‘be’ at some point within that interaction but not in all of it (e.g. a verbal expression, a postural shift, sound of footsteps). But if we refer only to the specific time during which that component is in some way recognized and/or affects the communicative or interactive flow, then the permanent elements can have also a specifically definable ‘functional’ position within the encounter. Therefore, the location of a component, be it strictly temporal (where it happens) or functional (where it affects the interaction, not necessarily the same point), can be something instantaneous (e.g. noticing a person’s threadbare sleeve), something more lasting (e.g. eyes on the brink of tears during a conversation), or an element that spans the whole interaction with people or with the environment (e.g. a scar on someone’s face, the fragrance of a forest). In other words,

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

even a permanent component can have one or more concrete points at which it may affect the flow the interaction, hence the extreme importance of this distinction between functional location and merely temporal location. This means that the characteristics of any of the components can be affected by when exactly it happens, since it may depend on how close or how far it is from the two ends points of the encounter. A psycholinguistic analysis, therefore, and that of interaction in general, can gain by carrying out a multisystemic transcription of language and other communication tools and indicate the functional location of certain nonverbal components in order to understand the development of certain aspects of the interaction, certain reactions by participants, etc. Intensity refers to the degree of ‘occurrence’ or, put differently, of the component’s main characteristic, for instance: a tensely articulated statement, deep blushing, very sensual lips, the duration of a posture, an extremely discreet dress, violent or gentle door-knocking, rather neutral facial features, a cheap watch, the thickness of a deeppile rug, a long silence, the semi-darkness of an intimate lounge, soft music. The need to recognize this ‘degree of realization’ is obvious, for much of the interactive functions of those components depends on it: an unblinking intent stare with visible eyelid and brow tension is not the same as a casual, relaxed one. While the researcher might annotate the qualifiers of that look as parakinesic qualities, he might pay no attention to, for instance, the intensity of the environmental visual components, which may be affecting the development and characteristics of an encounter, from word selection and paralanguage and kinesics to its very duration: he said, with a smile of the most provoking self-sufficiency -’you don’t hate me, you know?’ (A. Brontë, TWF, XVIII) There is an oppressive blank, until Mr Weevle, by stirring the fire suddenly, makes Mr Guppy start as if his heart had been stirred instead] (Dickens, BH, XXXII) her stillness suggested the stillness of motion imperceptible from its intensity (Hardy, L, Book the First, XV) había instantes de armado silencio, de muda hostilidad (Pardo Bazán, PU, XIII)

On the other hand, it is the intensity of even a momentary component (e.g. a shouted word, a gesture) that causes its lingering effect beyond its actual occurrence, an effect which affects the participants’ behaviors and determines the effective duration, defined below. Duration, independently of the functional location of momentary or permanent components, refers to the exact temporal length (obviously pertaining to the chronemics of interaction), which can affect the surrounding behaviors and the whole encounter, for instance: meaningful word drawling, slow or rapid crossing of legs, short or long ringing of the telephone, our interlocutor’s real or imagined thought. Apart from the obvious fact that the elements present during the interaction (e.g.

351

352

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

furniture, lighting, clothes, perfume) would be indicated in a fine analysis, duration should be discussed from another point of view besides its actual temporal extension, namely, effective duration, affecting one or more participants. This is the duration that truly matters, related to the functional location mentioned earlier and beyond actual duration, as may happen with a verbal insult or a startling noise, an effect that the person on whom it operates may not even be aware of. The problem this effective duration poses sometimes to the researcher (e.g. a verbal insult) is that the effect we want to measure can be an intermittent effect, that is, appearing and disappearing (e.g. facial muscle tonus changing under the effect of a recurrent memory or the verbal insult just mentioned).

8.9

The internal co-structurations of components with preceding, simultaneous and succeeding components Knowing now what qualifies as an interaction component, that it can be either free or bound and that it is characterized in the interaction stream by its location, intensity and duration, it remains, in order to grasp its total reality, to ascertain the components’ co-structuration (not always clear but potentially significant) with the surrounding elements in the interaction. It is actually the most intricate and deeper feature of interaction, for it involves, for instance, in a conversational encounter, not only the mutual relationships of the speaker’s behavioral or nonbehavioral activities or nonactivities (preceding, simultaneous to or succeeding a given interaction component), but the relationships between them and the co-interactors’ and even between those interpersonal elements and the external components. Fig. 8.3, ‘The mechanisms of interactive co-structurations,’ is meant as a basic guide for a brief discussion of the three ways in which components can affect each other: a posteriori (through preceding components), simultaneously (through the concurrent ones), and a priori (through the preceding ones). The first two, of course, are intimately related to location, intensity and duration. A and B represent two participants; the central square is Interactor A’s present interactive space where one of the behavioral or nonbehavioral activities or nonactivities takes place (A0); the square above it, one of his simultaneous activities or nonactivities (As); the squares to the left of it, his preceding activities or nonactivities, farther and farther away in the past (A1p, A2p, etc.); and to the right, his still unrealized activities or nonactivities in the future (A1f, A2f, etc.). The lower level represents Interactor B. A posteriori co-structuration is, of course, the most frequent one, as when, for instance, a man’s ‘I love you!’ is elicited by her immediately preceding long silent look (that is, the much too often sought cause-effect sequence in research), although it could have been elicited by her words before that, depending always on the location, duration and above all intensity of the affecting behaviour or non-behavior, such as

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

Figure 8.3.The mechanisms of interactive co-structurations

the silence in: Mr Pinch was just then looking thoughtfully at the bars [of the fireplace]. But on his companion pausing in this place [while talking], he started, and said ‘Oh! of course,’ and composed himself to listen again (Dickens, MC, VI)

In fact, the temporal space for a behavior could be filled by a different component, or we could have said what we would not have said otherwise. But other times this relationship is not so easily identifiable: “Did you want me?” and he [Somerset] involuntarily sighed./ It was very soft, but she might have heard him, for there was interest in her voice as she continued (Hardy, L, Book the First, XI)

Returning to the previous man-woman example, A (A1p)’s intense ‘I love you!’ leads to her present intent look, but it could have been triggered by his immediately previous behavior (A2p), or the one before, and so on. But her immediately preceding behavior or nonactivity (e.g. an everted tearful look) could have been an added, or the sole, stimulus for his own look, as could have been any of her preceding ones (B2p, B3p, etc.). In other words, the space or time slot for A’s present behavior could have been filled with a different component, or he might have said what he would not have

353

354

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

said otherwise. What is more, it could be the cumulative stimulus of his or her activities or nonactivities (i.e. 4p, 3p, 2p, 1p) that finally causes the verbal or nonverbal expression (including silence) in the last example; or even the lingering effect of the previous behaviors or nonbehaviors of A or B, or both (e.g. their embrace a while earlier) acting above and “through” the more recent components to still affect the present one (indicated in the diagram by the lines that lead to the center through other behaviors), as we see in the effect that a shout has on one of Dickens’s famous characters, subtly running through the following sequence of activities: [after a man at a window unexpectedly shouts for him and his daughters to leave his property] Mr Pecksniff put on his hat, and walked with great deliberation and in profound silence [effect of the shout] to the fly, gazing at the clouds as he went, with great interest [the effect continues]. After helping his daughters and Mrs Todgers into the conveyance, he stood looking at it for some moments, as if he were not quite certain whether it was a carriage or a temple [the effect continues]; but, having settled this point in his mind, he got into his place, spread his hands out on his knees, and smiled upon the three beholders./ But his daughters, less tranquil-minded, burst into a torrent of indignation (Dickens, MC, IX)

On a behavioral level, the effective duration and location of, for instance, a woman’s beautiful facial static signs may have elicited my look, or it could have been her perfume or her dress. A personal behavioral or nonbehavioral activity may have been elicited by the cumulative effect of, for instance, alcohol, an intimate proxemic relationship or the real or imagined thoughts of the other person, as when we think that someone is thinking that we look ridiculous, when he or she is not thinking that at all, yet our believing it triggers a verbal or nonverbal reaction of some sort. Finally, that cumulative effect and a momentary component may together elicit a behavior, for instance: the intimate interpersonal distance + her perfume + an unexpected thunderbolt > the embrace of a couple. On the other hand, a controllable cumulative effect can be manipulated to elicit the desired behavior, either out of selfish ulterior motives, for instance: negatively, exposing a visitor in one’s office to what in the business literature has been called “rear fear” (making someone sit with the back to the door, perhaps having even instructed the secretary to interrupt a few times); or positively, to help a person during a job interview. Naturally, a posteriori co-structuration may prove even harder to identify if we look only for sensible components and not also for the possible effects of mental activities or synesthesial associations, perfectly effective, but very difficult to verify, since they lie hidden at even deeper levels. On the other hand, a reaction may have been triggered by a component from way back when it is combined with a stimulus similar to the present one, as in this example, where the effect of the past alternates with that of the present in two people: My God! You killed McKue […] with yur bare hands! […] was your enemy?”/ “No, I never saw him before that day” […]/ Virey [who treats her wife cruelly] drew back

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

wonderingly, yet with instinctive shrinking. Certain it was that his lips stiffened./ “Then, why did you kill him?”/ “He ill-treated a woman.”/ Adam turned away as he replied. He did not choose then to show in his eyes the leaping thought that had been born of the memory and of Virey’s strange reaction. But he heard him draw a quick, sharp breath and step back. Then a silence ensued […]/ “So — so that was it,” spoke up Virey, evidently with effort (Grey, WW, XV)

But on occasion, the most important stimulus is that of positive or negative remembrance: “But you did too many unpleasant things to too many pictures I cared about […].” A forgotten hatred came back to his voice. “And the worst of it is […]” (Mailer, DP, XVI)

Finally, let us bear in mind that the perception of any type of signs at a given time can suddenly provide us with special information regarding previous signs we had not totally, or correctly, decoded, and this discovery will make us re-interpret them a posteriori: Her astonishing quickness of perception, detected a change in my voice, or my manner, when I put that question, which warned her that I had been speaking all along with some ulterior object in view. She stopped, and taking her arm out of mine, looked me searchingly in the face (Collins, M, ‘Second Narrative,’ I) “It was there he went with her [Sophy]!”/ “Oh, no, not there, after all!” she interrupted herself; and now she was sure his colour deepened (Wharton, R, XXXVIII)

Sufficient examples have been given of the mechanism of the a posteriori effect of some components on others. In the end, we must always allow for the observer possibly missing this type of response, as when a given behavior which has actually developed anew or as a new stage in a behavioral sequence is not recognized as elicited by a particular event in the encounter, precisely because the main aspect of it was already present, as in: “My dear fellow” […]/ Tom had by this time got both his legs on the sofa. If his second leg had not been already there when he was called a dear fellow, he would have put it up at that great stage of the conversation. Feeling it necessary to do something then, he stretched himself out at greater length, and reclining with the back of his hand on the end of the sofa, and smoking with an infinite assumption of negligence […] (Dickens, HT, II, III)

Simultaneous co-structuration. If A0 in the diagram represents the present interactive component of Interactor A, As represents any of his other components within his own repertoire; we can thus see how, for instance, a person’s blushing is eliciting the other person’s hesitating paralanguage, gestures and even postures, how whispering conditions that speaker’s facial expression of confidentiality (by virtue of the internal structure of speech), or how a man’s nudity and contact with his own body at the

355

356

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

beach elicits typical manners and postures. But there are two levels here: the realization of, for instance, language-paralanguage-kinesics, or laughter-paralanguage, as logically bound elements that just occur in fixed clusters; and the truly simultaneous effect of one component on another, which is what ‘simultaneous’ means in this case, as in: as the meaning of his words shaped itself in her mind [Anna’s] he [Darrow] saw a curious inner light dawn through her set look (Wharton, R, XX) She spoke with girlish shyness, which increased as he stared at her (Grey, LT, IV)

And, naturally, the first thing we see is that the shy voice or the blushing (or maybe the simultaneous components of Interactor B) are really elements that start at least immediately before the elicited reaction and ends before or after, which makes simultaneous co-structuration quite similar to the a priori one; apart from the fact that the external components participate as well, as happens with street traffic while we converse at a sidewalk café. “Where shall we dine?” he [Darrow] repeated gaily, and she [Anna] named a wellknown restaurant […] But as she did so she fancied she saw a shadow on his face, and instantly she said to herself: “It was there he went with her [Sophy]!”/ “Oh, no, not there, after all!” she interrupted herself; and now she was sure his colour deepened (Wharton, R, XXXVIII)

Naturally, the same behavior can occur repeatedly, and even at the same time, as simultaneous co-structuration and as posteriori co-structuration, that is, elicited as much to previous stimuli as to present ones: [When Mr. Guppy questions Lady Dedlock about her secret daughter, Esther, whom she though dead after birth] My Lady’s lips move […] shakes her head […] After each of these interrogatories, she has inclined her head […] ‘My God!’/ Mr Guppy stares. Lady Dedlock sits before him, looking him through, with the same dark shade upon her face, in the same attitude even to the holding of the screen, with her lips a little apart, a brow a little contracted, but, for the moment, dead. He sees her consciousness return, sees a tremor pass across her frame like a ripple over water, sees her lips shake, sees her compose them by a great effort, sees her force herself back to the knowledge of his presence, and of what he has said (Dickens, BH, XXIX) ‘Have I the pleasure of addressing the author of a book of very melodious poems that was sent to me the other day?’/ The girl forefinger twirled rapidly the loop of braid that it had previously been twirling, and drawing in her breath she said, ‘No, sir.’ (Hardy, HE, II) The listeners moistened their lips, Ethelberta took breath, and then went on to describe […] Ethelberta’s manner had become so impassioned at this point that the lips of her audience parted, the children clung to their elders (Hardy, HE, XV)

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

In addition, external components can also participate in simultaneous co-structuration (e.g. continuous traffic noise and voice volume, intimate lighting and certain equally intimate behaviors). We also see that, unlike what happens with intrapersonal co-structuration, the interpersonal one can include same-type activities (e.g. the other person’s silence can elicit and prolong one’s own; what he or she expresses verbally, the other’s simultaneous speech). On the other hand, the a posteriori effect can be so quick as to actually seem simultaneous, as in: she was hardly at ease. To each abrupt gesture one of them might make, she responded with a quiver of a finger, or the blinking of her eye (Mailer, BS, XXIV)

It must be added, however, that the negative effect of a silence can be clearly appreciated as simultaneous effect: There is an oppressive blank, until Mr Weevle, by stirring the fire suddenly, makes Mr Guppy start as if his heart had been stirred instead (Dickens, BH, XXXII)

A priori co-structuration, finally, is the most ignored aspect of interpersonal or intrapersonal co-structuration as well as of person-environment interaction, due precisely to the almost exclusive attention given to the cause-effect pattern, as if something that has not yet occurred, or that might never occur, could not play a specific interactive function at the present moment (in fact, it can even include succeeding extrapersonal components, even a foreseen or feared interfering activity). However, critical observation and experience reveal, that, besides the new a posteriori effect of present activities (A0) on the succeeding ones, a participant’s future activities (A1f, A2f, A3f, etc) — that is, what he knows he will say o do — can already condition a priori what he is saying or doing right now, for instance: a man may intentionally prolong a pause in his speech while intently looking at a woman because he is predicting the ensuing embrace he has in mind; but if he does not predict it, the long tense silence (given the long and tense silence and kinesic behavior or stillness that accompany it) may elicit it anyway in him or in both of them, as would the impending arrival of a train when they must part from each other, or the sounds of approaching footsteps; while his present behavior, the silence (A0), will condition her following activities (words, blushing, gaze, tears, etc.) with an a posteriori effect: ‘She’s coming!’ she thought with a little catch of her breath, laying down the pen (Woolf, Y, 1880)

But the most interesting form of this a priori relationship is what can be called advanced hidden feedback, that is, when something that has not yet happened affects not only the person who will do it, but another one as well. This happens as shown by the double lines forming a triangle in Fig. 8.3: the man in the above example has thought of his (or their) embrace; his eye behavior, muscle tonus and perhaps a slight

357

358

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

proxemic shift towards her have all allowed her to foresee the embrace (‘she can see it coming’); at which point she (positively or negatively conditioned by those signs of his) is in a position to control that possible unilateral behavior by encouraging it (seeking bilateral participation), discouraging it, or even aborting it altogether; and all because she has been able to capture the effect on himself of his own mental activity before becoming a real act. Waythorn felt himself reddening in anticipation of the other’s smile (Wharton, OT, II) His gaze [Harrobin’s] betrayed a calculation of chances as opposed to releasing his gun. The instant Wade read that conflict of thoughts he took swift aim at the Mormon’s right arm and pulled the trigger (Grey, ST, XI)

The importance of this advanced but hidden feedback (Poyatos 1985b) can never be overestimated, not only because of its frequency, but because its manipulative or positive functions may crucially affect the development of many types of interactions; that could happen, for instance, in a business meeting with relation to something that has not been said yet which could be crucial; but also because of its positive functions, according to our ability to observe and our sensitiveness: He saw Webley opening his mouth to speak and made haste to anticipate what he imagined was going to be his objection (Huxley, PCP, V)

After identifying the three types of temporal relationship between stimulus and the reaction to it in the course of an interaction — in which, it must emphasized, the environment is also involved — we must also point out that those reactions can be so brief that sometimes can go unnoticed; nevertheless, their extremely short duration does not impede their decisive importance in the encounter. As for the other aspect of interaction whose discussion should be part of this chapter, that of the semiotic-communicative processes of coding and decoding, the reader is referred to Chapter 1.10 of Volume I.

8.10

The structure and depth of our daily mini-encounters There is one type of interaction which should be purposely singled out from all others at this point, as they all have in common their chronemic dimension and their intensity (discussed in Section 8.8 as a qualifier), namely, the brief, flitting everyday and occasional encounters that are so far from being interactionally unimportant, among them the ones identified here. A common characteristic of these very brief encounters is that not even the whole triple structure verbal language-paralanguagekinesics is necessarily present in them, for some of them can be carried out exclusively by kinesics. On the other hand, in these seemingly simple encounters, as much as in any of the personal interactions discussed in this chapter, we must take into account

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

that, depending on what we do verbally or nonverbally, we and our cointeractants are constantly leading each other to different behavioral choices between the beginning and end of the interaction, as was first seen in Chapter 1.7 of Volume I, where we alluded to an enlightening paper by Kendon (Kendon 1980a). Non-committing greetings. The female greeters who at the foot of the mechanical stairs at Japanese department stores bow at customers (who rarely even acknowledged them), making a purchase at a newsstand, giving an alms to a beggar, boarding a bus and greeting the driver, going through a door held by a doorman, paying at a road-toll booth, etc., all interactions that do not as a rule develop at any length (let alone with the Japanese store greeters). Short-travel seat or standing mates, who may only address each other to say ‘Excuse me, please’ or the like, unless comments on weather or a recent important news warrant the exchange, and always varying in length according to personality and social background. Customer-salesperson interactions, which are encounters of very interesting characteristics, particularly for men when waited on by women, for when if a choice is possible, two different things can happen: some men will choose the attractive saleswoman precisely to engage her in a dual-level exchange of flirting and business, while those perhaps just as attracted to her but conscious of their shyness and of a potential overwhelmingly distracting and threatening situation, will rather interact with the plainer or more mature woman for her older, safer image, which allows them to browse and discuss the merchandise more freely. Line (queue) mates’ interactions, often because of the otherwise unsought intimate proxemic behavior a line elicits, and depending on the collective objective of the line, will intermittently trigger, for instance, before theater box-office, brief comments on the show and its cast, the weather outside (or maybe the line is outdoors), etc., which may lead to further comments about other movies by the same leading actor or actress, etc.; or, at a bus-stop, on an unusual delay, the weather, etc. Quick-service encounters involve us with service personnel like bank tellers, post office clerks, theater ushers, fast-food drive-in restaurants, ticket-office persons, etc. which at times hardly involve eye contact or any other verbal exchanges except a rapid sequence: request-service rendered-thanks, all of them situations where the smiling of the two cointeractors should, but not always is, a main characteristic. Going by a cashier is a very specific encounter usually involving the ever-repeated comments initiated by the cashier, and always dependant on the personnel’s prescribed familiarity or more formal behavior, such as: ‘Cold enough for you?,’ ‘Beautiful day!,’ How are you today, madam?,’ etc. The lonely encounters are those that take place at hours when only a few people are likely to be present in places like subway platforms, bus depots and stops, passing others in an empty street, seeing night-shift cleaning personnel in a building, etc.139

359

360 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

Church encounters, as one sits on a pew, can differ markedly across denominations, from the misunderstood sense of respect of the place that prevent most Roman Catholics from greeting or even looking at anyone who is not an acquaintance or friend — where all are truly brothers and sisters (thus constantly practicing the nonperson treatment) — while, for instance, Pentecostals tend to greet each other warmly and are much more involved with each other as a true community throughout their truly shared worship. Pedestrians’ encounters (here not limited to the street) can be of varying characteristics and magnitude, for instance: what Collett and Marsh (1974) discussed as collision avoidance on a pedestrian street crossing; in any situation while navigating along a sidewalk, sometimes sidestepping more than once (cf. the typical “stutter step” [Collett and Marsh 1974: 297]) to avoid collision, which typically elicits a verbal apology and even mild laughter or chuckling; siddling along a narrower passage where brief physical contact would not be particularly avoided in touch cultures (e.g. Arab, souther European); verbally and nonverbally asking for and giving directions; a man and a woman exchanging a especial flitting glance while passing each other in a street or interior location can add to the possible impact of the encounter, since they did not observe what Goffman (1963: 83–88) called “civil inattention” (i.e. eyeing the person and then averting one’s gaze right before passing). The elevator situation, which so many of us manage in the same way, where (besides brief comments like those by Goffman [1963: 137–138] and Hall [1966: 118]) tension can build up (depending on the riders’ personalities) if only two people are present; or, at the other extreme, when they crowd each other and must avoid contact with the lower part of the body, eased somehow by looking at the floor numbers, with furtive glances at certain personal attention-getters like beauty, jewelry or clothes. The bar and cafeteria casual interaction, led to by the circumstantial close proximity of the participants, particularly if seated or standing at the counter, since sitting around tables establishes better-defined personal territories. The unilateral encounters — though not from a semiotic sign-exchanging view — should be identified as those interactions in which we engage in an interchange with people or with any elements of our surrounding live or inanimate environment. Such are, for instance: a man passing in the street or at a door an attractive woman (or a woman an attractive man), whose facial features, figure and gait can linger imbedded in the his or her brain for a while or even intermittently for an unpredicted length of time; walking, perhaps daily, by a photo display of family, wedding or individual portraits, etc. Other similar mini-encounters, each with its own peculiarities, are, for instance: driver-to-driver interactions, driver-pedestrian interactions, police officer-driver encounters; gong through a door (‘After you’) or while holding it for someone coming behind and exchanging a glance and the one coming behind saying ‘Thank you’; navigating in a crowd at a party of public occasion, or moving inside a crowded bus,

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

subway car, etc.; the initial — and maybe only, if any — mutual acknowledgement of two theater seatmates, etc. There is no doubt that small matters as they may seem to the less sensitive, these interactions can be fraught with deep significance for one or both participants and even produce a lasting effect: good-looking young women [at a tubercula sanitarium][…] who smiled at him […] and let their warm soft hands touch his slightly as they paid him [for a magazine he, as a young boy, delivered] (Wolfe, LHA, X)

Naturally, besides these truly brief encounters, there are other totally unsought interactions that could not be called precisely mini-encounters, yet pertain of the strangermeets-stranger characteristics, such as when we have to share a dinner table (cf. Goffman 1963: 138, on a train’s dining car), adjoining train, bus or airplane seats, etc. However, despite the negative, evasive attitude of some (tacitly recommended in Goffman 1963: 139), my own frequent experience in the majority of such encounters, where I usually initiate the interaction, could not be more positive, sometimes developing into lengthier exchanges and even rewarding me with long-lasting relationships.140

8.11

Reduced interaction: Presence or absence of language, paralanguage, kinesics, and chemical systems

8.11.1 After dealing in this volume and Volume I with the various communication systems, particularly language and kinesics, and the structure of conversation, this chapter seems to be the most adequate place, after identifying all the possible components of personal and environmental interaction, to at least acknowledge what happens or does not happen — especially with the language-paralanguage-kinesics structure — in the situations I have previously called reduced interaction (Poyatos 1983: 85–89), that is: when the emission and/or perception of external bodily messages (including speech), whether or not face-to-face, is impeded in one or more channels by some somatic anomaly, external physical agents or agreement between the participants. Until now we have discussed interaction taking for granted that the participants were fully equipped individuals who have at their disposal all bodily channels of emission and reception. In fact, interaction studies in general just ignore anything else. But the reality of interaction is not always so. Only the curtailment of communication in any of the two main modalities, that is, audible (language and paralanguage) and visual (kinesics, blushing), can have a profound effect not only in terms of the encodingdecoding processes and problems they entail, but as regards the relationships between persons and the efficacy of their interactions. Although any situation can be of relevance, those that merit the most attention because of their interactive consequences are represented in Fig. 8.4, ‘Nonverbal communication in reduced interaction,’

361

362

Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

where appear only the strictly somatic ones, that is, generated by malfunctions or total absence of one or more sensory systems of emission and reception. It will become clear, as the different problems are discussed, that we all need to develop a very specific reduced-interaction fluency in order to relate to persons thus limited, even in professional or very frequent types of relations, for we tend to behave as if those individuals were normally equipped for communication. AS EMITTER

AS RECEIVER

INTERACTOR CAN USE BLINDNESS

CANNOT USE

Language-Paralanguage-Audi/ Contact Kines. Kinesics,Tears Blushing,Sweat

PERCEIVES

MISSES

LanguageParalanguageAud./Contact Kinesics

Visual Kinesics, Tears,Blushing Sweat

DEAFNESS

Language Paralanguage Kinesics

MUTENESS

Kinesics

Language Paralanguage

Language Paralanguage Kinesics

DEAFMUTENESS

Kinesics

Language Paralanguage

Visual & Contactual Kinesics

Language Paralanguage Vis/Aud Kine.

ARMLESS 1/2

Language Paralanguage Facial Kine.

Arm/Hand Kinesics

Language Paralanguage Kinesics

Contactual Kinesics on Arm/Hand

Lang.-Paral. Facial/Arm Kinesics

Forearm/Hand Kinesics

Language Paralanguage Kinesics

Contactual Kinesics on Forearm/Hand

Lang.-Paral. Arm/Forearm Kinesics

Hand Kinesics

Language Paralanguage Kinesics

Contactual Hand Kinesics

Language Paralanguage Kinesics

Contactual Digital Kinesics

FOREARMLESS 1/2 HANDLESS 1/2

FINGERLESS 1/2 PARALYSIS

Visual & Contactual Kinesics

Lang.-Paral. Arm/Forearm/ Hand Kinesics

Digital Kinesics

Lang./Paralan/ Facial kines. partial

General kinesics

Language Paralanguage Aud. Kinesics

Language Paralanguage Kinesics

ANOSMIA

All systems

Lang/Paralan/ Chemical Kines/& others messages

AGEUSIA

All systems

Lang/Paralan/ Chemical Kines/& others messages

Figure 8.4.Nonverbal communication in reduced interaction

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

8.11.2 Blindness From the point of view of the triple structure of speech, so essential for basic personal interaction, the most problematic of all reduced interaction situations is blindness. It has been said, erroneously so, that blindness obstructs the cognitive process but not the acquisition of language, when what is meant by language — not realizing one really means ‘speech’ — is actually language-paralanguage-kinesics. Without attempting to enumerate those problems exhaustively, the blind person loses, to begin with, the general effect that the sighted or blind co-interactor’s kinesic configuration could have had on him. On the other hand, visual messages are lacking for the blind person during silences (specifically discussed in Chapter 7): first, the visual components of discourse, which continue to signify during those silences, thus missing not only the lexical and semantic presence of emblems (e.g. a manual /No/), but also the other functions that the different types of speech kinesics (speech markers, identifiers, externalizers, etc.) play with respect to words. But the sightless person cannot associate those ‘vacuums’ (which are not such vacuums) with kinesics, an integral part of his interlocutor’s speech, and possibly thinks that the other is just thinking, distracted or occupied with something, for any kinesic cue in the exchange is nonexistent. What happens, for instance, with an affectionate facial expression that could be more significant than the concomitant words and paralanguage, or with the eloquence of smiling speech, or delivered with any other qualifying gesture? And what about the interactive silences caused by certain transitions or different types of interruptions, in fact, any of the conversational soundless pauses discussed in Chapter 7.10 of Volume I?141 It is in reality a situation similar to being in the dark, and the same thing happens with silent laughter, seen in Chapter 3 as a very peculiar differentiator reduced to a kinesic act: It being dark, Thomasin allowed her emotion to escape her by the silent way of tears, which could roll down her cheeks unseen (Hardy, RN, V) Dale was laughing, too, but noiselessly, and Bo, being blind for the moment, could not be aware of that (Grey, MF, XI)

Naturally, while someone blind since adolescence or adulthood can imagine certain speech-accompanying movements through synesthesial associations (by voice intensity, registers, etc.), the congenitally blind person is totally lacking such associations, and that triple structure of daily speech, which sighted persons accept as natural, are just nonexisting for him: it is delivered in whole, but received as badly mutilated as his own sensory reception. And yet, most of us do not measure such a receptive limitation justly and operate in front of the blind person simply as we do with the fully equipped sighted one. In fact, we can be speaking (whether to an audience or a small conversational group) without even trying to establish the slightest difference between people with such a different decoding capacity, when, if possible, we should offer the

363

364 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

visually impaired person the tactile kinesic channel to sometimes — depending of course of our mutual relationship — emphasize our words and paralanguage through touch and pressure qualifiers and add certain tactile gestures and manners. On the other hand, the blind cannot perceive those visual signs that sometimes carry the main message or qualify it, such as tears (which for the sighted would betray the emotion which might be skilfully masked by voice), or any important kinesic cues, or the undetected emotional sweat caused perhaps by the anxiety triggered by us in the sighted person; just as the blind one would not detect blushing, to which sometimes one would react positively (e.g. the blushing of a woman a man likes). In addition, as interlocutors of the visually impaired, we truly miss his or her eye contact, being hard sometimes to converse with a not fully expressive speaking face, which may lead us to wonder wether we are actually being paid attention to or understood. However, the congenitally blind person in particular, unless using dark glasses, winks and twists his eyes frequently, and often rocks to and fro while talking. We would conclude, then, that just as the unsighted person does not provide us with the indispensable conversational feedback as intermittently as we are accustomed to, neither does he perceive at all our visual feedback reactions, for which reason we must endeavor to compensate by using sound signals, that is, verbal or paralinguistic.142 Lori Leach was surprised to discover that her blind subjects did not unconsciously use the gestures for ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ (although they had been taught to them as children). As a traumatic blind man (manager of a photographic color lab) explained to her, “your ears become your eyes and they can’t see what other people are doing, so you forget to do it yourself.” However, a person who has been blind for thirty years is more expressive nonverbally than the congenitally blind. If we study the expressiveness of the two types with the model of the nonverbal categories (Chapter 6, Volume I), as Lori did (and the way I observe in my interaction with the blind), we come to very interesting conclusions (e.g. very few speech marker identifiers and externalizers, the three most important categories).143 8.11.3 Deafness and deafmuteness As for deafness, the person who cannot hear us is missing not only our words but their attitudinal word-supporting or word-contradicting paralinguistic qualities, as well as the more significant independent paralinguistic utterances (e.g. a commiserative lingual click ‘Tz,’ a throat-clearing of hesitation ‘Hrump!’); he can never feel their emotional impact, nor the very sound of our voice, which he would have liked or disliked, but which at least would have ‘felt’; in fact, not even the sound of his own words and paralanguage. That person can perceive, however, visual kinesics, that is, most of each cultural repertoire, even the visual part of audible gestures (e.g. fingersnapping), only without their complement (at times quite essential) of their verbal and paralinguistic accompaniment. For that reason, our uninterrupted ocular contact is

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

basic for the deaf person, including clear articulation, above all of vowels, and labial and dental consonants.144 So are contactual kinesics and gaze (a form of contact) to, for instance, give emphasis to words we are pronouncing with an affection or a pain whose paralinguistic manifestation never reaches the deaf ears. But it is also our interaction with the environment and the many sensations which fully equipped persons just take for granted, sensations which one may desire or remember, even with further associations with people and places: I only ask to walk tomorrow morning among fallen leaves, and hear them rustle at my feet (Dickens, BH, VI) All the beautiful sounds he knew and loved he heard — the sigh of the wind in the pines, the mourn of the wolf, the crying of the laughing-gull, the murmur of running brooks (Grey, RT, XIX)

Regarding the perceptual impediments of the deafmute, we must develop the ability to associate their characteristic pseudoparalinguistic utterances and facial kinesics, offering them, therefore, almost uninterrupted eye contact, for, even if we know their sign language, we would have to compensate kinesically for the lack of paralanguage and its natural association with words and speech visual signs. As for the mute person, besides his own effort to compensate for his curtailed speech visually and with limited paralinguistic emissions, we would also need especial fluency for optimal interaction. 8.11.4 Lack of arms, hands or fingers, and paralysis With respect to the communication problems caused by lack of one or two arms, the first thing we find is the communicative bilateral or unilateral nature of those limitations. If both arms are missing, even if the person can perceive and evaluate all the emotion contained in the attitudinal intensity and duration of, for instance, a compassionate embrace, he could never perceive its cutaneous sensations of touch and pressure, nor accompany his words and affectionate kind of voice with the emotion he would put in his own arms if he could utilize complete linguistic-paralinguistic-kinesic expressions of what he is feeling. Likewise, lack of one or two hands — since, after all, one can still execute many gestures with only one, even those that would normally be bimanual (e.g. the hourglass figure to denote a woman, but hardly ‘We ate a watermelon /this big/’) — renders a person incapable of conveying all those emblems (equivalent to specific words), illustrators (visually depicting what is being said verbally) and the other categories studied in Chapter 6 of Volume I; much less engaging in certain forms of greetings or in intimate alter-adaptor behaviors like hugging, caressing, going arm-in-arm, etc., which complementary parakinesic behaviors would meaningfully qualify, as does, for instance, a warm hand squeeze:

365

366 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

I almost felt the poor thing [Rosanna] slip her hand again into mine, and give it a little grateful squeeze to thank me for speaking kindly to her (Collins, M, ‘First Period,’ XV)

Even congenital or traumatic lack of fingers results automatically in the speaker’s inability to communicate by means of many hand gestures that simply require the use of the fingers (not only, for instance, counting or itemizing, but many others, like /something subtle/, rubbing thumb and index and middle fingers, perhaps for lack of the word ‘subtle’) in order to encode certain ‘kinemorphs,’ just as verbal language needs morphemes. Naturally, the total or partial paralysis of, for instance, the quadriplegic (except a more or less limited repertoire of facial gestures) or someone affected by multiple sclerosis carries those communication limitations in interpersonal articulateness to their furthest extremes, within and outside the triple structure of speech.145 Even a rheumatic or arthritic hand does visibly affect its movements, whether interactive, as when greeting with a handshake, or noninteractive (but perceived by others), as when handling something: Kate [because of her arthritis] pulled the light chain with her gloved hand, holding it deep in the crotch between her thumb and forefinger as though her hand were artificial (Steinbeck, EE, XXXIX, II)

But these brief comments on the absence of extremities would not be complete without at least referring in passing to the experience, both intrapersonal and interpersonal, of the persons with congenital arm deficiencies when they receive one or more artificial limbs: how they see themselves before, as well as their own perception of other people’s attitudes toward them, the recognition of their own expressive and receptive limitations, and the experience of a new phase in their lives after receiving a prosthesis.146 8.11.5 Anosmia and ageusia To the instances of reduced interaction identified so far we should add two more sensory limitations that can affect very much our interaction with others and with our environment, thus of capital importance within the model offered in this chapter: anosmia, or lack of the sense of olfaction, and ageusia, lack of gustation or taste.147 With these two we perceive the many natural and artificial chemical manifestations of people — of much commercial, social and clinical significance (e.g. wine, perfume, the smell of liver failure or frostbite as symptoms) — and the natural or built environment, in addition to food and drink. Depending on how one accepts it, anosmia may cause different degrees of depression, since — aside from obvious danger in certain situations (a gas leak, smoke, etc.) — it limits many aspects of our daily interactions with both objects and substances that are integral to them, and even socially with people. Not being able to perceive a person’s natural or artificial chemical messages

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

(sweat, pathological signs for medical practitioners, between mother and child, the woman’s or man’s perfume that forms part of a person’s total configuration and a situation); smells of food and drink, which makes us desire them and which welcome us in a restaurant (and whose absence curtails our appetite and even makes us lose weight); the hospitable smell of cooking in our own or someone else’s home, and the feeling of anticipation it causes in us while engaged in other activities; or, in the case of a wine-taster, it may cost him his job (as would a perfumer who develops anosmia), “the smell of morning coffee,” specifically mentioned by many anosmia sufferers (as I once read in a medical journal); the smell of the environment that may even characterize a culture (e.g. a traditional European café or outdoor market); the building materials; the craftsman’s shops, newspapers, books and magazines (the latter markedly different in smell between Europe and North America); and, in a especial way, the very intimate smells of the clothes and environment of deceased persons, whose presence we can feel so deeply if we can perceive them, or between lovers, who will reconstruct their language, paralanguage, kinesics and perfume through space and time the same way we reconstruct childhood places through their sounds and smells. The following literary examples allow us to judge the effect of anosmia and ageusia, or both, in specific situations, some part of specifically cultural complexes (even more so in the blind person suffering from these anomalies): An odour of coffee and broiled meat mingled with the fragrance of wood smoke (Grey, RT, III) A camp-fire soon crackled with hiss and sputter, and fragrant wood-smoke filled the air (Grey, LT, I) Everywhere was the smell of coffee and the frying of steaks (Norris, M, I) There were a dancing pavilion […] smell of girls’ perfumery and popcorn and molasses candy and powder from the shooting-gallery’ (Dos Passos, 42P, ‘Charley Anderson,’ 424) He [Peter] was aware of her [Christine’s] closeness and a faint, fragrant perfume (Hailey, H, “Monday Evening,” 6)

8.11.6 Other interactive impediments Other situations of reduced interaction are not due to permanent but circumstantial causes. Earlier (Poyatos 1983a: 85–89) I identified the following: –

a linguistic-cultural barrier, when we as speakers, are unable to normally balance the mutual structuration of the three components of our discourse, language-paralanguage-kinesics, and in our effort to express ourselves and made ourselves understood, typically increase our gestuality and eye contact (with a more emphatic

367

368 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

use of speech markers, emblems, deictics, identifiers and externalizers [Chapter 6, Volume I], as well as the parakinesic qualifiers of range and intensity) and in a greater emphasis of paralinguistic qualifiers (especially pitch, volume and tempo), besides recourse quite frequent to laughter. Cervantes gave some examples of that stepped-up kinesics: miré la ventana, y vi que por ella salía una muy blanca mano [of the Moorish girl]; que la abrían y cerraban muy apriesa […] entre las señas que me hacía, era una de juntarse la una mano con la otra, dándome a entender que se casaría conmigo (Cervantes, DQ, I, XL, XLIII)

–

–

– – – –

– –

the telephonic conversation, during which, not only does the feeling of distance make us increase our voice intensity, but, although not seen by our interlocutor, we continue to use the kinesic channel (smiling, giving directions, using identifiers and externalizers, etc.); through an opaque obstacle which lets sound through but renders us blind and, unable to establish eye contact, usually makes us speak looking down or in midair, but also without totally abandoning gestures; through a soundproof transparent obstacle, which is like being deaf, as happens in some public buildings with glass partitions; in the dark, in which, being rendered blind, we tend to complement voice, if possible, with physical contact; social circumstances that limit us to whispering, eye contact, very subdued kinesics, etc., as in hunting, in church or during a concert; excessive distance, which renders us deaf or almost deaf, despite which we usually continue to speak softly and even use speech facial gestures not seen by our cointeractant (besides the use of flags, light, smoke, reflections, etc.); excessive noise, as in a factory (where some use a gestural repertoire, complemented, if possible, by physical contact); agreed-upon silence, as among Central Australia’s Warlpiri women and female relatives for long periods of time mostly when one of them is bereaved of husband or child (Kendon 1986c), among Cistercian monks until almost the mid-1900s (Barakat 1974, 1975; Sebeok and Sebeok 1986), among the plain Indians of North America (Taylor 1978), or while on a hunt.

We see how in all these situations one involuntarily tends to preserve the intersystemic cohesion between language, paralanguage and kinesics by continuing to utilize certain channels now inoperative. Naturally, those interactive consequences are far from being mere curiosities, since the limitations they impose on communication can have a profound effect not only as to the encoding and decoding problems they determine, but with respect to the relations between people and the affective content of their attitude.148

The deeper levels of personal and environmental interaction

8.12

Conclusion The identification in Volume I of the true components of speech, the various transmitting and receiving channels of sensible signs and the many possible behaviors of conversation, lead the way for the discussion of the extremely complex grid of interaction components and levels which this chapter has attempted to dissect, particularly in face-to-face interaction, the richest form in sign and message exchange. Beyond that, however, lies our interaction with whatever surrounds us, for both modalities, person-to-person and person-environment encounters are intimately related and we could hardly study them separately. What has been proposed and discussed is simply that our everyday interactions — even those that at first sight might seem so uncomplicated, such as the mini-encounters of everyday life — can very often be like the proverbial tip of the iceberg, which hides what truly makes it be what it is and the way it is. With that in mind, the different interactive components have been identified as exhaustively as possible. When we consider how much social and even clinical interaction has been researched in the past, and how many examples we find in literature, painting, architecture, interior decoration and even the general environment, we realize that even the more in-depth studies of any of those human manifestations developed quite unevenly. It would seem as though it was not even suspected that certain hidden levels exist on which really depend all those characteristics that may call our attention and, naturally, others that we cannot even perceive if we lack an integrative vision of what communication and interaction is all about. For that reason, those deeper levels need to be sought out in earnest by the linguist and the psycholinguist, the cultural anthropologist and the social psychologist, the student of literature, the theater or cinema director, the architect and the art historian, the physician and the psychiatrist, the researcher of business interactions, etc.

8.13

Topics for interdisciplinary research 1.Cross-cultural study of interaction components. 2.The external components of mini-interactions in hospitals and other health-care institutions. 3.The external interaction components in a given culture. 4.Notation for transcription of language and other interactive components in a cafe conversation. 5.The mini-encounters of everyday life. 6.Internal and external interaction components in the novel. 7.Interaction in the theater: reality and imagination.

369

370 Nonverbal Communication across Disciplines

8.Development and evolution of objectual components of interaction in a given culture. 9.Negative external components in personal and environmental interaction in a given culture. 10.Philosophical approach to intelligible components and to intellectual evaluation in interaction. 11.Psychological approach to intelligible components in interaction. 12.Pathological aspects in interaction. 13.Chronemics of interaction in a given culture. 14.Street interaction. 15.Evolution of interactive components through history. 16.The structure language-paralanguage-kinesics in interaction with and between the blind. 17.The structure language-paralanguage-kinesics in interaction with and between the deaf. 18.The structure language-paralanguage-kinesics in interaction with and between the mentally handicapped. 19.The structure language-paralanguage-kinesics in interaction with and between limbless persons. 20.Interactive consequences of anosmia: work and social aspects. 21.The levels of interaction in bars and cafeterias: a cross-cultural approach. 22.Peculiarities of the linguistic-cultural barrier. 23.Our interaction with architectural interaction components. 24.Our interaction with nature. 25.Intercultural\cross-cultural study of mini-encounters with strangers.

Notes Chapter 1 1 Suffice it to mention that my interest in advancing the study of sounds emitted beyond words was confirmed by isolated comments and descriptions, and often just in passing, in the work (chronologically cited) of Bell (1867), Sweet (1906), Russell (1931), Weaver (1942), Pike (1943, 1946), Trager (1949), Trager and Smith (1951), Smith (1952, 1953), Trager and Hall (1954), Trager (1955, 1956), Pittenger (1958), Pittenger and Smith (1957), McQuown (1957), Hill (1958, after coining the term ‘paralanguage’ [1952] to include what would be called ‘kinesics’ [Laver and Hutcheson 1972]) referred to “vocal paralinguistic features,” or tone of voice, and “nonvocal paralinguistic features,” or kinesics), Trager (1958, 1960), Kaplan (1960), Pittenger, Hockett and Danehy (1960), Birdwhistell (1961), Crystal (1963), Catford (1964), Crystal and Quirk (1964), Sebeok, Hayes and Bateson (1964), Austin (1965), Catford (1968), and Pei (1966, which included terms in paralanguage and kinesics), all a continued effort to identify those audible phenomena they reckoned as indispensable in speech, but still neglected because of the official and rather shortsighted and obscuring stand of traditional linguistics and phonetics. Pike (1943) wrote: “phonetic systems have not been based upon the total number of sounds which are known to occur in speech” (31), as “Phoneticians […] usually start with the assumption that [phonetics] does not include sounds apart from speech” (34–35), although they “cannot afford to overlook them” (36), besides the fact that “sounds which are nonspeech from the point of view of one language may be phonemic in another” (37). Twenty years later Catford (1964: 29) still complained that “phoneticians have always been primarily concerned with setting up descriptive categories for phonemic features which are utilized phonologically in languages [and therefore] no great delicacy of description or classification has seemed to be called for”, and that there was no attempt “to set up a systematic framework of categories for the description or classification of different kinds of voice quality.” 2 The First Five Minutes, the pioneering work of the psychiatrists Pittenger and Danehy and the linguistic anthropologist Hockett (1960) on a five-minute segment of a psychiatric interview. Mainly by means of arbitrary graphic symbols, they represented the patient’s linguistic and paralinguistic behaviors, adding a minute analysis of what occurred during the interview. Within its hard cover, the book is divided in two halves like a barn door: the upper pages develop a phonetic and paralinguistic transcription (besides the text itself) of what a schizophrenic girl says and how she says it, while the lower ones contain the clinical analysis of that material (see also Note 1, Chapter 5, Volume I). As for The Natural History of an Interview (available only in microfilm), it was a microanalysis that included also paralanguage and even more kinesic behaviors; for the latter, Birdwhistell included, besides a notation system, two explanatory chapters applying his structural microanalytical approach (also in Birdwhistell 1970) in relation to verbal language. 3 Since I was already trying to do both, the 9th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (Chicago, 1973) — mentioned in Note 1 of Chapter 1, and Note 1 of Chapter 7, both in Volume I — and some of its pre-congress conferences were also a great incentive for my study of paralanguage. They afforded serious discussions of paralanguage, later contained in volumes edited by Kendon, Harris and Key (1975) and McCormack and Wurm (1976). Wurm

372

Notes

summarized the severe criticism undergone by the transformational-generative approaches for their “artificially restrictive nature in dissociating the subject matters which they study from their social and cultural background” (363). He cited Kendon’s discussion of the session ‘Language and Man,’ in which “The notion of language as an abstract system, as ‘a thing in itself ’ to be studied apart from the utterances of live individuals in interactional situations no longer appeared tenable to many of them” (364). Kendon (already a pillar for nonverbal communication studies) explicitly quoted “Crystal, Poyatos, Slama-Cazacu and von Raffler-Engel as being all quite explicit in their dissatisfaction with the scope of linguistics as currently conceived” (365), that is, the treatment of “any information linguists could not describe with their present theoretical and notational apparatus as nonlinguistic” (365), adding that one definition of language could be that it is “a communication system which is capable of transmitting new information” (365); while Slama-Cazacu’s affirmed that the papers presented reflected an “état d’ame which is symptomatic of the present crisis” (369). One could then link the earlier statements by Pike (1943) and Trager (1958), already seeking the linguisticness of many paralinguistic features, to others made at that time, such as Crystal’s (1975: 164), saying that “observations of people’s everyday reactions to language suggest that paralinguistic phenomena, far from being marginal, are frequently the primary determinants of behaviour in an interaction,” and that “paralanguage cannot be given anything other than a central role”. Lieberman (1975: 279) complained about lack of adequate transcription systems and about the artificial “rigid dychotomy wherein certain semantic constructs are ‘paralinguistic’ and others ‘linguistic,’” and it was becoming obvious that, as Crystal (1975: 169) would point out, “just because this area of behaviour is difficult to describe and quantify, it does not mean that it lacks systems altogether.” Finally, by an otherwise logical coincidence, my approach ran parallel to the ideas expressed in a masterful article by Crystal (1974), where he referred to: a phonetic criterion (i.e., not just phonemic from the standpoint of any particular language) allowing for crosscultural comparison — actually in keeping with Catford’s (1968) efforts to show man’s anthropophonetic possibilities — while Poyatos (1975a: 294) worked in that direction in his ICAES paper: “to elaborate a realistic phonemic chart of a culture or subculture beyond what is provided by the International Phonetic Alphabet”; the insufficient functional definitions, while Poyatos’ (1977a) functional classification for kinesic behavior could be applied to paralanguage; a lack of research on structural functions, while Poyatos (1975a, 1976a, 1976b, and earlier) claimed for paralanguage not only a structure in its own right, but its costructuration with language and kinesics, that is, within the ‘basic triple structure’, and within the structure of interaction; a lack of descriptive studies (especially outside English), while Poyatos suggested phonetic descriptions in his ICAES paper; lack of a “systematic survey of paralinguistic effects [as a] routine part of [the fieldworkers’] investigations” (276); the few attempts to transcribe utterances, while Poyatos’ paper on alternants (also in 1976b) suggested at least a number of transcriptions and new symbols (cf. many more in Poyatos 1993a), speaking for so many paralinguistic constructs that function as true dictionary items but cannot be referred to by verbs and nouns; which in turn agreed also with Crystal’s plea for normal data; a search for the functional roles of paralanguage, away from the purely ‘emotional’ or ‘affective’ types of information usually mentioned in the literature, and more in relation to social function, while Poyatos (1975a, 1976b) emphasized precisely social functions, socioeducational stratification of paralanguage (along with language and kinesics) and crosscultural research, discussing its interactional context and the kind of interactive fluency (not just linguistic) one must achieve, and suggested a paralinguistic and/or kinesic atlases (cf. Morris et al, 1979). While neither those discussions, nor a new book by Catford (1977), seemed to generate new efforts — except for the continued interest of Mary Key (1974, 1975a, 1975b, 1986, 1987) — the most important publication on paralanguage was a book by John Laver (currently Director of the Centre for Speech Technology Research, University of Edinburgh), who had previously been an added incentive for me and continued to be (Laver 1968, 1970, 1974, 1976, 1980,

Notes

373

1991, 1994; Laver and Hanson 1981; Laver and Hutcheson 1972; Laver and Trudgill, 1979). However, paralanguage has since then acquired a status of its own in psychology with studies on voice and personality (e.g. Scherer 1972, 1973, 1978, 1979a, 1979b), age (Helfrich 1979), emotions (Scherer 1979b, 1979c, 1984; Kappas et al 1991), etc., although inevitably limited by experimental constrictions and generally dissociated from kinesics. Personally, I strove to promote awareness and study of paralanguage in several congresses (e.g. 12th International Congress of Linguists, Vienna, 1977 [Poyatos 1978a], International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Miami, 1977 [Poyatos 1979], etc.), as well as through some publications (Poyatos 1972a, 1976a: Chapter 4, 1976b, 1983, 1992b; in Spanish, e.g. 1970a, 1972b, 1974a: 24–26, 1974b: 161–165, 1976c, 1978b, 1985a, 1986a: 37–41). 4 See a clear basic discussion of grammatical and attitudinal intonational features in O’Connor 1973: 264–267). 5 All this discussed in Chapter 7 of Volume I, on conversation. 6 Once I showed students at Istanbul Bogazici University how the English word ‘well’ could signify, according to pitch: agreement, surprise, annoyance, resignation, indignation, hesitation, scorn, disappointment, expectation, decision, etc. 7 See, the segmental and nonsegmental elements of speech, in Chapter 4.9 of Volume I. 8 “Executives seem to be more inclined to this disorder than, say, truck drivers, suggesting that the laryngeal mechanics for ulceration are more effective in those persons emotionally predisposed to gastric ulcers” (Perkins 1971: 509). 9 Chapter 4.2 and 3 of Volume I studies the limitation of words and the communicative value of nonverbal behaviors that accompany them in the triple structure of speech, language-paralanguagekinesics. 10 The acquisition of the verbal and nonverbal repertoires by native and foreign speakers is discussed in Chapter 5.6, Volume I. In Volume III, devoted to literature, it will be seen how this constitutes one of the many stumbling blocks for the foreign reader (rarely suspecting their presence in the text) and because of their verbal correspondence between the two languages. 11 This meaning of ‘clipping’ is not to be confused with ‘clipping or back formation’, “a sort of instinctive search for short roots in long words” (Mencken 1963: 203), such as ‘fridge’, ‘perm’, for ‘refrigerator’, (hair) ‘permanent’, to which ‘instinct’ nevertheless all forms of shortening are related. 12 I recall a radio interview with the late actor Gary Cooper in which he answered “Yep” and “Nope” in a very relaxed manner to the comments, “They say you are a man of few words” and “You don’t talk too much”, respectively. 13 For many years I have become familiar with a curious dialectal habit among speakers in the Cádiz province of Southwestern Spain: a frequent paralinguistic drawling preceding the vocative use of your name in conversation (as if trying to remember it!): ‘Well, then, m-m-m-m, Fernando, when are you going?’, ‘Aaaah, Pepe, bebe de este vino.’ 14 Note the relationship between this rhythm and the ‘tremulous’ and ‘stammering’ voices (Chap. 2.3.11 and 2.3.12, Vol. II). 15 From this chapter on it would be convenient to keep in mind the discussion of nonverbal categories in Chapter 6, Volume I, since those behaviors and the fundamental features of speech are intimately related. Chapter 2 16 Besides a short discussion of this topic (Poyatos 1991), the lengthiest one is Paralanguage (Poyatos 1993a), and an abridged one in Spanish (Poyatos 1994b).

374

Notes

17 Possible changes and additions to punctuation systems are suggested in Chapter 5 of Volume III. 18 Even the instinctive attraction we may feel toward the whisperer out of curiosity may not necessarily respond to positive motives. 19 As there is no Spanish word to denote breathy voice, I suggested (Poyatos 1994b: 55–56) ‘halitante’ (from Latin ‘anhelitu,’ breath). 20 From the Middle-English echoic ‘creken’ (to make a sound like geese, crows, etc.). Besides evoking in extreme occurrences the sound of door hinges, Catford (1977: 98) compares it to “a rapid series of taps rather like the sound of a stick being run along a railing, or one of those noise-making devices in which a wooden toothed wheel […] ‘tweaks’ a wooden clapper.” 21 This chapter in particular suggests how fascinating and useful it would be to investigate the etymological origins (so often onomatopoeic) and the use of many of these words across languages and how exactly they evoke the sounds they designate for the native speaker-listener of each culture. Taking as an example ‘harsh’ (from ME. and ON), could it not have been also originally echoic, and, given its meaning, accompanied by a ‘harsh’-evoking’ facial gesture? Thus, is its present use in accordance with its true meaning and form? 22 Dictionaries consulted and etymologies are indicated as follows: FWNSD, Funk & Wagnall’s New Standard Dictionary of the American Language; SOED, The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles; WTNID, Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English Language; AS., Anglo Saxon; ME., Middle English; ON. Old Norse. 23 We should note the dryness of the ‘husk’ of wheat or corn, evoking the dryness of the voice. 24 Its physiology is not well defined. Perkins (1971: 497) mentions the disagreement of six speech pathologists when asked to judge the voices of cheerleaders suffering from vocal strain, on the distinction among hoarseness, breathiness and harshness, because of a “common process basic to the production of these different qualities.” 25 From Gr. ‘erygmos’, to eructate; Perelló and Salvá Miquel (391–44l) explain its causes, anatomy, rehabilitation and psychosocial effects, mentioning some famous laryngectomized like novelist François Mauriac and musicians like Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini. 26 WTNID defines it as “heavy, thick, deep as if from low in the throat,” and as “a rich voice,” thus it is quite ambiguous and therefore imagined as different qualities by the listener or literary reader, the latter with the consequences of the ‘recreative’ experience, as discussed in Chapter 3 of Volume III. 27 An echoic formed to imitate “a quick sharp, vibrating sound, as of a taut string suddenly plucked or released” and “a sharp, vibrant, speech sound” and “nasal intonation” (WNWDCE). WYNID gives a quotation: “his voice was a high, twangy, unmusical New England drawl.” 28 An elaboration of which is “We can’t park here in the driveway like a couple of adenoidal tourists”, quoted by WTNID from Ellery Queen. 29 Readers seriously interested in paralanguage are referred to the book Paralanguage (Poyatos 1993a), where they will find, for instance, the configuration chart for each modifier. Chapter 3 30 Laughter has been studied above all — and quite limitedly as to forms and functions — trough philosophy (Bergson 1900), cross-cultural research (Darwin 872 [1970]: Chapter 8), sociology (cf. sources mentioned by Menéndez y Pelayo [1889: Volume II, Part IV: Chapter 9]; Simmel 1924, etc.), pathology (Ostwald 1964; Zuk 1966; Izard 1979; Morreal 1983; also in Darwin 1872), ontogenetic development (Blurton Jones 1972a, 1972b), phylogenetic development (van Hooff 1972), or in its relation to smiling (Darwin 1872; Hass 1970; van Hoof 1972).

Notes

375

31 Echoically evoking (as a variant of ‘sputter’) the explosion of laughter during which saliva is involuntarily spitted out. 32 One of the aspects of stage performances discussed in Volume III. 33 Studies of two- to five-year-olds confirm, as reported by Blurton Jones (1972a), the association of laughter with motor activities like wrestling, jumping, chasing, tickling, observed also in young people, to the extent that some prolonged ‘horsing around’ of girls, for instance, brings them to a state of cataplexy or uncontrolled laughter. 34 Cf. Poyatos 1999: 27–28, on differentiators in interaction with hospital patients. 35 In fact, on many occasions I hugged one of my Canadian friends, while his wife provided that ‘disclaiming laughter,’ echoed by him almost simultaneously; which would never happen with French, Italian or Hungarian friends, as they would just laugh happily during a happy greeting. 36 Referring again to the brief but pithy comments on laughter made by Simmel (1924: 372–372), I would like to emphasize how the feelings represented in the aggressive types of laughter identified so far follow an ontogenetic development rarely altered by precocious manifestations; and yet, the ‘cruelty’ of children laughing while torturing a poor defenceless animal, or laughing meanly at a schoolmate’s deformity or social lowliness is a fact we have all witnessed. Simmel wrote that laughter is “cruel in fact but not in intention” and does not express “a perverse, satanic joy but a heartlessness” (because “sympathy has not been born in the individual”); however, such a categorical assertion cannot be made so easily in all instances for that kind of laughter can certainly respond to an obvious evil motivation. 37 Often as what Volume I, Chapter 6 studies as ‘random behaviors.’ 38 There is the laughter of the intense relief felt after a very critical situation, such as the “spontaneous,” “wild” laughter of the passengers of a crippled airplane after a safe landing (Zuk 1966: 100). 39 In the Middle Ages (cf. Schmitt, 1992: 79–80) they frowned upon the less moderate forms of kinesic behaviors, that is, ‘gesticulatio,’ instead of the acceptable ‘gestus’ (as in oratory or prayer); in other words, the person’s total expressivity in speech and interaction was controlled by social norms. 40 Gracián Dantisco, Galateo español (p. 237), taken from Francisco Rodríguez Marín (1920: 20). 41 Not much has been written on crying or weeping. Darwin (1872 [1970]: Chapter 6) observed in detail its muscular (consequently kinesic) activities and some of its functions in infants and in normal and disturbed adults. He also hypothesized about the adult male’s control of weeping out of a sense of manliness, but reported on the copious weeping of men in New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego, comparing his own countrymen’s self control with the lack of it in some other European cultures, thus suggesting valuable cross-cultural research. Even the references provided by Blurton Jones (1972a: 278–279) attest to the fact that “crying has not attracted much attention […] after the newborn period” and that “the available information is almost incidental to studies of other aspects of behavior.” Ostwald (1973: Chapter 4) analyzed the infant’s cry as the most basic inborn human sound for getting attention, noting how machines such as sirens, fire-trucks, police cars and ambulances have been given some of the acoustic characteristics of the baby’s cry. In fact, a great part of the scientific literature on crying deals with its developmental aspects, while the rest studies mostly psychopathological occurrences, but very little has been written about its anthropological and sociological aspects, except for references to some cross-cultural examples incidental to the study of certain states or situations (e.g., psychopathological behaviors, bereavement), or in discussions of the nurse-patient relationship, (e.g. the exemplary paper by van Heukelen [1979] on its professional and spiritual aspects).

376

Notes

42 Ekman (1976) explains it as a combination of his ‘action units’ 1 and 4: mostly with the slight contraction of the frontalis muscle, which rises the inner corners of the eyebrows, and an also slight contraction of the corrugator, depressor glabella and/or depressor supercilli, which pull them down and together. 43 As Ostwald (1964: 20) says: “As in the evaluation of laughter, the psychiatrist must consider not only a patient’s background and physical condition, but also social rules to the extent that these selectively prohibit or encourage certain forms of emotional expression.” 44 It should be mentioned as a curiosity that although English is richer in terms denoting sounds (Poyatos 1994b: mainly Chapter 3, notes 4, 17, 23; Chapter 6: 253–55), it has no term like the Spanish (not generalized, but without an equivalent) ‘zollipar,’ meaning to sob and hiccup simultaneously. 45 As I once heard actress Claire Bloom say of her own tears on stage as an immediate reaction to John Gielgud’s entrance. And Agnes de Mille says of Norma Shearer: “She enjoyed playing anguish […] She could perform a scene over and over and over and over--puring tears, her eyes like faucets” (De Mille, DP, XXII) 46 As when, reading a tombstone that said: “Mary Elizabeth Peace. Born through abortion. Died by abortion, Feb, 12, 1979,” brought tears to my eyes and made me take some action. 47 By saying, for instance, “the problem today is that men are too ashamed to cry […] they are afraid to let it out […] It is good to cry, Joe, because it shows me that you are sorry” (Inbaum et al 1986: 165), while they are warned that “sometimes female suspects cry as a ploy, or as a final, yet insincere effort to gain sympathy” (164). 48 Among other occasions, hearing the personal testimonies of many physicians at the annual conference of Christian Medical Foundation International (Tampa, Florida, 1984), among them the psychiatry professor William Wilson, quoted before. I have also witnessed this ‘baptism in the Spirit’ (or second baptism) manifested in tears; Ralph Martin, one of today’s most respected Christian writers, quotes theologian Simon Tugwell as referring to this “second baptism” in the Spirit as a “baptism in tears,” and quoting himself the great seventh-century mystic Isaac the Syrian as saying that it is only “when you come to the place of tears” that one can recognize true conversion (Martin 1976: 73). 49 For the configuration and other comments on differentiators hereafter, see Paralanguage (Poyatos 1993a). 50 Sighing (for the present situation or in anticipation) appears many times in the Old Testament as caused by anguish (translated from the Hebrew root ‘ânach,’ to sigh, mourn, or groan): “For my sighing comes before I eat,/ And my groanings pour out like water” (Job 3:24, NKJ). 51 Birdwhistell (Sebeok et al. 1964: 42) observed how for the Kutenai Indians of North America coughing “up their nose” is part of being a decent Kutenai, while not coughing that way means being taken for a Shuswap. 52 Don Quixote uses sneezing with this function: “[Don Quixote] para dar a entender que allí estaba, dio un fingido estornudo” (Cervantes, DQ, II, XLIV). 53 A colleague of mine and her young son, while living for a few years in China, had to leave the public swimming-pool when the men appeared later in the day, for they would spit around and into the pool. Only recently I observed an old man spit on the floor of a small-town old café in southern Spain, and cannot forget the signs I used to read as a child on the columns of one of my hometown churches: “Por respeto al santo templo y por higiene se prohíbe escupir,” which certainly makes us think of the historical comments by Wildeblood (1965).

Notes

377

54 As was mentioned when discussing kissing in Chapter 6, Volume I, Key (1975b: 98) refers to having seen some Soviet soldiers in Bratislava spit in disgust when they saw another young man kissing his girl friend in public. 55 Prefiguring Jesus’ subjection to that treatment about seven hundred years later in the same place: “They spat in His face and beat Him” (Matthew 26:67, NKJ), of which we find instances in modern times: “and now the police […] beat them, and spat into their mouths” (Rao, K, X). Chapter 4 56 Mostly as “vocal identifiers” (e.g. Smith 1953; Trager 1955, 1956; Stockwell et al, 1956, for Spanish; Pittenger and Smith 1957) an even more as “vocal segregates” (Austin 1965; Hill 1969; Pittenger 1958; Smith 1952; Trager 1958) and then as “segmental sounds” by Key (1986, 1987). I labelled them ‘alternants’ as I began to work on paralanguage (Poyatos 1975a [mainly from a paper given at the 1973 9th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences]; in Spanish, Poyatos 1970a, 1970b). 57 Actors, for instance, may be perfectly aware of every single word they utter as part of their lines, but mainly the less ‘lexical’ alternants could vary in every performance (e.g. a short gasp or a click of hesitation), while a reproachful click or a dubious ‘Hm!’ can be encoded as consciously as their words are. 58 On the development of this iconicity, see Poyatos 1993a: 385–386. 59 See a list of thirty-some gleaned from the 1988 Webster New World Dictionary of the American Language (Poyatos 1993a: 391–392). 60 However, I had occasion to systematically verify the much greater English repertoire of labelled and written alternants (mostly shunned by dictionaries) as compared specifically to Spanish, as discussed in Chapter 6.9. 61 Although Volume III is devoted exclusively to literature and theater, it should be mentioned here that only with a cross-cultural knowledge of the purely echoic or etymological origins (or echoic and then etymologically developed) can a translator choose the equivalent that evokes exactly the sound it depicts, rather than opting for an intuitive solution which would not be ‘heard’ by the target reader as it was by the native one. 62 English ‘type’ can generate an echoic quality and vividly evoke that sound when we repeat it: ‘type-type, type-type.’ 63 Cf. James Agee’s (1938) extraordinary full-page representation of the laborious starting of an automobile (Poyatos 1993: 413). 64 The phonetic features in both tables, and others, are discussed in Chapter 3, Volume I, and Chapter 2 in this Volume. 65 Thus, regarding the hypothesized origins of language, meaningful silences, especially if voluntary, could have coexisted with communicative sounds and movements as true messages (with no reference to sound) or convey the voluntary absence of audible message, just as a still could have confirmed the absence of movement or signify by itself with no reference to it. 66 See Chapter 7, Volume I, for a lengthier discussion of pauses. On the limitations and possibilities of punctuation for the different silences, see Chapter 5.5, Volume III. 67 Random behaviour are discussed mostly as kinesic acts in Chapter 6.14.4, Volume I.

378

Notes

Chapter 5 68 By carefully pondering each of the literary examples used as illustrations, the reader will realize the fruitful research perspectives on kinesics offered, as in other areas already treated in this work (particularly in the whole Volume III), by the different national literatures, particularly narrative and theater (cf. Korte 1997; Poyatos, throughout these three volumes; 2001 in press, on literature as a source of documentation for kinesic research; 2002 in press). 69 In an excellent book by Barbara Korte on “body language in literature” (which I gratefully acknowledge as fruitfully applying much of my work) this definition is quoted from one of my earliest books (Poyatos 1983: 191) as “the most widely used” (Korte 1997 [1993]: 38), something for which I just must take her at her word. If it is so, however, it must be because I more and more tried to reflect the total reality of what we should regard as kinesics and endeavor to promote a realistic study of it (e.g. Poyatos 1976a, 1977a, 1977b, 1983, 1984a); also in Spanish (e.g. Poyatos 1970b, 1970c, 1971, 1972b, 1974a, 1974b, 1985a, 1986a, 1994a, 1994b, 1994c). Hopefully, an important body of work will result from the April 2000 conference on “Gestures: Meaning and Use,” held at the Oporto University Fernando Pessoa (followed by the foundation in 2000 of the journal Gesture, edited by Adam Kendon and Cornelia Müller), as well as from gatherings like the ORAGE conferences organized by the Gevoix Association founded by the Gesture and Voice Research Group from the University of Provence (see Santi et al 1998). 70 To which we should add the ‘parakinesic qualities’ (discussed below) shown in handwriting through graphological analysis, and even through a text typed on a conventional typewriter with a much-used ribbon, as the degree of pressure exerted on each key and shown by the intensity of some letters and the lightness of others can later reveal certain states I myself used to observe in my own typed text (e.g, anxiety shown by typos and corrections). 71 Such a pseudoscientific literature proliferated mostly in the 1970s — particularly in North America — alongside genuine scientific and artistic concerns in various disciplines. The typical popular interest in the behavioral sciences and whatever promises infallible formulas of introspection and self-knowledge (facilitated by mass production of pocket paperbacks) was reflected in books (Davis, 1971, Fast 1970, 1972), magazines (The New York Times Magazine [Davis 1970], Glamour [Davis 1969], Playboy 1969) and even newspapers. It was, and is, entertaining for those who naively think they can infallibly interpret people’s postures, which produces a rather superficial notion of the field of kinesics based on impressionistic judgement and successful intuition. A second category not to be shunned (Davis 1970, 1971) is at least honestly based on serious research and can be interesting and informative because it can lead the more serious and perspicacious readers to the original publications. Finally, between the pseudoscientific and scientific literature, one should distinguish a few good popular books based on the observation of recurrent behaviors, such as Nierenberg and Calero’s (1971). 72 See, on nonverbal behaviors, Ekman (1980c), Ekman and Friesen (1969a); on research on facial expression, Ekman (1993); on the expression of emotions, Ekman (1984, 1993); on emotional facial expressions, Ekman (1978a, 1978b, 1979a, 1979b, 1980a, 1980b), Ekman and Friesen (1975), Ekman, Friesen and Ellsworth (1972), Ekman and O’Sullivan (1991) (as a complement, cf. the neurophysiological approach in Rinn 1991); on the evolution and characteristics of basic emotions, Ekman (1992a); on universals and culture-specific expressions an display rules, Ekman (1972a, 1973a, 1973b, 1979a, 1984, 1993), Ekman and Friesen (1971, 1986); on ontogenetic development, Ekman and Oster (1979:532–537), Oster and Ekman (1978); on facial lying and deception, Ekman (1981, 1985, 1989, 1992b, 1996, 1997), Ekman and Friesen (1969b, 1974), Ekman, O’Sullivan and Frank (1999 [cf. the growing popular interest on detecting lying, mostly spurred by Ekman, e.g. Geary 2000]); on

Notes

379

measuring facial expressions, Ekman (1979a, 1979b, 1982a, 1982b, 1985, 1989), Ekman and Friesen (1976, 1978), Ekman, Hager and Friesen (1981); on smiling, Ekman and Friesen (1982). 73 They were decades of much activity in nonverbal communication research, which necessarily became multi- and interdisciplinary in publications (special issues of journals like Langages [1968] and The Journal of Communication [1972]) and in a growing number of symposiums and conferences to some of which I was contributing, for instance: 9th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (Chicago, 1973), International Communication Association (Chicago, 1975), American Anthropological Association (Washington, 1977), etc. However, the need to present what I consider my own contribution prevents me from discussing the basic bibliography in different disciplines, which can always be found in textbooks like those by Burgoon, Buller and Woodall (1989), Davis (1972), Harper, Wiens and Mattarazzo (1978), Malandro and Barker (1989), the influencial pionneering work of Ruesch and Kees (1961), Knapp (1980 [2nd. ed. 1992]), Weitz (1979), etc., and in edited interdisciplinary volumes like those by Benthall and Polhemus (1975), Hinde (1972), Kendon (1981a), Key (1977, 1980a, 1982), Laver and Hutcheson (1972), Scherer and Ekman (1982), Sebeok et al. (1964), Siegman and Feldstein (1978), Siegman and Pope (1972), Obudho (1979), Poyatos (1988a, 1988c, 1992a), von Cranach and Vine (1973), von Raffler-Engel (1980a), Wolfgang (1979a, 1984), etc. In gesture, with relation to language and cognition, Freedman (1977), McNeill (1992; press), etc. In social psychology and psychiatry, besides very worthy earlier books and articles (e.g. Carmichel et al. 1937; Krout 1935, Mauss 1935), Argyle (1967, 1969, 1990 [1st. ed. 1975], 1992), Argyle, Inham and Alkema (1973), Argyle and Dean (1965); Argyle and Cook (1976), Ashcraft and Scheflen (1976), Birdwhistell (1952, 1955, 1959, 1960, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1968a, 1968b, 1970, 1972, 1975), Bull (1986), Collett and Marsh (1974), Davis (1972, 1975, 1979), Davis and Skupien (1982), Deutch (1952, 1966), Ditmann (1971), Ekman (1972a, 1972b, 1976), Ekman and Friesen (1969a, 1972), Ellsworth and Ludwig (1972), Exline and Fehr (1982), Friesen, Ekman and Wallbott (1979), Givens (1978), Goffman (1955, 1956, 1961, 1963, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1981), Hadar (1992), Hess and Petrovich (1978), Kendon (1967, 1972a, 1972b, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1980a, 1980b, 1982a, 1983), Kendon and Cook (1969), LaFrance (1976), McQuown et al (1971), Mehrabian (1971), Myllyniemi (1982), Ricci-Bitti (1976, 1992), Scheflen (1964a, 1964b, 1966, 1969, 1972, 1973), Schiffrin (1974), Schneller (1988, 1992a, 1992b), Smith et al. (1974), Vetter (1969), etc. In linguistics and communication
: Key (1975b), Mehan (1972), Yau (1992a, 1992b), etc. In ethology, ChevalierSkolnikoff (1973), Darwin (1872), Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1972, 1979a, 1979b, 1979c, 1980, 1981, 1983a, 1988), Ekman (1973a, 1973b, 1977, 1979b), Hass (1970), Kendon (1973), Lorenz (1967), Morris (1967, 1972, 1977), Smith et al. (1974), etc. In cultural anthropology, ethnology and intercultural communication
: Hewes (1974), LaBarre (1947, 1964), Koechlin (1985), Morris (1972), Sherzer (1973), von Raffler-Engel (1980c), Wolfgang (1986), etc. In semiotics, besides its main disseminating organ, Semiotica, a special issue of Langages (1968), Kristeva (1968), Bouissac (1973) on the circus, etc.; and, blending semiotics and zoology into ‘zoosemiotics,’ Sebeok (1969, 1972, 1977a), Wenner (1969), etc. In sign-language studies, Barakat (1973, 1974), Stokoe (1960, 1965), Umiker-Sebeok and Sebeok (1978, 1987), Kendon (1988b). In art, Gombrich (1966, 1972), Cupchik (1988), Schmitt (1987, 1990, 1992), Golder (1992), Bremmen and Roodenburg (1992). In medicine (besides growing awareness of nonverbal aspects in most nursing textbooks), Heath (1986). In education, besides Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (University of Toronto) psychologist Wolfgang (1979b, 1984), Galloway (1979, 1984), Smith (1984), etc. In literature, particularly after an article by Poyatos (1977b; in Spanish, 1972b, 1976c, 1985c), Korte (1997), Poyatos (2001 press, 2002 press), and others mentioned in Volume III. 74 This linguistic-kinesic analogy can be outlined thus (cf. a longer outline in Poyatos 1983: 213– 214): Just as there are a bewildering number of anthropokinetically possible sounds (e.g. the articulations identified in Volume I and more) of which only a portion are utilized in each language,

380 Notes

there are also a staggering number of anthropokinetically possible bits of body motion of which only a specific number seem to constitute the distinctive kinemic repertoire of each culture. Each of those semantically distinctive movements (a wink eye-closure, a skeptical brow knit) that make up our kinemic system he called a kineme, just as each unreplaceable sound (pit, kit, sit) making up our phonetic system he called a phoneme. However, we know that a phoneme is not an isolated sound, although we treat it as such when we speak or hear others speak. ‘A cup of tea’ said with unaspirated [t] is just as good a cup of tea if said with aspirated [t’], because aspiration/nonaspiration is not an English distinctive feature and they are not different phonemes, but allophones (realizations) of the same phoneme; in like manner, the various realizable positional degrees of the eye-lid closure continuum of a wink are not different kinemes, but allokines; and just as a phoneme, not being a sound but an abstract unit, cannot be ‘pronounced,’ a kineme is not ‘moveable’ either but realizable through one of its allokines (Hayes 1964: 157). Next, Birdwhistle explained that just as a pronounceable series of phonemes, a morph, form a minimal speech unit called morpheme (friend, un-friendly), the combination of moveable body motion particles, kinemorphs, are joined into kinemorphemes (a wink eye-closure by itself, the same closure + raised cheek + unilateral upward mouth distension). Besides these segmental units, Birdwhistell (1968b) gave certain other body motion features (first dismissed as muscular, skeletal or skin phenomena in speech production) the status of suprasegmental stress kinemes when the correlation of spoken and moved behaviors were analyzed. He also added four parakinesic motion qualifiers defined in this chapter. The reader of the valuable (but difficult to read) compilation of researches by Birdwhistell (1970) will gain much by reading two reviews of it: Dittman’s (1971), who disagrees with him, and the lengthier one by Kendon (1972a), who adds to it his always invaluable contribution. 75 Two of my good friends and colleagues of many years, the well-known linguists Walburga von Raffler-Engel and Mary Ritchie Key, disagree with me regarding the alluded inferiority of the nonverbal repertoires in inverse proportion to socioeducational level. Key affirms not to have found justification for my claim in preliterate people she worked with, who “exhibit the whole range of human behavior found in every culture and nation of the world” (Key 1995: 385). While I have found, as she did, a natural elegance in some of those people not found in highly educated people, I must insist on their more limited verbal and nonverbal repertoires, beginning with the possible combinations within the language-paralanguage-kinesics structure. In fact, as a child I used to observe in the more humble people the definite lack of the kinds of more sophisticated conversational gestures which, as a Spanish psychiatrist-novelist wrote (referring to a character), we find in “aquel mundo donde los gestos alcanzan su belleza en una gama que para él permanece invisible” (Martín Santos, TS, 139). As for postures, I repeteadly noticed small-town and country visitors sitting on the edge of a chair (due to obvious inhibition in the unfamiliar artifactual environment) or sofa (also because at that time they lacked one at home): “Ayuso se sentó al borde de un butacón […] seguía dándole vueltas a la gorra y tragando saliva” (Caballero Bonald, DDS, I, II), an attitudinal posture due also to inhibition before a higher-status person: “Mr Guppy sits on the edge of a chair, and puts his hat on the carpet at his feet” (Dickens, BH, LV), “’Sit down!’ said Mr. Jordan, irritably pointing Mrs. Morel to a horse-hair chair. She sat on the edge in un uncertain fashion” (Lawrence, SL, V). However, later I saw some of those same people, who owned sofas and had adopted the postures of sofa users, except at times for certain parakinesic, class-identifying qualifiers. 76 Cf. Alison 1981; Braun and Schneider 1975; Broby-Johansen 1968; Craig 1968; Eicher and Roach 1973; Fisher 1973; Flugel 1930; Fussel 1983; Gurel and Beeson 1975; Harris and Johnston 1971; Hollander 1978; Horn 1968; Kaiser 1985; Kohler 1963; Konig 1973; Laver 1969; Liddle 1977; Ryan 1966; Sutton 1975; Vicary 1988. As for the also important movement-related visual aspect of clothes, Vicary (1989) discussed in detailed the Renaissance male’s ‘codpiece’ (see her list of full-length paintings of that period) is certainly an eloquent example.

Notes

381

77 The reader should review, as a complement to these brief comments, the ones made on the four semiotic levels involved in the perception of clothes, and our intrapersonal interaction with them, suggested in Chapter 6.17.2, Volume I. 78 The need to acknowledge in the ontogenetic development that intimate co-structuration of verbal language, paralanguage and kinesics (whose development is suggested in Chapter 4.8., Volume I) seems to be lacking in otherwise valuable publications, at least in its relevance from the point of view of social development, not only biologically or psychologically: Blurton-Jones (1972a, 1972b), Bulowa (1975, 1979), Camras, Malatesta and Izard (1991), Charlesworth and Kreutzer (1973), Condon and Sander (1974), DePaulo (1991), Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1983b), Ekman and Oster (1979: 532– 537), Feurstein (1981), Fridlund, A. J. (1991), Halberstadt (1991), Hoffer (1981), Hoffer and St. Clair (1981), Hopkins (1983), Izard et al. (1980), Lewis (1978), Lock (1978), Marcos (1981), Meltzoff and Moore (1983), Oster and Ekman (1978), Peng and von Raffler-Engel (1978), Volterra and Erting (1990), von Raffler-Engel (1978, 1980b, 1981), Waterhouse (1978). 79 Naturally, these definitional configurations are even more relevant as a play’s stage directions, since they offer the character’s physiopsychological configuration, as discussed in Volume III. 80 Kendon (2000: xix), although regarding gesture as “a concept with fuzzy boundaries,” considers it to be “visible bodily action that is considered to be a part of a person’s willful expression,” adding that “Changes in posture or the assumption of one posture or another, though often ‘expressive’ and voluntary’ are not generally considered ‘gesture’; though in some circumstances this may be appropriate”. He refers for further discussion to two of his other publications (Kendon 1981b, 1990c). However, simply pondering the literary examples of gestures offered throughut these three volumes, and considering the uncertain identity of the ‘random behaviors’ (discussed in all three, and specifically in Chapter 6.14.4 of Vol. I), makes one doubtful about any clear bounday between ‘willful’ and ‘unwillful’ gestures, and certainly favor the latter as true gestures: “you sighed, uneasily running your forefinger between collar and neck” (Lewis, D, XIV) 81 Cf. the references offered by Beattie and Aboudan (1994: 257) to an anticipation of miliseconds, of much less social value than those clearly observable. I borrow from Korte (1997: 255) her quotation from seventeenth-century Cahusac’s “Geste,” in Diderot’s and d’Alembert’s (eds.) Encyclopédie, advocating a systematic and rather contrived pre-word production of gesture by the stage actor: Le geste au théatre [sic] doit toujours précéder la parole on sent bien plutôt que la parole ne peut le dire; & le geste est beaucoup plus preste que’elle; il faut des moments [sic] à la parole pour se former et pour frapper loreille; le geste que la sensibilité rend agile, part toujours au moment même où l’ame [sic] eprouve le sentiment (112–13) 82 As a token of the variety of behaviors and attitudes involved in eating, see the observations on Japanese eating manners in the article by Tohyama (1991, 1993), cited in this chapter. 83 Originated, it seems, when an ancient emperor who was visiting the town incognito would pour tea for his overwhelmed servant, who could not resist the impulse to bow somehow. 84 Once the waiter at a popular Spanish restaurant said to me, referring to my foreign table mates (wrongly assuming they would not understand): “Don’t let them order fish, they don’t know how to eat it!” 85 A posture unfortunately witnessed too often in images of disasters and dramatic situations in Latin America and the Middle East, documented by the great Eugene Smith in his dramatic photo after an air raid in the Spanish Civil War, published in Life.

382

Notes

86 Many of the possible 1728 postures of the lips are identified in Chapter 3.8, Volume I. 87 To cite but one definition of kinesics that does not include gaze: “all movements of the fingers, arms, or hands, excluding emblems and pure self-touching movements and movements involving the touching of an object of furniture” (Beattie and Aboudam, 1994: 247). 88 See the article by Maranda (1986) on grammatical, phonetic, orthographic, semantic and communicative reasons for blinking. 89 On our wedding day I was reluctantly and helplessly taken to an actually ‘famous’ portrait photographer’s studio who in none of my wife’s individual portraits asked her to look at the camera, or rather, at anyone in the future. Quite wrongly, many mediocre portrait photographers instruct their subjects to look away from the lens, which amounts to telling them: ‘Don’t look at the future beholders, don’t interact with them.’ It is different when we choose to keep the photograph of one or more subjects totally realistic (achieving true social realism) without their acknowledgement of the photographer (see, for instance, the subjects and situations in Poyatos 1996b, 1998a). The other mistaken attitude of many ‘camera holders’ is to make their subjects give us ‘a big smile.’ One thing is for gaze and smiling to blend in live, natural interaction, or for that big smile to be displayed by people who at the time the snapshot is taken are extremely happy and smile or are engaged in some horseplay; and another to ask the subject for a gesture that will distort his or her facial features (particularly for those reviewers who are not familiar with the person) rather than simply look at the camera with a candid expression. This becomes worse in group pictures, for which individual expressions are obliterated and replaced by a collective, impersonal ‘anatomical smile.’ The presence or absence of smiles is always (culturally, socially, personally, situationally and attitudinally) quite telling, and very valuable as we look critically through a family album, a frequent project topic in my nonverbal communication courses (cf. Weiser 1988, a very valuable discussion of photography as nonverbal communication). 90 An allusion to Philippians 4:7. 91 Sections and whole chapters on interpersonal touch, for which the term ‘haptics’ has been coined, can be found in textbooks (e.g. Burgoon et al. 1989: 101–121; Knapp and Hall 1992: 229–259; Malandro et al. 1989: 201–228; Leathers 1997: 111–129). Cf. also Jourard and Barnlund classic cross-cultural studies of interpersonal touch in Japan and in the United States (Jourard 1966; Barnlund 1975). 92 This attitude of ‘withness’ is applicable to many other kinds of social encounters, more crucially so in professional situations, as on the part of physicians with their patients. My wife and I have personally and repeteadly observed that the direct eye contact unexceptionally given us by a Spanish pay-doctor is quite frequently missing (along with other basic signs of courtesy) when we go to most doctors as social security, non-paying patients. 93 A very young Canadian boy I knew who had done his first year of school in Peru, was affected for a long time because at the end of his first school day back in Canada, the lady teacher refused to bent down and give him the kiss he expected. 94 A classic example is, of course, the 19th-century work by Andrea di Jorio, now masterfully translated and edited by Kendon (Kendon 2000). This complex ethnographic study of gesture and posture by the canon of the Naples Cathedral (who was also an archeologist and a museum curator) is based on the believe that “gestural expressions of the common people of the Naples of his day could be useful in interpreting the gestures and bodily postures depicted in the frescoes and mosaics and sculptures and on the vases of Greco-Roman antiquity” (Kendon 2000: xxi).

Notes

383

95 In the scientific field, for instance, Cocciara (1932), (Ekman 1980c), Givens (1977), Johnson, Ekman and Friesen (1975), Kendon (1980b, 1980c, 1982a, 1982b, 1984, 1986a, 1986b, 1988a), Nespoulous, Perron and Roch (1986), Sorell (1967). 96 Kaulfers (1931, 1932), Cardona (1953–1954), Amades (1957), Brault (1963), Hamalian (1965), Green (1968), Hutt (1968), Johnson (1971), Efron (1972 [1941]), Jakobson (1972), Johnson (1972), Saitz and Cervenka (1972 [1962]), Scheflen (1972), Barakat (1973, 1975), Taylor (1974a, 1974b), Baüme and Baüme (1975), Brodis (1977), Cestero (1999), Creider (1977), Wylie (1977), Morris et al. (1979), Kendon (1980a. 1980b, 1986c), Mascaró (1981), Ramsey (1981), Rector and Trinta (1985), Sayyid (1985), Rector (1986), Diadori (1990), Archer (1991), Axtell (1991), Hawad-Claudot (1992), Cestero (1999). 97 The video series on nonverbal communication by University of California at Santa Cruz Dan Archer explores the human body, cross-cultural communication, the face, paralanguage, cultural differences in gestures, and two “self-test” person perception tasks. “A World of Gestures” is an excellent classroom tool for discussing cross-cultural variation. Chapter 6 98 This is actually the way we find it in a novel or in a play’s stage directions, when movements are said to be executed ‘violently,’ ‘with impatience,’ ‘slowly,’ etc. 99 The four types of kinetic-audible constructs are identified by the following signs: [+] indicates sounds produced by contacting oneself; [°], by contacting another body; [•], by contacting objects in general; and [*], not directly but by artifactual extensions of the body against something else, the characteristics of which sounds reflect those of the originating movement (e.g. slamming a door). 100 Roger Wescott (1967), an interdisciplinary anthropologist-linguist of indefatigable curiosity, identified as ‘strepital communication’ a series of human and animal self-adaptor sounds. 101 The slam of a door can be said to belong to two subcategories within this category: to be holding the door when it produces the slamming sound is one thing; another is the same sound generated by an intentional thrust, but whose characteristics are not functioning anymore as a continued extension of the producing organism, the person. Again, this is an element worth including in a transcription of an encounter, where these object-mediated behaviors operate at two levels: the audible-kinesic and its quasiparalinguistic manifestation. 102 I use Spanish [¡ !] to convey the intensity of the communicative act. See Chapter 5 of Volume III, on punctuation. 103 The often wrongly applied concept of redundancy is discussed in Chapter 2.10, Volume I. 104 In turn evoking the characteristic wooden porch of the average traditional North American frame home, with two or three steps which, if alluded to in a novel, would escape the reader unfamiliar with that cultural fact. Chapter 7 105 Later, at the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (1977) and one of Linguistics (1979), in a book chapter (Poyatos 1983: Chapter 6) and then abbreviated in the proceedings of the Vienna symposium and some in other publications (Poyatos 1984a, 1984b, 1986a). More recently, but less developed than here, in the first issue of Oralia (Poyatos, 1998b). Thus, enlarging here upon those earlier discussions, I outline my own ideas, particularly on silence, but as related now also to light and darkness and as applicable to other topics in the three volumes (especially conversation and interaction and in the literary text and the theater). No attempt is made at reviewing other worthy studies that, dealing with silence, have, however, neglected stillness, although they are so close to each

384

Notes

other in so many respects. See, for instance, the books by Jaworski (1993, 1997), with an interesting bibliography, the one by Tyler (1985), and the volume edited by Tannen and Saville-Troike (1985). 106 I use the term ‘nonactivity’ to differentiate it from ‘inactivity’ or ‘lack of activity,’ of what otherwise is regarded as active, and thus acknowledge its specific status. 107 The New American Bible translates “Some lived in darkness and gloom.” 108 The New King James Version translates “The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.” Some Bible editions count psalm titles or dedication, thus the second number indicate those. 109 In fact, darkness and gloom are associated in our minds, in literature and even in Scripture, as when ‘the Day of the Lord,’ or of Judgement, is announced as “a day of darkness and of gloom, a day of cloud and somberness” (Joel 2:2, NAB), “of cloud and blackness” (JB), “-of clouds and thick darkness” (NKJ, RSV, NRSV). 110 Punctuation, as studied in Chapter 5 of Volume III, devoted entirely to literature, includes the types of silence and their visual representation. 111 This chapter does not include what in Chapter 8.11 is discussed as ‘reduced interaction,’ but the pathological aspects of silences and stills deserve an in-depth study. 112 This example shows again the syntactical and even lexical value of nonverbal communication (discussed in Chapter 4.4, Volumen I), since the silence or stillness that follows words acts as a principle element in the sentence. 113 Interactive silences are characteristic of other North American Indian cultures. Of the Western Apaches of Arizona, Basso (1972), besides observing their tendency to not speak to strangers and the obvious suspicion with which they regard someone who starts talking right away (whom they may believe drunk), studied, for instance, the silence of young people at the beginning of a love relationship, or in front of someone who is angry or mourning. He also mentions the silence among the Navahos of Arizona when among relatives after a long absence, when an angry or drunk person shouts at them (in the latter state because they believe that is not the real person), and in front of mourning people. 114 It is the silence mentioned by Laín (1994: 462), who identifies it as “aquel del que se dice que “el que calla, otorga,” although the term “silencio significativo” is not precisely its definitional characteristic, applicable, as we see here, to other types of silence. 115 I had occasion to observe this several times while watching a videotape in the laboratory of my colleague and friend von Raffler-Engel at her Vanderbilt University laboratory in 1976. A graduate student was experimenting on certain nonverbal aspects while reading stories to children, but, in my opinion, failed precisely when she did not allow for those indispensable and strategically located silences. Later, one of my psychology students experimented with groups of children, reading a story with and then without those needed silences, with and then without an articulated and entertaining style, intonation, etc., which resulted in the expected reactions of interest and disinterest, undivided attention and distraction. 116 In fact, music with lyrics playing at department stores (even bookstores, where people are supposed to be browsing), or blasting off in a Spanish supermarket, simply interferes with our decision-making thinking. 117 By virtue of what in Chapter 8.9 is identified as ‘advanced hidden feedback,’ so very real and important in social interaction. 118 Once, while taking two elderly ladies for an outing, one of them, a widow for some years, was advising the other, whose husband had died recently: “Oh, yes, dear, you want to keep the television on!”

Notes

385

The silence of those women is the one that can only enhance their solitude, in the middle of which, however, many said to acknowledge God’s presence in their lives. 119 Again as advanced hidden feedback. 120 Nonverbal communication in the theater is studied in Volume III. 121 From a 1980 nonverbal communication sociology course project. 122 Morsbach, a Glasgow University psychologist extremely conversant with the culture and language of Japan through many stays there, mentions two examples: one in which a perfectly bilingual western professor “did not interpret the silences between their words correctly” (203) when meeting with his Japanese colleagues; another, in which “a cultural misunderstanding of the function of silence” led the American professor to miss how the Japanese expressed their desire with silence while discussing a project, which made them say angrily that Americans try to “teach Orientals to speak out, but nobody ever tries to teach Americans how to shut up” (207). Morsbach cites also Sigmund Freud’s biographer (Jones 1957:239) to illustrate precisely what the Japanese call ‘isshin-denshin’: “There was [between Freud and his daughter] a deep, silent understanding and sympathy that reigned between them […] a silent communication […] the deepest thoughts and feelings could be conveyed by a faint gesture.” There is an ample literature (and unpublished doctoral theses) devoted to analyzing and avoiding the nonverbal communication problems, particularly between Japan and the United States, as well as training programs for business people (e.g. Morsbach 1972, 1988a; Befu 1974; Tada 1975; Passin 1982; Ramsey 1981, 1984; Ramsey and Birk 1983; Ramsey, Hofner and Shimakawa 1988). On interactive silences in Japanese literature, see, for instance, the work of Japanese linguist Hasada on silences in the novel and the difficulties they pose in translation (Hasada 1997), discussed in Chapter 3 of Volume III. 123 Among other cross-cultural differences with regard to silence are the ones mentioned by contributors to a volume edited by Tannen and Saville-Troike (1985). Lehtonen and Sajavaara (1985) deal with the longer interactive silences of the Finns (which I myself have experienced), sometimes interpreted as lack of attention or as indifference and even hostility, since the Finns define themselves as phlegmatic, introvert and reticent (and men, I was told, shy, which I have also experienced several times, as when I handed my camera to a well-dressed gentleman, asking him to take a picture of my colleague and me). Nwoye (1985) studies the very extrovert Igbo of Nigeria, who practise important ritual silences, for instance: during a wake, in which visitors keep silent for a moment, for instance, the widow or the deceased’s parents, sit also in silence for a while, and finally go again before the relatives in silence prior to leaving; the silence with which someone on his way to a sacrifice is respected; when at an annual festival some men must not leave the house for two days and their families cannot talk to them because they are believed to be communicating with their ancestors; or when, at the end of the ceremony to give a child a name, the mother is forbidden to speak (even if bothered by people) when she goes to the stream as part of her purification twenty-eight days after childbirth. Chapter 8 124 I first treated this topic in an article (Poyatos 1985b; in Spanish, Poyatos 1986b), and lately included a short version of this chapter in an article on intercultural communication (Poyatos 2000a), and a delayed and shorter Portuguese version (Poyatos 2000b); I discussed it at the 1st International Congress of Applied Psycholinguistics (Barcelona, 1985), and as the theme for the symposium I organized for the 21st Congress of applied Psychology (Jerusalem, 1986); I then outlined it in an edited volume on nonverbal communication (Poyatos 1988d), and amplified it

386 Notes

somewhat for a University of Cádiz summer course on psychoanalysis I shared with three psychiatrist (Poyatos 1996a). The present version represents by far my fullest treatment of the topic to date. 125 The first impression that a cursory glance at this chapter might give some as ‘unfocused’ discussion, with no ‘problem formulation’ and no specific ‘conclusion’ (as expected of a traditional psychological approach), would hopefully change when seen in the light of the great need for as comprehensive as possible an approach whose underlying and most fundamental ‘problem’ is the very nature and usual avenues of communication studies, and whose ‘conclusion’ may be found in the very approach taken as the only realistic analysis of interaction. With a perspective of almost thirty years, I must acknowledge the personal encouragement of the late psychiatrist and professor Albert Scheflen (Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Bronx State Hospital) and psychologist Adam Kendon (both quite influential in the then young field of nonverbal communication studies); of the anthropologist-urban architect Amos Rapoport, whose interest for people’s interaction with their built environment brought us together at the 9th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (Chicago, 1973) and in his edited volume (Rapoport 1976); and very especially, as in other areas of my work, of Thomas Sebeok, one of the more interdisciplinarily prolific and influential minds in multi- and interdisciplinary semiotics. Perhaps Scheflen’s words confirmed my conviction of the need to fathom the multisystemic reality of personal and environmental interaction, when, referring to my already initiated model, wrote: “The minimal does require a lot of work of us all but anything less — as you so ably point out — is Aristotelian bunk and it will not do” (letter of 4 December, 1973); which Adam Kendon reiterated referring to one of my earlier versions: “I very much appreciate your effort to develop a systematic framework in terms of which the broadened ‘holistic’ view of interaction you present can be handled […] especially in ‘Replies and Responses’ and ‘On Footing’ — Goffman was attempting to draw attention to the fact that all models of interaction proposed hitherto would not work because they abstracted and focused upon but a partial aspect of the process […] He challenges us to see how we can develop a view of interaction in which spoken utterances are but an example of the kind of activity in respect to which two or a few individuals can enter jointly into […] Perhaps the work you have been doing for such a long time, especially in this latest manifestation, provides a response to that challenge” (letter of 7 March, 1986). Therefore, when I allude to the limitations of previous interaction studies, I think with much gratitude of those colleagues, who, as many others, were always conscious of such limitations in our field. 126 Only some of those interdisciplinary perspectives would include: the ontogenetic development of the language-paralanguage-kinesics structure (against the study of language development only, and not necessarily independently of other systems like proxemics or the conceptualization and frequency of chemical and dermal reactions, which may vary personally and cross-culturally), since all three repertoires clearly develop morphologically as well as functionally (any imbalance betraying different abnormalities in the developmental curve); a sociopsychological and cross-cultural study of the conceptualization and interactive functions of conversational silences; the many sociopsychological implications of the use of the ‘body-adaptors’ shown in the table, as well as of objectadaptors like the various types of furniture (actually body-adaptors if anatomically designed); the effect on interpersonal interactions of the intelligible components of encounters (see table), according to age, personality and cultural background; the deeper relationships between the built environment (urban design and architectural spaces and volumes) and interpersonal and personenvironment interaction. 127 I borrowed the terms ‘sociofugal’ and ‘sociopetal’ from Sommer (mainly 1969). 128 To the three interpersonal distances differentiated by Hall (1966), public, social, personal and intimate, I added, for convenience sake (Poyatos 1976a: 145–146, 1983: 205), far distance, in relation

Notes

387

to the things that surround us, and objectual distance (Poyatos 1983: 209–210). The many marked cross-cultural differences in proxemic attitudes are rather well known (Hall 1966; Watson (1974), although they continue to cause many interactive problems or at least slights. 129 Body-adaptors and object-adaptors are discussed in detail in Chapter 6 of Volume I. 130 After referring in class to the present-day neglect of olfactory discrimination in medicine (in favor of not always too efficacious mechanical means), a nurse did a course project interviewing her hospital colleagues and, besides a good number of odor descriptions (inevitably based on comparison), reported on a nurse who could smell impending death in a ward. 131 From a semiotic point of view, any type of signs, independently of their origin, constitute a semiotic activity, although here the term ‘activity’ must be understood as applied only to personal or extrapersonal physical, chemical, dermal or thermal forms. However, it can be said that semiotic activity becomes one only when those signs are perceived, or at least when we are exposed to them. 132 At the other extreme are, of course, those who recognize their social responsibility when they design (see Note 4 in Volume I), and when they teach others that architecture means interaction, as does Amos Rapoport (Rapoport 1976, 1982). 133 Discussed in Chapter 2.3 of Volume I, and in the previous chapter. 134 In itself a concept amply differentiated cross-culturally, which we see both in a home and in public places and among hospital patients and institutionalized persons, the latter conditioned by their long or short stay (the former leading in general to a decreasing concept of personal space and need for privacy), since both personal space and the need for intimacy decrease as their stay lengthens. In my sociology nonverbal communication course I identified the following ways of invading privacy: physical (e.g. touching unnecessarily, tailgating), objectual (e.g. leaving clothes in a roommate’s territory or borrowing them without permission, or using posters and other objects disliked by the other person) visual (e.g. staring [but usually not by children, unless the situation is too private], scanning the person [as in an interview]), auditory (e.g. TV, radio and music and noises in an apartment building, loud talking and laughter in a restaurant), olfactory (e.g. smoking in a non-smoking place or home, an intense disagreeable perfume, sweat, the Malaysian fruit ‘durian’ [now forbidden in Malaysian hotels for its offensive smell to Caucasian guests]); to which we should add the ‘nonperson treatment,’ such as doctor and nurse whispering about their patient at his door, a family speaking at the table about their maid’s ethnic group while she is waiting on them, etc. (Cf. Goffman 1959: 150–151; Sommer 1969: 28). 135 The definition of chronemics offered in Note 70 Volume I, suggested the effects of the various temporal aspects of our interactions with other people and with the natural or built environment. It must be remembered that any type of sensible sign, be it an embrace, a voice, a gesture or a perfume, can persist through time beyond the encounter in which it happened and even elicit physical and mental activities, from love to a telephone call or the weeping for a dead person. 136 What is called foveal vision (0.26 mm. horizontally and 6.25 mm. vertically) is used, for instance, to thread a needle, but not to correct printer’s proofs, as we should, or to read. 137 The topic of this chapter is closely related to conversation, discussed in Chapter 7 of Volume I. 138 For instance, in North America, a voluminous feminine hairdo (because of the uncut hair bunched in the back of the head) is seen as characteristic of this denomination; a token of what would make an interesting comparative study — done as course projects by some of my students — of nonverbal communication in, for instance, the various Christian (e.g. Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Evangelical) and non-Christian (e.g. Mormons, Jehova Witnesses) Churches. 139 These are the situations in which the characteristic ‘lonely laughter’ was identified in Chapter 3.2.6.

388

Notes

140 It must always be emphasized that both cultural background and personality plays a decisive role in these encounters, to which is added their proxemics and territoriality aspects, some locations being specifically peculiar (cf. Sommer 1969: 122–125, on drinking establishments, so markedly different across cultures) 141 In her course project on fifteen blind subjects, my former 1985–1987 student, Dr. Lori Leach, wrote: “I found myself becoming frustrated because on pausing for thought or searching for a word, my [speaker’s] turn would be taken by the listener […] he assumed that I was turn-yielding or turnoffering and proceeded to carry on with the conversation […] at other times I would nonverbally (kinesically) be turn-offering […] resulting in absent turn-taking.” 142 On feedback, Lori used to tell me about her interactions with her blind subjects, and she wrote: “It is difficult to talk to a person who is not looking you in the face or whose eyes are constantly twitching” (the latter typical of the congenitally blind). As a male subject who lost his sight at fourteen said to her, his friends were forever nudging him because while listening he would have an expressionless face and be staring at the floor or the wall. “When all you have to look at is black it doesn’t much matter where you look.” Since Chapter 7 of volume I, on conversation, could not be reviewed here, the reader can do it applying it also to other situations of reduced interaction. 143 A congenitally blind male said “he had no idea what the look of anger was, and if told to look angry, he could not do it, because he had no conceptualization of the external emotional reaction.” As Lori said, the lack of sufficient externalizers in the congenitally blind person’s repertoire would work against him in, for instance, an employment interview. As well, some explained to her that “a source of much conflict […] was the fact that their faces and body did not respond nonverbally to what their spouse was saying, resulting in frustration and anger on the spouse’s part. How can someone express an emotion or reaction which they have never seen? They also explained to her how — due to increased auditory perception — they could determine their interlocutor’s posture by the way their voice bounced off furniture and walls (that is, like bats’ echolocation principle) and postural shifts and broad gestures (therefore, also proxemics) by air currents; and how, for instance, a man would tap the pavement with his white cane in a quiet street and detect any objects in front or beside him (using even the clicking of his tongue to “throw at objects” in front of him). 144 A beloved friend, the late Margaret Gallagher, after losing her hearing to measles in the early 1900s when she was just beginning to talk, developed her language amazingly and with a normal and educated lexicon (a rather high pitch being its only anomaly) and an equally abundant paralinguistic repertoire; only if I inadvertently misarticulated an English word would she fail to understand us the first time, since she watched our lips. 145 The loss can be also gradual. Over the last twenty years I have experienced the decreased outward manifestations of affection between my friend Barry Smith and I, as his multiple sclerosis progressed: first a hug began to be difficult because he had to lean on a cane; later, the general rigidity of his arms and being on a wheelchair limited our greeting to my own somewhat impeded embrace; then his hands, still able on the computer keyboard, were more passive than active in our contact. As in other instances of reduced interaction, we both began to compensate verbally and paralinguistically for what our kinesics could not completely express (although, instinctively, my affection was conveyed by the longer pressure of my hugging). 146 My colleague Paul McDonnell from the Psychology Department is active also in the well-known University of New Brunswick Biomedical Engineering Institute (where I have met some of the children clients). He dealt (McDonnell 1992), among other aspects, with: the scientific details about the etiology of children’s congenitally or acquired limb deficiency. He discussed the crucial difference (particularly in childhood and adolescence) between the conventional split hook and the myolectric prosthesis; how, although devoid of cutaneous receptivity, the latter offers many positive alternatives

Notes

389

for interaction), controlled by signals sent by the residual muscle in the stump by means of two electrodes hidden in the artificial arm’s socket; how they are subject, like in any other traumatic amputees, to the ‘phantom limb’ sensation. 147 Anosmia (most often coupled to ageusia) can be congenital or caused typically by nasal polyps, but also by fracture of the cribriform plate at the base of the skull (through which nerves travel from the nose to the temporal lobe), severe burns, after a stroke or ear surgery, in hypothyroidism, brain tumor, smoking, wearing denture, diphtheria, pregnancy, etc. Having suffered from anosmia and ageusia, due to small polyps, for long periods in the past, I was unable to experience the smells and tastes during different stays in cultures like Japan, Hungary, Israel, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Finland, Denmark, etc. Homes, people, streets, public buildings and conveyances, food, etc., are stored as olfactory memories, as are the gustatory memories of cultural dishes, kinds of bread, etc. Anosmia and ageusia, therefore, preclude many later associations. 148 There are, of course, other reduced interaction situations, like the ones we find in hospitalized patients with bandages, casts, intravenous tubes interfering with speech, or who are in pain or sedated. But the most serious instances are those caused by different types of severe states like after a stroke or in congenital conditions like mental retardation, in which case one must develop a very specific interactive fluency and, with training and observation, determine, for instance, which nonverbal categories (Chapter 6, Volume I) are present in the speechless person. In fact, among the most sensitive students’ papers in my nonverbal communication courses, and most rewarding for their authors, have been those dealing with severely handicapped people (which I would often recommend to nurses and future physicians and therapists), sometimes the student’s own daughter, sister or brother (suffering from acquired brain damage, cerebral palsie, Rett’s Syndrome, blindness, deafness, severe autism, limb defficiency, etc). They invariably served not only to personally identify the specific communication problems and the best ways to deal with them, but the family’s attitude toward the person, almost always of loving acceptance, as attest some of the many statements from different papers: “This research paper […] Not only has given me insight […] but has helped me to discover things about myself,” “Hopefully staff and families will realize the significance of nonverbal communication in relieving frustration and promoting understanding for those in their care,” “[the subject is] an inspiration to her family,” “I thank God each day for her,” “[the relatives have been] drawn closer to God […] realized without His help they were not getting anywhere.”

List of illustrations

Fig. 1.1 Fig. 1.2 Fig. 2.1 Fig. 3.1 Fig. 4.1 Fig. 4.2 Fig. 5.1

Paralanguage 3 Aspects and functions of loudness 6 Paralinguistic qualifiers 26 Co-structurations of differentiators and interaction components 59 Manner and point of articulation or production of alternants 160 Paralinguistic and kinesic qualifiers of alternants 167 External anatomy: areas and points of possible interpersonal and intrapersonal articulations 192 Fig. 5.2a, b, c, d, e Questionnaires for fieldwork on greetings 218 Fig. 5.3 Data sources and recording techniques for kinesic inventories 247 Fig. 6.1 The interrelationship of human and environmental sounds 271 Fig. 7.1 Semiotic forms of sound and silence and movement and stillness 282 Fig. 7.2 The functions and qualifiers of silence and stillness 303 Fig. 7.3 Co-structurations of silence and stillness with the surrounding elements 328 Fig. 8.1 Components of personal and environmental interaction 344 Fig. 8.2 Intellectual evaluation of interactive sign perception 344 Fig. 8.3 The mechanisms of interactive co-structurations 353 Fig. 8.4 Nonverbal communication in reduced interaction 362

Scientific references Abercrombie, David. 1968. Paralanguage. British Journal of Disorders of Communication 3, 55–59; in J. Laver, S. Hutcheson (eds.), Communication in Face-to-Face Interaction. 64–70. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. 1972. Addington, D. W. 1968. “The relationship of selected voice characteristics to personality perception.” Speech Monographs 13, 546–54. Alison, Lurie. 1981. The Language of Clothes. New York: Random House. Agee, James. 1979. “Comedy’s greatest era.” In G. Mast, M. Cohen (eds.) Film Theory and Criticism. New York: Oxford University Press. Amades. Joan. 1957. “El gest a Catalunya.” Anales del Instituto de Lingüística 6, 88–117, Mendoza: Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Anguera, María Teresa. 1978. Metodología de la observación en las ciencias humanas. Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra. ——— (ed.). 1999a Observación en la escuela: aplicaciones. Barcelona: Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona. ——— (ed.). 1999b. Observación en deporte y conducta cinésico-motriz: aplicaciones. Barcelona: Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona. ——— (ed.). 1999c. Observación de conducta interactiva en contxtos naturales: aplicaciones. Barcelona: Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona. ——— (ed.). 1999d. Observación en etología (animal y humana): Aplicaciones. Barcelona: Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona. ——— (ed.). 1999e. Observación en psicología clínica: aplicaciones. Barcelona: Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona. Aquilina, Mike. 2001. ‘Quiet riot.” New Covenant, 30(8) March. Archer, Dane. 1991. A World of Gestures (30-min. videotape, with manual). University of California Media Center. 2176 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704. Argyle, Michael. 1967. The Psychology of Interpersonal Behaviour. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ———. 1969. Social Interaction. London: Methuen/New York: Etherton. ———. 1975. “The syntaxes of bodily communication.” In J. Benthall T. Polhemus (eds.), The Body as a Medium of Expression. 143–161. London: Allen Lane; Linguistics 112, 71–89. ———. 1990. Bodily Communication (2nd ed.). London: Methuen.

394 Scientific references

———. 1992. “Does Nonverbal communication cause happiness?.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Advances in Nonverbal Communication: Sociocultural, Clinical, Esthetic and Literary Perspectives. 99–112. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Argyle, Michael, Roger Inham, Florisse Alkema. 1973. “The different functions of gaze.” Semiotica 7(1), 19–32. Argyle, Michael, Mark Cook. 1976. Gaze and Mutual Gaze. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Argyle, Michael, J. Dean. 1965. “Eye Contact, Distance and Affiliation.” Sociometry 28, 289–304; in J. Laver, S. Hutcheson (eds), Communication in Face-to-Face Interaction. 301–318. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972. Ashcraft, Norman, Albert Scheflen. 1976. How Behavior Means. Garden City. N. Y.: Anchor Books. Austin, William. 1965. “Some social aspects of paralanguage.” Canadian Journal of Linguistics 11 (1), 31–35. Axtell, Roger E. 1991. Gestures: The Do’s and Taboos of Body Language Around the World. New York: John Wiley. Bailey, Flora. 1942. “Navaho Motor habits.” American Anthropologist 44 (2), 210–34. Baker, Sidney J. 1955. “The Theory of Silences.” The Journal of General Psychology 3, 145–167. Barakat, Robert A. 1973. “Arabic Gestures.” Journal of Popular Culture 6, 749–893. ———. 1974. The Cistercian Sign Language: A Study in Non-Verbal Communication. Cistercian Studies Series, 11. Dublin. ———. 1975. Cistercian Sign Language. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Cistercian Publications. Barnlund, Dean C. 1975. “Communicative Styles in Two cultures: Japan and the United States.” In A. Kendon, R. M. Harris, M. R. Key (eds.), The Organization of Behavior in Face-to-Face Interaction. World Anthropology Series. 427–456. The Hague: Mouton. Basso, K. H. 1972. “’To Give Up on Words’: Silence in Western Apache Culture.” In P. P. Giglioli (ed.), Language and Social Context. 67–87. Harmondsworth: Penguin Bauer, Olga. 1959. Cortesía y etiqueta modernas. Madrid: Aguilar. Baüme, Betty, Franz Baüme. 1975. A Dictionary of Gestures. Metuchen, N. J.: The Scarecrow Press. Beattie, Geoffrey y Rima Aboudan. 1994. “Gestures, pauses and speech: An experimental investigation of the effects of changing social context on their precise temporal relationships. Semiotica 99 , 3/4, 239–272. Befu, H. 1974. “A Ethnography of dinner entertainment in Japan.” Arctic Anthropology 11, 196–203. Bell, Alexander M. 1870. Visible Speech: The Science of Universal Alphabetics. London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. Benthall, Jonathan, Ted Polhemus (eds.). 1975. The Body as a Medium of Expression. London: Allen Lane.

Scientific references

Bergson, Henry. 1900. La rire. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1972. Bevans. 1960. McCall’s Book of Everyday Etiquette. New York: Golden Press. Birdwhistell, Ray L. 1952. Introduction to Kinesics: An Annotated System for Analysis of Body Motion and Gesture. Washington, D.C.: Dept. of State, Foreign Service Institute. ———. 1955. “Background to kinesics.” ETC 13(1), 10–18. ———. 1959. “Contribution of linguistic-kinesic studies to the understanding of schizophrenia.” In A. Auerbach (ed.), Schizophrenia. 99–123. New York: The Ronald Press. ———. 1960. “Kinesics and communication.” In E. Carpenter, M. McLuhan (eds.), Explorations in Communication. 54–64. Boston: Beacon Press. ———. 1961. “Paralanguage 25 years after Sapir.” In H. W. Brosin (ed.), Lectures on Experimental Psychiatry. 43–63. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press; in J. Laver, S. Hutcheson (eds.), Communication in Face-To-Face Interaction. 82–100. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972. ———. 1963. “The Kinesic Level in the Investigation of the Emotions.” In P. Knapp (ed.), Expression of the Emotions in Man. 123–139. New York: International University Press. ———. 1966. “Some relations between American kinesics and spoken American English.” In A. Smith (ed.), Communication and Culture. 182–189. New York: Holt. ———. 1967. “Some body motion elements accompanying spoken American English.” In L. Thayer (ed.), Communication: Concept and Perspectives. 53–76. London: Macmillan/ Washington, D. C.: Spartan Books. ———. 1968a. “L’analyse kinésique.” Langages 10, 101–106. ———. 1968b. “Communication Without Words.” Encyclopedie des Sciences de l’Homme, Vol. 5. 157–166. Paris: De La Grange Bateliere. ———. 1970. Kinesics and Context: Essays on Body Motion Communication. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press; New York: Ballantine Books, 1972 (review by A. Kendon [1972a]). ———. 1972. “Kinesics and communication.” In V. P. Clark, P. A. Eschholz, A. F. Rosa (eds.), Language: Introductory Readings. 492–501. New York: St. Martin’s Press. ———. 1975. “Background considerations to the study of the body as a medium of expression.” In J. Benthal, T. Polhemus (eds.), The Body as a Medium of Expression. 36–58. London: Allen Lane, Penguin Books. Blurton-Jones, N.G. 1972a. “Nonverbal communication in children. In R. Hinde (ed.), Nonverbal Communication. 271–296. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ———. 1972b. Ethological Studies of Child Behavior. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bouissac, Paul. 1973. La mesure des gestes: Prolégomènes à la sémiotique gestuelle. The Hague: Mouton. Brackett, I. P. 1971. “Parameters of voice quality.” In L. W. Travis (ed.), Handbook of Speech Pathology and Audiology. 441–463. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall.

395

396 Scientific references

Brault, Gerard J. 1963. “Kinesics in the classroom: some typical French gestures.” The French Review 36(4), 374–382. Braun and Schneider. 1975. Historical Costume in Pictures. New York: Dover (Munich: Braun and Schneider, 1861–1890). Bremmer, Jan, Herman Roodenburg. 1992. A Cultural History of Gesture. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Broby-Johansen, R. 1968. Body and Clothes. London: Faber. Brodis, N. 1977. Israeli Emblems: A Study of One Category of Communicative Nonverbal Behavior. Unpublished M. A. thesis. Tel Aviv: University of Tel Aviv. Bruneau, Thomas. 1973. “Communicative silences: forms and functions.” The Journal of Communication 23, 117–146. ———. 1979. “Silence, mind-time relativity, and interpersonal communication.” in The Study of Time III: Proceedings of the Third International Conference of the Society for the Study of Time. Alpach, Austria. Bull, Peter. 1986. Posture and Gesture. Oxford: Pergamon. Bullowa, Margaret. 1975. “When infant and adult communicate how do they synchronize their behavior?.” In A. Kendon, R. M. Harris, M. R. Key (eds.), Organization of Behavior in Face-to-Face Interaction (World Anthropology). 95–125. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1979. Before Speech: The Beginning of Interpersonal Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge university Press. Burgoon, Judee K., David B. Buller, W. Gill Woodall. 1989. Nonverbal Communication: The Unspoken Dialogue. New York: Harper & Row. Bynon, James. 1976. “Domestic Animal Calling in a Berber Tribe.” In W. C. Mc Cormack, S. Wurm (eds.), Language and Man: Anthropological Issues (World Anthropology Series). 39–65. The Hague: Mouton. Camras, Linda A., C. Malatesta, Carroll E. Izard. 1991. “The development of facial expressions in infancy.” In R. S. Feldman, B. Rimé (eds.), Fundamentals of Nonverbal Behavior. 73–105. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. Cardona, Miguel. 1953–1954. “Gestos o ademanes habituales enVenezuela.” Archivos Venezolanos de Folklore 2(3), 159–166. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela. Carmichel, L., S. O. Roberts, N. Y. Wesell. 1937. “A study of the judgement of manual expression as presented in still and motion pictures.” Journal of Social Psychology 8, 115–142. Catford, J. C. 1964. “Phonation types: the classification of some laryngeal components of speech production. In D. Abercrombie, D. B. Fry, P. A. D. MacCarthy (eds.), In Honour of Daniel Jones. 26–37. London: Longmans. ———. 1968. “The articulatory possibilities of man.” In B. Malmberg (ed.). Manual of Phonetics. 309–333. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Scientific references

———. 1977. Fundamental Problems in Phonetics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Cestero, Ana María. 1999. Repertorio básico de signos no verbales del español. Madrid: Arco/Libros. Charlesworth, William R., Mary Anne Kreutzer. 1973. “Facial expressions of infants and children.” In P. Ekman (ed.), Darwin and Facial Expression: A Century of Research in Review. 91–163. New York: Academic Press. Chevalier-Skolnikoff, Suzanne. 1973. “Facial expressions of emotion in non-human animals.” In P. Ekman (ed.), Darwin and Facial Expression: A Century of Research in Review. 11–87. New York: Academic Press. Cocciara, G. 1932. Il linguaggio del gesto. Torino: Bocca. Coll, J, M. J. Gelabert, E. Martinell. 1990. Diccionario de gestos. Madrid: Edelsa/Ed16. Collett, Peter, Peter Marsh. 1974. “Patterns of public behaviour: collision avoidance on a pedestrian crossing.” Semiotica 12, 281–300; in A. Kendon (ed.), Nonverbal Communication, Interaction, and Gesture. 199–217. The Hague: Mouton, 1981. ———. 1983. “Mossi salutations.” Semiotica 45(3/4), 191–248. ———. 1984. “History and the study of expressive action.” In K. Gergen, M. Gergen (eds.), Historical Social Psychology. 371–396. Hillsdale, N. J.: Erlbaum. Condon, William S., Louis W. Sander. 1974. “Neonate movement is synchronized with adult speech: interactional participation and language acquisition. Science 183, 99–101. Cooper, Morton. 1971. “Modern techniques of vocal rehabilitation for functional and organic disorders.” In L. E. Travis (ed.), Handbook of Speech Pathology and Audiology. 585–616. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall. Craig, Hazel T. Clothing: A Comprehensive Study. Philadelphia: Lippincott. Cranach, Mario von, Ian Vine (eds.). 1973. Social Communication and Movement. London/New York: Academic Press. Creider, Chet A. 1977. “Towards a description of East African gestures.” Sign Language Studies 14, 1–20. Critchley, MacDonald. 1939. The Language of Gesture. London: Arnold Crystal, David. 1963. “A perspective of paralanguage.” Le Maitre phonetique 78, 25–29. ———. 1971. “Prosodic and paralinguistic correlates of social categories.” In E. Ardener (ed.), Social Anthropology and Language. 185–206. London: Tavistock. ———. 1974. “Paralinguistics.” In T. A. Sebeok (ed.), Current Trends in Linguistics and Adjacent Arts and Sciences, Vol 12. 265–95. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1975. “Paralinguistics.” In J. Benthall, T. Polhemus (eds.), The Body as a Medium of Expression. 162–74. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ———. 1976. “Paralinguistic behavior as continuity between animal and human communication.” In W. McCormack, S. Wurm (eds.), Language and Man: Anthropological Issues (World Anthropology Series). 13–27. The Hague: Mouton.

397

398 Scientific references

Crystal, David and Randolph Quirk. 1964. Systems of Prosodic and Paralinguistic Features in English. The Hague: Mouton. Cupchik, Gerald, C. 1988. “Nonverbal communication in painting.” In F. Poyatos (Ed.). Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication. 227–243. Toronto/Göttingen: C. J. Hogrefe. Darwin, Charles. 1872. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. London: John Murray. London/Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. Davis, Flora. 1969. “How to Read Body Language.” Glamour, Sept., 208–274. ———. 1970. “The Way We See Body Language.” The New York Times Magazine, 31 May, 8–9, 29, 31–32, 34, 41–42. ———. 1971. Inside Intuition: What We Know About Nonverbal Communication. New York: McGraw-Hill. Davis, Martha. 1972. Understanding Body Motion: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Arno Press. ———. 1975. Toward Understanding the Intrinsic in Body Movement. New York: Arno Press. ———. 1979. “The State of the art: past and present trends in body movement research.” In A. Wolfgang (ed.), Nonverbal Behavior: Applications and Cultural Implications. 51–66. New York: Academic Press. Davis, Martha, J. Skupien. 1982. Body Movement and Nonverbal Communication 1971–1981: An Annotated Bibliography. Bloomington, In.: Indiana University Press. Davitz, Joel, R., L. J. Davitz. 1964. “The communication of feelings by content-free speech.” Journal of Communication 9, 6–13. de Jorio, Andrea. 1832. Gesture in Naples and Gesture in Classical Antiquity. A translation of La mimica degli antichi investigata nel gestire napoletano. Gestural Expression of the Acients in the Light of Neapolitan Gesturing, and with an Introduction and Notes by Adam Kendon. Advances in Semiotics series (Ed. Thomas A. Sebeok). Bloomington/ Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2000. DePaulo, Bella M. 1991. “Nonverbal behavior and self presentation: a developmental perspective.” In R. S. Feldman, B. Rimé (eds.), Fundamentals of Nonverbal Behavior. 351–397. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. Deutch, Felix. 1952. “Analytic Posturology.” Psychoanalytic Quarterly 21, 196–214. ———. 1966. “Some principles of correlating verbal andnon- verbal communication.” In A. H. Auerbach (ed.), Methods of Research in Psychotherapy. 166–188. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Diadori, Pierangela. 1990. Senza parole: 100 gesti degli italiani. Roma: Bonacci Editore. ———. 1991. “Gestualità e insegnamento linguistico.” Lend 17(3), 44–58. ———. 1993. “Gestualità e comunicazione nell’italia deglianni ‘80 ‘90.” Studi italiani di linguistica teorica e applicata, XXII (2), 332–370. Dittman, Allen T. 1971. “Review of Kinesics and Context.” Psychiatry 34, 334–342.

Scientific references

Dougherty. 1980. “The young infant’s ability to produce discrete emotion expressions.” Developmental Psychology 16(2), 132–240. Duncan, Jr., Starkey. 1980. “Describing face-to-face interaction.” In W. von RafflerEngel (ed.), Aspects of Nonevrbal Communication. 67–80. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger. Efron, David. 1972. Gesture, Race and Culture (1st ed., Gesture and Environment. New York: King;s Crown, 1941); reviews by Key (1975c), Poyatos (1975a). Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Iräneus. 1972. “Similarities and differences between cultures in expressive movements. In R. A. Hinde (ed.), Nonverbal Communication. 314. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ———. 1979a. “Ritual and ritualization from a biological perspective.” In M. von Cranach, W. Lepenies, D. Ploog (eds.), Human ethology. 3–55. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ———. 1979b. “Universals in human expressive behavior.” In A. Wolfgang (ed.), Nonverbal Behavior: Applications and Cultural Implications. 17–30. New York: Academic Press. ———. 1979c. “Universals in human expressive behaviors.” In A. Wolfgang (ed.), Nonverbal Behavior: Applications and Cultural Implications. 17–30. New York: Academic Press. ———. 1980. “Strategies of social interaction.” In W. von Raffler-Engel (ed.), Aspects of Nonverbal Communication. 45–65. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger. ———. 1981. “Universalien im Ausdrucksverhalten des Menschen.” N o v a A c t a Leopoldina 54(245), 519–541. ———. 1983a. “Stammesgeschichtliche Anpassungen im sozialen Verhalten des Menschen.” Nova Acta Leopoldina 55(253), 21–46. ———. 1983b. “Patterns of parent-child interaction in a cross-cultural perspective.” In A. Oliverio, M. Zappelia (eds.), The Behavior of Human Infants. 177–217. New York: Plenum. ———. 1988. “Social interaction in an ethological, cross-cultural perspective.” In F. Poyatos (ed.). Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication. 107–130. Lewiston, N. Y./Toronto: C. J. Hogrefe. Eicher, Joanne B., Mary Ellen Roach. 1973. The Visible Self: Perspectives on Dress. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice- Hall. Ekman, Paul. 1972a. “Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion.” In J. Cole (ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. 207–283. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ———. 1972b. “Hand movements.” The Journal of Communication (Special Issue on Nonverbal Communication) 22, 353–374. ——— (ed.). 1973a. Darwin and Facial Expression. New York: Academic Press.

399

400 Scientific references

———. 1973b. “Cross-cultural studies of facial expression.” In P. Ekman (ed.), Darwin and Facial Expression: A Century of Research in Review. 169–222. New York: Academic Press. ———. 1976. “Movements with precise meaning.” Journal of Communication 26(3), 14–26. ———. 1977. “Biological and cultural contributions to body and facial movement.” In J. Blacking (ed.), The anthropology of the Body. 39–84. New York: Academic Press. ———. 1978a. “Facial expression.” In A. W. Siegman, S. Feldstein (eds.). Nonverbal Behavior and Communication. 97–116. Hillsdale, N. Y.: Lawrence Erlbaum. ———. 1978b. “Facial signs: facts, fantasies, and possibilities.” In T. A. Sebeok (ed.), Sight, Sound and Sense 124–156. Bloomington, In.: Indiana University Press. ———. 1979a. “Facial expressions of emotion.” Annual Review of Psychology 30, 527– 554. ———. 1979b. “About brows: emotional and conversational signals.” In M. von Cranach, K. Foppa, W. Lepenies, D. Ploog (eds.). Human Ethology. 169–249. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ———. 1980a. The Face of Man. New York: Garland STMP Press. ———. 1980b. “Assymetry in facial expression.” Science 209, 833-834. ———. 1980c. “Three Classes of nonverbal behavior.” In W. von Raffler-Engel (ed.), Aspects of Nonverbal Communication. 89–102. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger. ———. 1981. “Mistakes when deceiving.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 364, 269–278. ———. 1982a. “Methods of measuring facial expression.” In K. R. Scherer, P. Ekman (eds.), Handbook of Methods in NonverbalBehavior Research. 45–90. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Paris: Editions de la Maison de Sciences de l’Homme. ———. 1982b. “Facial expression and facial nerve surgery.” In M. D. Graham, W. F. House (eds.), Disorders of the Facial Nerve. 363–368. New York: Raven Press. ———. 1984. “Expressions and the nature of emotion.” In K. R. Scherer y P. Ekman (eds.), Approaches to Emotion. 319–343. Hillside, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. ———. 1985. Telling Lies. New York: Norton. ———. 1989. “Lying and nonverbal behavior: Theoretical Issues and New Findings.” Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 12, 163–175. ———. “An argument for basic emotions.” Cognition and Emotion 6 (3/4), 169–200. ———. 1992a. “An argument for basic emotions.” Cognition and Emotion 6 (3/4): 169–200. ———. 1992b. Telling Lies:Clues to Deceit in the marketplace, Politics, and Marriage (2nd ed.). New York: W. W.Norton ———. 1993. “Facial expression and emotion.” American Psychologist 48:4, 384–392. ———. 1996. “Why don’t we catch liars?” Social Research 63:3, 801 817.

Scientific references

———. 1997. “Lying and deception.” In L. Stein, P. A. Ornstein, B. Tversky, C. Brainerd (eds.), Memory for Everyday and Emotional Events. 333–347. Mahwah, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Ekman, Paul, Wallace C. Friesen. 1969a. “The repertoire of nonverbal behavior: categories, origins, usage, and coding.” Semiotica 1, 49–98; in A. Kendon (ed.), Nonverbal Communication, Interaction, and Gesture. 57–105. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1969b. “Nonverbal leakage and clues to deception.” Psychiatry 32, 88–105. ———. 1971. “Constants across cultures in the face and emotion.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 17, 124–129. ———. 1972. “Hand movements.” The Journal of Communication 22, 353–374. ———. 1974. “Detecting deception from the body and face.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 29(3), 288–298. ———. 1975. Unmasking the Face: A Guide to recognizing Emotions from Facial Clues. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall. ———. 1976. “Measuring Facial Movements.” Journal of EnvironmentalPsychology and Nonverbal Behavior 1(1), 56- 75. ———. 1978. The Facial Action Coding System (FACS): A Technique for the Measurement of Facial Action. Palo Alto, Cal.: Consulting Psychologists Press. ———. 1982. “Felt, false, and miserable smiles.” Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 6(4), 238–252. ———. 1986. “A New pan-cultural facial expression of emotion.” Motivation and Emotion 10(2), 159–167. — . 1997. “Lying and deception.” In N. L. Stein, P. A. Orstein, B. Tversky, C. Brainerd (eds.), Memory for Everyday and Emotional Events. Mahwah, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. Ekman, Paul, Wallace C. Friesen, Phoebe Ellsworth. 1972. Emotionsin the Human Face: Guidelines for Research and an Integration of Findings. New York: Pergamon Press. Ekman, Paul, Joseph C. Hager, Wallace C. Friesen. 1981. “The symmetry of emotional and deliberate facial actions.” Psychophysiology 18(2), 101–106. Ekman, Paul, Harriet Oster. 1979. Facial expressions of emotion. Annual Review of Psychology 30:527–554. Ekman, Paul, Maureen O’Sullivan. 1991. “Facial expression: method, means, and modes.” In R. S. Feldman, B. Rimé (eds.), Fundamentals of Nonverbal Behavior. 163–1997. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. Ekman, Paul, Maureen O’Sullivan, Mark G. Frank. 1999. “A few can catch a liar.” Psychological Science 10:3, 263–266. Elias, Norbert. 1978. The Civilization Process: The History of Manners. Oxford: Blackwell. Ellsworth, Phoebe C., Linda M. Ludwig. 1972. “Visual behavior in social interaction.” Journal of Communication 22, 375–403.

401

402 Scientific references

Exline, Ralph V., B. J. Fehr. 1982. “The assessment of gaze and mutual gaze.” In K. R. Scherer, P. Ekman (eds.), Handbook of Methods in Nonverbal Behavior Research. 91–135. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. Fast, Julius. 1970. Body Language. New York: Evans and Company. ———. 1972. “Winking, blinking and nods.” En. V. P. Clark, P. A. Schholz, A. F. Rosa (eds.), Language: Introductory Readings. 501–511. Feurstein, Reuven. 1981. “Mediated learning experience in the acquisition of kinesics.” In B. L. Hoffer, R. N. St. Clair (eds.), Developmental Kinesics: The Emerging Paradigm. 91–106. Baltimore: University Park Press. Fenwick, M. Vogue’s Book of Etiquette. New York: Simon & Schuster. Fisher, Seymour. 1973. Body Conspicuousness: You Are What You Feel. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall. Flugel, John C. 1976. The Psychology of Clothes. London: Hogarth Press. Frank, Lawrence. 1957. “Tactile communication.” Genetic Psychology Monographs 50, 209–255; in A. Smith, Communication and Culture. 199–209. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966. Frank, Mark G. 1997. “The ability to detect deceit generalizes across different types of high-stake lies.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 72, 1429–1439. Frank, Mark G., Paul Ekman. 1997. “The ability to detect deceit generalizes across different types of high-stake lies.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 72(6), 1429–1439. Freedman, Norbert. 1977. “Hands, words and mind: on the structuration of body movements during discourse and the capacity for verbal representation. In N. Freedman, S. Grand (eds.), Communicative Structures and Psychic Structures: A Psychoanalitic Approach. 109–132. London/New York: Plenum Press. Fridlund, A. J. 1991. “Evolution and facial action in reflex, social motive, and paralanguage.” Biological Psychology 32, 3–100. Friesen, Wallace, Paul Ekman, Harald Wallbott. 1979. “Measuring hand movements.” Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 4(2), 97–112. Fussel, P. 1983. Class. New York: Ballantine Books. Galloway, Charles. 1979. “Teaching and nonverbal behavior.” In A. Wolfgang (ed.), Nonverbal Behavior: Applications and Cultural Implications. 1970–207. New York: Academic Press. ———. 1984. “Nonverbal and teacher-student relationship: an intercultural perspective.” In A. Wolfgang (ed.), Nonverbal Behavior: Perspectives, Applications, Intercultural Insights. 411–430. Lewiston, N. Y./Göttingen: C. J. Hogrefe. Geary, James. 2000. “How to spot a liar.” Time, March 13, 43–49. Gibb, H. A. R. (ed.). 1929. Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354. London: Hakluyt Society.

Scientific references

Gibson, James. 1962. “Observations on active touch.” Psychological Review, 69(6), 477–491. Givens, David. 1978. “Greeting a stranger: some commonly used nonverbal signals of aversiveness.” Semiotica 22, 351–367; in A. Kendon (ed.), Nonverbal Communication, Interaction, and Gesture. 219–235. The Hague: Mouton, 1981. ———. 1977. “Shoulder shrugging: a densely Communicative Expressive Behavior.” Semiotica 19(1/2), 13–28. Goffman, Ervin. 1955. “On face-work: an analysis of ritual elements in social interaction.” Psychiatry 18, 211–231; in J. Laver, S. Hutcheson (eds.), Communication in Face-to-Face Interaction. 319–363. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ———. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ———. 1961. Encounters. Indianapolis, In.: Bobbs-Merrill. ———. 1963. Behavior in Public Places. New York: Free Press of Glencoe. ———. 1971. Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order. New York: Harper & Row. ———. 1972. Strategic Interaction. New York: Ballantine Books. ———. 1974. Frame Analysis. New York: Harper & Row. ———. 1981. Forms of Talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Golder, Herbert. 1992. “Visual meaning in greek art.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Advances in Nonverbal Communication: Sociocultural, Clinical, Literary and Esthetic Perspectives. 323–367. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Gombrich, E. H. 1966. “Ritualized gesture and expression in art.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (London), 772, 251. ———. 1972. “Action and expression in western art.” In R. A. Hinde (ed.), NonVerbal Communication. 373–394. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Goodall see Lawick-Goodall. Graham, Billy. 1995. Peace With God. Word Publishing. Green Jerald R. 1968. A Gesture Inventory for the Teaching of Spanish. Philadelphia: Chilton Books. Gurel, Lois, M. S. Beeson. 1975. Dimension of Dress and Adornment: A Book of Readings. Dubuque, Ill.: Kendall/Hunt. Hadar, Uri. 1992. “The dissociation between motor and symbolic movements in coverbal behavior.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Advances in Nonverbal Communication: Sociocultural, Clinical, Esthetic and Literary Perspectives. 113–123. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Halberstadt, Amy G. 1991. “Toward an ecology of expresiveness: family socialization in particular and a model in general. In R. S. Feldman, B. Rimé (eds.), Fundamentals of Nonverbal Behavior. 106–160. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.

403

404 Scientific references

Hall, Edward T. Hall. 1966. The Hidden Dimension. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday; Anchor Books, 1969. Hamalian, Leo. 1965. “Comunication by gesture in the Middle East.” ETC: A Review of General Semantics 22, 43–49. ———. 1972. “Communication in the Middle east.” In V. P. Clark, P. A. Schholz, A. F. Rosa (eds.), Language: Introductory Readings. 512–515. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Harper, Robert G., A. N. Wiens, J. Mattarazzo. 1978. Nonverbal Communication: The State of the Art. New York: John Wiley. Hass, Hans. 1970. The Human Animal. New York: Delta. Harris, Christie, Moira Johnston. 1971. Figleafing Through History: The Dynamics of Dress. New York: Etheneum. Hawad-Claudot. 1992. “The veiled face and expresiveness among the Tuaregs.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Advances in Nonverbal Communication: Sociocultural, Clinical, Esthetic and Literary Perspectives. 197–211. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Hayes, Alfred S. 1964. “Paralinguistics and kinesics: pedagogical perspectives.” In T.A. Sebeok, A. Hayes, M. C. Bateson (eds.), Approaches to Semiotics: Cultural Anthroplogy, Education, Linguistics, Psychiatry, Psychology. 145–172. The Hague: Mouton. Hayes, Francis. 1940. “Should we have a dictionary of gestures?” Southern Folklore Quarterly, 4, 239–245. ———. 1957. “Gestures: a working bibliography.” Southern Folklore Quarterly 21, 218–317. Heath, Christian C. 1986. Body Movements and Speech in Medical Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Helfrich, Hede. 1979. “Age markers in speech.” In K. R. Scherer, H.Giles (eds.), Social Markers inSpeech. 63–107. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Herzfeld, Michael. 1983. “Looking both ways: the ethnographer in the text. Semiotica 46(2/4), 151–166. Hess, Eckhard H., Slobodan, B. Petrovich. 1978. “Pupillary behavior in communication.” In A. Siegman, B. Pope (eds.), Nonverbal Behavior and Communication. 159–179. Heffener, R-M. S. General Phonetics. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. Heukelem, Judith van. 1979. “’Weep with those who weep’: understanding and helping the crying person.” Journal of Psychology and Theology 7(2), 83–84. Hewes, Gordon W. 1955. “World distribution of certain postural habits.” American Anthropologist 57(2), 231–234; in L. Samovar R. Porter (eds.), Intercultural Communication. 193–200. Belmont, Cal: Wadsworth. ———. 1957. “The anthropology of posture.” Scientific American 196, 123–130. ———. 1973a. “Primate communication and the gestural origin of language.” Current Anthropology 14(1/20), 5–24.

Scientific references

———. 1973b. “An explicit formulation of the relationship between tool-using, toolmaking, and the emergence of language,” Visible Language 7(2), 101–127. ———. 1974. “Gesture language in cultural contact.” Sign Language Studies. 1(4). 1–34. Hibbitts, Bernard J. 1992. “’Coming to our senses’: communication and legal expression in performance cultures.” Emory Law Journal 41(4), 873–960. ———. 1995. “Making motions: the embodiment of law in gesture.” Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues 6, 51–81. Hill, Archibald E. 1952. “A Note on primitive languages.” International Journal of American Linguistics 18, 172–177. ———. 1958. Introduction to Linguistic Structures. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World. Hinde, Robert A. (ed.). 1972. Non-Verbal Communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hoffer Bates L. 1981. “Patterns of kinesic development.” In B. L. Hoffer, R. N. St Clair (eds.), Developmental Kinesics. 39–44. Baltimore: University Park Press. Hoffer, Bates L., Robert N. St Clair. 1981. Developmental Kinesics. Baltimore: University Park Press. Hollander, Anne. 1978. Seeing Through Clothes. New York: Viking. Hollien, Harry. 1974. On Vocal Settings. Journal of Phonetics 2, 125–143. Holoka, James P. 1992. “Nonverbal communication in the classics.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Advances in Nonverbal Communication: Sociocultural, Clinical, Esthetic and Literary Perspectives. 237–254. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Hoof, J. A. R. A. M. van. 1972. “A comparative approach to the phylogeny of laughter and smiling.” In R. A. Hinde (ed.), Non-Verbal Communication. 209–241. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hopkins, Brian. 1983. “The development of early non-verbal communication: an evaluation of its meaning.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 24(1), 131–144. Horn, Marylin. 1968. The second Skin: An Interdisciplinary Study of Clothing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Hutt, Clelia. 1968. “Dictionnaire du langage gestuel chez les Trappistes.” Langages 10, 107–118. Inbaum, Fred. E., John E. Reid, Joseph P. Buckley. 1986.Criminal Interrogation and Confession. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins. Izard, Carroll C. 1979. Emotions and Personality in Psychotherapy. New York: Plenum. Izard, Carroll C., R. R. Huebner, D. Reiser, G. C. McGuiness, L. M. Dougherty. 1980. “The young infant’s ability to produce discrete emotion expressions,” Developmental Psychology 16 (2), 132–240. Jakobson, Roman. 1972. “Motor signs for ‘yes’ and ‘no’.” Language in Society 1(1), 91–96. Jaworski, Adam. 1993. The Power of Silence: Social and Pragmatic Perspectives. London/New Delhi: Sage Publications.

405

406 Scientific references

———. 1997. Silence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter Johannesen, Richard L. “The functions of silence: a plea for communication research.” Western Research, Winter, 25–35. Johnson, Harold G. 1972. American Communicative Gestures: The Emblem Repertoire of Middle-Class Males in the Western United States. Ph.D. thesis. San Francisco: University of California. Johnson, Harold G., Paul Ekman, Wallace C. Friesen. 1975. “Communicative body movements: American emblems.” Semiotica 15: 335–354; in A. Kendon (ed.), Nonverbal Communication, Interaction, and Gesture. 401–419. The Hague: Mouton. Johnson, Kenneth R. 1971. “Black kinesics: some non-verbal communication patterns in the black culture.” The Florida Foreign Language Reporter, spring-summer, 17–20; in L. Samovar, R. Porter (eds.), Intercultural Communication. 181–189. Belmont, Cal.: Wardsworth, 1972. Journal of Comunication, The, A Special Issue on Nonverbal Communication. 1972, 22(4). Jourard, S. M. 1966. “An exploratory study of body accessibility.” British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 26, 235–242. Kaiser, S. 1985. The Psychology of Clothes. New York: Macmillan. Kappas, Arvid, Ursula Hess, Klaus R. Scherer. 1991. “Voice and Emotion.” In R. S. Feldman, B. Rimé (eds.), Fundamentals of Nonverbal Behavior. 200–238. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. Kaplan, Harold. 1960. Anatomy and Physiology of Speech. New York: McGraw-Hill. Kaulfers, Walter V. 1931. “Curiosities of colloquial gestures.” Hispania 14, 249–264. ———. 1932. “A Handful of Spanish.” Education 57, 423–428. Kendon, Adam. 1967. “Some functions of gaze directions in social interaction.” Acta Psychologica 26, 22–36. ———. 1972a “Kinesics and context.” American Journal of Psychology 85(3), 441–455 (review of Birdwhistell 1970). ———. 1972b. “Some relationships between body motion and speech.” I n A . Siegman, B. Pope (eds.), Studies in Dyadic Communication. 177–210). New York: Pergamon. ———. 1973. “The role of visible behavior in the organization of social interaction.” In M. von Cranach and I. Vine (eds.), Social Communication and Movement in Man and Chimpanzee. 29–74. London/New York: Academic Press. ———. 1975. “Some functions of the face in a kissing round.” Semiotica 15, 299–334; in A. Kendon (ed.), Nonverbal Communication, Interaction, and Gesture. 321–356. The Hague: Mouton, 1981. ———. 1977. Studies in the Behavior of Face-to-Face Interaction. Lisse: Peter de Ridder Press. ———. 1979. “Some emerging features of face-to-face interaction interaction studies.” Sign Language Studies 22, 7–22.

Scientific references

———. 1980a “Features of the structural analysis of human communication behavior.” in W. von Raffler-Engel (ed.), Aspects of Nonverbal Communication. 29–43. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger. ———. 1980a. “Gesticulation and speech: two aspects of the process of utterance.” In M. Key (ed.), Nonverbal Communication and Language. 207–227. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1980b. “The sign language of the women of Yuendumu: a preliminary report on the structure of Walpiri sign language,” Sign Language Studies 27, 101–113. ———. 1980c. “A description of a deaf-mute sign language from the Enga province of Papua New Guinea with some comparative discussion, Part II: the semiotic functioning of Enga signs.” Semiotica 32(1/2), 81–117. ———. 1981a. Nonverbal Communication, Interaction, and Gesture. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1981b. “Current issues in the study of “nonverbal communication.” Introduction to Nonverbal Communication, Interaction and Gesture (ed. by A. Kendon). 1–53. The Hague: Mouton ———. 1981c. “Geography of gesture” (review of Morris et al 1979). Semiotica 37(1/2), 129–163. ———. 1982a. “The study of gesture: some observations on its history.” Semiotic Inquiry 2(1), 45–62). ———. 1982b. “The organization of behavior in face-to-face interaction: observations on the development of a methodology.” In K.R. Scherer, P. Ekman (eds.), Handbook of Methods in Nonverbal Behavior Research. 440–503. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. ———. 1983. “Gesture and speech: how they interact.” In J. M. Wieman R. P. Harrison (eds.), Nonverbal Interaction. Beverly Hills: Sage. ———. 1984. “Did gesture have the happiness to escape the curse of the confusion at Babel?” In A. Wolfgang (ed.), Nonverbal Behavior: Perspectives, Applications, Intercultural Insights. 75–114. Lewiston, N. Y./Toronto. ———. 1985. “Some uses of gesture.” In D. Tannen and M. Saville Troike (eds.), Perspectives on Silence. 215–234. Norwood, N. J.: Ablex Publishing Corporation. ———. 1986a. “Some reasons for studying gesture.” Semiotica 62(1/2),3–28. ———. 1986b. “Current issues in the study of gesture.” In J-L. Nespoulous, P. Perron, A. Roch (eds.), The Biological Foundations of Gesture: Motor and Semiotic Aspects. 23–47. Hillside, N. J./London: Lawrence Erlbaum. ———. 1986c. “Iconicity in Warlpiri sign language.” In P. Bouissac, M. Herzfeld, R. Posner (eds.), Iconicity: Essays on the Nature of Culture. Festschrift for Thomas A. Sebeok on his 65th Birthday. 437–446. Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag. ———. 1988a. “How gestures become like words.” In F. Poyatos (ed.). Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication. 131–141. Lewiston, N. Y./Toronto: C. J. Hogrefe. ———. 1988b. Sign Language of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

407

408 Scientific references

———. 1990a. “Gesticulation, quotable gestures, and signs” Senri Ethnological Studies 27, 53–77. ———. 1990b. “Behavioral foundations of frame attunement in face to-face interaction. In A. Kendon, Conducting Interaction: Patterns of Behavior in Focused Encounters. 239–262. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ———. 1990c. “Signs in the Cloister and elsewhere.” Semiotica 79, 307–329. ———. 1993. “Human Gesture.” In K.R. Gibson, T. Imgold (eds. Tools, Language and Cognition in Human Evolution. 43–62. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ———. 1997. “Gesture.” Annual Review of Anthropology, 26:109–128. Kendon, A., R. Harris, M. R. Key (eds.). 1975. The Organization of Behavior in Face-toFace Interaction (World Anthropology Series). The Hague: Mouton. ———. 2000. Introduction to Andrea de Jorio’s (1832) Gesture in Naples and Gesture in Classical Antiquity. A translation of La mimica degli antichi investigata nel gestire napoletano. Gestural Expression of the Acients in the Light of Neapolitan Gesturing. Advances in Semiotics series (ed. Thomas A. Sebeok). Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Kendon, Adam, Mark Cook. 1969. “The consistency of gaze pattern in social interaction.” British Journal of Psychology 60, 48–94. Kendon, Adam, J. Exline. 1969. “A notation for facial postures and bodily positions.” In M. Argyle, Social Interaction. 123–26. London: Methuen. Kendon, Adam, A. Ferber. 1973. “A description of some human greetings.” In R. P. Michael, J. H. Crook (eds.), Comparative Ecology and Behavior of Primates. 591–668. London/New York: Academic Press; in A. Kendon (ed.), Studies in the Behavior of Social Interaction. 115–177. The Hague: Mouton. Kendon, Adam, Stuart J. Sigman. 1996. “Ray L. Birdwhistell (1918-1994).” Semiotica 112(3/4), 231–261. Key, Mary R. 1974. “The relationship of verbal and nonverbal communication.” In L. Heilman (ed.), Proceedings of the Eleventh International Congress of Linguists. 103–10. Bologna: Societá Editrici Il Mulino. ———. 1975a. Paralanguage and Kinesics. Metuchen, N. J.: Scarecrow Press. ———.1975b. Male/Female Language. Metuchen, N. J.: Scarecrow Press (review of R. Tolmach Lakoff, Semiotica 19:2, 119–130.). ———. 1975c. Review of D. Efron, Gesture, Race and Culture [1972]. Linguistics 163, 70–77. ———. 1977. Nonverbal Communication: A Research Guide and Bibliography. Metuchen, N. Y.: Scarecrow Press. ——— (ed.). 1980a. The Relationship of Verbal and Nonverbal Communication. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1980b. “Features of the structural analysis of human communicational behavior.” In W. von Raffler-Engel (ed.), Aspects of Nonverbal Communication. 29–43. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger.

Scientific references

——— (ed.). 1982. Nonverbal Communication Today: Current Research. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1986. “Paralanguage.” Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics, ed. by T. A. Sebeok, Vol. II, 668–70. ———. 1987. “Paralinguistic expressions of emotion and socio- nonverbal behaviors.” Cuaderni di semantica 7(1), 24–31. ———. 1995. “Half a century of paralanguage.” Semiotica 107(3/4), 377–394 (review of Poyatos 1993a). Khamor, Levi (pseudonym). 1989. The Revelation of the Son of Man. Geneva, N. Y.: Ben Yamin Press. Knapp, Mark L. 1980. Essentials of Nonverbal Communication. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston (2nd ed. with J. Hall, 1992). Knowlson, J. R. 1965. “The idea of gesture as a universal language in the 17th and 18th centuries.” Journal of the History of Ideas 26: 495–508. Koechlin, Bernard. 1985. “Vers une anthropologie de la communication gestuelle.” Geste et Image 5, 5–16. ———. 1991. “La realité gestuelle des societés humaines.” In Histoire des Moeurs, Vol. II. 163–246. Encyclopédie de la Pleiade. Collection la Pléiade. Paris: Gallimard. ———. 1992. “Prolegomenon to the elaboration of a new discipline: ethnogestics.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Advances in Nonverbal Communication: Sociocultural, Clinical, Esthetic and Literary Perspectives. 59–76. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Kohler, Carl. 1963 [1928]. A History of Costume. New York: Dover. Konig, R. 1973. The Restless Image. London: George Allen and Unwin. Korte, Barbara. 1997 [1993]. Body Language in Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Kowalska, Saint Faustina. 1987. Divine Mercy in My Soul: The Diary of Sister M. Faustina Kowalska. Stockbridge, Massachusetts: Marian Press. Kristeva, Julia. 1968. “Le geste, pratique ou communication?” Langages 10, 48–64. Krout, Maurice. 1935. “Autistic gestures.” Psychological Monographs 46, 1–126. LaBarre, Weston. 1947. “The cultural basis of emotions and gestures.” Journal of Personality 16, 49–68; in J. Laver, S. Hutcheson (eds.), Communication in Face-toFace Interaction. 207–224. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972. ———. 1964. “Paralinguistics, kinesics, and cultural Anthropology.” In T. A. Sebeok, A. Hayes, M. C. Bateson (eds.), Approaches to Semiotics: Cultural Anthropology, Education, Linguistics, Psychiatry, Psychology. 216–220. The Hague: Mouton; in L. Samovar, R. Porter (eds.), Intercultural Communication. 172–180. Belmont, Cal.: Wadsworth, 1972. Ladefoged, Peter. 1975. A Course in Phonetics. New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovitch. LaFrance, Marianne. 1976. Moving Bodies: Nonverbal Communication in Social Relationships. Belmont, Cal.: Wadsworth.

409

410

Scientific references

Laín Entralgo, Pedro. 1994. “Hablar y callar.” Boletín de la RealAcademia Española LXXI, CCLXIII, 453–465. Langages. 1968, June. Pratiques et langages gestuels. Especial issue ed. by A. J. Greimas. Lateiner, Donald. 1992. “Affect displays in the epic poetry of Homer, Vergil, and Ovid.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Advances in Nonverbal Communication: Sociocultural, Clinical, Esthetic and Literary Perspectives. 255–269. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Laver, James. 1969. The Concise History of Costume and Fashion. New York: Scribner’s Sons. Laver, John. 1970. “The production of speech.” In J. Lyons (ed.), New Horizons in Linguistics. 53–75. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ———. 1972. “Voice quality and indexical information.” In J. Laver, S. Hutcheson (eds.), Communication in Face-to-Face Interaction. 189–203. Harmondsworth: Penguin; British Journal of Disorders of Communication 3, 43–54. ———. 1974. ‘Labels for voices.” Journal of the International Phonetic Association 4, 62–75. ———. 1976. ‘Language and nonverbal communication,’ in E. C. Carterette, M. P. Friedman (eds.), Handbook of Perception, Volume 7 Language and Speech. 345–363. New York: Academic Press. ———. 1980. The Phonetic Description of Voice Quality (with casette). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ———. 1991, “Voice quality.” In W. Bright (ed.), Oxford International Encyclopedia of Linguistics Vol. 4. 231–32. London: Oxford University Press. ———. 1994. “Speech.” In R. E. Asher, J. M. Y. Simpson (eds.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Vol, I, 8:4101–4109. Oxford: Pergamon Press. ———. 1996. Principles of Phonetics, Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; reprinted 1996. Laver, John, Robert Hanson. 1981. “Describing the normal voice.” In J. K. Darby (Ed.), Speech Evaluation in Psychiatry. 51–78. New York: Grune & Stratton. Laver, John, Sandy Hutcheson (eds.). 1972. Communication in Face to-Face Interaction. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Laver, John, Peter Trudgill. 1979. “Phonetic and linguistic markers in speech.” In K. R. Scherer, H. Giles (eds.), Social Markers in Speech. 1–32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lawick-Goodall, Jane van. 1973. In the Shadow of Man. London/Glasgow: Fontana Books; William Collins 1971. Leach, Edmund. 1972. “The influence of cultural context on non-verbal communication in man.” In R. Hinde (ed.), Non-Verbal Communication. 315–47. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Leathers, Dale G. 1997. Successful Nonverbal Communication: Principles and Applications (3rd ed). New York: Macmillan/ London: Collier Macmillan.

Scientific references

Lee-Potter. 2000. Class Act: How to Beat the British Class System. London: Metro Books. Lehtonen, Jaakko, Kari Sajavaara. 1985. “The silent Finn.” In D. Tannen, M. Saville Troike (eds.), Perspectives on Silence. 193–201. Norwood, N. J.: Ablex Publishing Corporation. Levenston, Edward A. 1987. “The style of Arabia Deserta
: A linguistic analysis.” In E. Tabachnick (ed.), Explorations in Doughty’s Arabia Deserta. 90–110. Athens/ London: University of Georgia Press. Lewis, David. 1978. The Secret Language of Your Child: How Children Talk Before They Can Speak. London/Sidney: Pan Books. Life Magazine. 1970, Oct. 9, 82–84. Liddle, Louis. 1977. Clothes and Appearance. Illinois: The Goodheart-Wilkos Company. ———. 1975. “Linguistic and paralinguistic interchange.” In A. Kendon, R. Harris, M. R. Key (eds.), The Organization of Behavior in Face-to-Face Interaction (World Anthropology Series). 277–284. The Hague: Mouton. Lieberman, Philip. 1972. The Speech of Primates. The Hague: Mouton. Lock, Andrew (ed.). Action, Gesture and Symbol: The Emergence of Language. London/New York: Academic Press. Löfgren, Börje. 1966. “On weeping.” International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 47, 277–84. The Hague: Mouton. Lorenz, Konrad. 1967. On Aggression. New York: Bantam. Malandro, Loretta, Larry Barker. 1989. Nonverbal Communication Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley. Manstead, Antony R. 1991. “Expresiveness as an individual difference,” In Robert S. Feldman, Bernard Rimé (eds.), Fundamentals of Nonverbal Behavior. 285–328. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. Maranda, Pierre. 1986. “Physiosemiotics: the iconicity of blinking.” In P. Bouissac, M. Herzfeld, R. Posner (eds.), Iconicity: Essays on the Nature of Culture. Festschrift for Thomas A. Sebeok on his 65th Birthday. 463–467. Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag. Marcos, Luis R. 1981. “Body movement and verbalization: the bilingual model.” In B. L. Hoffer, R. N. St. Clair (eds.), Developmental Kinesics: The Emerging Paradigm. 209–220. Baltimore: University Park Press. Martin, Ralph. 1976. Hungry for God. Old Tappan, N. J.: Fleming H. Revell. Mascaró, Jaume. 1981. “Notes per a un studi de la gestualitat catalana.” Serra d’Or, April, 25–28. Mauss, Marcel. 1935. “Les techniques du corps.” Journal de psychologie normal et pathologique 32, 271–293. McBride, Glenn. 1973. In G. W. Hewes, “Primate communication and the gestural origin of language.” Current Anthropology 141 (2), 5–24. McCormack, William C., Stephen A. Wurm (eds.). 1976. Language and Man: Anthropological Issues. World Anthropology Series. The Hague: Mouton.

411

412

Scientific references

McDonnell, Paul. 1992. “Children’s artificial limbs: intrapersonal and interpersonal implication.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Advances in Nonverbal Communication: Sociocultural, Clinical, Esthetic and Literary Perspectives. 145–160. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. McNeill, David. 1992. Hand and Mind. Chicago: Chicago University Press. ———. (press). Language and Gesture: Window into Thought and Action. Cambridge University Press. McQuown, Norman. 1957. “Linguistic transcription and specifications of psychiatric interview materials.” Psychiatry 20, 79–86. McQuown, Norman, M. C. Bateson, R. L. Birdwhistell, R. L. Brosin, C. F. Hockett (eds.). 1971. The Natural History of an Interview. Microfilm Collection of Manuscripts on Cultural Anthropology, 15th Series. Chicago: University of Chicago Joseph Regenstein Library, Dept of Photoduplication. Mehan, Hugh. 1972. “Sociolinguistics, paralinguistics, and kinesics.” In R. Shuy (ed.), Sociolinguistics: Current Trends and Prospects. Washington D. C.: Georgetown University Press. Mehrabian, Albert. 1969. “Significance of posture and position in the communication of attitude and status relationships.” Psychological Bulletin 71, 359–372. ———. 1971. Silent Messages. Belmont, Cal.: Wadsworth. Meltzoff, Andrew N, M. Keith Moore. 1983. “The origins of imitation in infancy: paradigm, phenomena, and theories.” In L.P. Lipsitt, C.K. Rovee-Collier (eds.), Advances in Infant Research. 265–301. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing Corporation. Mencken, H. L. 1963. The American Language. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Menéndez y Pelayo, Marcelino. 1889. Historia de las ideas estéticas, Tome IV, Volume II. Madrid: Imprenta de A. Pérez Dubrull. Meo-Zilio, Giovanni, Silvia Mejía. 1980. Diccionario de gestos: España e Hispanoamérica, Vol I. Bogotá: Instituto Caro Cuervo. ———. 1983. Diccionario de gestos: España e Hispanoamérica, Vol. II. Bogotá: Instituto Caro Cuervo (review by M. Rector [1989]). Montague, Ashley. 1971. Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin. New York: Harper & Row. Moore, G Paul. 1971. “Voice disorders organically based.” In L. E.Travis (ed.), Handbook of Speech Pathology and Audiology. 535–69. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall. Morreal, J. 1983. Taking Laughter Seriously. New York: State of New York University Press. Morris, Desmond. 1967. The naked ape. New York: Dell. ———. 1972. Intimate Behavior. New York: Random House; Bantam Books, 1973. ———. 1977. Manwatching. New York: Abrams. Morris, Desmond, Peter Collett, Peter Marsh, Marie O’Shaughnessy. 1979. Gestures: Their Origins and Distributions.New York: Stein and Day (review of A. Kendon [1981]).

Scientific references

Morsbach, Helmut. 1973. “Aspects of nonverbal communication in Japan.” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 157(4), 262–77. ———. 1988a. Nonverbal Communication and Hierarchical Relationships: The Case of Bowing in Japan.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication. 189–199. Lewiston, N. Y./Toronto: C. J. Hogrefe. ———. 1988b. “The importance of silence and stillness in Japanese nonverbal communication: a cross-cultural approach.” in F. Poyatos (ed.), Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication. 201–215. Toronto: C. J. Hogrefe. Myllyniemi, Rauni. Nonverbal Communication of Elemental Social Orientations: Studies With face Diagrams. Research Reports, Department of Social Psychology. Helsinki: University of Helsinki. Nespoulous, Jean-Luc, Paul Perron, André Roch (eds.). 1986. The Biological Foundations of Gestures: Motor and Semiotic Aspects. Hillside, N.J./London: Lawrence Erlbaum. Newbold, Ronald. 1992. “Nonverbal expressiveness in late Greek epic: Quintus of Smyrna, and Nonnus.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Advances in Nonverbal Communication: Sociocultural, Clinical, Esthetic and Literary Perspectives. 271–283. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Nicolosi, Lucille, Elizabeth Harryman, Janet Krescheck. 1983. Terminology of Communication Disorders (2nd. ed.). Baltimore/London: Williams & Wilkins. Nierenberg, Gerard I., Henry H. Calero. How to Read a Person Like a Book. New York: Hawthorn; Richmond Hill: Simon & Schuster, Pocket Books, 1973. Nwoye, Gregory O. 1985. “Eloquent silence among the Igbo of Nigeria.” In D. Tannen and M. Saville-Troike (eds.), Perspectives on Silence. 185–191. Norwood, N. J.: Ablex Publishing Corporation. Obudho, Constance E. 1979. Human Nonverbal Behavior: An Annotated Bibliography. Westport: Greenwood Press. O’Connor, J. D. 1973. Phonetics. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Oliver, Robert. 1971. Communication and Culture in Ancient India and China. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. Oster, Harriet, Paul Ekman. 1978. “Facial behavior in child development.” In W. A. Collins (ed.), Minnesotta Symposia on Child Psychology, Volumen II. 231–276. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. Ostwald, Peter F. 1964. “How the patient communicates about disease with the doctor.” In T. A. Sebeok, A. S. Hayes, M. C. Bateson (eds.). Approaches to Semiotics: Cultural Anthropology, Education, Linguistics, Psychiatry, Psychology. 11–34. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1973. The Semiotics of Human Sounds. The Hague: Mouton. Passin, H. 1982. “Body Language Among Japanese: A Primer.” Japan Society Newsletter.

413

414

Scientific references

Payrató, Lluis. 1991. Assaig de dialectologia gestual: Aproximació pragmàtica al reprtori bàsic d’emblemes del català de Barcelona. Doctoral thesis, University pf Barcelona Microfiche Collection, 809. Pei, Mario. 1966. Glossary of Linguistic Terminology. New York: Columbia University Press; New York: Doubleday: Anchor Books. Peng, Fred C. C., Walburga von Raffler-Engel (eds.), Language Acquisition and Developmental Kinesics. Hiroshima: Bunka Hyoron. Perelló, Jorge, J. A. Salvá Miquel. 1980. Alteraciones de la voz. Barcelona: Editorial Científico-Médica. Perkins, William H. 1971. “Vocal function: assessment and therapy.” In L. E. Travis (ed.), Handbook of Speech Pathology and Audiology. 505–34. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall. Pike, Kenneth. 1943. Phonetics. Ann Arbor, Mi.: University of Michigan Press. ———. 1946. The Intonation of American English. University of Michigan Publications in Linguistics, 1. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ———. 1954. Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior. Glendale, Cal.: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Pittenger, Robert E. 1958. “Linguistic analysis of tone of voice in the communication of affect.” Psychiatric Research Reports 8, 41–54. Pittenger, Robert E., Henry L. Smith. 1957. “A basis for some contributions of linguistics to psychiatry.” Psychiatry 20, 6–78; in A. Smith (ed.), Communication and Culture. 169–182. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966. Pittenger, Robert, Charles F. Hockett, John Danehy. 1960. The First Five Minutes: A Sample of Microscopic Interview Analysis. Ithaca, N. Y.: Paul Martineau Publisher. Playboy. 1969, April. “The language of legs.” 121–123. Post, Emily. 1965. Emily Post’s Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage (11th ed.). New York: Funk & Wagnalls. Powers, Margaret Hall. 1971. “Functional disorders of articulation: symptomatology and etiology.” In L. E. Travis (ed.), Handbook of Speech Pathology and Audiology. 837–75. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall. Poyatos, Fernando. 1970a. “Lección de paralenguaje.” Filología Moderna 39, 265– 300.1970a. ———. 1970b, “Paralingüística y kinésica: para una teoría del sistema comunicativo del hablante español.” Actas del Tercer Congreso Internacional de Hispanistas. 725–738. Mexico: El Colegio de México. ———. 1970c. “Kinésica del español actual.” Hispania 53 (3), 444-452). ———. 1971. “Sistemas comunicativos de una cultura: nuevo campo de investigación.” Yelmo, 1, 27–32. ———. 1972a. “The communication system of the speaker-actor and his culture: a preliminary investigation. Linguistics 83, 75–80.

Scientific references

———. 1972b. “Paralenguaje y kinésica del personaje novelesco: nueva perspectiva en el análisis de la narración.” Revista de Occidente 113/114, 148–170; also in Prohemio 3(2), 291–307. ———. 1974a. “Cultura, comunicación e interacción: hacia el contexto total del lenguaje y el hombre hispánicos, I. Yelmo 20, 23–24. ———. 1974b. “Del paralenguaje a la comunicación total.” Doce ensayos sobre el lenguaje. 159–171. Madrid: Fundación Juan March. ———. 1975a. “Cross-cultural analysis of paralinguistic ‘alternants’ in face-to-face interaction.” In A. Kendon, R. Harris, M.R. Key (eds.), Organization of Behavior in Face-to-Face Interaction (World Anthropology Series). 285–314. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1975b. “Gesture inventories: fieldwork methodology and problems.” Semiotica 13(2), 199–27; in A. Kendon (ed.), Nonverbal Communication, Interaction, and Gesture. 371–399. The Hague: Mouton, 1981. ———. 1975c. “Cultura, comunicación e interacción: hacia el contexto total del lenguaje y el hombre hispánicos, II.” Yelmo 21, 33–35. ———. 1976a. Man Beyond Words: Theory and Methodology of Nonverbal Communication. New York State English Council Monographs, 15. Oswego, N. Y.: New York State English Council. ———. 1976b. “Verbal and nonverbal expression in interaction: research and pedagogical perspectives.” In G. Nickel (ed.), Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Applied Linguistics. 87–97. Stuttgart: Hochschul Verlag. ———. 1976c. “Nueva perspectiva de la narración a través de los repertorios extraverbales del personaje.” In S. Sanz-Villanueva, C. Barbachano (eds.), Teoría de la novela. 353–383. Madrid: S. G. E. L. ———. 1976d. “Language in the context of total body communication.” Linguistics 168, 49–62. ———. 1977a. “The morphological approach to kinesics in the context of interaction and culture. Semiotica 20(3/4), 197–228. ———. 1977b. “Forms and functions of nonverbal communication in the novel: a new perspective of the author-character-reader relationship.” Semiotica 21(3/4), 295–337. ———. 1978a. “Toward a new status of paralanguage. In W. Dressler,W. Meid (eds.), Proceedings of the XIIth International Congress of Linguists. 742–744. Innsbruck: Universität Innsbruck. ———. 1978b. “Ampliación interdisciplinar de los estudios hispánicos: temas y perspectivas.” Hispania 61(2), 254–269. ———. 1979. Phonetic and interdisciplinary perspectives in paralinguistic studies. In H. Hollien, P. Hollien (eds.), Current Issues in the Phonetic Sciences: Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. 1105–16. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ———. 1980. “Interactive functions and limitation of verbal and nonverbal behaviors in natural conversation,” Semiotica 30(3/4), 211–244.

415

416

Scientific references

———. 1981c. “Silence and stillness: toward a new status of non-activity.” Kodikas/ Code 3(1), 3–26. ———. 1982a. “New perspectives for an integrative approach to nonverbal systems.” In M. R. Key (ed.), Nonverbal Communication Today: Current Research. 121–138. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1982b. “Language and nonverbal behavior in the structure of social conversation.” International Journal of the Language Sciences 4(2), 155–185. ———. 1983. New Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication: Studies Cultural Anthropology, Social Psychology, Linguistics, Literature and Semiotics. Oxford: Pergamon Press. ———. 1984a. “The multichannel reality of discourse: language- paralanguagekinesics an the totality of communication systems.” In F. Peng (ed.), Language in a Semiotic Frame, especial issue of Language Sciences 6(2), 307–337. ———. 1984b. “Silence and stillness as sign processes.” In T. Borbé (ed.), Semiotics unfolding; Proceedings of the second Congress of the International Association of Semiotic Studies, Vol II. 1219–1227. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1985a. “Nuevas perspectivas del discurso interactivo a través de los estudios de comunicación no verbal.” In Actas del Segundo Congreso Nacional de Lingüística Aplicada. 41–60. Madrid: SGEL. ———. 1985b. “The deeper levels of face-to-face interaction.” Language and Communication 5(2), 111–131. ———. 1985c. “Antropología literaria: la narración como fuente interdisciplinar de signos culturales sensibles e inteligibles.” In Teoría Semiótica: lenguaje y texto hispánico. Actas del Congreso Internacional sobre Semiótica e Hispanismo, Vol. I. 367–391. Madrid: CSIC. ———. 1986a. “Nuevas perspectivas en psicolingüística a partir de la comunicación no verbal. In M. Siguán (ed.), Estudios de Psicolingüística. 35–57. Madrid: Ediciones Pirámide. ———. 1986b. “Enfoque integrativo de los componentes verbales y no verbales de la interacción y sus procesos y problemas de codificación.” Anuario de Psicología 34(1), 127–155. ———. 1987. “Nonverbal communication in simultaneous and consecutive interpretation: a theoretical model and new perspectives.” TextContext 2(3), 73–108. ———. (ed.) 1988a. Literary Anthropology: A New Interdisciplinary Approach to Signs and Literature. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. ———. 1988b. “The communicative status of human audible movements: before and beyond paralanguage.” Semiotica 70(3/4), 265–300. ———. (ed.). 1988c. Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication. Lewiston, N. Y./Toronto: C. J. Hogrefe.

Scientific references

———. 1988d. “New research perspectives in crosscultural psychology through nonverbal communication studies.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication. 35–69. Toronto/Göttingen: C. J. Hogrefe. ———. 1991. “Paralinguistic qualifiers: our many voices.”Language and Communication 11(3), 181–195. ———. (ed.). 1992a. Advances in Nonverbal Communication: Sociocultural, Clinical, Esthetic and Literary Perspectives. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. ———. 1992b. “Paralanguage and quasiparalinguistic sounds as a concern of literary anthropology.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Toward Deeper Levels of Interaction: Sociocultural, Clinical, Esthetic and Literary Perspectives on Nonverbal Communication. 301–319. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. ———. 1993a. Paralanguage: A Linguistic and Interdisciplinary Approach to Interactive Speech and Sounds. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ———. 1993b. “The many voices of laughter” Semiotica 93 (1/2), 61–81. ———. 1994a. La comunicación no verbal, Vol. I: Cultura, lenguaje y conversación. Madrid: Ediciones Istmo. ———. 1994b. La comunicación no verbal, Vol. II: Paralenguaje, kinésica e interacción. Madrid: Ediciones Istmo. ———. 1994c. La comunicación no verbal, Vol. III: News perspectivas en novela y teatro y en su traducción. Madrid: Ediciones Istmo. ———. 1995. “Kinesics and other visual signs in literary translation: perspectives and problems.” TextContext, 1995 (2), 121–142. ———. 1996a. “La comunicación no verbal en las relaciones interpersonales y con el medio ambiente.” In Actas del XVI Curso de Verano, San Roque, Vol. I. 7–28. Cádiz: Universidad de Cádiz. ———. 1996b. “Castilian people of La Alcarria: old memories from the heart of Spain.” Queen’s Quarterly 103(3), 546–561. ———. 1997a. “Aspects, problems and challenges of nonverbal communication in literary translation.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Nonverbal Communication and Translation: New Perspectives and Challenges in Literature, Interpretation and the Media. 17–47. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. ———. 1997b. “The reality of multichannel verbal-nonverbal communication in simultaneous and consecutive and interpretation.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Nonverbal Communication in Translation. 250–282. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing. ———. 1998a. “Byroads to the past: Spanish travel notes.”Queen’s Quarterly 105(2), 256–275. ———. 1998b. “Los silencios en el discurso vivo y en la literatura: para el estudio realista del lenguaje y su entorno.” Oralia, Vol. I, 47–70.

417

418

Scientific references

———. 1999. I Was Sick and You Visited Me: A Spiritual Guide for Hospital Ministry. New York/Mahawh: Paulist Press. ———. 2000a. “New perspectives on intercultural interaction through nonverbal communication studies.” Intercultural Communication Studies 12, 1–41. ———. 2000b. “Para um modelo interdisciplinar e integrativo da interação pessoal e com o ambiente.” In J. Neponucemo, M. Rector, E. Neiva (eds.), Comunicação & Modernidade. 49–66. Belém: Universidade Federal do Pará. ———. 2001. “The nature, morphology and functions of gestures,manners and postures as documented by cretaive literature.” Gesture 1(2). ———. 2002 press. “Nonverbal communication and anthropology, sociology and psychology.” An Encyclopedia of Literature and Sciences, ed. by P. Gossin. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Quintilianus, Marcus Fabius. 1921–1922. Institutio oratoria (bilingual ed., H. E. Butler). Londres: William Heinemann. Raffler-Engel, Walburga von. 1964. Il prelinguaggio infantile. Studi grammaticali e linguistici. Brescia:Paideia ———. 1978. “The acquisition of kinesics by the child.” In F. C. C. Peng, W. von Raffler-Engel (eds.), Language Acquisition and Developmental Kinesics. 140–149. Hiroshima: Bunka Hyoron. ———. 1980a. Aspects of Nonverbal Commmunication. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger. ———. 1980b. “Developmental kinesics: the acquisition of conversational nonverbal behavior.” In W. von Raffler-Engel (ed.), Aspects of Nonverbal Commmunication. 188–159. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger. ———. 1980c. “The unconscious elements in intercultural communication.” In R. St Clair, H. Giles (eds.), The social and Psychological Contexts of Language. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum. ———. 1981. “Developmental kinesics: the acquisition and maturation of conversational nonverbal behavior.” In B.l. Hoffer, R. N. St. Clair (eds.), Developmental Kinesics. 5–27. Baltimore: University Park Press. ———. 1983. “On the synchronous development of gesticulation and vocalization in man’s early communicative behavior.” In E. de Grolier (ed.), Glossogenesis: The Origin and Evolution of Language. 295–312. Paris: Harwood Academic Publishers. ———. 1994. The Perception of the Unborn Across the Cultures of the World. Toronto/Göttingen: Hogrefe & Huber. Ramsey, Sheila. 1981. “The kinesics of femininity in Japanese women.” Language Sciences 3, 104–123. ———. 1984. “Double vision: nonverbal behavior East and West. In A. Wolfgang (ed.), Nonverbal Behavior: Perspectives, Applications, Intercultural Insights. 139–167. Lewiston, N. Y./Toronto: C. J. Hogrefe. Ramsey, Sheila, J. Birk. 1983. “Training North Americans for Interaction With Japanese: Considerations of Language and Communication Style. In R. Brislin, D.

Scientific references

Lamdis (ed.), The Handbook of Intercultural Training, Vol. III: Area Studies in Intercultural Training. Oxford: Pergamon. Ramsey, Sheila, Dianne Hofner, Yoichi Shimakawa. 1988.“The Binding of Culture: Nonverbal Dimensions of Credibility in Structured Learning Situations. In F. Poyatos, Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication. 217–224. Toronto: C. J. Hogrefe. Rapoport, Amos (ed.). 1976. The Mutal Interaction of People and Their Built Environment. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1982. The Meaning of the Built Environment: A Nonverbal Communication Approach. London: Sage/Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1990. Rector, Monica, Aluizio R. Trinta. 1985. Comunicaç«ao N«ao-Verbal: A Gestualidade Brasileira. Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro: Editora Vozes. ———. 1986. “Emblems in Brazilian culture.” In P. In P. Bouissac, M. Herzfeld, R. Posner (eds.), Iconicity: Essays on the Nature of Culture. Festschrift for Thomas A. Sebeok on His 65th Birthday. 447–467. Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag. ———. 1989. “Representation of Spanish American Gestures” Semiotica 73(1/2), 177–181 (review of Meo-Zilio y Mejía 1980, 1983). Reed, William S. 1995. Surgery of the Soul: Healing the Whole Person: Spirit, Mind and Body. Tampa, Fla.: Christian Medical Foundation. Ricci Bitti, Pio Enrico. 1976. “Communication by gestures in south and north Italians.” Giornale Italiano di Psicologia, 3(1), Rinn, William E. 1991. “Neuropsychology of facial expression.” In R. S. Feldman, B. Rimé (eds.), Fundamentals of Nonverbal Behavior. 3–70. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. Rodríguez Marín, Francisco. 1922. Un millar de voces castizas y bien autorizadas que piden lugar en nuestro léxico. Madrid: Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos. Romera Castillo, José. 1989. “Rasgos kinésicos en el ‘Diario’ de Cristóbal Colón.” In M. Criado de Val (ed.), Literatura Hispànica: Reyes Católicos y descubrimiento. 115–124. Barcelona: Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias. Ruesch, Jurgen, Weldon Kees. 1961. Nonverbal Communication: Notes on the Visual Percepcion of Human Relations. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press. ———. 1969. Dimensions of Communication: A Theory of Nonverbal Communication. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Russell, G. Oscar. 1931. Speech and Voice. New York: Macmillan. Ryan, Mary S. 1966. Clothing: A Study of Human Behavior. New York: Basic Books. Safire, William. 1983. “Ay, There’s the Rub.” The New York Times Magazine, 30 January, 8. Saitz, Robert L., Edward J. Cervenka. 1972. Handbook of Gestures: Colombia and the United States. The Hague: Mouton (1st ed., Colombian and North American Gestures: A Contrastive Inventory. Bogotá: Centro Colombo Americano, 1962).

419

420 Scientific references

Samarin, William J. Field Linguistics: A Guide to Linguistic Field Work. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Santi, Serge, Isabelle Guaitella, Christian Cavé, Gabrielle Konopeczynski. 1998. Oralité et Gestualité: Communication Multimodale, Interaction. Paris/Montreal: L’Harmattan. Saville-Troike, Muriel. 1985. “The Place of Silence in an Integrated Theory of Communication.” In D. Tannen and M. Saville Troike (eds.), Perspectives on Silence. 3–18. Norwood, N. J.: Ablex Publishing Corporation. Sayyid, Muhammad Abdul-Wahid. 1975. “Arabic Kinesics.” Journal of the american Association of Teachers of Arabic 8(1/2), 41–51. Scheflen, Albert E. 1964a. “Communication and regulation in psychotherapy.” Psychiatry 28(3), 126–136. ———. 1964b. “The significance of posture in communication systems.” Psychiatry 27, 316–331; in J. Laver, S. Hutcheson (eds.), Communication in Face-To-Face Interaction. 225–246. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972. ———. 1965. “Quasi-courthsip behavior in psychotherapy.” Psychiatry 28:3, 245–257; in S. Weitz (ed.), Nonverbal Communication:Readings With Commentaries. 136–167. New York: Oxford University Press. ———. 1966. “Natural history method in psychotherapy: communicational research.” In L. A. Gottschalk, A. H. Auerbach (eds.), Methods of Research in Psychotherapy. 263–289.New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. ———. 1969. Stream and Structure of Communicational Behavior. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute; Bloomington, In.: Indiana University Press. ———. 1972. Body Language and the Social Order. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. ———. 1973. How Behavior Means. New York: Gordon and Breach; Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday (1974). ———. 1980. Systems in human communication.” In W. von Raffler Engel (ed.), Aspects of Nonverbal Communication. 7–28. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger. Scherer, Klaus M. 1972. “Judging personality from voice: across-cultural approach to an old issue in interpersonal perception.” Journal of Personality 40, 191–210. ———. 1973. “The voice of confidence: paralinguistic clues and audience evaluation.” Journal of Research in Personality 7, 31–44. ———. 1978. “Personality inference from voice quality: the loud voice of extroversion.” European Journal of Social Psychology 8, 467–87. ———. 1979a. “Personality markers in speech.” In K. R. Scherer, H. Giles (eds.), Social Markers in Speech. 147–209. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ———. 1979b. “Voice and speech correlates of perceived social influence.” In H. Giles, R. St. Clair (eds.), Language and Social Psychology. 88–120. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Scientific references

———. 1979c. “Nonlinguistic vocal indicators of emotion and psychopathology.” In C. E. Izard (ed.), Emotions in Personality and Psychopathology. 495–529. New York: Plenum. ———. 1982. “Methods of research on vocal communication: paradigms and parameters.” In K. R. Scherer, P. Ekman (eds.), Handbook of Methods in Nonverbal Behavior Research. 136–98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme ———. 1984. “The state of the art in vocal communication: a partial view.” In A. Wolfgang (ed.), Nonverbal Behavior: Perspectives, Applications, Intercultural Insights. 41–73. Lewiston, N. Y./Toronto: C. J. Hogrefe. Scherer, Klaus M., Paul Ekman. 1982. “Methodological issues in the study of nonverbal behavior.” In K. M. Scherer, P. Ekman (eds.), Handbook of Methods in Nonverbal Behavior Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/Paris: Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. Schiffrin, Deborah. 1974. “Handwork as ceremony: the case of the handshake.” Semiotica 1974, 189–202; in A. Kendon (ed.), Nonverbal Communication, Interaction, and Gesture. 237–250. The Hague: Mouton. Schmitt, Jean-Claude. 1987. “La moral des gestes.” Communications 47, 31–47. ———. 1990. La raison des gestes dans l’Occident médieval. Paris: Gallimard. ———. 1992. “The rational of gestures in the West: a history from the 3rd to the 13th centuries. In F. Poyatos (ed.), Advances in Nonverbal Communication: Sociocultural, Clinical, Esthetic and Literary Perspectives. 77–95. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Schneller, Raphael. 1988. “The Israeli experience of crosscultural misunderstanding: insights and lessons. In F. Poyatos (ed.), Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication. 153–171. Toronto/Göttingen: C. J. Hogrefe. ———. 1992a. “Many gestures, many meanings: nonverbal diversity in Israel.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Advances in Nonverbal Communication: Sociocultural, Clinical, Esthetic and Literary Perspectives. 213–233. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. ———. 1992b. “Cultural diversity and prejudice in non-Verbal communication.” In J. Lynch, C. Modgil, S. Modgil (eds.), Cultural Diversity and the Schools, Vol. II: Prejudice, Polemic or Progress. 119–142. London/Washington: The Falmer Press. Sebeok, Thomas A. 1969. “Semiotics and ethology.” In T. A. Sebeok, A. Ramsey (eds.), Approaches to Animal Communication. 200–231. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1972. Perspectives in Zoosemiotics. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1974. “Semiotics survey of the state of the art.” In. T. A. Sebeok (ed.), Current Trends in Linguistics, Vol. 12, Linguistics and Adjacent Arts and Sciences. 211–264. The Hague: Mouton. ———. 1977a. “Zoosemiotic components of human communication.” In T. A. Sebeok (ed.), How Animals Communicate. 1056–1077. Bloomington, In.: Indiana University Press.

421

422 Scientific references

———. 1977b. “Six species of signs: some propositions and strictures.” In T. A. Sebeok (ed.), Contributions to the Doctrines of Signs. 117–142. Lisse: The Peter de Ridder Press. Sebeok, Thomas A., A.S, Hayes, M. C. Bateson (eds.). 1964. Approaches to Semiotics: Cultural Anthropology, Education, Linguistics, Psychiatry, Psychology. The Hague: Mouton. Sebeok, Thomas A., Jean Umiker-Sebeok. 1986. Monastic Sign Language. New York: Plenum Press. Sherzer, Joel. 1973. “Verbal and Nonverbal Deixis: The Pointed Lip Gesture Among the San Blas Cuna.” Language and Society 2, 117–133. Siegman, Aaron W., Stanley Feldstein (eds.). 1978. Nonverbal Behavior and Communication. Hillsdale, N. Y.: Lawrence Erlbaum. Siegman, Aaron W., B. Pope (eds.). 1972 Studies in Dyadic Communication. Oxford/New York: Pergamon. Simmel, George. 1924. “On visual interaction.” In R.E. Park, W.E. Burgess (eds.), Introduction to the Science of Sociology. 370–75. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Smith, Howard A. 1984. “State of the art of nonverbal behavior in teaching.” In A. Wolfgang (ed.), Nonverbal Behavior: Perspectives, Applications, Intercultural Insights. 115–138. Lewiston, N. Y./Toronto: C. J. Hogrefe. Smith Jr., Henry L. 1952. An Outline of Metalinguistic Analysis. Washington, D. C.: Department of State, Foreign Service Institute. ———. 1953. The Communication Situation. Washington, D. C.: Department of State, Foreign Service Institute. Smith, W. John, Julia Chase, Anna Katz Lieblich. 1974. “Tongue showing: a facial display of human and other primate species.” Semiotica 11, 201–246; in A. Kendon (ed.), Nonverbal Communication, Interaction, and Gesture. 503–548. The Hague: Mouton. Sommer, Robert. 1969. Personal Space: The Behavioral Basis of Design. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall. Sorell, Walter. 1967. The Story of the Human Hand. New York: Bobbs-Merrill. Sparhawk, Carol M. 1978. “Contrastive-identificational features of Persian gesture.” Semiotica 24, 49–86; in A. Kendon (ed.), Nonverbal Communication, Interaction, and Gesture. 421–458. The Hague: Mouton. Stockwell, Robert P., J. Donald Bowen, I. Silva-Fuenzalida. 1956. “Spanish juncture and intonation.” Language 32, 641–665. Stokoe, Jr., William C. 1960. Sign Language Structure. Buffalo, N. Y.: University of Buffalo, Studies in Linguistics, Occasional Papers, No. 8. ———. 1965. “Face-to-face interaction: sign to language.” In A. Kendon, R. M. Harris, M.R. Key (eds.), The Organization of Behavior in Face-to-Face Interaction. 315–337. World Anthropology Series. The Hague: Mouton.

Scientific references

Stopa, Roman. 1972. Structure of Bushman and its Traces in Indo-European. Krakow: Polska Akademia Nauk. Prace Komisji Orientalistycznej, 10. Sutton, Joan. 1975. Clothing and Culture: Contemporary Concepts. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. Sweet, Henry. 1906. A Primer of Phonetics. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Tada, Michitaroo. 1972. Shigusa no Nippon. Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo. Tannen, Deborah, Muriel Saville-Troike. 1985. Perspectives on Silence. Norwood, N. J.: Ablex Publishing. Taylor, Allan R. 1978. “Nonverbal communication in aboriginal North America: the Plains sign language.” In J. Umiker-Sebeok (ed.), Aboriginal Sign Languages of the Americas and Australia, Vol. I. 223–244. New York: Plenum Press. Taylor, Archer. 1956. “The Shanghai gesture.” Folklore Fellowship Communications 166 (76 pages). Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia. Taylor, Harvey M. 1974a. “Japanese kinesics.” Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese 9(1), 65–75. ———. 1974b. “American and Japanese nonverbal communication.” Papers in Japanese Linguistics 3. Melbourne: Monash University. Thorpe, W. H. 1972. “Vocal communication in birds.” In R. Hinde (ed.), Nonverbal Communication. 153–176. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ———. 1974. Animal Nature and Human Nature. London: Methuen. Tohyama, Yasuko. 1983. “A Semiotic analysis of meeting and parting rituals in Japanese and English.” Proceedings of the XIIIth International Congress of Linguists. ———. 1991. “Aspects of Japanese Nonverbal Behavior in Relation to Traditional Culture.” In Y. Ikegami (ed.), The Empire of Signs: Essays on Japanese Culture, Foundations of Semiotics, Vol. 8, 181–218. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. ———. 1993. “Cultural differences of Japanese and American nonverbal language.” In Y. Ikegami, M. Toyota (eds,), Aspects of English as a World Language. 197–223. Tokyo: Maruzen. ———. 1998. “Report on the project of compiling a dictionary of Japanese nonverbal behavior.” In B. Caron (ed.), Proceedings of the XVIth International Congress of Linguists. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Tournier, Paul. 1974. A Doctor’s Casebook in the Light of the Bible. San Francisco: Harper & Row. ———. 1983. The Healing of Persons. San Francisco: Harper & Row. Trager, George L. 1949. The Field of Linguistics. Norman: Battenburg Press. ———. 1955. “Language.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 13, 696–703. ———. 1956. “Linguistics.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 14, 163–171. ———. 1958. “Paralanguage: a first approximation. Studies in Linguistics 13(1), 1–12; in D. Hymes (ed.), Language in Culture and Society. 274–288. New York: Harper & Row. ———. 1960. “Taos III: paralanguage.” Anthropological Linguistics 2 (2),24–30.

423

424 Scientific references

Trager, George L. and Edward T. Hall. 1954. Culture and Communication: A Model and an Analysis. Explorations 3, 157–249. Trager, George L., Henry L. Smith Jr. 1951. An Outline of English Structure. Studies in Linguistics: Occasional Papers, 31. Norman, Ok.: Battenburg Press (2nd ed., Washington, D. C.: American Council of Learned Societies, 1956). Tyler, S.A. 1985. The Said and Unsaid: Mind, Meaning and Culture. NY: Academic Press. Umiker-Sebeok, Jean, Thomas A. Sebeok. 1978. Aboriginal Sign Languages of the Americas and Australia. Two vols. New York/London:Plenum Press. ———. 1987. Monastic SignLanguages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Vanderbilt, Amy. 1956. Everyday Etiquette. New York: Bantam Books. van Hoof, J. A. R. A. M. 1972. “A comparative approach to the phylogeny of laughter and smiling.” In R. Hinde (ed.), Non-Verbal Communication. 209–41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vetter, Harold J. 1969. “Nonverbal communication: kinesics and gestural phenomena.” In H. Vetter (ed.), Language Behavior and Communication. 205–231. Itasca, Ill.: Peacock Publishers. Vicary, Grace Q. 1988. “The signs of clothing.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication. 291–314. Toronto/Göttingen: C. J. Hogrefe. ———.1989. “Visual arts as social data: the Renaissance codpiece.” Cultural Anthropology 4 (1), 3–25. Vogl, Reverend Carl. 1973. Begone Satan. Rockford, Ill.: Tan Books. Volterra, Virginia, Carol J. Erting (eds.). 1990. From Gesture to Language in Hearing and Deaf Children. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Wallbott, Harald G. 1980. “The measurement of human expression.” In W. von Raffler-Engel (ed.), Aspects of Nonverbal Communication. 203–28. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger. Ward, Nigel. 2001. “Sound symbolism in conversational grunts in English.” In N. Ward, Non-lexical Sounds: a New Interface Modality for Voice-based INformation Delivery Systems. Tokyo: University of Tokyo. Waterhouse, Lynn, Deborah Fein. 1978. “Patterns of kinesic synchrony in autistic and schizophrenic children.” In F.CC. Peng, W. von Raffler-Engel (eds.), Language Acquisition and Developmental Kinesics. 157–166. Hiroshima: Bunka Hyoron. Watson, O. Michael. 1974. Proxemic Behavior: A Cross-Cultural Study. The Hague: Mouton. Weaver, Andrew T. 1942. Speech Forms and Principles. London: Longmans & Green. Webbink, Patricia. 1986. Power of the Eyes. New York: Springer. Weiser, Judy. 1988. “’See what I mean?”: photography as nonverbal communication in cross-cultural psychology.” In F. Poyatos (Ed.). Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication. 245–290. Toronto/Göttingen: C. J. Hogrefe.

Scientific references

Weitz, Shirley. 1979. Nonverbal Communication: Readings With Commentaries. New York: Oxford University Press. Wenner, Adrian M. 1969. “The study of animal communication: an overview.” In T. A. Sebeok y A. Ramsay (eds.), Approaches to Animal Communication. 232–243. The Hague: Mouton. Wescott, Roger W. 1967. “Strepital communication: a study of non-vocal sound production among men and animals.” The Bulletin of the New Jersey Academy of Sciences 12(1), 30–34. Wildeblood, Joan. 1965. The Polite World. London: Oxford University Press. Wilson, William P. 1984. The Grace to Grow. Waco, Texas: Word Wolfgang, Aaron (ed.). 1979a. Nonverbal Behavior: Applications and Cultural Implications. New York: Academic Press. ———. 1979b. “The teacher and nonverbal behavior in the multicultural classroom. In A. Wolfgang (ed.), Nonverbal Behavior: Applications and Cultural Implications. 159–174. New York: Academic Press. ———. 1984 (ed.). Nonverbal Behavior: Perspectives, Applications, Intercultural Insights. Lewiston, N. Y./Toronto: C. J. Hogrefe. ———. 1986. A Multicultural Project: Development of a Canadian Gesture Inventory. Progress Report. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Wylie, Laurence. 1977. Beau Gestes: A Guide to French Body Talk. Cambridge, Mass.: The Undergraduate Press/ New York: Dutton. Yau, Shun-chiu. 1992b. Creation gestuelle et debuts du langage: creation de Yau, Shun-chiu. ———. 1992b. “Six characters in search of a gesture: Chinese graphs and corporal behavior.” In F. Poyatos (ed.), Advances in Nonverbal Communication: Sociocultural, Clinical, Esthetic and Literary Perspectives. 163–186. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. langues gestuelles chez des sourdes isoles. Paris: Langages Croisés, École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Youssouf, Ibrahim Ag, Allen D. Grimshaw, Charles S. Bird. 1976. “Greetings in the desert.” American Ethnologist 5(3), 797–824. Zuk, Gerald H. 1966. On the theory and pathology of laughter in psychopathology. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice 3 (30, 97–101).

425

Literary references Agee, James. 1938. A Death in the Family. New York: Avon Books, 1963. DF Alas, Leopoldo. 1884–1885. La Regenta. Madrid: Alianza, 1967. R Albee, Edward. 1962. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? New York: Atheneum, 1962. WAVW Aldecoa, Ignacio. 1954. El fulgor y la sangre. Barcelona: Planeta, 1962. FS Alemán, Mateo. 1599, 1604. Guzmán de Alfarache. Madrid: Espasa Calpe (Clasicos Castellanos), 1963. GA Anand, Mulk Raj. 1972. Coolie. New Delhi: Orient Paperbacks. 1972 C Anderson, Sherwood. 1919. Winesburgh, Ohio. New York: The Viking Press, 1960. WO Archie Digest. 1982(3). Asher, Michael. 1984. In Search of the Forty Days Road. Harmondsworth: Penguin. FDR Balzac. 1833. Eugénie Grandet. Paris: Garnier, 1965. EG Banerji, Bibhutibhushan. 1929. Pather Panchali. Bloomington/ London: Indiana University Press, 1968. PP Baroja, Pío. 1904. La busca. Barcelona: Planeta, 1968, B Bhattacharya, Bhabani. 1955. He Who Rides a Tiger. Delhi: Hind Pocket Books. HHRT Beecher Stowe, Harriet. 1852. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. New York: Signet, 1998. UTC Bellow, Saul. 1964. Herzog. New York: Fawcett World Library, 1965. H Bible, The Jerusalem. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1996. Bible, The New American. Iowa Falls: World Bible Publishers, 1991: Deuteronomy, Esther, Ezra, Genesis, Isaiah, John, 2 Kings, Luke, Malachi, Matthew, Nehemiah, Proverbs, Psalms. Bible, The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983: 2 Chronicles, Exodus, Genesis, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Job, Joel, John, 1 John, Joshua, Luke, Mark, Matthew, Micah, 1 Peter, Proverbs, Psalms, Romans, 2 Samuel, 1 Thessalonians. Bible, The New Revised Standard Version: Catholic Edition. Toronto: Canadian Bible Society, 1993: Joel. Bible, The. Revised Standard Version: Catholic Edition. London: Catholic Truth Society, 1966: Colossians, Genesis, Joel, Mark, Matthew, Revelation. Blasco Ibáñez. 1898. La barraca. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (Colección Austral), 1967. B Brenan, Gerald. 1965. The Face of Spain. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965. FS Brontë, C. 1847. Jane Eyre. New York: Washington Square Press, 1973. JE ———. 1857. The Professor. London: Penguin, 1995. P

428 Literary references

Brontë, Anne. 1848. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. London: Penguin Books, 1979. TWF Brontë, Emily. 1847. Wuthering Heights (New York: W. W. Norton, 1963) WH Burroughs, Edgar Rice. 1912. Tarzan of the Apes. New York: Ballantine Books. TA Burney, Fanny. 1778. Evelina. New York: Dutton/London: Dent, 1967. E Caballero Bonald, J. M. 1967. Dos días de setiembre. Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1967. DDS Carroll, Lewis. 1865. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. New York: Franklin Watts/London: the Nonesuch Press, 1962. AAW Cather, Willa. 1913. O Pioneers! New York: Tom Doherty, 1992. P ———. 1918. My Ántonia. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1954. MA Cela, Camilo José. 1942. Pascual Duarte. Barcelona: Destino, 1955. PD ———. 1947. Viaje a La Alcarria. Boston: D. C. Heath, 1962. VA ———. 1951. La colmena. México: Noguer. C Cervantes, Miguel de. 1605–1615. Don Quijote de la Mancha Barcelona: Editorial Juventud, 1965. DQ ———. 1613. La Gitanilla. Novelas Ejemplares (ed. F. Sevilla Arroyo, A. Rey Hazas). Madrid: Espasa Calpe, Colección Austral, 1996. G Christie, Agatha. 1952. The Mousetrap. The Mousetrap and Other Plays. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1978. M Collins, Wilkie. 1860. The Woman in White. London: Penguin Books, 1974. WW ———. 1868. The Moonstone. London: Penguin, 1986. M Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur. 1893. The Hound of the Baskervilles. The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Witha Preface by Christopher Morley, Vol I. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday & Company, 1930. HB ———. 1905. A Study in Scarlet. The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with a preface by Christopher Morley, Vol I. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday & Company, 1930. SS Cowper, William. 1798. “On the Receipt of my Mother’s Picture.” Poems (ed. J. C. Bailey). London, 1905. Crane, Stephen. 1893. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Stephen Crane: Stories and Tales. New York: Vintage Books, 1959. MGS ———. 1893. “An Experiment in Misery.” Stephen Crane: Stories and Tales. New York: Vintage Books, 1959. EM ———. 1893. “Men in the Storm.” Stephen Crane: Stories and Tales. New York: Vintage Books, 1959. MS ———. 1895. The Red Badge of Courage. New York: Magnum Books, 1967. RBC ———. 1896. “George’s Mother.” Stephen Crane: Stories and Tales. New York: Vintage Books, 1959. GM ———. 1898. The Blue Hotel. Stephen Crane: Stories and Tales. New York: Vintage Press, 1959. BH Delibes, Miguel. 1948. La sombra del ciprés es alargada. Barcelona: Ediciones Destino, 1959. SCA

Literary references

De Mille, Agnes, 1951. Dance to the Piper. New York: Bantam Books. Dickens, Charles. 1836–1837. Pickwick Papers. New York: Dell, 1964) PP. ———. 1838. Oliver Twist. New York: Holt, Rinehartand Winston,1962. OT ———. 1838–1839. Nicholas Nickleby. London/Sidney: Pan Books, 1975. NN ———. 1843. A Christmas Carol. The Christamas Books. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, 1995. CC ———. 1843–1844. Martin Chuzzlewit. Hardsmondsworth: Penguin, 1968. MC ———. 1849–1850. David Copperfield. New York: Modern Library, 1950. DC ———. 1853. Bleak House. London: Penguin Books, 1985. BH ———. 1854. Hard Times. London: Penguin Books, 1994. HT ———. 1859. A Tale of Two Cities. Nueva York: Washington Square Press, 1962. TTC ———. 1860. Great Expectations. New York: Washington Square Press, 1970. GE Doctorow, E. L. 1975. Ragtime. New York: Ballantine Books, Fawcett Crest, 1985. R ———. 1985. World’s Fair. New York: Fawcett Crest. WF ———. 1989. Billy Bathgate. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1990. BB ———. 1995. The Waterworks. New York: Signet. W Dos Passos. 1925. Manhattan Transfer. New York: Bantam Books, 1959. MT ———. 1930. The 42nd Parallel. New York: Washington Square Press, 1961. 42P ———. 1936. The Big Money. New York: Washington Square Press, 1961. BM Dreiser, Theodore. 1900. Sister Carrie. New York: Dell, 1960. SC ———. 1911. Jennie Gerhardt. New York: Dell, 1963. JG. ———. 1915. The Genius. New York: New American Library of Canada, Signet Books, 1967. G ———. 1925. An American Tragedy. New York: Dell, 1960. AT Eliot, George. 1859. Adam Bede. New York: The Pocket Library, 1956. AB ———. 1860. Mill on the Floss. London: Dent/New York: Dutton, 1964. MF ———. 1861. Silas Marner. New York: Bantam Books, 1992. SM Espina, Concha. 1910. Despertar para morir. Madrid: V. H. Sanz Calleja, undated. DM ———. 1911. Agua de nieve. Madrid: Impreta de Juan Pueyo, 1919. AN ———. 1913. La esfinge maragata. Madrid: Renacimiento, 1917. EM ———. 1920. El metal de los muertos. Madrid: Gil-Blas. MM ———. 1926. Altar Mayor. Madrid: Renacimiento, undated. AM Faulkner, William. 1930. As I Lay Dying. Hardmonsworth: Penguin, 1963. ALD ———. 1931. Sanctuary. New York: The New American Library, Signet Books, 1961. S ———. 1950. Requiem for a Nun. New York: The New American Library, Signet Books, 1961. RN Fitzgerald, F. Scott. 1925. The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1953) GG ———. 1933. Tender is the Night. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1953) TIN Forster, E. M. 1924. A Passage to India. Harmondsworth, Penguin: 1970. PI Galdós, see Pérez Galdós.

429

430 Literary references

Gaskell, Elizabeth. 1864. Cousin Phillis. London: Penguin, 1995. CP Gide, André. 1919. La symphonie pastorale. Paris: Gallimard, Le livre de poche, 1966. SP Galsworthy, John. 1906. The Man of Property. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1968. MP ———. 1920. In Chancery. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, 1994. IC Greene, Graham. 1932. Stamboul Train. London: Penguin Books, 1975. ST ———. 1961. A Burnt-Out Case. New York: Bantam Books, 1962. BOC Grey, Zane. 1908. The Last of the Plainsman. Roslyn, N. Y.: Walter J. Black. LP ———. 1909. The Last Trail. Philadelphia: The BlakistonCompany, 1945. LT ———. 1910. The Heritage of the Desert. New York: Pocket Books, 1969. HD ———. 1912. Riders of the Purple Sage. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. RPS ———. 1913. Desert Gold. New York: Pocket Books, 1969, DG ———. 1915. The Rainbow Trail. New York: Pocket Books, 1961. RT ———. 1915. The Lone Star Ranger: A Romance of the Border. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. LSR ———. 1916. The Border Legion. Roslyn, N. Y.: Walter J. Black. BL ———. 1918. The U. P. Trail. New York: Pocket Books, 1956. UPT ———. 1919. The Desert of Wheat. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1947. DW ———. 1920. The Man of the Forest. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. MF ———. 1923. Wanderer of the Wasteland. New York: Grosset & Dunlop. WW ———. 1924. The Call of the Canyon. New York: Pocket Books, 1975. CC ———. 1925. Captives of the Desert. Roslyn, N. Y.: Walter J. Black, 1954. CD ———. 1925. The Thundering Herd. New York: Pocket Books, 1983. TH ———. 1928. Nevada. New York: Bantam Books, 1979; in American Magazine, 1926– 1927. N ———. 1928. The Shepherd of Guadaloupe. Roslyn, N. Y.: Walter J. Black. SG ———. 1929. Fighting Caravans. Toronto: The Musson Book Company. FC ———. 1931. To the Last Man. Five Complete Novels. New York: Avenel Books. TLM ———. 1932. The Lost Wagon Train. Roslyn, New York: Walter J. Black. LWT ———. The Spirit of the Border. New York: Tom Dohertyy Associates, 1993. SB ———. 1933. The Drift Fence. Toronto: The Musson Book Company. DF ———. 1933. Betty Zane. New York: Triangle Books, 1942. BZ ———. 1936. Shadow on the Trail. Roslyn, N. Y.: Walter J. Black. ST ———. 1937. Majestic Ranch. New York: Pocket Books, 1980. MR ———. 1963. Boulder Dam. New York: Pocket Books. BD Hailey, Arthur. 1965. Hotel. New York: Bantam, 1966. H Hardy, Thomas. 1973. A Pair of Blue Eyes. London: Penguin, 1994. PBE ———. 1874. Far from the Madding Crowd. London: Pan Books, 1971. FMC ———. 1876. The Hand of Ethelbertha. London: Penguin Books, 1996. HE ———. 1878. The Return of the Native. London: Macmillan, Pocket Paperbacks, 1970. RN

Literary references

———. 1881. A Laodicean. London: Penguin Books, 1997. L ———. 1885. The Mayor of Casterbridge. Londres: Macmillan, 1974. MC ———. 1891. Tess of the D’Urbervilles. New York: Dell, 1962. TD ———. 1895. Jude the Obscure. New York: Dell, 1960. JO Hawthorne, Nathaniel. 1851. The House of the Seven Gables. New York: Washington Square Press, 1960. HSG ———. 1860. The Marble Faun. New York: Pocket Library, 1958. MF Heller, Joseph. 1962. Catch-22. New York: Dell, 1962. C22 Hemingway Ernest. 1929. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1957. FA Howells, William Dean. 1884. The Rise of Silas Lapham. New York: Airmont, 1968. RSL ———. 1890. A Hazard of New Fortunes. New York: Bantam Books, 1960. HNF Hugo, Victor. 1830. Hernani (ed. C. Kemshead). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901. H Huxley, Aldous. 1921. Crome Yellow. New York: Bantam Books. CY ———. 1928. Point Counterpoint. New York: Avon Books. PCP ———. 1936. Eyeless in Gaza. New York: Bantam Books, 1961. EG James, Henry. 1881. The Portrait of a Lady. New York: Dell, 1961. PL ———. 1878. The Europeans. London: Penguin Books, 1995. E ———. 1886. The Bostonians. London: Penguin, 1986. B ———. 1888. The Aspern Papers. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. AP ———. 1898. The Turn of the Screw. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. TS Jerome K. Jerome. 1889. Three Men in a Boat. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1960. TMB Jones, Ernest. 1957. Sigmund Freud: Life and Work, Vol.3: The Last Phase 1919–1939. London: Hogarth Press. Joyce, James. 1914. Dubliners. The Portable James Joyce. New York: The Viking Press, 1947. D ———. 1916. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Harmondsworth:Penguin, 1976. PAYM ———. 1922. Ulysses. New York: Vintage Books, 1961. U Kerouac, Jack. 1958. On the Road. New York: New American Library. Signet Books, 1960. OR Laforet, Carmen. 1944. Nada. Barcelona: Ediciones Destino, 1971. N Laurence, Margaret. 1968. The Stone Angel. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1968. SA Lawrence, D. H. 1913. Sons and Lovers. New York: New American Library, Signet Books, 1960. SL ———. 1921. Women in Love. New York: Random House, Modern Library, 1950. WL Lee, Harper. 1960. To Kill a Mockingbird. Toronto: Popular Library, 1977. KM Lewis, Sinclair. 1920. Main Street. New York: New American Library, Signet Books, 1961. MS ———. 1922. Babbitt. New York: New American Library, Signet Classic, 1961. B ———. 1926. Mantrap. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. M

431

432

Literary references

———. 1927. Elmer Gantry. New York: Dell, 1954. EG ———. 1929. Dodsworth. New York: Dell. 1957. D ———. 1945. Cass Timberlane. New York: Bantam Books, 1957. CT López Pacheco, Jesús. 1958. Central Eléctrica. Barcelona: Destino. CE López Salinas. 1960. La mina. Barcelona: Destino. M Malamud, Bernard. 1971. The Tenants. New York: Pocket Books, 1972. T Mailer, Norman. 1951. Barbary Shore. Toronto: New American Library of Canada, Signet Books. BS ———. 1955. The Deer Park. New York: Signet, The New American Library of Canada, 1957. DP Malamud, Bernard. 1971. The Tenants. New York: Pocket Books,1972. T Mann, Thomas. 1901. Buddenbrooks (tr. H. T. Lowe-Porter). New York: Vintage books. B Mansfield, Catherine. 1922. “The Garden party.” In F. O’Connor (ed.), The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Study. New York: Bantam Books. GP ———. 1922. “An Ideal Family.” The Short Story: An Introductory Anthology (ed. by R. Rees, B. Menikoff. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969. Markandaya, Kamala. 1954. Nectar in a Sieve. New York: New American Library. NS Martin Gaite, Carmen. 1958. Entre visillos. Barcelona: Destino, 1967. EV Martín Santos. 1968. Tiempo de silencio. Barcelona: Seix Barral, TS Maugham, W. Somerset. 1915. Of Human Bondage. New York: Random House, Modern Library, 1942. OHB ———. 1921. “Rain.” The Short Story: An Introductory Anthology (ed. by R. Rees, B. Menikoff. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969. R ———. 1924. “Mr. Know-All.” In The Modern Masters: An Anthology of the Short Story, ed. by R. G. Davis. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1953. MKA ———. 1930. Cakes and Ales. Hardmondsworth: Penguin, 1960. CA ———. 1943. The Razor’s Edge. Philadelphia: The Blakiston Company. RE Mauriac, François. 1927. Thérèse Desqueyroux. Paris: J. Ferenczi et Fils (Le livre moderne illustré). TD Maurier, George du. 1849. Trilby. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions. T McLennan, Hugh. 1945. Two Solitudes. Toronto: Macmillan, 1967. TS McCullers, Carson. 1946. The Member of the Wedding. New York: Bantam, 1969. MW Melville, Herman. 1851. Moby-Dick. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1964. MD Miller, Arthur. 1955. A View from the Bridge. Contemporary Drama: 13 Plays. New York” Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1962. VFB Montherlant. Henry de. 1934. Les Célibataires. París: Gallimard, Le Livre de Poche, 1954. C Morton, H. V. 1938. Through the Lands of the Bible. London: Methuen.TLB New York Times, The. 1989, January 8. Nicolson, Nigel. 1973. Portrait of a Marriage. London: Widenfeld and Nicolson. PM

Literary references

Norris, Frank. 1899. McTeague. New York: Fawcett Publications, 1960 M ———. 1901. The Octopus. New York: Bantam Books, 1971. O ———. 1903. The Pit. New York: Grove Press/London: Evergreen Books, 1956. P O’Neill. 1924. Desire Under the Elms. Masterpieces of the Drama. New York: Macmillan, 1974. DUE ———. Strange Interlude. The Plays of Eugene O’Neill, Vol. I. New York: Random House, 1964. SI ———. 1931. Ah, Wilderness! In E. B. Watson, B. Presley (eds.), Contemporary Drama: Fifteen Plays. W Parkman, Francis. 1849. The Oregon Trail. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916. OT Pardo Bazán, Emilia. 1886. Los Pazos de Ulloa. Obras completas. Madrid: Aguilar, 1947. PU Pereda, Jose María de. 1885. Sotileza. New York: Las Américas, 1962. S Pérez Galdós, Benito. 1881. La desheredada. Madrid: Libreria de Perlado, Páez y C.ª,1909. D ———. 1884. La de Bringas. Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, 1906. LDB ———. 1886–1887. Fortunata y Jacinta. Madrid: Editorial Hernando, 1968. FJ ———. 1888. Miau. Madrid: Librería de Perlado, Paez y Cª., 1907. Miau ———. 1140 (ed. by R. Menéndez Pidal). Clásicos Castellanos. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1946. Porter, Katherine Anne. 1945. Ship of Fools. New York: The New American Library, Signet Books, 1963. SF Poyatos, F. 1997. “Mount Athos: Souls Haven on Earth.” Queen’s Quarterly 104(4), 661–679. MA Quevedo, Francisco de. 1607. El sueño de las calaveras. Los sueños. Madrid: EspasaCalpe (Clásicos castellanos), 1916–1917. SC ———. 1610. El mundo por de dentro. Los sueños. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (Clásicos Castellanos), 1969. MPD ———. 1622. Visita de los chistes. Los sueños. Clásicos Castellanos. Madrid: EspasaCalpe, 1969. VC ———. 1626. La vida del Buscón. Dos novelas picareascas. New York:Doubleday, 1961. B ———. 1635. La hora de todos. Los sueños. Madrid: Espasa Calpe (Clásicos Castellanos), 1969. HT Rao, Raja. 1938. Kanthapura. New York: New Directions, 1963. K Ruiz, Juan, Arcipreste de Hita. 14th c. Libro de Buen Amor (ed. by Alberto Blecua). Madrid: Cátedra, 1995. LBA Salinger, J. D. 1951. The Catcher in the Rye. New York: Signet Books, 1960. CR Sánchez Ferlosio. 1958. El Jarama. Barcelona: Destino, 1958). J Schreiner, Olive. 1883. The Story of an African Farm. London: Penguin, 1986. AF

433

434 Literary references

Shakespeare, William. 1592–1593. Richard II. William Shakespeare: The Complete Works (ed. A. Harbage). Baltimore: Penguin, 1969. RII Shaw, Bernard. 1916. Pygmalion. Hardmondsworth: Penguin, 1954. P Shelley Mary. 1817. Frankestein. New York: Crown, 1977. F Singh, Khuswant. 1956. Train to Pakistan. Bombay: Indian Book House, 1976. TP Steinbeck, John. 1931. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Bantam Books, 1964. GW ———. 1935. Tortilla Flat. The Short Stories of John Steinbeck. New York: The Viking Press, 1953. TF ———. 1937. Of Mice and Men. The Short Stories of John Steinbeck. New York: The Viking Press, 1953. MM ———. 1938. The Red Pony. The Short Stories of John Steinbeck. New York: The Viking Press, 1953. RP ———. 1945. The Pearl. The Short Stories of John Steinbeck. New York: The Viking Press, 1953. P ———. 1953. East of Eden. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 179. EE Stevenson, Robert Louis. 1883. Treasure Island. New York: Airmont Books, 1962. TI ———. 1886. The Strange Case of Dr, Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. London: MacDonald, 1950. JH Thackeray, William Makepeace. 1847–1848. Vanity Fair. New York: New American Library, Signet Books, 1962. VF Time Magazine. 1991. 16 Sept. ———. 1995. 13 Nov. ———. 1999. 15 Sept ———. 2000. 10 April. Tolstoy, Leo. 1873–1877. Ana Karenina (trad. L. y A. Maude; ed. G. Gibian) New York: W. W. Norton, 1970. AK ———. 1889–1899. Resurrection. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1972. R Turgenev, Ivan. 1862. Father and Sons. The Vintage Turgenev. New York: Vintage Books, 1950. FS Valle-Inclán, Ramon del. 1904. Sonata de primavera. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1994. SP van Tilburg Clark, Walter. 1944. “The Wind and the Snow of Winter.” American Short Stories (ed. by R. B. West, Jr.). New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1959. WSW Wells, H. G. 1897. The Invisible Man. Glasgow: Fontana Collins, 1974. IM Welty, Eudora. 1941. “The Hitch-hikers.” American Short Stories (ed. R. B. West, Jr.). New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1959. HH West, Nathanael. 1939. The Day of the Locust. New York: Bantam Books. DL Wharton, Edith. 1904. “The Other Two.” The Descent of Man. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Also in W. Thorp (ed.), Great Short Works of American Realism. New York: Harper & Row (Perennial Classics), 1968. OT ———. 1905. The House of Mirth. New York: New American Library, Signet Classic. HM ———. 1911. Ethan From. New York: Dover, 1991. EF

Literary references

———. 1912. The Reef. London: Penguin, 1993. R ———. 1920. The Age of Innocence. Mineola, N. Y.: Dover Publications, 1997. AI Wilde, Oscar. 1891. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions. PDG ———. 1895. The Importance of Being Earnest. Contemporary Drama: 15 Plays (ed. E. B. Bradlee Watson, B. Pressey). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1959. IBE Wilkerson, David. 1963. The Cross and the Switchblade. New York: Pillar Books. CS Williams, Tennessee. 1945. The Glass Menagerie. New York: New Directions, 1966. GM Wilson, Edmund. 1956. Anglo-Saxon Attitudes. New York: The New American Library, Signet. ASA Wolfe, Thomas. Look Homeward, Angel. 1929. New York: The Modern Library, Random House. LHA Woolf, Virginia. 1922. Jacob’s Room. New York: Signet Books, 1998. JR ———. 1937. The Years. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973. Y Zola, Émile. 1873. Le ventre de Paris. Paris: Fasquelle (Le Livre de Poche [undated]) VP

435

Index of literary authors and works cited A Agee, J. A Death in the Family 14, 53, 107, 112, 164, 166, 377 Alas, L. La Regenta 4, 207, 208, 235 Albee, E. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe? 49, 62, 79 Aldecoa, I. El fulgor y la sangre 194, 234, 241 Alemán, M. Guzmán de Alfaráchez 66 Anand, M. R. Coolie 107, 109, 185, 219, 228 Anderson, S. Winesburg, Ohio 245, 254, 319 Archie Digest 157 Asher, M. In Search of the Forty Days Road 105, 149

Romans 29; 2 Samuel 102; 1 Thessalonians 294 ; Revelation 320 Blasco Ibáñez, V. La barraca 312 Brenan, G. The Face of Spain 149 Brontë, A. Agnes Grey 195, 238; The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 11, 68, 79, 145, 147, 153, 195, 200, 211, 213, 215, 229, 242, 330, 332, 346, 351 Brontë, C. Jane Eyre 68, 73, 75, 100, 112, 115, 119, 125, 128, 145, 166; The Professor 132, 216 Brontë, E. Wuthering Heights 99, 102, 103, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 115, 118, 125, 132, 151, 272, 314 Burney, Fanny Evelina 206 Burroughs, E. R. Tarzan of the Apes 29

B Banerji, B. Pether Panchali 122, 221 Baroja, P. La busca 315 Bhattacharya, B. He Who Rides a Tiger 132, 223, 227, 333, 334 Beecher Stow, H. Uncle Tom’s Cabin 7, 12, 65, 67, 84, 146, 174, 175, 198, 201, 207 Bellow, S. Herzog 79, 84, 86, 90, 113, 128 Bible, The Holy : 2 Chronicles 73; Deutoronomy 133; Ecclesiastes 321; Esther 96; Exodus 47; Ezra 95; Colossians 294; Genesis 76, 80, 83, 294; Isaiah 133, 226, 294; Jeremiah 105; Job 115, 376; Joel 383; John 92, 99, 134, 294; Joshua 101; 1 John 294; 2 Kings 94; Luke 95, 306; Malachi 96; Mark 83, 92; Matthew 92, 376; Micah 102; Nehemiah 95; 1 Pet 294; Psalms 73, 104, 294, 319; Proverbs 29, 57, 79, 325;

C Caballero Bonald, J. M. Dos días de setiembre 39, 132, 190, 230, 251, 336, 380 Carroll, L. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 172 Cather, W. My Ántonia 46, 97, 110, 113, 114, 147; O, Pioneers! 196 Cela, C. J. La colmena 33, 46, 124; Viaje a la Alcarria 117, 228, 349; Pascual Duarte 124 Cervantes, M. de Don Quijote de la Mancha 9, 20, 39, 41, 85, 86, 107, 108, 110, 122, 130, 135, 235, 241, 281, 282, 283, 285, 287, 289, 292, 296, 299, 300, 330, 340, 368, 376; La gitanilla 110, 240, 284, 329 Christie, A. The Mousetrap 103 Conan Doyle, A. The Hound of the Baskervilles 116, 185, 199, 216, 236, 282; A Study in Scarlet 44, 187, 195, 240, 330

438

Index of literary authors and works cited

Collins, W. The Moonstone 2, 23, 185, 186, 197, 201, 203–204, 207, 209, 215, 226, 240, 295, 301, 308, 355, 366; The Woman in White 40, 41, 67, 88, 103, 113, 147, 194, 202, 207, 208, 214, 226, 227, 238, 271, 284, 295, 300, 301, 317, 318, 329, 331, 332, 334, 339, 341, 343, 350 Cowper, W. “On the Receipt of My Mother’s Picture” 213 Crane, S. An Experiment in Misery 102; George’s Mother 68, 78, 100, 104; Maggie, a Girl of the Streets 61, 65, 76, 84, 86, 87, 92, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 111, 174, 294, 342; Men in the Storm 102; The Blue Hotel 77, 93, 98, 101, 103, 263, 265; The Red Badge of Courage 83, 88, 94, 98, 103, 104, 108, 109, 150, 169 D Delibes, M. La sombra del ciprés es alargada 300, 306, 313 De Mille, A. Dance to the Piper 204, 213, 270, 376 Dickens, C. Bleak House 12, 17, 29, 36, 61, 85, 91, 102, 112, 119, 123, 128, 129, 133, 147, 177, 186, 187, 198, 206, 208, 211, 227, 233, 240, 281, 288, 290, 293, 294, 313, 315, 333, 336, 339, 347, 350, 351, 356, 357, 365, 380; A Christmas Carol 8, 62, 146; David Copperfield 67, 113, 114, 124, 125, 151, 194, 225, 226, 228, 234, 335; Great Expectations 57, 78, 83, 85, 90, 92, 97, 100, 116, 121, 128, 153, 169, 201, 224, 266, 270; Hard Times 27, 125, 225, 226, 230, 235, 333, 355; Martin Chuzzlewitt 12, 14, 23, 40, 47, 48, 68, 77, 78, 79, 122, 125, 128, 130, 131, 146, 147, 151, 153, 159, 174, 175, 186, 196, 203, 206, 211, 212, 215, 233, 234, 236, 276, 282, 291, 294, 295, 299, 300, 301, 302, 307, 318, 329, 330, 342, 353, 354; Nicholas Nickleby 176, 283; Oliver Twist 30, 34, 39, 40, 47, 50, 64, 99,

103, 104, 122, 123, 126, 128, 144, 151, 176, 284, 288, 300, 311; Pickwick Papers 63, 67, 88, 98, 99, 114, 121, 122, 124, 125, 126, 128, 141, 149, 150, 168, 178, 180, 194, 201, 205, 224, 230; A Tale of Two Cities 180 Doctorow, E. L. Billy Bathgate 2, 122, 181; World’s Fair 43, 62, 103, 201, 226, 227, 240, 267, 332, 336; Ragtime 35, 38, 132, 174, 176, 229, 231, 253, 334, 338; Waterworks 239 Dos Passos, J. Manhattan Transfer 15, 32, 33, 36, 40, 41, 51, 64, 65, 69, 79, 80, 83, 84, 88, 100, 120, 124, 126, 127, 135, 150, 164, 165, 168, 170, 173, 332; The 42nd Parallel 28, 31, 38, 54, 68, 76, 84, 123, 148, 228, 232, 290, 338, 367; The Big Money 53, 70, 98, 104, 127, 172, 276, 284, 289, 290, 294, 300, 339 Dreiser, T. An American Tragedy 152; The Genius 27, 44, 63, 121, 163, 174, 175, 211, 223, 227, 237; Jennie Gerhardt 7, 74, 85, 88, 122, 123, 126, 165, 165, 166, 172, 203, 212, 214, 223, 230, 268, 284, 300; Sister Carrie 127, 169, 170, 196, 236, 266, 334 E Eliot, G. Adam Bede 18, 87, 180; The Mill on the Floss 272; Silas Marner 73, 186 Espina, C. Agua de nieve 44; Altar Mayor 206; Despertar para morir 107, 301; La esfinge maragata 110, 117, 295, 314; El metal de los muertos 304 F Faulkner, W. As I Lay Dying 83, 166, Requiem for a Nun 289; Sanctuary 45, 62, 148, 153, 172, 211, 230, 239, 270, 283, 284, 310, 313, 314, 330, 336

Index of literary authors and works cited

Fitzgerald, F. S. Tender is the Night 151; The Great Gatsby 47, 62, 63, 73, 84, 85, 104 Forster, E. M. A Passage to India 12, 100, 101, 119, 135, 150, 151 G Galsworthy, J. A Man of Property 27, 42, 177, 185, 200, 201, 223, 236, 242, 293; In Chancery 148, 210, 340 Galdós, B. Pérez La de Bringas 69, 284; La desheredada 112, 300; Fortunata y Jacinta 5, 17, 19, 44, 66, 110, 137, 233, 235, 273; Miau 273; Tormento 216, 247, 338; Torquemada en la cruz 241 Gaskell, E. Cousin Phillis 46, 142 Gide, A. La symphonie pastorale 164 Greene, G. A Burnt-Out Case 150; Stamboul Train 7, 37, 54, 64, 116, 174, 225, 232, 281 Grey, Z. Betty Zane 290, 313; The Border Legion 71, 147, 168, 195, 204, 314; Boulder Dam 254; The Call of the Canyon 308; Captives of the Desert 213, 231, 290; Desert Gold 154; The Desert of Wheat 200; The Drift Fence 116, 146, 147, 150, 173, 286; Fighting Caravans 168, 173, 179, 180, 287, 294; The Heritage of the Desert 172, 283, 287, 308, 309, 314, 340; The Last of the Plainsmen 133, 175, 176, 231; The Last Trail 23, 29, 61, 88, 146, 147, 154, 163, 168, 172, 212, 213, 216, 240, 286, 287, 289, 291, 292, 304, 308, 315, 331, 332, 337, 347, 367; The Lone Star Ranger 12; The Lost Wagon Train 149, 153, 154, 163, 255, 329; Majesty Ranch 18, 29, 115, 146, 149, 153, 174, 176, 267, 332; The Man of the Forest 41, 51, 180, 203, 211, 235, 239, 241, 273, 287, 363; Nevada 50; Riders of the Purple Sage 18, 41, 51, 60, 177, 196, 209, 228, 287, 288, 296, 308, 343; The Rainbow Trail 10, 11, 36, 38, 41, 186, 197, 287, 308, 320, 339, 342,

439

365, 367; Shadow on the Trail 290, 358; The Shepherd of Guadaloupe 146, 173; The Spirit of the Border 216, 308; 3,000 on the Hoof 149, 176, 177, 180; The Thundering Herd 8, 15, 61, 149, 153, 159, 214, 241, 286, 308, 343; To the Last Man 61, 195, 283; The U. P. Trail 37, 38, 39, 147, 154, 173, 175, 296, 309, 318, 340, 342; Wanderer of the Wasteland 41, 149, 177, 178, 200, 286, 288, 355 H Hailey, A. Hotel 38, 106, 123, 163, 174, 199, 239, 331, 335, 367 Hardy, T. Far From the Madding Crowd 28, 120, 128, 146, 177, 199, 228, 230, 290; The Hand of Ethelberta 82, 119, 227, 293, 356; Jude the Obscure 86, 88, 113, 114, 115, 136, 153, 203, 205, 206, 312; A Laodicean 243, 320, 325, 347, 350, 351, 353; The Mayor of Casterbridge 228, 232, 239, 289; A Pair of Blue Eyes 15, 143, 212, 216, 318; The Return of the Native 28, 86, 114, 115, 123, 241, 300, 363; Tess of the D’Urbervilles 57, 61, 64, 86, 107, 153, 276 Hawthorne, N. The House of the Seven Gables 81, 112, 215; The Marble Faun 28 Heller, J. Catch-22 28, 42, 61, 68, 70, 77, 80, 83, 93, 100, 102, 109, 116, 118, 137, 169, 170, 175, 267 Hemingway, E. Farewell to Arms 148, 164, 165, 286, 291, 314 Howells, W. D. A Hazard of New Fortunes 27, 50, 71, 128, 196, 197, 200, 208, 224, 228, 242, 243; The Rise of Silas Lapham 17, 18, 29, 62, 64, 78, 97, 102, 151, 165, 168, 176, 314 Hugo, V. Hernani 5 Huxley, A. Crome Yellow 241; Eyeless in Gaza 17, 42, 52, 60, 62, 64, 66, 76, 78, 85, 117, 150, 203, 204, 207,

440 Index of literary authors and works cited

213, 214, 237, 240, 292–293, 307, 309, 330, 331, 335, 337, 342; Point Counter Point 28, 34, 36, 48, 52, 62, 64, 67, 69, 70, 75, 79, 85, 99, 111, 113, 114, 124, 127, 136, 164, 186, 200, 202, 206, 214, 223, 230, 237, 239, 283, 358 J James, H. The Aspern Papers 41; The Bostonians 52, 209, 213, 224, 225, 304, 339; The Europeans 212, 215, 253, 272, 291, 292; The Portrait of a Lady 47, 51; The Turn of the Screw 17, 116 Jerome K. J. Three Men in a Boat 63, 71 Jones, E. Sigmund Freud: Life and Work, Vol.3 384 Joyce, J. Dubliners 17, 34, 37, 50, 61, 72, 102, 131, 148, 150, 196, 230, 290, 296, 340; Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 41, 60, 61, 62, 74, 92, 112, 124, 129, 148, 234, 270, 276; Ulysses 57, 61, 62, 65, 100, 105, 108, 109, 119, 136, 137 148, 165, 175, 180, 201, 215, 216, 231, 255, 266, 310 K Kerouak, J. On the Road 18, 105, 168, 171 L Laurence, M. The Stone Angel 36, 37, 38, 40, 45, 48, 62, 65, 79, 80, 84, 113, 116, 117, 126, 146, 172 Lawrence, D. H. Sons and Lovers 31, 74, 75, 75, 109, 110, 113, 115, 116, 144, 146, 148, 149, 151, 153, 169, 176, 204, 206, 226, 234, 239, 268, 272, 284, 289, 292, 306, 313, 336, 338, 380; Women in Love 5, 15, 26, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 65, 74, 101, 103, 136, 148, 168, 169, 178, 180, 200 Lee, H. To Kill a Mockingbird 44, 162, 306 Lewis, S. Babbitt 1, 19, 46, 119, 210, 227, 277, 335, 336, 337; Cass

Timberlane 75, 172; Dodsworth 105, 226, 227, 381; Mantrap 17, 68, 146, 187, 226, 229, 233, 239, 241; Elmer Gantry 27; Main Street 120, 123, 127, 151 Longfellow, H. W. 38 López Pacheco, J. Central eléctrica 132, 230, 240 López Salinas, A. La mina 248 M MacLennan, H. Two Solitudes 231, 332, 338 Mailer, N. Barbary Shore 9, 19, 36, 38, 47, 48, 61, 63, 69, 114, 121, 176, 215, 357; Deer Park 12, 23, 41, 48, 209, 223, 224, 226, 231, 338, 355 Malamud, B. The Tenants 108, 112, 176, 234 Mann, T. Buddenbrooks 85 Mansfield, C. The Garden Party 152; An Ideal Family 159 Markandaya, K. Nectar in a Sieve 211, 283, 287, 342 Martín Gaite, C. Entre visillos 221 Martín Santos, L. Tiempo de silencio 266, 315, 380 Maugham, S. Cakes and Ale 107, 148, 176, 186, 210, 212, 224, 228, 229, 239, 332, 333; Mr. Know-All 242; Of Human Bondage 63, 65, 71, 81, 104, 108, 109, 112, 114, 116, 118, 121, 163, 174, 198, 239; The Painted Veil 201, 237; Rain 86, 201; The Razor’s Edge 197, 204–205, 212 Mauriac, F. Thérèse Desqueyroux 287, 292 Maurier, G. de Trilby 23, 73, 174, 236, 242 McCullers, C. The Member of the Wedding 286, 289 Melville, H. Moby Dick 30, 50, 83, 84, 104, 146, 151, 153, 159, 175, 182 Miller, A. A View from the Bridge 67 Montherlant, H. de Les célibataires 7, 23, 34, 150, 271, 283

Index of literary authors and works cited

Morton, H. V. Through the Lands of the Bible 149, 199, 288, 296 N New York Times 23 Nicolson, N. Portrait of a Marriage 65, 237 Norris, F. McTeague 27, 35, 40, 45, 66, 98, 101, 109, 118, 165, 277, 285, 367; The Octopus 18, 38, 51, 159, 186, 211, 286, 290, 291, 308; The Pit 146, 208, 237 O O’Neill, E. Desire Under the Elms 62, 64, 66, 68, 73, 74, 78, 81, 101, 104, 108, 111, 118, 132, 133, 151; Ah, Wilderness! 19, 175; Strange Interlude 81 P Pardo Bazán, E. Los Pazos de Ulloa 106, 347, 351 Parkman, F. The Oregon Trail 147, 173, 238, 286, 287 Pereda, J. M. de Sotileza 35, 60 Pérez Galdós, see Galdós Poema del Cid 276 Porter, K. A. Ship of Fools 42, 105, 109, 138, 141, 174, 230, 284, 334 Poyatos, F. “Mount Athos: Soul’s Haven on Eearth” 296 Q Quevedo, F. de La hora de todos 49; El sueño de las calaveras 197; La visita de los chistes 20; El mundo por de dentro 64; R Rao, R. Kanthapura 99, 132, 133, 134, 180, 376 Ruiz, J. El libro del buen amor 9 S Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye 195, 198, 211, 213, 235, 315

441

Sánchez Ferlosio, R. El Jarama 17, 31, 111, 224, 231, 233, 299 Schreiner, O. The Story of an African Farm 86, 296 Shaw, G. B. Pygmalion 12, 46, 88 Shakespeare, W. Richard II 133 Shelley, M. Frankestein 41 Singh, K. Train to Pakistan 92, 149, 150, 168 Steinbeck, J. East of Eden 1, 40, 74, 154, 154, 199, 200, 210, 239, 270, 290, 291, 310, 366; Of Mice and Men 46, 68, 77, 98, 164, 165; The Grapes of Wrath 51, 62, 68, 83, 88, 103, 108, 111, 115, 119, 120, 125, 132, 141, 165, 166, 171, 199, 209, 227, 230, 231, 234, 235; The Pearl 35, 38, 148, 171, 182, 193, 197; The Red Pony 178, 180; Tortilla Flat 85, 104, 111, 112, 116, 125, 169 Stevenson, R. L. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 35, 168; Treasure Island 39, 170 Sthendal, Le rouge et le noir 312 T Thackeray, W. M. Vanity Fair 61, 145, 153 Time Magazine 1, 141, 159, 273 Tolstoi, L. Ana Karenina 106, 114; Resurrection Turgenev, I. Fathers and Sons 111, 113, 289 V Valle-Inclán, R. M. del Sonata de primavera 113, 115, 283, 292, 300, 313, 331 W Wells, H. G. The Invisible Man 99, 123, 172, 176, 196, 313 Welty, E. The Hitch-hikers 54, 63, 159 West, N. The Day of the Locust 46, 61, 229, 233, 337 Wharton, E. After Holbein 271; The Age of Innocence 162, 196, 236, 245; Ethan Frome 40, 41, 47, 226, 309,

442 Index of literary authors and works cited

346, 348; The Reef 47, 62, 147, 204, 206, 224, 235, 241, 290, 304, 316, 331, 337, 339, 341, 345, 355, 356; The House of Mirth 17, 18, 40, 198, 201, 211, 245, 298, 304, 325; The Other Two 38, 243, 334, 335–336 Wilde, O. The Importance of Being Earnest 121, 125; The Portrait of Dorian Gray 40, 174, 210, 226, 230, 242, 245, 293, 311, 313, 314 Wilkerson, D. The Cross and the Switchblade 95 Williams, T. The Glass Menagerie 32, 83, 87, 114, 118, 125, 126, 240 Wilson, A. Anglo-Saxon Attitudes 8, 9, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 28, 32, 44, 63, 95, 148, 195, 199, 200, 201, 206,

211, 212, 214, 228, 230, 239, 241, 284, 333, 335, 336 Wolfe, T. Look Homeward, Angel 8, 18, 31, 37, 42, 60, 61, 68, 82, 88, 125, 149, 172, 175, 180, 194, 195, 226, 227, 230, 231, 237, 253, 255, 270, 281, 291, 361 Woolf, V. Jacob’s Room 17, 54; Mrs. Dalloway 234; The Years 4, 9, 36, 61, 106, 148, 196, 199, 201, 214, 234, 270, 286, 288, 289, 290, 292, 305, 308, 311, 313, 314, 315, 329, 334, 336, 339, 341, 357 Z Zola, E. Le ventre de Paris 289, 315

Name index A Abercrombie, D. 1, 393, 396 Aboudan, R. 380, 381, 394 Addington, D. W. 5, 383, 393 Agee, J. 69, 393 Alison, L. 380, 393 Alkema, F. 379, 393 Amades, J. 249, 382, 393 Anguera, M. T. xv, 393 Aquilina, M. 320, 393 Archer, D. 250, 382, 393 Ardener, E. 397 Argyle, M. 236, 238, 379, 393–394, 408 Ashcraft, N. 379, 394 Asher, R. E. 410 Auerbach, A. H. 395, 398, 420 Austin, W. 11, 371, 377, 394 Axtell, R. E. 382, 394 B Bacall, L. 37 Bailey, F. 131, 394 Baker, S. 316, 394 Barakat, R. A. 250, 379, 382, 394 Barbachano, C. 415 Barker, L. 378, 411 Barnlund, D. C. 382, 394 Basso, K. H. 384, 394 Bateson, M. C. 371, 404, 409, 412, 413, 422 Bauer, O. 246, 394 Baüme, B. 382, 394 Baüme, F. 382, 394 Beattie, G. 380, 381, 394 Beeson, M. S. 380 Befu, H. 246, 385, 394 Bell, A. M. 371, 394 Benthall, J. 378, 394, 395, 397 Bergson, H. 374, 394

Bevans, M. 246, 394 Bird, C. S. 425 Birdwhistell, R. L. 210, 371, 376, 379, 380, 395, 412 Birk, J. 385, 418 Blacking, J. 400 Bloom, C. 376 Blurton Jones, N. G. 12, 374, 375, 380, 395 Bogart, H. 52 Borbé, T. 416 Bouissac, P. 379, 395, 407, 411, 418 Bowen, D. 422 Brackett, I. P. 8, 39, 395 Brainerd, C. 400 Brault, G. J. 382, 395 Braun 380, 396 Bremmen, J. 379, 396 Bright, W. 410 Brislin, R. 418 Broby-Johansen, R. 380, 396 Brodis, N. 382, 396 Brosin, H. W. 395, 412 Brueghel the Elder 81 Bruneau, T. 310, 396 Buckley, J. P. 405 Bull, P. 379, 396 Buller, D. V. 378, 396 Bullowa, M. 380, 396 Burgess, W. E. 422 Burgoon, J. K. 378, 382, 396 Butler, H. E. 418 Bynon, J. 162, 178, 396 C Cahusac 381 Calero, H. 233, 249, 378, 413 Camras, R. 380, 396 Cardona, M. 382, 396

444 Name index

Carmichel, L. 379, 396 Caron, B. 422 Carpenter, E. 395 Carterette, M. P. 410 Catford, J. C. 31, 32, 33, 371, 372, 374, 396 Cavé, C. 420 Cervenka, J. 249, 382, 419 Cestero, A. M. 250, 382, 397 Charlesworth, W. R. 380, 397 Chase, J. 422 Chevalier-SkolnikoV, S. 379, 397 Clark, V. P. 395, 402, 403 Cocciara, G. 382, 396 Cole, J. 399 Coll Mestre, J. 249, 397 Collett, P. 216, 246, 360, 379, 397, 412 Collins, W. A. 320 Condon, W. S. 380, 397 Cook, M. 237, 238, 379, 393, 408 Cooper, G. 373 Cooper, M. 13, 397 Craig, H. T. 380, 397 Cranach, M. von 379, 397, 399, 400, 406 Creider, C. A. 382, 397 Critchley, M. 246, 397 Crook, J. H. 408 Crystal, D. 16, 371, 372, 397 Cupchik, G. C. 246, 379, 398 D d’Alambert 381 Danehy, J. 371, 414 Darwin, C. 64, 132, 188, 189, 285, 287, 374, 375, 379, 398 Davis, F. 378, 379, 398 Davis, M. 378, 398 Davitz, J. R. 7, 11, 398 Davitz, L. J. 7, 11, 398 Dean, J. 379, 39 DePaulo, B. M. 380, 398 Deutch, F. 379, 398 Diadori, P. 249, 250, 382, 398 Diderot, D. 381 Dittmann, A. T. 379, 380 Donatus 144 Dougherty, L. M. 405 Dressler, W. 415

Duncan, S. 325, 399 Dürkheim, K. G. von 243 E Efron, D. 249, 399, 408 Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. 75, 189, 193, 250, 379, 380, 399 Eicher, J. B. 380, 399 Ekman, P. 75, 188, 207, 238, 378, 379, 380, 382, 397, 399, 400, 401, 402, 405, 407, 413, 421 Elias, N. 246, 401 Ellsworth, P. 378, 379, 401 Erting, C. J. 380, 424 Eschholz, P. A. 395 Exline, R. V. 236, 379, 401, 408 F Fast, J. 378, 402 Fehr, B. J. 236, 379, 401 Fein, D. 424 Feldman, R. S. 396, 398, 401, 403, 406, 419 Feldstein, S. 379, 400 Fenwick, M. 246, 402 Ferber, A. 217, 408 Feurstein, R. 194, 380 Foppa, K. 400 Fisher, S. 380, 402 Flugel, J. 380, 402 Ford, 217, 231, 249 Frank, L. 244, 402 Frank, M. G. 378, 401, 402 Frazer, J. 30 Freedman, N. 379, 402 Freud, S. 384 Friedman, M. P. 410 Fridlund, A. J. 380, 402 Friesen, W. C. 378, 379, 382, 401, 402, 405 Fussel, P. 380, 402 Fry, D. B. 396 G Gallagher, M. 388 Galloway, C. 379, 402 Geary, G. 378, 402 Gelabert, M.ª J. 249, 397

Name index

Gergen, K. 397 Gergen, M. 397 Gibb, H. A. R. 246, 402 Gibson, J. 245, 402 Gibson, K. R. 408 Giles, H. 404, 410, 418, 420 Givens, D. 246, 379, 382, 402 GoVman, E. 233, 360, 361, 379, 385, 387, 403 Golder, H. 246, 379, 403 Gombrich, E. H. 246, 379, 403 Goodall, J. van Lawick- 96, 189, 285, 287, 403, 410 Gossin, P. 418 Gottschalk, L. A. 420 Graham, B. 400, 403 Grand, S. 402 Graham, M. D. 400 Greimas, A. J. 409 Green, J. R. 382, 403 Grimshaw, A. D. 425 Grolier, E. de 418 Guaitella, I. 420 Gurel, L. 380, 403 H Hadar, U. 379, 403 Hager, J. C. 378, 401 Halberstadt, A. G. 380, 403 Hall, E. T. 360, 386, 403, 42 Hall, J. 382 Hamalian, L. 382, 403, 404 Hanson, R. 372, 410 Harper, R. G. 378, 404 Harris, R. M. 371, 396, 411, 415, 422 Harris, C. 380, 404 Harrison, R. P. 407 Harryman, E. 413 Hasada, R. 385 Hass, H. 379, 404 Hawad-Claudot, H. 382, 404 Hayes, A. 379, 404, 409, 413, 422 Hayes, F. 122, 371, 404 Heath, C.C 379, 404 HeVener, R.-M. S. 404 Heilman, L. 3, 408 Helfrich, H. 373, 404 Herzfeld, M. 246, 404, 407, 411, 418

445

Hess, E. H. 238, 379, 404 Hess, U. 406 Heukelem, J. F. van 375, 404 Hewes, G. W. 141, 192, 193, 231, 246, 379, 404 Hibbitts, B. G. 246, 404, 405 Hill, A. E., 371, 377, 405 Hinde, R. A. 378, 395, 399, 403, 405, 405, 410, 423, 424 Hockett, C. F. 371, 412, 414 HoVer, B. L. 380, 402, 405, 411, 418 Hofner, D. 385, 418 Hogarth, W. 194 Hollander, A. 380, 405 Hollien, H. 34, 405, 415 Hollien, P. 415 Holoka, J. 246, 405 HooV, J. A. R. A. M. van 189, 285, 287, 374, 405, 424 Hopkins, B. 380, 405 Horn, M. 380, 405 House, W. F. 400 Howells, D. W. 168, 331 Huebner, R. R. 405 Hutcheson, S. 371, 372, 378, 393, 395, 403, 409, 410, 420 Hutt, C. 382, 405 Hymes, D. 423 I Ikegami, Y. 423 Imgold, T. 408 Inbaum, F. E. 376, 405 Inham, R. 379, 393 Izard, C. E. 380, 396, 405, 420 J Jakobson, R. 405 Jaworski, A. 383, 405 Johannensen, R. L. 310, 405 Johnson, H. G. 382, 405, 406 Johnson, K. R. 244, 405 Johnston, M. 380, 382, 404 Jorio, A. de 382, 398, 408 Jourard, S. 382, 406 K Kaiser, S. 380, 406

446 Name index

Kaplan, H. 371, 406 Kappas, A. 373, 406 Katz Lieblich, A. 422 Kaulfers, W. V. 382, 406 Kees, W. 378, 419 Kendon, A. 188, 202, 205, 209, 217, 236, 246, 325, 395, 396 359, 371, 372, 378, 379, 380, 381, 382, 385, 386, 397, 398, 401, 402, 403, 405, 406, 407, 408, 411, 415, 421, 422 Key, M. R. xv, 6, 30, 33, 120, 122, 131, 134, 135, 371, 372, 376, 377, 378, 379, 380, 396, 406, 408, 409, 411, 415, 422 Khamor, Levi 317, 409 Knapp, M. L. 378, 382, 395, 409 Knowlson, J. R. 409 Koechlin, B. 249, 379, 409 Koerner, K. xv Kohler, C. 380 Konig, R. 380, 409 Konopeczynski, G. 420 Korte, B. 246, 377, 379, 380, 409 Kowalska, F. 409 Kristeva, J. 379, 409 Krescheck, J. 413 Kreutzer, M. A. 380, 396 Krout, M. 131, 181, 379, 409 L La Barre, W. 131, 134, 379, 409 Ladefoged, P. 30, 409 LaFrance, M. 379, 409 Laín Entralgo, P. 384, 409 Lamdis, D. 418 Lateiner, D. 246, 409 Laver, James 380, 410 Laver, John 1, 28, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 39, 43, 371, 372, 378, 393, 395, 403, 409, 410, 420 Lawick-Goodall, J. van, see Goodall Leach, E. 91, 410 Leach, L. 387–388 Leathers, D. G. 410 Lee-Potter, 246, 410 Lehtonen, J. 210, 385, 410 Lepenies, W. 399, 400 Levenston, E. A. 175, 178, 411

Lewis, D. 380, 411 Liddle, L. 380, 411 Lieberman, P. 372, 411 Lipsitt, L. P. 412 Lock, A. 380, 411 Löfgren, B. 89, 411 Lorenz, K. 189, 287, 379, 411 Ludwig, L. M. 379, 401 Lynch, J. 421 Lyons, J. 410 M MacCarthy, P. A. D. 396 Mahler, G. 317 Malandro, L. 378, 382, 411 Malatesta, C. 380, 396 Malmberg, M. 396 Manstead, A. R. 411 Maranda, P. 381, 411 Marcos, L. R. 380, 411 Marsh, P. 360, 379, 397, 412 Martin, R. 376, 411 Martinell, E. 249, 397 Mascaró, J. 249, 382, 411 Mattarazzo, J. 378, 404 Mauriac, A, 374 Mauss, M. 379, 411 McBride, G. 193, 411 McCormack, W. C. 371, 396, 397, 411 McDonnell, P. 388, 411 McGuinnes, G. C. 405 McLuhan, M. 395 McNeill, D. 379, 411, 412 McQuown, N. 1, 371, 379, 412 Mehan, H. 379, 412 Mehrabian, A. 232, 246, 379, 412 Meid, W. 415 Mejía, S. 249, 250, 412 MeltzoV, A. N. 380, 412 Mencken, H. L. 373, 412 Menéndez y Pelayo, M. 374, 412 Meo-Zilio, G. 249, 250, 412 Michael, R. P. 408 Mille, A. de 376 Modgil, C. 421 Modgil, S. 421 Montague, A. 244, 412 Moore, N. M. 4, 30, 31, 43, 412

Name index

Moore, G. P. 380, 412 Morreal, J. 374, 412 Morris, D 250, 251, 372, 379, 382, 412 Morsbach, H. 83, 162, 223, 384, 385, 412, 413 Müller, C. 378 Murphy, J. 321 Myllyniemi, R. 379, 413 N Neiva, E. 416 Neponucemo, J. 416 Nespoulous, J.-L. 382, 407, 413 Newbold, R. 246, 413 Nickel, G. 415 Nicolosi, L. 13, 413 Nierenberg, G. I. 233, 249, 378, 413 Nwoye, G. O. 310, 385, 413 O Obudho, C. E. 379, 413 O’Connor, J. D. 10, 14, 373, 413 Ohira, Prim. Minister 163 Oliver, R. 321, 413 Oliverio, A. 399 Ornstein, P. A. 401 O’Shaughenessy, M. 412 O’Sullivan, M. 378, 401 Oster, H. 207, 378, 380, 401, 413 Ostwald, P. F. 266, 276, 374, 376, 413 P Park, R. E. 422 Passin, H. 385, 413 Payrató, L. 250, 413 Pei, M. 371, 413 Pekarsky, M. 249 Peng. F. C. C. 380, 414, 416, 418, 424 Pepys, S. 130 Perelló, J. 4, 42, 374, 414 Perkins, W. H. 28, 34, 35, 373, 374, 414 Perron, P. 382, 407, 413 Petrovich, S. B. 379, 404 Pike, K. L. 371, 414 Pittenger, R. E. 1, 14, 371, 377, 414 Ploog, D. 400 Polhemus, T. 378, 394, 395, 397 Pope, B. 379, 404, 406, 422

447

Porter, R. 404, 405, 409 Posner, R. 407, 411, 419 Post, E. 246, 414 Powers, M. H. 52, 53, 414 Poyatos, F. xv, 1, 60, 104, 120, 135, 189, 192, 244, 246, 275, 358, 361, 367, 372, 373, 374, 376, 377, 379, 381, 383, 385, 386, 398, 399, 403, 404, 405, 407, 409, 411, 412, 413, 415, 416, 417, 418, 421, 424, 425 Puccini, G. 374 Q Quintilian, M. F. 246 Quirk, R. 371, 397 R RaZer-Engel, W. 194, 372, 379, 380, 384, 399, 400, 406, 408, 414, 418, 420, 424 Ramsay, A. 424 Ramsey, S. 382, 385, 418, 421 Rapoport, A. 41, 386, 419 Reagan, D. 108 Rector, M. 250, 382, 416, 419 Reed, W. S. 242, 419 Reid, J. E. 405 Reiser, D. 405 Ricci-Bitti, P. E. 379, 419 Rimé, B. 396, 401, 403, 406, 419 Rinn, W.E 378, 419 Roach, M. E. 380, 399 Roberts, S. O. 396 Roch, A. 382, 407, 413 Rodríguez Marn, F. 374, 419 Romera Castillo, J. 246, 419 Roodenburg, H. 379 Rosa, A. F. 395, 402, 404 Rover-Collier, C. K. 412 Ruesch, J. 378, 419 Russell, G.O. 371, 419 Ryan, M. 380, 419 S Safire, W. 246, 419 Saitz, R. L. 382, 419 Sajavaara, K. 310, 385, 410 Salvá Miquel, J. A. 4, 42, 374, 414

448 Name index

Samarin, W. J. 246, 419 Samovar, L. 404, 405, 409 Sander, L. W. 380, 397 Santi, G. 420 Sanz-Villanueva, S. 415 Saville-Troike, M. 310, 383, 385, 407, 410, 413, 420, 423 Sayyid, M. A-W. 382, 420 Scheflen, A. E. 246, 249, 250, 325, 379, 382, 385–386, 394, 420 Scherer, K. M. 7, 11, 373, 378, 400, 401, 404, 406, 407, 410, 420, 421 SchiVrin, D. 246, 379, 421 Schmitt, J.-C. 246, 375, 379, 421 Schneider 380, 396 Schneller, R. 250, 379 Scholz, P. A. 402, 404 Sebeok, T. A. 189, 285, 297, 371 305, 376, 379, 385, 397, 400, 404, 408, 409, 413, 421, 422, 424, 425 Shearer, N. 376 Sherzer, J. 379, 422 Shuy, R. 319, 412 Shimakawa, Y. 385, 418 Siegman, A. W. 379, 400, 404, 406, 422 Sigman, S. J. 188, 408 Siguán, M. 416 Silva-Fuenzalida, I. 422 Simmel, G. 71, 374, 422 Simpson, J. M. Y. 410 Skupien, J. 379, 398 Slama-Cazacu, T. 372 Slobodan, H. 314, 404 Smith, A. 395, 402 Smith, B. 388 Smith, H. A. 379, 422 Smith, H. L. 14, 371, 377, 414, 422, 423 Smith, W. J. 422 Sommer, R. 386, 387, 422 Sorell, W. 382, 422 Sparhawk, C. M. 246, 249, 422 St. Clair, R. N. 380, 401, 405, 411, 418, 420 Stein, L. 401 Stockwell, R. P. 377, 422 Stokoe, W. C. 379, 422 Stopa, R. 141, 422 Sutton, J. 380, 422

Sweet, H. 371, 423 T Tabachnick, E. 411 Tada, M. 385, 423 Tannen, D. 310, 383, 385, 407, 410, 413, 420, 423 Taylor, A. L. 423, 423 Taylor, H. M. 382, 423 Thayer, L. 395 Thorpe, W. W. 285, 423 Tolmach LakeoV, R. 408 Tournier, P. 311, 423 Tohyama, Y. 194, 216, 217, 381, 223, 231, 240, 243, 246, 249, 423 Toyota, M. 423 Trager, G. L. 371, 372, 377, 423 Travis, L. W. 395, 397, 412, 414, Trinta, A. R. 250, 382, 419 Trudgill, P. 372, 410 Tugwell, S. 376 Tversky, B. 401 Tyler, S. A. 383, 424 U Umiker-Sebeok, J. 379, 423, 424 V Vanderbilt, A. 246, 424 Verdi, G. 374 Vermeer, H. 424 Vetter, H. J. 379, 424 Vicary, G. Q. 380, 424 Vine, I. 379, 397, 406 Vogl, C. 103, 424 Volterra, V. 380, 424 W Wallbott, H. G. 379, 402, 424 Ward, N. 172, 424 Waterhouse, L. 380, 424 Watson, O. M. 386, 424 Weaver, A. T. 371, 424 Webbink, P. 236, 424 Weiser, J. 382, 424 Weitz, S. 378, 420, 424 Wenner, A. M. 379, 425 Wescott, R. W. 383, 425

Name index

Wesell, N. Y. 396 Wieman, J. M. 407 Wiens, A. N. 378, 404 Wildeblood, J. 81, 130, 194, 225, 246, 376, 425 Wilkerson, D. 95 Wilson, W. P. 95, 376, 425 Wolfgang, A. 379, 399, 402, 407, 418, 421, 422, 425 Woodall, W. G. 378, 396 Wurm, S. 371, 396, 397 Wylie, L. 382, 425

449

Y Yau, S. 249, 379, 425 Youssouf, I. A. 216, 425 Z Zappelia, M. 399 Zuk, G. H. 374, 425

Subject index A advanced hidden feedback 357–258 African black speakers 34 African cultures 224, 244 Afro-American blacks 10, 244 ageusia 366–367 American Indians 6, 38, 134, 163, 173, 179, Note 113 animals movements and stillness 286–287 paralanguage for 177–178 sounds and silence 285–286 anosmia 366–367, Note 147 Appalachian hillbilly 43, 46 aphonias 30 Arab cultures 217, 224, 231 Arabic 32 art, paralanguage and kinesics in 81, 85, 92, 194, 246 articulation 52–53 articulation problems 52–53 Assamese 30 Australia 135 B Bantu languages Bedouins 181 belching cross-culturally 135 definition 134 functions 135–136 Bengali 30 bereavement see mourning Bihari 30 blindness 363–364, Notes 141, 142, 143 body-adaptors 335 body characteristics 332 body articulations Fig. 5.1 Borneo 179

Brazil 177, 178 breathing 26–27 British East Africa 30 British English 33 British Guyana 178 C Canada 178, 179, 180 Caucasus 225 Central African Republic 33 Chadic 32 chemical reactions 330–331 China 91, 177, 178, 217, 220, 223, 225, 320, Note 53 Chinese 10, 32 chronemics 135 clipping 18–19, 20, Notes 11–12 clothes and accessories 234, 334–335, Note 76 comics 154–159 Coptic Church 217 cosmetics 334–335 coughing and throat-clearing definition 120, Note 87 functions 121–129 Croatian 162 crying configuration 82–87 definition 82 functions 89–98 labelling or types 87–89 study of Note 41 Czechoslovakia Note 54 D Danish 32 darkness 293–296 deafness and deafmuteness 364–365, Note 144

452

Subject index

Denmark 225 dermal reactions 331 drawling 16–17, 19, Note 13 E echoic speech sounds 272–273 England 18–19, 138, 179, 180 environment 271–272, 275–277, 288–296, 309–310, 314, 338–339, 340 environmental sounds nature 271–272, 291–293 types 288–291, 314 cross-culturally 275–277 history 277 eructation 42 esophageal control 42–43 Ethiopia 244 eyes see gaze F face, features of the 332–333 Finland 6, 163, 177, 179, 222 France 137, 163 furniture 335–336 G gait 225–228 gasping definition 106 functions 107–117 gaze 236–241 Gbeya people 33 German 163 Germany 137, 162, 178, 179, 180 gestures definition 195, Note 80 free and bound 196–197 hidden 209–210 inter-gesture masking 207–208 multiple-meaning 206 objectual 211 phonic (phonokinesics) 211, 254–271, 274–277, 329–330 phrasal constructions 205–206 qualifiers of 199–201 simultaneous 206–207

Ghana 6, 92, 130, 131, 133, 138, 179, 217 glottal catch 32 glottal fry 30 Greece 92, 137 Guatemala 179 Gujarati 30 gulping 44–45 H hands, the 204, 223–225, 244–245 hiccuping cross-culturally 136 definition 136 Hindi 30 Holland 177, 178, 179 Hong Kong 137, 217, 220 Hungary 138 I India 138, 178, 180, 219, 221, 225 Indians American 6, 30, 134, 163, 173, 179, Note 51 Maliseet and Micmac 304, 320–321 informants 247–248 interaction mini-encounters 358–361 study of 325–326 co-structuration of components 352–358, Fig. 8.3 reduced 361–368, Fig. 8.4, Note 148 components 327–350, Fig. 8.1 qualifiers 350–352 study of Note 125 intonation 14–16 inventories, kinesic 246–251 Israel 162, 163, 179, 180 J Japan 80, 162–163, 178, 179, 217, 223, 225, 243, 321, Note 122 jewelry 334–335 K Kenya 6, 32, 131, 136, 221, 244 kinesic qualifiers of paralanguage 63–64, Fig. 4.2, 170–171

Subject index

kinesics and attitude 234 and clothes and accessories 234 definition 185 intrasystemic and intersystemic relationships 202–203 in painting kinesic-linguistic analogy Note 74 kinesic possibilities of the body 188–192, Fig. 5.1 and occupation 234 ontogeny 194, Note 78 perception 186–187 personal configuration 203–205 phases of kinesic behaviors 197–199 phylogeny 192–193 qualifiers of 199–201, 215–216 and situation 234 social habits 234 social stratification 193–194, Note 75 study of 188, Notes 68, 69, 72, 73 temporal dimension 187 kinesthesis 187 Kotzebue Eskimos 304, 321 Kutenai Indians Note 51 L lalling 52 Latin America 4, 138, 224, 232 laughter children’s Note 36 configuration 60–67 definition 59–60 functions 71–81 historically 81–82, Note 39 study of Notes 30, 33 light 340–341 in art 81 labelling or types 67–69 Lebanon 91, 133, 138 limb deficiency 365–366, Note 146 lisping 49, 52 loudness 5–8 M Malaysia 139, 179, 223, 225 Maliseet Indians 133 manners

453

definition 196 drinking 229–230 eating 228–229 eye postures 240 free and bound 197 gaze 240 nature of 214 qualifiers of 215–216, 224 cross-cultural research 217–224, Figs. 5.2a, b, c, d, e smoking 230–231 Marathi 30 Marwari 30 masticatories 130–131, 334 Mayan language 33 medical interaction 242–243, 304 Mediterranean cultures 91–92, 232, 233, 276 mental activities 337 mikronesics 210, 235 mini-encounters 358–361 Morocco 162, 177, 225 mourning 86, 87, 91–92, 112 Muslim Arabs 135, 225 N Navajo Indians 131, 243–244 Niger 138 Nigeria 4, 6, 91, 130, 133, 138, 178, 179, 243, 244, Note 123 Nilotic languages 32 nonactivities 337–338, 339 North America 10, 11, 13, 91, 138, 179, 180, 222–223, 225, 231, 244, 276–277, Note 138 nurses, paralanguage of 11 O object-adaptors 335–336 objectual environment 339 Oklahoman Comanche 30 P Pakistan 179 panting definition 117 functions 117–118

454

Subject index

parakinesic qualifiers 199–201, 215, 224, Note 70 paralanguage definition 2, Fig. 1.1 disorders 4, 8, 9, 13, 30, 34, 45, 49, 52, 70 lack of labels 148–149, 150 etymology of terms Note 21 social perception 4, 5, 11 study of Notes 1–3, 56 in acting Notes 45, 57 writing of 60, 61, 107, 109, 119, 120, 127, 128, 129, 136, 137, 145–163, 168–180, paralinguistic disorders 4 paralinguistic qualifiers analysis 24–25 conditioning factors 24 problems 24 types Fig. 2.1 paralinguistic studies 1, Note 1 paralysis 366, Note 145 perfume 335 Persian Gulf countries 217, 218 Peru Note 93 pharyngeal control 43–45 photography 241, Notes 85, 89 pitch 10–14 postures contact 235–236 definition 196 dynamic 235 free and bound 197 micropostures 235 sitting 233 standing 233 primates 96 proxemics 329 R random behaviors 80 resonance oral 5 pharyngeal 5 nasal 5 rhythm 20 Russia 137–138

S Saudi Arabia 116, 123, 139 sensory perception in interaction 342–343 shouting definition 96 functions 98–105 labelling or types 97–98 Shri Lanka 221–222 sighing definition 106 functions 107–117 signs, intellectual evaluation 343–345, Fig. 8.2 silence and culture 296–297 animal 285–286 as anticipator 307–308 in the Bible 319–320 as carrier of previous activity 306–307 coding 302–310, Fig. 7.2 cross-culturally 319–321 as enhancing the visual environment 309–310 as enhancing other sounds 315–316 environmental 288–291, 293–296 human 283–284 in interaction 297–299, 331–332 in paralanguage 165–166 pauses in speech 299–301 positive and negative interactive 316–318 qualifiers of 310–312 as receptacle for signs 308–309 semiotic forms 282–283, Fig. 7.1 as signs proper 304–305 in story-telling/reading 307, Note 115 study of Note 123 and surrounding elements 312–313, Fig. 7.3 as zero signs 305–306 Sindhi 30 Singapore 177, 179 smile, the 211–213 smoking 2301–231, 334

Subject index

sneezing cross-culturally 137–139 definition 137 sounds against objects 267–268 environmental 271–272, 275–277, Fig. 6.1, 314, 338–339 mechanical 313 speech imitation of 272–273 object-mediated 269–271, 313, 330 space, invasion of Note 134 Spain 4, 6, 10, 13, 32, 177, 178, 179, 217, 222, 223 Spanish 163 spitting cross-culturally 130–131, 133, 134 definition 129 functions 129–134 historically 130 and masticatories 130–131 stillness coding 302–310, Fig. 7.2 and culture 296–297 animal 287 human 284 in interaction 297–298 Sudan 178, 217, 218 syllabic duration 16–19 synesthesia 343 T tempo 8–9 Tanganika 32 Thai 10 Thailandia 178, 179 thermal reactions 331 timbre 4 touching interpersonal 244–245, 263–264 intrapersonal 265–266 clothes 266 objects 265–268 Trinidad 137, 178 Turkey 162, 163, 177, 178, 179, 217, 221, 223, 275 U Uganda 177, 178, 179

455

United States 2, 4, 9, 18 Urdu 30 V Venezuela 179 Vietnam 178, 179 Vietnamese 10 voice adenoidal 48 alveolarized 49 bleating 46 brassy 37 breathy 31–32, Note 19 bright 37 cackling 37 clean 37 clear 37 creaky 32–33, Note 20 croaking 40 dull 43 esophageal 42–43 falsetto 33–34 faltering 20 faucalized 44 full 43 grating 37 groaning 47 growling 40 gruV 39 grunting 48 guttural 43 half-closed-jaw 50 harsh 34–35, 37, 39 head-cold 48 hoarse 37, 39–40 hollow 44 husky 37–38, Note 23 keen 37 labialized 49–50 lax 42 laryngealized 32–33 lisping 49 macroglossic 49 mellow 43 metallic 37 moaning 47 muZed 43 murmured 30–3

456 Subject index

muttered 50–51 nasal 451 nasopharyngeal 48 orotund 5 objectual-control 53–54 obscure 43 palatalized 49 penetrating 37 pharyngeal 43 pharyngeal husky 43, Note 26 phrayngealized 43 piercing 37 protracted-jaw 51 purring 31 rasp 37 raucous 40 resonant 5 retracted-jaw 51 retroflex 49 rich 5, 43 ringing 37 rotating-jaw rough 37–40 screeching 36 sepulchral 44 sharp 37 shrill 35–36 sighing 107 squawking 36

squeaking 36 stammering 41–43 strident 35, 37 squealing 36–37 stuttering 42 tense 42 thick 43 throaty 39 toneless 15 trembling-jaw 51 tremulous 40–41 twangy 44, Note 27 over-articulated 52 velarized 49 whimpering 46 whining 45–46 whispered 28–30 wide-open-jaw 50 whispering Y yawning definition 118 functions 119–120 Yugoslavia 179 Z zookinesics 189 Zulu 30

Table of Contents Volumes I & III Volume I. Culture, Sensory Interaction, Speech, Conversation Chapter 1 Culture, communication, and cultural fluency Chapter 2 Language in the total communicative context of its interbodily and environmental systems Chapter 3 The audiovisual reality of interactive discourse: The speaking face Chapter 4 Language-paralanguage-kinesics Chapter 5 Two applications of the basic triple structure model Chapter 6 Nonverbal categories as personal and sociocultural identifiers Chapter 7 The structure of conversation Chapter 8 Nonverbal communication in interpretation

Volume III.

Narrative literature, theater, cinema, translation

Chapter 1 Nonverbal communication in the text: The reading act, the narrator’s or playwright’s expressive tools and the reader’s or spectator’s perception Chapter 2 The semiotic-communicative itinerary of the character between writer and reader or spectator Chapter 3 Sound and silence in the text: Presence and absence of language, paralanguage and kinesics, and extrasomatic sounds in the text and on stage Chapter 4 Kinesics and the other visual systems in the novel and the theater: The character before the reader or spectator Chapter 5 Punctuation as nonverbal communication: Limitations, ambiguities, possibilities Chapter 6 Functions of nonverbal communication in literature: Stylistic, communicative, technical Chapter 7 Literary anthropology: Interdisciplinary perspective on people, signs, and literature