Gestures
There are visible signs, gestures, which have a standard, shared meaning, and there are elements of appearance—‘body language’— which possibly create an effect on the observer and therefore on the interpretation of a spoken message. The former, the visible signs, have the capacity to communicate in much the way a word communicates; the latter could only be said to communicate in a secondary sense.
Consider these visual signs:
nodding the head in response to an utterance
crossing one’s fingers
pretending to yawn, with finger tips in front of mouth
holding up a thumb from a closed fist
pinching one’s nostrils closed with thumb and forefinger
Like the audible signs mentioned above, these gestures have recognized, though somewhat vague, shared meanings. The first suggests agreement or affirmation; the second, a hope for success when circumstances are uncertain; the third, boredom; the fourth, determination to make one’s cause successful; the fifth, disgust or displeasure with something (‘It stinks’). Other physical postures and movements—for instance, gestures with hand or whole body, such as pounding on a table with a finger or a fist, and facial gestures like pursing one’s lips, arching the eyebrows, opening the eyes wide, squinting, or fluttering the eyelids— are not conventional signals and do not have meanings in themselves; they may lead an observer to form some particular impression of the speaker, which in turn may have an effect on how the hearer interprets, but they are not in themselves semantic. It is possible that a wink or a broad grin on the speaker’s face may communicate to the addressee a visual message that the verbal message is meant facetiously, not to be taken seriously, but there is never any certainty that such is the intended message.
Consider these visual signs:
nodding the head in response to an utterance
crossing one’s fingers
pretending to yawn, with finger tips in front of mouth
holding up a thumb from a closed fist
pinching one’s nostrils closed with thumb and forefinger
Like the audible signs mentioned above, these gestures have recognized, though somewhat vague, shared meanings. The first suggests agreement or affirmation; the second, a hope for success when circumstances are uncertain; the third, boredom; the fourth, determination to make one’s cause successful; the fifth, disgust or displeasure with something (‘It stinks’). Other physical postures and movements—for instance, gestures with hand or whole body, such as pounding on a table with a finger or a fist, and facial gestures like pursing one’s lips, arching the eyebrows, opening the eyes wide, squinting, or fluttering the eyelids— are not conventional signals and do not have meanings in themselves; they may lead an observer to form some particular impression of the speaker, which in turn may have an effect on how the hearer interprets, but they are not in themselves semantic. It is possible that a wink or a broad grin on the speaker’s face may communicate to the addressee a visual message that the verbal message is meant facetiously, not to be taken seriously, but there is never any certainty that such is the intended message.
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