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1、NonverbalNonverbal CommunicationCommunication andand BodyBody LanguageLanguage1 IntroductionVerbal communication is defined as spoken communication, including the use of words and intonation to convey meaning. On the other hand, non-verbal communication is “silent” communication, including the use o
2、f gestures, postures, position, eye contact, facial expressions, and conversational distance. An investigation into the functions of verbal and non-verbal communication shows: the total impact=7% verbal feeling+38% vocal feeling+55% facial expressions. This result reflects the important role of nonv
3、erbal communication in daily communication. As David Abercrombie said: “We can speak in vocal organs, but we can use nonverbal gesture to communicate.”As one means of nonverbal communication, body language is the most natural part of non-verbal communication and it plays an important role in non-ver
4、bal communication. Just like verbal language, body language is also the carrier and container of culture. The same body language in two cultures has different meaning, so studying the culture and differences of body language in cross-culture communication is very important.1.1 Nonverbal Communicatio
5、n and Body Language“Nonverbal communication is a process in which communicators use the natural features of their bodies to deliver information and express specific meaning instinctively to the other communicator.”(Guan yanxiang,2004,p90) The study of nonverbal communication covers three major parts
6、: proxemics, kinesics or body language, and paralanguage. Kinesics is also called body language, which studies the meanings of the movement of all parts of body and it includes many nonverbal behavior such as eye language, gestures, postures, facial expressions, touch and so on. In Websters New Dict
7、ionary, kinesics is defined as “to systematically study nonverbal body action (such as blush, eye movements, etc) and communication.” Samovar once says that “Kinesics is the systematic study of body language movements and action,” and through the study, kinesics makes these action and behaviors form
8、alized and encoded. Hu Wenzhong says that space and orientation, and seating arrangement are also parts of body language. (Hu Wenzhong, 1995;23) Collins English Language Dictionary gives the following definition: Body language is the way in which you show your feeling or thoughts to other people by
9、means of the position or movement of your body rather than words. The definition of body language in this paper can be regarded as one in a wide sense, it includes sign gesture, body gestures, eye contact, facial expression and touch.1.2 The Functions of Body Language Body language is one means of n
10、onverbal communication. It is the most natural part of non-verbal communication and it helps verbal communication achieve effective communication. Body language has three major functions: assisting, substituting and expressing or hiding emotional feelings. ( 胡文仲 ,1998.10 ) During the study of commun
11、ication, researchers just pay attention to the verbal communication without paying attention to body language, however, the message and information conveyed by body language is far better than words. For example, when we tell people how to get to the nearest hospital, we are not only telling them th
12、e direction but also pointing to the direction with hands. We often suggest that our talk is over by our tone, eyes, head nodding and other body language. For example, the manager stands up to show the end of the interview.1.3 The Classification of Body Language Body language is the richest kind of
13、nonverbal language. It is estimated that man can do more than 270,000 kinds of postures and actions, which are more than all the sounds they can make. Samovar employs the terms body behavior to mean body language. He divides it into appearance, clothing, body action, facial expression, eye contacts,
14、 starting, touch, ect. And he even collects paralanguage and show off his language into this category.To some item, people have reached an agreement on whether they should belong to the scope of nonverbal or not. Such as figure, smell and some signals. Since body language covers too many items, and
15、the research in this field has progressed rapidly, it is not necessary for us to make an accurate definition on its scope. But starting from cross-cultural communications, and combining with what has been achieved by western scholars, we can roughly divide the category of body language into three ty
16、pes: those of facial expression, gesture and action. They offer supplementary functions to verbal language, and some can replace verbal language for communication, and some even express much richer ideas. 1.4 Culture and Body LanguageIn cross-cultural communication, we must clearly understand non-verbal communication and the relationship between cultures. Culture and the vast majority of non-verbal communication are handed down from generation to generation and acquired acquisition, and
