Visual and Auditory Codes: Kinesics, Physical Appearance and Vocalics

Nothing is more revealing than movement.

--Martha Graham

The eyes of men converse as much as their tongues, with the advantage that the ocular dialect needs no dictionary, but is understood the world over.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Importance of Visual and Auditory Codes  Biological  survival value  reflexes and other sign behavior  predispositions to attend to auditory and visual social information, esp. from caregivers  Developmental  acquisition of speech and language  Social & interactional

Kinesic Code Classifications  Birdwhistell  kinemes  kines, allokines  kinemorphic constructions  parakinesics

Kinesic Code Classifications  Ekman and Friesen  affect displays  adaptors (object, self, alter) • e.g., Captain Queeg’s ball bearings  regulators  illustrators (batons, ideographs, kinetographs, pictographs, deictic movements, spatial movements, rhythmic movements, emblematic movements)  emblems (insults, greetings, departures, interpersonal directions, replies, physical states, emotions)

Kinesic Code Classifications  Bavelas  conversational gestures • topic gestures-- ones that relate to the content itself • interactive or social gestures--ones that function to distinguish true dyadic interaction from monologues and that are nonredundant with the information conveyed by words – delivery – citing – seeking – turn-taking

Kinesic Code Classifications  Chovil  speaker comments-- Nonrepresentational facial expressions or gestures that add in personal sentiments to neutral statements, allude to thoughts or memories, and interactive displays that recruit interlocutor’s attention  listener comments-- backchannel displays, personal reactions to what speaker is saying, motor mimicry  Von Cranach--gaze, mutual gaze, looks

Kinesic Code Classifications    McNeill & Duncan   iconics-- pictorial gestures that bear a close resemblance to a concrete object that is being depicted • same as pictographs and kinetigraphs beats-- hand movements that follow the rhythmic pulsation of speech and use same form regardless of speech content  deictics-- pointing gestures metaphorics-- pictorial gestures that present an abstract concept or thought process – incorporates ideographs, spatial movements, rhythmic movements, and emblematic movements cohesives-- repetitions of gestures, movements, and locations in gestural space to tie together related but separated discourse themes continuities across separated

Vocalic Code Classifications  Trager & Poyatos linguistic approaches  primary qualities • timbre, resonance, loudness, pitch, intonation range, syllabic duration, rhythm  voice qualifiers • e.g., breathing control, laryngeal control, articulatory control  voice differentiators • e.g., laughter, crying, shouting, sighing, belching  alternants (word-like constructions) • e.g., “pooh,” “brrr”

Vocalic Code Classifications  Rockwell acoustic versus perceptual classification  segmentals  nonsegmentals  suprasegmentals  Pittam functional taxonomy

Norms and Expectations      Illustrators Emblems Eye contact Regulators     Attractiveness Clothing Hair Make-Up and Adornments Sitting & standing postures    Voice tempo Voice pitch Voice quality

Comparing Codes on Communication Potential  Empirical evidence  invalid studies  valid studies  conclusions

Comparing Codes on Communication Potential  Encoding potential  number of channels available for transmission  number and range of cues transmitted  symbolic v. sign value  simultaneity of transmission  static or dynamic presentation  manipulability  number of functions

Comparing Codes on Communication Potential  Decoding potential  visual and auditory acuity  attention and arousal  multiplicity of meanings and cultural or contextual dependency  ambiguity or clarity of meanings, discernment of intent