LL-L "Body language" 2008.07.19 (02) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 19 July 2008 - Volume 02
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Body language

Dear Lowlanders,

Today, under "Grammar", both Heather and Sandy, in response to Jonny's
posting, discussed physical clues within language or as an auxiliary means.

Within this context, Sandy brought up the importance three-dimensionality
plays in sign languages. Clearly, all of us have this at our disposal, and
many or all of us utilize it. It belongs to the broad area of "body
language," which I would broadly divide into deliberate and autonomous
expressions (though there may be a transitional category as well).
(Autonomous expressions are those that reflect your psychological state.)

In deliberate body language people tend to use body (especially facial and
manual) signals to emphasize important points or to add information for
which there are no convenient oral symbols. I noticed that this tends to be
used more among males, especially young males who would occasionally
demonstrate an event with body language only, perhaps accompanied by "sound
tracks" as in cartoon movies.

I have noticed that at least in the "West" females do this far less. I
believe that this is because in Northern Europe gestures accompanying spoken
language were frowned upon, were considered "coarse," a sign of lacking oral
eloquence. Such gestures are used far more in Southern Europe, in the past
much to North Europeans' bemusement. But of course, most of us add meaning
by facial expressions that accompany speech. A person that gives no physical
clues with his or her speech is considered aloof, makes people feel
uncomfortable.

In Japanese and Chinese cultures, for instance, gestures and facial
expressions accompany speech far, far less, which in the early days of
renewed contacts no doubt helped to lead to the stereotype of "the
inscrutable Asian." Again, those cultures consider such physical symbols
coarse, and again females use them less than males because females must obey
stricter rules of propriety.

Which brings me to Heather's story about reading lip movement as an
auxiliary means of comprehension. "Lack" of lip movement, i.e. minimal lip
movement, is a common complaint among foreign students of Japanese. In
traditional Japanese culture, "excessive" lip movement, especially display
of one's teeth, is considered socially unacceptable, and this still guides
today's behavior, is also the reason why Japanese females cover their mouths
when they laugh. I would not be surprised at all if this code of conduct
strongly influenced the development of Japanese phonology. None of the
allophones in Japanese require much lip movement, especially opening of
one's mouth widely and retracting one's lips. (For instance, Japanese /u/ is
usually realized as [ɯ] ([M]), the unrounded equivalent of [u].) (A couple
of Japanese persons have told me that the requirement of a lot of lip
movement in Mandarin pronunciation -- especially in pronouncing
alveo-palatals -- made them feel uncomfortable when they began learning that
language.)

I would welcome more discussion about these topics as they apply to Lowlands
languages and cultures.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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