Functions of nonverbal

communication
Functions of nonverbal
communication are :
• reinforcement,
• replacement, or contradiction of the
verbal part of a message
 ARGYL’s 5 functions of NVC
• Expressing emotion – mainly by face, body
and voice : this entails a tour to the heart of the
psychology of emotion.
• Communicating interpersonal attitudes –
humanbeings establish and maintain friendships
and other relationships mainly by NVC signals.
• Accompanying and supporting speech –
speakers and listeners engage in a complex
sequence of head-nods, glance and NVC
vocalizations, which are closely synchronized
with speech.
• Self presentation – mainly achieved by
appearance and to a lesser extent by voice.
• Rituals- Non-verbal signals play a prominent
role in greetings and other rituals.
 Perceptiveness, Intuition and
Hunches
• When we are referring to someone as
‘perceptive’ or ‘intuitive’, we are
referring to his or her ability to read
another person’s non-verbal cues and
to compare these cues to the verbal
signals.
• Also called ‘Audience awareness’
• Females – more perceptive than men.
 Inborn, Genetic, Learned and
Cultural Signals
• Are non-verbal signals inborn, learned,
genetically transferred or acquired in
some other way?
• Is there a 'universal language' of
gestures?
I don’t speak but I convey.
• German scientist, Eibl-Eibesfeldt found
that the smiling expression of children
born deaf and blind occur
independently of learning or copying,
which means that these must be inborn
gestures.
•
 GESTURES
Positive gestures – are body signals which
make you look relaxed, confident and polite.
Negative gestures –
• Signs of nervousness
• Aggressiveness
• Rudeness
• Gestures showing self-importance
• Lack of good sense
• Superiority of position
• Lateral gestures
 UNIVERSAL GESTURES
• The evolutionary origin of some
gestures can be traced back to our
primitive animal past.
• Baring the teeth – derived from the act of
attacking – still used by modern man in
the form of a SNEER.
• Smiling – was originally a threat gesture,
but today it is a non-threatening gesture.
• The shoulder shrug- is a multiple
gesture – exposed palms, hunched
shoulders and raised brow – a
universal gesture.

a person does not know or understand

what you are talking about.
 Gesture clusters
• People commit a MISTAKE- interpreting
solitary gestures in isolation of other
gestures or other circumstances.
• Like any other language, body
language consist of words, sentences
and punctuations. Each gesture is like
a single word and a word may have
different meanings.
• Gestures come in ‘ sentences’ and
invariably tell the truth about a
person’s feelings or attitudes. The
‘perceptive’ person is one who can
read the non-verbal ‘sentence’ and
accurately match them against the
person’s verbal sentence.
Sigmund Freud once noted that while a
patient was verbally expressing
happiness with her marriage, she was
unconsciously slipping her wedding
ring on and off her finger.
• A Ring or ‘OK’ Gesture- a universal
gesture
• What the initials ‘OK’ stand for?
• It is an abbreviation of OLD
KINDERHOOK- the birth place of a 19th
century American President who used the
initials as a campaign slogan.
• Common to all the english speaking
countries.
FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED
WHILE INTERPRETING
GESTURES
• Gestures in context
• All gestures must be considered in the context
in which they occur.
• Status and Power
There is a direct relationship between the
status level and power a person
commands and that person’s range of
vocabulary.
The higher the person on the socio-
economic scale, the less gesticulation and
body movement he uses.
 Impact of culture

• When in Rome, do as Romans do.’

• Italians – one to five
1 – Thumb
2 – index finger
Thumb –power and superiority signal
MOUTH COVERING GESTURES
PALM GESTURES
The open palm has been
associated with truth, honesty,
allegiance and submission.
• Sales people are often taught to look for the
customer’s exposed palms when he gives
reasons why he cannot buy the product,
because only valid reasons are given with
exposed palms.

• There are 3 main palm command gestures –

• •The palm – up position
• • The palm – down position
• •The palm – closed finger pointed position.
Just as the dog shows submission by
rolling on its back and exposing its throat
to the victor, so the human uses the palm-
up gesture to show submission to others.
Hand shake styles