日常生活中手势语的应用-文学学士毕业论文.doc

摘要肢体语言是跨文化交际中的重要组成部分。在人与人沟通或谈判时，大部分的人会使用手势语来表达各种信息。随着经济全球化的发展趋势，肢体语言中的手势语以其简单明了的特性而广泛应用于跨文化交际中。除了一些世界公认的手势语外，在不同文化里，大部分的手势语的含义会有差异。在日常交流中，虽然使用口头语言的机会较多，然而手势语也同样重要。本文通过介绍一些国内外常用的手势语并比较手势语的含义在不同国家的差异性，深入了解在跨文化交际中常见手势语的含义，这对于尽可能地避免跨文化交际时的文化误解和冲突有着重要意义。关键词：手势语；人类交往；跨文化交际The Application of Hand Gestures in Daily LifeTable of ContentsAbstracti摘要ii1.Introduction12.Literature Review22.1Development of Hand Gestures22.2Domestic and Overseas Research Actualities23.Status of Hand Gestures in Language44.Overview of Hand Gestures54.1Definition of Hand Gestures54.2Functions of Hand Gestures54.3Significance of Hand Gestures65.Classifications of Hand Gestures75.1The “A-OK”75.2The “V-Sign”75.3The “Pointing”85.4The “Thumb up”85.5The “Beckoning Sign”95.6The “Wave”95.7The “Corna”96.Application of Hand Gestures106.1Application of Hand Gestures in Daily Life106.2Application of Hand Gestures in Other Fields106.2.1Hand Gestures of Recognizing Lies106.2.2Hand Gestures of Traffic Command116.2.3Hand Gestures of Basketball Match117.Conclusion12References13Acknowledgements141. IntroductionThe intercultural communication has become the main style of peoples communication with the process of globalization, and the verbal communication is always the major part in the communication, however, the non-verbal communication is indispensable. When people are talking with others, they are not just using words, but also using facial expressions and hand gestures. For example, waving ones hand is to say “Good-bye.” Actually, hand gestures can also enhance speakers connection with the audience. Humans send and interpret such signals subconsciously. This thesis wants to explore the hand gestures of body language from different cultures around the world. Members of a culture typically know only the gestures from their own society. For example, Americans know the messages of hand gestures such as “OK”, “Shame on you”, and “Crazy”, but they tend to be ignorant about hand gestures from other societies. Similarly, most Iranians have no idea that their most obscene gesture (the “thumbs up” gesture) actually means “good luck” in America and in many European nations.When doing arithmetic, many children tend to move their fingers almost subconsciously, even some adults. The American soldiers were making a “V” sign with the index and the middle fingers as a “victory sign” while the Japanese were using it as a “peace sign”. Different hand gestures have different meanings, and different countries have different gestures. The same hand gestures also have different meanings in different cultures. The thesis tends to the thorough discussion and the research of the hand gestures around some countries.The thesis consists of three parts. Part One is an introduction to hand gestures, the research background, the reasons and purpose of studying hand gestures from the daily life. Part Two is a detailed analysis of hand gestures; it is also divided into five chapters. Chapter One is the literature review. Chapter Two focuses on the status of hand gestures in non-verbal communication. Chapter Three will indicate the overview of hand gestures, which consists of the definition, functions and meanings of hand gestures. Chapter Four is an analysis of classifications of hand gestures. The last chapter is about the application of hand gestures. Part Three is a conclusion of the thesis.132. Literature Review2.1 Development of Hand GesturesAt the beginning of human society, they could not communicate with others by some special languages. A mass of data have researched by any scientists from different areas, such as language scientists, human scientists and historical scientists, who tend to understand the development of the human language. The common point that they have found is body language, which human communicates with others at the beginning of human society. Hands are flexible parts of body and play an important role in human interaction, and then a large number of hand gestures have appeared. With the development of the human society, human has improved gradually on the physical and psychological side, the science and technology having been developed. Then, human can communicate with others by speaking and writing that have become the major methods in the communication area, even chatting on the internet nowadays around the world. However, the hand gestures have not disappeared in the human society and play an important role in life.In body language, hand gestures have become the basic communication method. The history of hand gestures is uncertain, and there is no evidence of its existence before the first decade of the 20th century (严明,2009:7). Abundance of hand gestures form the major part among the communication processes, such as the business negotiation, classroom instruction, military field, and the principal communication method with disabled persons. Even in the speech, the lecturer also uses some hand gestures to express his meanings to the audiences. Speech also contains some hand gestures of body language known as paralanguage. The meanings of hand gestures vary among various parts of countries, also among cultural groups and between generations. Hand gestures have become from a single one to an optimized combination of a series of means. For example, the OK sign acquired its modern connotation from the ancient world.2.2 Domestic and Overseas Research ActualitiesIn the classical Roman era, Cicero, who was an orator politician and philosopher, concluded that hand gestures as a language could be understood by people, although the people were barbarian. With detailed researching of the subject, his study illustrated quite strikingly how Roman speakers could use gestures involving their arms, hands, and fingers to give extra force and impact to their words. In 1644, John Bulwer was the first person in England to propose educating deaf people. He wrote five works to explore the body language in human communication, particularly hand gestures. He had issued a single volume Chirologia and Chironomia that have different paginations about hand gestures, and the main idea was to guide the deaf people how to improve their ability of communication with hand gestures.McNeill has made some considerations on the relationship between language and gesture by his book Language and Gesture in 2000. His main argument is that gestures and speech are a single system because they occur and develop together. After that, some foreign countries have developed some rather ripe theories.From the above, we can make it clear that it has a long history in the foreign countries for the researching and analyzing of hand gestures. However, Very few people inside our country study hand gestures. In China, the researchers of hand gestures pay more attention to the application of the disabled area and the teaching process. Many Chinese people would be confused by the unknown hand gestures when they visit the foreign countries. This thesis tends to compare the meanings of hand gestures among different cultures.3. Status of Hand Gestures in LanguageIt is significant to study the status of hand gestures in language before knowing the detailed information of hand gestures. Broadly speaking, communication consists of two kinds: verbal and non-verbal communication. Verbal communication consists of word language and the variations in meaning which a person puts into words through the way they are said. According to Burgoon and Saine (1978), non-verbal communication is the qualities of behaviors known to all in a community without the use of words, and such qualities or behaviors are intentionally or thought to be intentionally given by the speaker and consciously received by the listener and likely to make a feedback (曹湘洪,2009:93). Non-verbal communication is also called silent language and plays a key role in human day-to-day life. Dr. Isa N. Engleberg asserted that “Research has suggested that between 60% and 70% of all meanings are derived from non-verbal behaviors (Isa N. Engleberg, 2006:133).” Generally, many researchers classify non-verbal communication as four major parts, including body language, paralanguage, object language and environmental language (胡文仲,毕继万,2004:6). Charlie Chaplin and many other silent movie actors were the pioneers of non-verbal communication; they were the only means of communication available on the screen in the silent-film era.Body language is a form of non-verbal communication, which consists of body postures, hand gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. A mass of data of studies with intercultural communication indicates that body language has six major functions, including repeating, complementing, substituting, regulating, contradicting, and accenting (熊金才,孙丽霞,2001:56-58). Basically it is send and received in a variety of ways without the use of verbal language. From ancient times to the present, most people are still ignorant of the existence of hand gestures of body language in daily communication, let alone its importance in their lives. Different fingers or thumb gestures can convey a range of meanings in different cultures, from insults to approval or even attraction. Many good speakers or storytellers use hand gestures to illustrate their stories. Hand gestures often help the speakers and listeners to indicate their meanings. When people could not say anything in an emergency situation, hand gestures would convey some useful messages to others at that time. On such occasions, small gestures can make a big difference. When you are reading in the library, if someone speak loudly and you will move the index finger to your lips meaning “be quiet”. A hand signal may be small, perhaps betraying subconscious thinking of someone. It may also be exaggerated or done with both hands to emphasize the point. Hands are often used in greetings. The most common form of greeting is shaking hands, of which there are many different forms. Opening the palm shows that there is no concealed weapon. This is significant in greeting, salutes, waves etc.4. Overview of Hand Gestures4.1 Definition of Hand GesturesHand gestures are a form on nonverbal communication in which visible body actions are used to communicate particular messages, either in place of speech or together and in parallel with spoken words (Kendon, Adam, 2004). In daily communication, most people use a lot of hand gestures to express their intention of the communication and help other people to understand their meanings easily. However, most people are not conscious of the importance of hand gestures in human interaction until now.Hand gestures include the movement of the hands or hands with other parts of the body. Physical non-verbal communications such as purely expressive displays, proxemics, or displays of joint attention differs from hand gestures, which communicates with specific messages (Kendon, Adam, 2004). In many countries, making the “OK” sign with the fingers means affirmation or perfection of one thing. Waving the hand, people always use to say goodbye to others. Cupping one or both hands over the mouth, especially when talking, may well indicate that the person is trying to hide something. Putting your hand to your cheek or stroking your chin generally portrays thinking, interest or consideration. Fingers bent across the chin or below the mouth most often shows critical evaluation.4.2 Functions of Hand GesturesHand gestures are culture-specific and can convey very different meanings in different societies or cultural settings (Morris et al, 1979). Some main relevant functions of hand gestures in human communication could be described as follows: a) rhetorical functions: such as rhetorical devices that are emphatic and powerful modalities to present discourse content (Atkinson, 1984; Edwards, Potter, 1992); b) discursive functions: such as discursive markers, marking syntactic structure of discourse (Fraser, 1999); c) interactive functions: features of talk turns in conversation as marking interaction managing and social relationship with the interlocutor; d) persuasive functions: convincing and influential communication.Some specific objectives about the individuation of functions of hand gestures are: a) verifying co-occurrence and sequence of gestures with discursive markers, or rhetorical devices, or types of questions; b) studying the role of hand gestures in persuasive communication in contexts of social influence (group discussion and political oratory), through correlational as well as experimental studies.There are some examples as follows that will indicate the functions of hand gestures. Rubbing gently behind or beside the ear with the index finger or rubbing the eye usually means the other person is uncertain about what you are saying. Leaning back with both hands supporting the head usually indicates a feeling of confidence or superiority. Tightly clenched hands usually indicate that the person is experiencing undue pressure, and it may be difficult to relate to this person because of his tension and disagreement. Superiority and authority are usually indicated when you are standing and joining your hands behind your back.4.3 Significance of Hand GesturesLanguage varies from country to country. It differs not only in written and spoken language but also in hand gestures. The same hand gestures could not mean the same message in different countries or cultures, even different persons. What is important is that it is very easy for hand signals to be misinterpreted even amongst close friends. Although some hand gestures, such as the ubiquitous act of pointing, differ little from one place to another, most hand gestures do not have invariable or universal meanings but connote specific meanings in particular cultures. A single emblematic gesture can have very different significance in different cultural contexts, ranging from complimentary to highly offensive (Kendon, Adam, 1994).The main reasons for studying the role of hand gestures in human interaction may be summarized as follows. People use hand gestures to send and receive non-verbal messages intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously. People make important decisions and judgments about others and situations based on these non-verbal messages. Peoples emotional state is best communicated through their non-verbal messages. People make judgments about the verbal messages in light of accompanying non-verbal clues. People use the non-verbal elements to present themselves to others and to alter the thinking and behavior of others. Hand gestures have a major role in facilitating intercultural communication especially in todays economic globalization society.Hand gestures help people to express their intention to