Chapter 4
 
  NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
 
  Researchers of kinesics study either the form or the 
function of nonverbal communication. Birdwhistell's (1952, 1970) 
and Ekman and Friesen's (1969, 1972, 1974) work is discussed in 
this chapter as representative of the two areas of research in this 
field. Birdwhistell's research indicates that gestures and speech 
are closely related, and share certain structures. Ekman and 
Friesen show how gestures can function to replace, emphasize, or 
clarify words. All three researchers provide evidence that the 
division between language and gestures is not as distinct as 
previously thought. The final section of this chapter discusses 
other researchers' works relating speech and non-verbal 
communication. 
 
4.1  Kinesic Form 
 Birdwhistell (1970) describes kines as the 
smallest behavioral unit distinctly perceived by the viewer. Kines 
can be combined into kinemorphs, which are the smallest meaningful 
gestural units.
 Birdwhistell discusses in great detail 
his view of the relationship between gestures and speech. He notes 
that certain types of kinesic structures (e.g., kinesic stress 
superfixes, and kinesic markers) occur simultaneously with 
linguistic structures with which they are associated.  Kinesic 
markers are gestures which are used to mark, inter alia, pronouns, 
pluralization, and location. 
 Birdwhistell repeatedly 
cautions against concluding that kinesic markers are derived from 
their linguistic environment. Instead, he hypothesizes that 
certain kinesic and linguistic forms are "alloforms" at a certain 
level. Under this hypothesis, neither form is subordinate to the 
other.
 Birdwhistell (1952) develops a notational system 
to represent the possible kines. Many others (e.g., Bull, 1981, 
Frey and von Cranach, 1973, and Mehrabian, 1968) follow in his wake 
by developing their own coding systems. Although the specifics of 
these coding systems are not germane to this dissertation, they are 
mentioned here to indicate that the structure of nonverbal 
communication is an active field of study.
 
4.2 Kinesic Function
  Ekman and Friesen (1969, 1972) focus upon the 
function, rather than the form, of nonverbal behaviors. They 
categorize such behaviors by their origins, i.e., innate, 
experientially derived species universal, or specific to a culture, 
class, family, or individual, by their coding, i.e., arbitrary, 
iconic, or intrinsically encoded, and by their usage.
 Five possible usages were discussed. Emblems are gestures 
consciously used by members of a society in addition to, or in place of, 
words. Within the society, they have a fixed, accepted meaning. An 
example would be a shoulder shrug in the United States to indicate 
that one does not know something. Eibl-Eibesfelt (1972) claims 
that at least one emblem, the eyebrow flash is universal. Morris, 
Collett, Marsh, and O'Shaughnessy (1979) describe several emblems 
which are culturally specific in occurrence, meaning, or both. 
Other researchers call emblems by other names; e.g., semiotic 
gestures (Barakat, 1969), symbolic or emblematic gestures (Efron, 
1972), formal pantomimic gestures (Weiner, Devoe, Rubinow, and 
Geller, 1972), and autonomous gestures (Kendon, 1983). The 
next use of nonverbal behaviors is as illustrators. Illustrators 
are less standardized than emblems, and they are used to elaborate 
or comment upon the content of the accompanying speech. Ekman and 
Friesen (1972: 358 - 359) note that illustrators are 
 
similar to emblems in that they are used with awareness and 
intentionality, although the use of illustrators is usually in 
peripheral, not focal awareness.
 
Illustrators, unlike emblems, occur only in conversation, are used 
only by a speaker, i.e., not by a listener, and often have no 
precise verbal equivalent.
 Ekman and Friesen identify eight different types of illustrators. 
The types are not mutually exclusive; i.e., a given illustrator may function 
as a cluster of types. Batons are a type of illustrator which stress a word or 
phrase. An example of a baton would be a speaker's hand striking 
the table while the speaker said `not' in the following sentence, 
"I shall NOT endure this any longer!" Ideographs are movements 
which indicate the direction of thought. An example of the use 
ideographs would be counting out the steps of a procedure on one's 
hands while orally describing each of the steps. Deictic movements 
point to objects, places, or events. Spatial movements show 
spatial relationships, such as the location of two objects with 
respect to one another. Rhythmic movements show the pacing of an 
event. Snapping one's fingers while uttering, "It happened just 
like that," indicates that the event being discussed occurred 
quickly. The finger snapping is a rhythmic movement. Kinetographs 
show the movement of someone or something. An instance of a 
kinetograph is miming holding a phone while saying, "I'm going to 
call him." Pictographs are movements drawing pictures in the air. 
For example, pictographs can be used to indicate the shape of a 
window. Finally, emblematic movements are emblems functioning as 
illustrators. Appendix E includes a revised version of this 
typology, along with more extensive list of examples for each type 
of illustrator.
 Illustrators and other kinesic behaviors 
have been hypothesized to function in one of three ways. First, 
they may be used to facilitate comprehension of speech by means of 
indicating phonological structure (Dittman, 1972, Dittman and 
Llewellyn, 1968, Pittenger, Hockett, and Danehy, 1960), indicating 
syntactic structure (Lindenfeld, 1971), or indicating the flow of 
thought, (Efron, 1941, Scheflen, 1964). Second, they may be used 
to reveal information about the speaker's attitudes and emotions; 
e.g., the amount of enthusiasm (Ekman and Friesen, 1974), or the 
degree of effort used in attempting to be persuasive (Mehrabian and 
Williams, 1969). Finally, illustrators may be used to help the 
speaker encode speech (Cohen, 1977), or they may even be, as Kendon 
(1980:348-349) states, an 
 
alternative manifestation of the processes by which "ideas" are 
encoded into patterns of behavior...It is as if the process of 
utterance has two channels of output into behavior: one by way of 
speech, the other by way of bodily movement.
 
McNeill (1979) and Condon (1976) both support Kendon's position.
 Cohen and Harrison (1973) find that subjects use illustrators 
more when they speak face-to-face with someone than they do when they 
speak on an intercom. Rogers (1978) establishes that subjects make 
use of a speaker's illustrators to comprehend a message, especially 
under circumstances of degraded aural input. Graham and Argyle 
(1975) ascertain that the use of illustrators improves the ability 
of one set of subjects to communicate the shapes of geometric 
figures to other subjects. All of these studies indicate that 
illustrators are useful in the encoding and decoding of messages. 
This research provides the basis for hypothesis 2b of Chapter One 
which states that, if the relationship between signing ability and 
amount of BC used is linear, BC serves a communicative purpose.
 Ekman and Friesen (1972) note that speakers use illustrators less 
when they are tired, apathetic, in a subordinate relationship with 
the listener, or are in a formal situation and are trying to impress 
the listener. Speakers use illustrators more when the opposite of 
any of the above situations is true, or when they are having a 
difficult time conveying their message to the listener. 
Hypothesis four in this dissertation, which states that individuals 
will use more BC when they are relaxed than when they are tense, 
stems from this study.
 The last three types of nonverbal behaviors which Ekman and 
Friesen describe are affect displays, regulators, and adaptors. Affect displays 
reveal emotions, e.g., waving a fist to show anger. Regulators are used to 
guide the flow of the conversation. Fillers such as um, er, and uh are used as 
regulators to indicate that the speaker wishes to continue 
speaking. Adaptors are movements which are used to satisfy an 
individual's physical or psychological needs. Thumb sucking is an 
example of an adaptor used by many children. 
 
4.3 Speech and Gestures: Other Researchers' Work
  The relationship between speech and gestures has been discussed by several 
researchers. McNeill (1979, 1985, 1986), and McNeill and Levy 
(1982) examine "iconic," or pantomimic gestures, defined as a 
gesture "which depicts in its form or manner of execution aspects 
of the event or situation being described verbally" (pg. 275). 
These iconic gestures seem to be the equivalent of Ekman and 
Friesen's illustrators and emblems. They report that half of the 
time these gestures occur before the verb with which they were 
associated. 
 
 McNeill (1985:351) states that
 
[illustrators] are movements that...occur only during speech, are 
synchronized with linguistic units, are parallel in semantic and 
pragmatic functions to the synchronized linguistic units, perform 
text functions like speech, dissolve like speech in aphasia, and 
develop together with speech in children. Because of these 
similarities, a strong case can be made for regarding gestures and 
speech as part of a common psychological structure.
 
  He furthers his case for considering such gestures to be 
true symbols by pointing out that speakers sometimes express part 
of a cognitive representation in the oral mode, and the rest by 
gestures. An example he cites involves a subject describing a 
cartoon in which an old lady brandishing an umbrella chases a cat 
out of the house. The subject said, "She chases him out again." 
However, the subject mimed gripping an object in his hand and 
swinging it from left to right. This information that the lady was 
armed was conveyed solely by gestures, not by speech.  McNeill 
believes that this example supported his position that speech and 
gestures are two parts of a single psychological 
structure.
 McNeill (1986: 108) therefore recognizes the 
importance of studying what he calls the iconic gesture channel 
because it 
 
can be used as a second channel of observation onto the speaker's 
mental representations during speech; the first channel being 
speech itself. These channels can be compared: a kind of 
`triangulation' onto the speaker's mental representation. Thus an 
interest in studying gestures is to obtain an enriched view of the 
internal mental processes of speakers.
 
  Engel (1976) examines the linguistic and kinesic 
behavior of Canadian bilinguals and African Americans engaged in 
code-switching. He finds that
 
code switching involves both language and kinesics; but the two 
modalities are not treated in parallel fashion...Kinesics seems 
more closely associated with culture than with language...A change 
in kinesic style appeared as an integral part of register switching 
in response to change in social situation. Such changes in 
register occurred only after the shift in kinesic behaviors. 
Culture preceded language. (pp. 236-237) 
 
  Slama-Cazacu (1976) describes instances of 
mixed syntax, or sentences involving a mode-switch. One example, 
provided by Kendon (1988:135), is, "Their parents are professors, 
but the kids are /GESTURE/." The gesture, unaccompanied by speech, 
was one of disgust. In mixed syntax sentences, gestures are used 
to substitute for linguistic elements, typically at a level higher 
than the word, within the sentence.Slama- Cazacu (1976:225) 
concludes that
 
it is difficult to separate the code of verbal signs from the code 
of kinesic signs (gestures and facial mimicry). In such cases, 
these codes, which actually do combine in the subjects' 
consciousness, also achieve a linguistic synthesis, on the 
grammatical metalanguage plane, in one single code, structured sui 
generis and comprising verbal and facial mimicry - gestural 
elements mutually modified and fused in LINGUISTICALLY analyzable 
units. (emphasis in original)
 
  Kendon (1984), citing Slama-Cazacu, claims that a 
speaker transmits a message via both speech and gesticulation in 
order to communicate it in the most economic and efficient manner 
possible. Like Birdwhistell and McNeill, he emphasizes that 
gesticulation is not subordinate to speech, but that both are 
employed coordinately with the goal of representing 
meaning.
 Kendon (1988:136) also claims that there is no 
clear-cut division between what McNeill calls iconic gestures, 
which function holistically, and emblems or signs, which function 
"like words." Rather, gestures can become lexicalized. He cites 
as evidence for this the descriptions by Tervoort (1961) and Klima 
and Bellugi (1979) of how certain mimed gestures gradually lost 
their iconicity, became much simpler and more arbitrary movements, 
and acquired a broader meaning in the process of becoming 
lexicalized as signs in Dutch and American Sign Language. Kendon 
believes that these documented instances indicate that, when speech 
is impossible for whatever reason, autonomous gestures can become 
organized into a gesture system, which can in turn evolve into a 
full sign language.
 This dissertation adapts Ekman and Friesen's functional 
description of nonverbal behavior, and especially of their classification 
of illustrators. It also supports Kendon's position by providing 
instances of signs, which he would consider lexical gestures (i.e., verbal), 
being used as illustrators (which have traditionally been thought to be non-
verbal).
 There is no implication in the above that the 
author believes that ASL can be reduced to lexical gestures. She 
is fully aware that ASL, as any language, is not merely a lexicon, 
but that it has its own phonology, morphology, and syntax. She 
merely wishes to indicate that this research might provide evidence 
that speakers who know sign make use of ASL's lexicon when they are 
conversing in a spoken language. 
 
4.4 Summary
  Research in kinesics has shown that gestures are 
closely tied to speech. Kinesic structure parallels linguistic 
structure. Illustrators, a type of gesture, might be used to 
facilitate the production or the comprehension of speech. They can 
be used in addition to, or instead of, speech to convey 
information. McNeill claims that gestures and speech are two 
manifestations of a single psychological structure. Kendon, inter 
alia, furthers this claim by stating that there are no clear-cut 
divisions among signs, emblems, and illustrators. The research in 
this dissertation supports this view by providing examples of signs 
being used as illustrators and emblems and being interpolated into 
the gestural stream among non-sign gestures.
 
 
 
  NOTES
 

 
 
 
 
Chapter 5: The Experiments 




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