比较中西方身势语在沟通中的应用

 Ⅰ. Introduction

When people speak of the communicarion, first they will think of the language, which is the verbal behavior. The verbal behavior is a process relying on the language instrument, including text (written languages) and verbal (oral language ) to carry through communion delivering idea and transferring information. Language is an important tool of human communication, but it is not the only tool of communication. In fact, in addition to language, there is a more abundant content of the means of communication that is non-verbal. The non-verbal communication is the language of all the acts of communication, it is very frequent in the frequency of daily life. A smile, a look, and a gesture belong to be non-verbal bahavior (huang, 2003:16). It is difficult to fancy and cannot be processed that the communication between the people just depend on words without any accompanying gestures or postures. That, at least, is not a sufficient communication. It is impossibility not to have the verbal behavior in human’s communication, but the non-verbal communication goes with the verbal communication. Both of them formed the complete process of communication and also have their own features and functions. Non-verbal communication can represent people’s psychological activities richly and accurately. 本文来自

Body language is not a language in the strict sense of the word “language”. “Body language” is expressing how one feels by one’s sitting, standing, moving, etc, rather by words (Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary, 1997). 

2．2The Importance of Body Language

An investigation into the functions of the factors of verbal and nonverbal communications shows: 35% information is transferred by language; the other 65% are by nonverbal patterns (Samovaretal, 1981). Other study indicates: only 7% emotions in people’s communication are passed by language. The other 93% are by nonverbal patterns. American scholars Deleig • Bronan (1991) pointed out that “Human’s communication consists of writing, oral and body three parts. Because of culture prejudices, a great majority of educated people often think that written language is most important; the oral language is the second. The body language is ranked last. However, whether from the continuously evolution of whole humanity or from a personal point of view, the study indicate that thee important position among the three are part opposition. This shows the necessity and importance of body language.

Human society’s long historical evolution confirmed that labor played a decisive role in the course of human’s evolution. At beginning, human ancestors rely on all sorts of gestures and postures for mutual coordination and communicate. So body language is actually the most primitive instrument of communication. The phonic language is gradually developed with the continuous deepening of communication. Human gradually learned verbal communication after a far-flung nonverbal communication. This shows that the non-verbal communication came into being earlier than verbal communication, it is the origin and base of verbal communication, body language is the earliest communication tool of human.

Ⅲ.The Role of Body Language in Communication

3．1To Exchange IdeasTo exchange ideas is the most basic social function of the language. In daily verbal communication, body language also participates in verbal communicate actuality. Speakers consciously or unconsciously use body language to match the language for expressing ideas; the listeners also understand ideas transferred by body language (Yang, 1994:26). Sometimes body language even can express ideas directly, especially at the kind of occasion that is inappropriate to speak or somebody doesn’t want to speak. For example, at the place where is as quiet as the reading room, it is inappropriate for people to tal