Use Of Paralanguage And Kinesics In Everyday Life

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

may substitute for language,
accompany it, or modify it. Kinesic acts may be lexical or informative and
directive in nature, or they may be emotive or empathic movements. Posture is
one of the components of kinesics. Posture is broken down into three basic
positions: bent knees, lying down, and standing. Artists and mimes have always
been aware of the range of communication possible through body stance. But
there are some cultural differences in posture positions. Most people use the
bent knee position to eat, but while the Romans used to eat lying down. Prince
Peter of Greece and Denmark described the sleeping posture of the Tibetans
before World War II. He said that the local men slept outside at night huddled
around the fire, hunched over on their knees with their faces resting in their
palms.

In 1932, William James did a study of expression of bodily posture. He
recognized the relationship of facial expression, gesture, and posture. He
declared that studying each ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

In Western culture one was taught to
stand when an elderly person enters the room.

The face seems to be the most obvious component of body language, but it
is certainly the most confusing and difficult to understand. Modern studies of
facial expressions dates back to the nineteenth century, starting with Charles
Bell, who in 1806, published Essays on the Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression:
As Connected with the Fine Arts. Charles Darwin's, The Expressions of Emotions
in Man and Animals, in 1872, was apparently influenced by Bell's earlier work.
Facial expressions are like sentences in human language, they are infinite in
variety. The relationship of facial expression to other ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: