Body Gestures (also known as kinesics) can be classified into 5 main types:
EMBLEMS directly translate words or phrases.
ILLUSTRATORS accompany and literally 'illustrate' verbal messages.
AFFECT DISPLAYS communicate emotional meaning.
REGULATORS monitor, maintain, or control the speaking of another.
ADAPTORS satisfy some need.
ILLUSTRATORS accompany and literally 'illustrate' verbal messages.
AFFECT DISPLAYS communicate emotional meaning.
REGULATORS monitor, maintain, or control the speaking of another.
ADAPTORS satisfy some need.
EMBLEMS are substitutes for words; they’re body movements that have rather specific verbal translations: for example, the nonverbal signs for “OK”, “peace”, “come here”, “go away”, “be quiet”, "it’s cold” and “who me?” Emblems are as arbitrary as any word in any language. Consequently, your present culture’s emblems are not necessarily the same as your culture’s emblems of 300 years ago or the same as the emblems of other cultures. For example, the sign made by forming a circle with the thumb and index finger may mean “nothing” or “zero” in France, “money” in Japan, and something sexual in certain southern European cultures. But just as the English language is spreading throughout the world, so, too, is the English nonverbal language. The American use of this emblem to mean “OK” is spreading just as fast, for example, as English technical and scientific terms.
ILLUSTRATORS accompany and literally illustrate the verbal messages. Illustrators make your communications more vivid and help to maintain your listener’s attention. They also help to clarify and intensify your verbal messages. In saying, “Let’s go up”, for example, you probably move your head and perhaps your finger in an upward direction. In describing a circle or a square, you more than likely make circular or square movements with your hands. Recent research to another advantage of illustrators: that they increase your ability to remember. People who illustrated their verbal messages with gestures remembered some 20 percent more than those who didn’t gesture.
We are aware of illustrators only part of the time; at times, they have to be bought to our attention. Illustrators are more universal than emblems; illustrators will be recognised and understood by members of more different cultures than will emblems.
AFFECT DISPLAYS are the movements of the face that convey emotional meaning – the expressions that show anger and fear, happiness and surprise, eagerness and fatigue. They’re the facial expressions that give you away when you try to present a false image and that lead people to say, “You look angry. What’s wrong?” We can, however, consciously control affect displays, as actors do when they play a role. Affect displays may be unintentional (as when they give you away) or intentional (as when you want to show anger, love, or surprise).
REGULATORS monitor, maintain, or control the speaking of another individual. When you listen to another, you’re not passive; you nod your head, purse your lips, adjust your eye focus, and make various paralinguistic sounds such as “mm-mm” or “tsk”. Regulators are culture bound: Each culture develops its own rules for the regulation of conversation. Regulators also include such broad movements as shaking your head to show disbelief or leaning forward in your chair to show that you want to hear more.
Regulators communicate what you expect or want speakers to do as they’re talking: for example, “Keep going”, “Tell me what else happened”, “I don’t believe that. Are you sure?”, “Speed up” and “Slow down”. Speakers often receive these nonverbal signals without being consciously aware of them. Depending on their degree of sensitivity, they modify their speaking behaviour in accordance with these regulators.
ADAPTORS satisfy some need and usually occur without conscious awareness; they’re unintentional movements that usually go unnoticed. Nonverbal researchers identify three types of adaptors based on their focus, direction, or target: self-adaptors, alter-adaptors, and object-adaptors.
Self-adaptors usually satisfy a physical need, especially to make you more comfortable, for example, scratching your head to relieve an itch, moistening your lips because they feel dry, or pushing your hair out of your eyes. When these adaptors occur in private, they occur in their entirety: You scratch until the itch is gone. But in public, these adaptors usually occur in abbreviated form. When people are watching you, for example, you might put your fingers to your head and move them around a bit but probably not scratch with the same vigour as when in private.
Alter-adaptors are the body movements you make in response to your current interactions. Examples would include crossing your arms over your chest when someone unpleasant approaches or moving closer to someone you like.
Object-adaptors are those movements that involve your manipulation of some object. Frequently observed examples include punching holes in or drawing on a styrofoam coffee cup, clicking a ball point pen, or chewing on a pencil. Object-adaptors are usually signs of negative feelings; for example, you emit more adaptors when feeling hostile than when feeling friendly. Further, as anxiety and uneasiness increase, so does the frequency of adaptors.
(DeVito, 2004, pp. 181-183)
(Simonds & Cooper, 2014, pp. 128-129)
(Simonds & Cooper, 2014, pp. 128-129)