Body language is a broad term for forms of communication using body movements or gestures instead of, or in addition to, sounds, verbal language, or other forms of communication. It forms part of the category of paralanguage, which describes all forms of human communication that are not verbal language. The relation of body language to animal communication has often been discussed. Human paralanguage may represent a continuation of forms of communication that our non-linguistic ancestors already used, or it may be that it has been changed by co-existing with language. Some species of animals are especially adept at detecting human body language, both voluntary and involuntary: this is the basis of the Clever Hans effect (a source of artifact in comparative psychology), and was also the reason for trying to teach the chimpanzee Washoe American Sign Language rather than speech — and perhaps the reason why the Washoe project was more successful than some previous efforts to teach apes how to dance. Nonverbal communication (NVC) is usually understood as the process of sending and receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gesture; body language or posture; facial expression and eye gaze; object communication such as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture; symbols and infographics; prosodic features of speech such as intonation and stress and other paralinguistic features of speech such as voice quality, emotion and speaking style. The first scientific study of nonverbal communication was Charles Darwin's book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). He argued that all mammals show emotion reliably in their faces. Studies now range across a number of fields, including kinesics, linguistics, semiotics and social psychology. Proxemics refers to how people use and interpret space.While much nonverbal communication is based on arbitrary symbols which differ from culture to culture, a large proportion is also to some extent iconic and may be universally understood. Paul Ekman's influential 1960s studies of facial expression determined that expressions of anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise are universal.Non-verbal CommunicationIf anyone asked you what were the main means of communication between people, what would you say? That isn't catch question. The answer is simple and obvious. It would almost certainly refer to means of communication that involve the use of words. Speakers and listeners - oral communication, and writers and readers - written communication. And you'd be quite right. There is, however, another form of communication which we all use most of the time, usually without knowing it. This is sometimes called body language. Its more technical name is non-verbal communication. Nonverbal, because it does not involve the use ofwords. NVC for short.When someone is saying something with which he agrees, the average European will smile and nod approval. On the other hand, if you disagree with what they are saying, you may frown and shake your head. In this way you signal your reactions, and communicate them to the speaker without saying a word. Ireferred a moment ago to "the average European", because body language is very much tied to culture, and in order not to misunderstand, or not to be misunderstood, you must realize this. A smiling Chinese, for instance, may not beapproving but somewhat embarrassed.Quite a lot of work is now being done on the subject of NVC, which is obviously important, for instance, to managers, who have to deal every day with their staff, and have to understand what other people are feeling if they are to create good working conditions. Body language, or NVC signals, are sometimes categorised into five kinds: 1. body and facial gestures; 2. eye contract; 3. Body contract or "proximity"; 4. clothing and physical appearance; and 5. the quality of speech. I expect you understood all those, except perhaps "proximity." This simply means "closeness". In some cultures - and I am sure this is a cultural feature and not an individual one - it is quite normal for people to stand close together, or to more or less thrust their face into yours when they are talking to you. In other cultures, this is disliked; Americans, for instance, talk about invasion of their space.Some signals are probably common to all of us. If a public speaker (like a professor, for example) is all the time fiddling with a pencil, or with his glasses, while he is talking to you, he is telling you quite clearly that he is nervous. A person who holds a hand over his mouth when he is talking is signalling that he is lacking in confidence. If you start wriggling in your chairs, looking secretly at your watches or yawning behind your hands, I shall soon get the message that I'm boring you. And so on. I'm sure you could make a whole list of such signals - andit might be fun if you did.All the signals I have mentioned so far can be controlled. If you are aware that you are doing these things, you can stop. You can even learn to give false signals. Most public speakers are in fact nervous, but a godd speaker learns to hide this by giving off signals of confidence. Other kinds of NVC are not so easy to control. Eye contact, for instance. Unless you are confessing intense love, you hardly over look into someone else's eyes for very long. If you try it, you'll find they will soon lookaway, probably in embarrassment.I've already mentioned proximity, so just a brief word now about our last two categories, which concern the way people dress and the way they speak. These are both pretty obvious signals. People may dress casually and speak casually, which signals that they are relaxed. Or they can dress formally and speak formally, showing their tenseness. In fact, non-verbal communication can, as the sayinggoes, speak volumes.Non-verbal Communication> Non-verbal communication, NVC for short. Non-verbal, because it does not involve the use of words. We communicate and reveal things about ourselves all the time through body language whether or not any words are coming out of our mouths. The body, the face, the eyes are always“speaking.” Non-verbal behavior is a silent but powerful language. In face-to-face communication only 35% of the information in social interaction is carried by language while all the rest is done ina non-verbal way. It is so powerful that the message sent can sometimes outweigh the verbal language, as the saying“Actions speak louder than words.”> Non-verbal communication, in narrow sense, consists of artifacts, chronemics, proxemics, haptics and kinesics, which actually falls into the physical category of non-verbal communication.> Artifacts are objects often used to communicate information about oneself, including clothes, cosmetics, furniture, jewelry, trinkets, accessories like handbags, umbrellas, fans, hats and colors, to express one’s interests, hobbies, status or lifestyle. With artifacts, one can be distinguished from others demonstrating his or her own taste of life and philosophy. However, different cultures have different interpretations of these artifacts. One of the most influential artifacts a person possesses is one’s wardrobe and the colors you choose can often tell something about your personality.> Chronemics, is the view of time. As we all know, each of us has the same number of hours in every day, but that time can be used differently. The time can be saved, wasted, kept, bought, sold or even killed. Time perceptions include punctuality and ways of social interactions. Usually people’s lifestyle, such a s daily routine, making appointments, body movements, even speech speed and taking a turn in the conversation are affected by different time perception. Time perception differs in various cultures, which can create a misunderstanding of a person is unaware of the cultural differences. For example, in America time flies, people are pressured and constrained by time because they are trying to control it. They are always living a hectic life. In the business world, Americans are expected to arrive to meetings on time, and usually, even early. On the other hand, they arrive late to parties and dances, while in some countries, such as China and Spain, time walks. People do not feel as pressured. They would rather take it easy than live a busy life. But in China, to not arrive on time for a business meeting would cause the host to“lose face.”> Proxemics(Spatial Distance) studies how closely one person stands to another. Edward T. Hall coined this term in the 1950’s and 1960’s for interrelated observations and th eories of man’s use of space as a specialized elaboration of culture. Four main categories of distance are intimate distance ranging from direct contact to about 45cm, which applies to the closest relationships such as husband and wife; personal distance, 45 to 80cm, usually maintained for conversations between friends and relatives; social distance, 1.30 to 2 meters, which covers people working together or meeting at social gatherings; public distance, beyond social distance, such as that kept between a> lecturer and his audience.> Haptics is equal to touching. Touching is experienced in many ways, such as handshakes, pats and kisses. These touches are used to express various feelings and emotions, either ritual or affectionate. But touching has culturally specific meanings. Different cultures emphasize various ways of touching. According some anthropologists, cultures can be categorized as high contact or low contactdepending on which senses a particular culture stresses. For example, American culture is classified as low contact because there is less touching than in Arabian cultures which are recognized as high contact cultures. And Chinese people use more touching between family members and close friends with whom they have an intimate or very personal relationship than people in Northern European cultures. In other words, there are different cultural rules of touching in the world.> Kinesics, or body language, is one of the most powerful ways that humans can communicate nonverbally. It is used to portray moods and emotions and can emphasize or contradict what is being said. Body language; contain eye contact, facial expressions, gestures and postures.> Different cultures have different rules for what is considered appropriate eye contact. In dealing with strangers the rule for British society is that you should look at them but you should not look at them for a long time. If you do not look at a British person while you are speaking to him/her, he/she might have a negative impression of you. In a conversation, turn taking an be signed by the eye movements of the speakers. There are cultures that value looking some straight in the eye no matter who that person is, and there are cultures which consider it disrespectful for a child to meet the eye of an adult.> About facial expressions, there are six basic emotions: surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness and sadness. There is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face of those we are dealing with is something we do every day. People may hide their treacherous intentions and look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it. For tactical reasons we may wish to don the mask, to hide what we feel. Men are learning to hide their emotions to a greater extent than women. > And gestures and postures, we know it is very much tied to culture, and in order not to misunderstand, or not be misunderstood, we should pay enough attention to the same gestures and postures in different countries or the different gestures and postures in the different countries. Because different cultures show big differences in what this“silent language” expresses. For example, the single finger beckon, in Yugoslavia and Malaysia beckoning animals, in Indonesia and Australia for prostitutes, in South America to an attractive woman; the eyelid-pull, in France and Greece means“You can not fool me!”, in Spain and Italy means“You should be alert.”; the ring gesture, in America--“ok”, in Japan--“money”, in France--“zero or worthless”, in Tunisia--“I will kill you!” an d so on. There are many examples in this field.> From the above all, we know, in communication, we will have to agree that without the help of non-verbal communication, people will find it difficult to fulfill the goal of communication only based on the language communication. On the other hand, non-verbal communication can reach> its purpose only in a definite situation. On one hand, non-verbal language can help smooth out and effect the communication; on the other hand, it can be more of a hindrance than help, duo to different cultures’ details in intercultural communication.> Non-verbal communication is very important; it is useful to communicate with others although it always brings some difficulties. We should pay more and more attention to it.Non-verbal communicationThroughout history people have always communicated with each other not only by speech but also by movement of the hands and body. It is, however, only in the last few years that such communication has been studied widely. This kind of communication is considered to be body language or non-verbal communication. People sometimes wonder whether you know how body language works. It is of course possible to read books on the subject but you also need to spend time watching people’s move ments. A railway station is a particularly good place for such a thing, as there people can be seen openly expressing anger, sorrow, happiness, impatience and many other human emotions by means of movements.If you turn down the sound on your TV and try to understand what is happening simply by watching the picture, you will learn even more about communication without words. By turning the sound back up very five minutes or so, it is possible to check how exact your understanding is.Having studied the art of body language, you will have an advantage at a boring party. You will be able to sit on your own for the whole evening and enjoy yourself by both watching and interpreting the body language of all the other people there.。
身体语言什么是身体语言？肢体语言是一种非语言的沟通，在思想，意图，或感受是由身体的行为，如面部表情，身体姿势，手势，眼球运动，触摸和使用空间表达的。
身体语言存在于动物和人类。
身体语言不能混淆手语，因为手语是全语言，如语言，有自己的复杂的语法系统，以及能够表现出存在于所有语言的基本属性。
身体语言，另一方面，不具有语法，并且必须被宽泛地解释，而不是具有对应于一定的运动的绝对的意义，所以它不是像符号语言用的语言，并且被简单地称为一个“语言”由于流行文化。
有各种各样的身体语言如面部表情，身体姿势，手势，握手，和oculesics。
下面，我们简单介绍了各种身体语言。
表情对通过身体的情绪时，面部表情是不可或缺的。
眼睛，眉毛，嘴唇，鼻子，脸颊和动作的组合有助于形成个人的不同情绪（如高兴，悲伤，沮丧，愤怒等）。
一些研究表明，解释情绪时面部表情和身体表达（即身体语言）是一致的。
行为的实验也表明，识别面部表情的由感知身体表达的影响。
这意味着，大脑同时处理对方的面部和身体动作。
在这些研究中受试者表现出精确的判断基于面部表情的情绪。
这是因为，脸和身体通常看到一起在其天然比例和从面部和身体的情感信号是很好的集成。
身体姿势情绪也可以通过身体姿势检测。
有研究表明，身体姿势是当情绪与不同的或中性情绪相比更准确地识别。
例如，一个人怒发冲冠将反映的主导地位比其他，和他/她的姿势显示接近倾向。
比较这对一个人的感觉害怕：他/她会感到虚弱，顺从他/她的姿势将显示回避倾向，一个愤怒的人的对立面。
或坐或站姿势也表明一个人的情绪。
一个人坐在直到他/她的椅背上，身体前倾与他/她的头一起讨论点头意味着他/她是开放的，宽松的，一般愿意倾听。
而另一方面，一个人谁拥有他/她的腿，并越过脚下稍微蹬臂意味着他/她感到不耐烦，并从讨论情感分离。
在一个常设的讨论中，一个人伫立着双手叉腰，双脚指向了讲话者可以建议他/她是周到，有兴趣的谈话。
然而，在该姿势的小差异可能意味着很多。
