Pragmatics and Non-Verbal Communication

Examines non-verbal behaviours from a pragmatic perspective, establishing the role they play in our communication.

Tim Wharton (Author)

9780521691444, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 17 September 2009

230 pages, 2 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.2 x 1 cm, 0.38 kg

'… a most timely work … not only does Wharton achieve an innovative, brave and systematic re-analysis in coherence with the cognitive theoretic pragmatic paradigm he endorses, but also he raises many intriguing and stimulating questions, and suggests new and challenging directions for future work which will spark off much discussion and research.' Lodz Papers in Pragmatics

The way we say the words we say helps us convey our intended meanings. Indeed, the tone of voice we use, the facial expressions and bodily gestures we adopt while we are talking, often add entirely new layers of meaning to those words. How the natural non-verbal properties of utterances interact with linguistic ones is a question that is often largely ignored. This book redresses the balance, providing a unique examination of non-verbal behaviours from a pragmatic perspective. It charts a point of contact between pragmatics, linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science, ethology and psychology, and provides the analytical basis to answer some important questions: How are non-verbal behaviours interpreted? What do they convey? How can they be best accommodated within a theory of utterance interpretation?

1. Natural pragmatics
2. Natural and non-natural meaning
3. Pragmatics and the domain of pragmatic principles
4. Interjections and language
5. Natural codes
6. Prosody and gesture
7. Mind-readers
8. The showing-meaningNN continuum and beyond.

Subject Areas: Psycholinguistics [CFD]