1. Nonverbal Communication
Linguistic Anthropology

2. Body Language Learned in cultural groups Interpreted unconsciously
Often overrides verbal language
~60% of communication?
Beware of guidebooks.

3. Smell, Taste, and Touch Smell Taste Touch And ethnicity, culture
Cigars, perfumes and status
Taste
And group membership
Spicy foods..
Touch
And gender and power
Relation to proxemics….

4. Proxemics Edward Hall, 1950s How people perceive and use space
Cowboy proxemics
Getting to theatre seats.

5. Gender, Status, & Space Entering into someone’s ‘space’
Getting the ‘best’ office
Or the biggest bedroom
Having one’s own ‘space’
“Man caves”

6. Culture and Space Different arrangements Different uses
US grids & French circles
German doors: closed vs open
Different uses
Where to eat in the Comoros
Depends on gender too

7. Kinesics Ray Birdwhistell, 1950s Body movements Facial expressions
Shrugs, nods. Arm & leg-crossing
Facial expressions
Smiles, frowns, winks
Gestures
Palm up / palm down
Thumbs up!

8. Gesture Systems Where verbal communication is difficult
Topics and contexts are limited
Simple alternative systems
Little or no syntax
Sawmills, baseball games, sailboat racing
Complex alternative systems
Syntax based on spoken language:
Australian women mourners
Some monastic orders
Syntax independent of any spoken language
Native American Plains sign language
Signs used in varying order

9. Sign Language Used by deaf people Topics and contexts are unlimited
‘Language performed in three-dimensional space’
Topics and contexts are unlimited
Syntax is complex, unique to specific language
American Sign Language (ASL; Ameslan) vs British
Mutually unintelligible; not based on English syntax
Signs = concepts, not words (‘right’ vs ‘right’)
Syntax = one sign can stand for several words
E.g., “I-ask-her” is one sign
vs Signed English (SEE1 & 2) which follows English syntax.

10. Paralanguage Sounds that “accompany” speech
But aren’t words themselves
George Trager (1950s)
voice qualities
Loudness, tone of voice
Pitch, speed, rhythm
Vocal modifications:
whispering, cooing, breathy voice, rising intonation
Vocal segregates (or vocal gestures)
Stand on their own
uh-huh, mhmm, shhhh, throat-clearing
Ideophones?
Bam, pow, slurp!

11. Speech Substitutes Sound signals substitute for spoken words
Or parts of words
Useful for communicating over distances
Examples:
Drum languages
based on tones (Nigeria)
Whistle languages
based on tones (Mazateco)
based on vowels (La Gomera)
different whistled pitches = different vowels

12. So, is it Semantics and Pragmatics? or Semantics versus Pragmatics?

13. Semantics: the study of meaning that can be determined from a sentence, phrase or word. Pragmatics: the study of meaning, as it depends on context (speaker, situation, dialogue history)

14. Problems
Some phenomena are clearly semantic – when one word affects what other words can occur
Some phenomena are clearly pragmatic – when something is implied

15. Reductionism Reductionism The distinction should be abolished
Semantic reductionism: pragmatics should be reduced to semantics
Pragmatic reductionism: semantics should be reduced to pragmatics

16. Complementarism
The distinction between semantics and pragmatics is important and should be retained
Radical semantics – most of the study of meaning should be attributed to semantics
Radical pragmatics – as much as possible of the study of meaning belongs in pragmatics

17. Role of Context
Semantics – the context is the other words in sentence; other sentences in text
Pragmatics – at least part of the focus of context is on what is not being said