ABSTRACT
In the last two chapters we discussed the rather slow non-verbal signals which are used to manage social situations – to express emotions and attitudes to other people. However, while people are speaking they send another series of NV signals, which are faster and are closely connected with what is being said at the time. These signals affect the meaning of what is said, provide a simultaneous commentary by the listener, and manage the synchronizing of utterances. Some linguists now recognize that some of these signals are really part of language, not just an emotionally expressive ‘paralanguage’. Abercrombie (1968) said: ‘We speak with our vocal organs, but we converse with our whole body.’ This is an unusual view, however; many linguists accept NV signals in the vocal-auditory channel as part of language but do not accept those in the kinesic channel, and probably none of them accept the range of functions which will be documented in this chapter.
