34.525, Review: Anthropological Linguistics: Danesi (2021)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-34-525. Fri Feb 10 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 34.525, Review: Anthropological Linguistics: Danesi (2021)

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Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2023 18:12:07
From: Linlin Song [songlinlin999 at dingtalk.com]
Subject: Understanding Nonverbal Communication

 
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/32/32-3164.html

AUTHOR: Marcel  Danesi
TITLE: Understanding Nonverbal Communication
SUBTITLE: A Semiotic Guide
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
YEAR: 2021

REVIEWER: Linlin Song

SUMMARY
Nonverbal communication (NVC), sending 93% of the information in a
conversation (Mehrabian, 1981), can be deemed silent (non-verbal)
communication in the form of body movement, facial expressions, eye contact,
gesture, space and distance, and even buildings and computers. Most linguistic
and cultural studies have concentrated on verbal communication, while NVC
studies have been marginal, leaving a considerable research gap for mapping
out the language system as a whole. Hence, this book examines this area from
the perspective of semiotics. By collecting signs and representational
activities, the book illustrates the role and function of NVC and its
relationship with face-to-face communication (F2F), culture, and mind. As an
anthropologist, Marcel Danesi introduces NVC from a cross-disciplinary point
of view, including biology, psychology, neuroscience, semiotics, linguistics,
anthropology, culture studies, and AI as the new trend. Through his
comprehensive presentation, this book unfolds with the history, development,
and influence of various forms of NVC and may benefit readers from diverse
fields.
The book is composed of nine chapters. The first two chapters outline key
notions, models, history, and development of NVC, arguing that NVC is a
semiotic system of signs and signals that embodies both nature and culture. As
the scientific study of NVC, kinesics has been on its way to being quantified
since the 1960s, especially when computer and AI technologies are adopted. In
the following chapters, the author focuses on the traditional domains of NVC
and its recent extension to cyberspace and artificial systems. 
Eyes are biological organs transferring one’s inner thoughts and emotions. In
Chapter 3, the author gives evidence suggesting eye contact constructs a
hybrid system of signs and signals that integrates bimodal communication.
These cues can be instinctive, like staring and gazing, or culture-based with
variations in frequency, intensity, and duration. They all function in
interactions, symbols, arts, and even writings. 
Chapter 4 expands from the focal point of the eyes to the overall face and
head, a “mask” reflecting people’s emotional states. Basic emotions activate
microexpressions in the face, combine grammatically, and produce a nonverbal
symphony. The importance of facial expressions lies in the fact that their
interpretation is culture-specific and stands in the same place with language
decoding, and the recognition of facial expressions is like a secret key to
confirming one’s identity. 
Chapter 5 moves down to hands, explaining manual behaviors generating touching
communication. Since humans became bipedal, the hands have been liberated to
undertake jobs like tool-using, haptic actions, and communication. This
chapter offers a theoretical foundation for the next chapter to discuss
gesture and gesticulation. With an understanding of haptic signing, tactile
communication, and handedness, one may perceive the critical role of hands in
communication in demonstrating human personality. 
In Chapter 6, hand use in gesture and gesticulation is examined. As another
primary form of NVC, the gesture is contextualized and can imply three main
functions: iconic, indexical, and symbolic. Except for co-speech gestures,
cases like ASL (American Sign Language) can also replace verbal language.
Studies emphasizing the synchronization of gesture and language indicate the
integration of the two and the natural bimodality of the language system,
which can likewise find evidence in neuroscience, children’s language
development, and animal-human gestural experiments. 
Chapter 7 introduces proxemics, investigated by Edward T. Hall, and which
characterizes F2F communication. The physical distance people maintain and the
spatial layouts of communication environments as nonverbal codes reveal social
conventions and biological demands. Interpersonal zones vary from intimate,
personal, and social to the public. Within each of these zones people react
emotionally differently towards the interlocutor, and these zones overlap with
speech registers determined by formality. Under new situations of
human-computer interaction (HCI) and COVID-19, there are trends of reducing
virtual proximity on the one hand and distancing physically in order to avoid
the virus on the other hand. 
Nowadays, NVC studies have been amplified. Communication settings as mentioned
above, buildings, clothes, computers, and virtual reality devices are all
zoned into this field. In Chapter 8, the author adopts extension theory.
Semiotically speaking, the signs and signal structures are the concrete
settings and the self they represent in a particular group. Facial emojis
belong to the nonverbal sign system. Though standardized in form, they are
used to accent, supplement, or substitute the verbal language distinctively
according to social orientation (Pereira-Kohatsu et al., 2019). Virtual
reality devices simulate human behavior to communicate with humans more
intelligently and immersively. The author believes that technologies and tools
might shape yet never replace our communication. 
In the last chapter, the author elaborates on human-machine communication
(HMC), also called cybernetics, and the ethical thinking about this new
verbal-nonverbal communication construction. In the AI era, big data, VR and
AR technologies, and deep learning software can detect and mimic nonverbal
cues, thus establishing simultaneous, humanoid communication. However, the AI
system and the robot currently gain no intentionality and feelings as humans
do; therefore, though effective and powerful, HMC and other technologies still
depend on the ultimate semiotic source—human language and nonverbal behaviors.
Humans get in touch with the world with our minds and bodies in a particular
culture.

EVALUATION
As a textbook, the purpose of this book is to introduce nonverbal
communication as non-linguistic signs that convey meaning. The studies start
from the traditional F2F communication to physical NVC, concrete extensions,
and HMC. The advantages of this book lie in three aspects.
First, this book stands out for its cross-disciplinary nature. Taking
semiotics as its point of departure, it penetrates all related science and
subjects. The explanation of NVC includes its biological origin, its evolution
in different cultures, and brain processing during nonverbal signal production
and comprehension. The author selects typical examples from natural media or
artificial media. This inclusive introduction provides readers with a thorough
understanding of NVC. One may be aware that eye contact and facial expressions
are the primary focus of humans when conversing with each other, yet few
notice that the amygdala is activated when people perceive these as
reflections of emotions. In addition, the author collects authentic examples
across societies, especially from artistic forms such as myths, legends, and
paintings. The compositions of eyes, smiles, handedness, and body orientation
in pictures or sculptures are all well designed to unveil untold memories.
This in-depth illustration enlightens us on the truth that our brain controls
our body itself and the extensions of the body, and each signal being sent
comes with a reason and thus should be studied to enhance communication. 
Second, this book keeps a watchful eye on the new digital era and the progress
of NVC. Typical NVC studies cover body movements, object layout, time, and
distance. This book further takes notice of CMC and HMC, which are novel
extensions of NVC. Facilitated by technologies, the transfer and the
transformation of nonverbal expressions can be conducted in the virtual system
into another modality whose interpretation is similarly constrained by
culture, like emojis and avatars. This new direction informs scholars and
laypeople of the turning point for NVC studies since interaction has been
added as an extra medium. Concerning the simulation of nonverbal cues in the
virtual world and the robots’ program, the challenge of creating better models
and upgrading tactile devices emerges. Meanwhile, issues of whether these
simulated nonverbal expressions transmit the exact semantic information and
the expected emotive intent contributing to areas such as education and
medical treatment remain to be evaluated. With this pioneering work, future
research in NVC may be enriched for the theoretical and empirical study of the
variation, function, and optimization of elements in NVC. 
Also of merit is the fact that this book intends to benefit readers in diverse
academic fields, encompassing both the liberal arts and the sciences. The
author adopts an explanatory style, clear structure, and vivid examples so
that readers may get the idea and the logic of the story of NVC. Mentioning
how the current pandemic situation asks for some modification of the
traditional communication mode increases the necessity and efficacy of NVC
consciousness.
However, there is space for minor criticism. Some concepts in this book
overlap (e.g., tactile and haptic, hand and gesture) and, as a result, terms
can be confusing and the inherent coherence of the volume is affected to some
extent. In addition, since human-machine communication is still at the
frontiers of science and technology, its blending and application to NVC seem
somewhat off track. Finally, the role of the latest developments in
technology, namely, meta technology, is not articulated in the book, leaving
much room for investigation in this field. Despite these limitations, this
book is an insightful contribution for researchers and students. Nonverbal
communication expresses the interlocutor’s intention and establishes people’s
identities in different cultures. What will happen if this process occurs not
only in the physical world but also in the virtual world? How can this
communication ecology still be balanced with the new element? This book will
inspire the future interdisciplinary exploration of NVC in various contexts. 

REFERENCES
Mehrabian, A. (1981). Silent messages: implicit communication of emotions and
attitudes. Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Pereira-Kohatsu, J. C., Quijano-Sánchez, L., Liberatore, F., &
Camacho-Collados, M. (2019). Detecting and monitoring hate speech in Twitter.
Sensors, 19(21), 4654. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19214654


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Linlin Song is now a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Foreign Studies,
University of Science and Technology Beijing, China. Her current research
interests fall into foreign language education and second language
acquisition.





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