Section 1.1. Approaches to defining the non-verbal codes of communication

The problem of determining the psychological and linguistic interpretation of nonverbal behavior refers to problems with a long history. Philosophers, psychologists, doctors, linguists, art historians turned to it at different stages of history. For millennia, the problem snowballed with scientific and pseudo-scientific facts.

Physiognomy was studied by such knowable scholars as Pythagoras, Aristotle and outstanding physicians Galen and Celsius. The very first dictionary of gestures belonged to the Roman rhetorician Quintilian (I c. B.C.).

In the Middle Ages, the individual views on physiognomic were shared by Ibn Sin and a number of leading alchemists. In the Renaissance by Leonardo da Vinci, in XVI-XVII centuries by eminent German surgeon Paracelsus. By John Believer, who devoted his books to body language of humans, the Swiss physiognomic Lafater, who studies the nature of the similarities of human character with the expression of the human face, the Austrian physician Franz Gall.

A classic example of understanding the role and significance of gestures, facial expressions and intonation in people's lives can be considered the work of Jean-Baptiste Dubos - French philosopher and educator of the XVIII century. He wrote the «Critical Reflections on Poetry and Painting», where the author comes to the idea of the long existence of science of «mute», which, without opening the mouth, speaks through hands, and gestures.

The most influential work, which considered the sign language, was the book of Charles Darwin the «Expression of emotions by animals and man», published in 1872, this work influenced all modern research in the field of «body language», and many of the ideas of Charles Darwin and his observations are recognized today by researchers around the world. [Darwin, 1872]

From 1900 to 1979 there were published six major books on gestures in English language. The greatest interest in the world had caused the works of D. Ephron, M. Critchley, Ch. Morris.

Interest to non-verbal means of communication in the twentieth century increased so badly that it stood out in a special area of research - kinesics (from the English «Kinesics»), which study gestures, facial expressions, posture and gaze. Foundations for this study of psychology had been inherent in the 50's by the work of Swedish scientist K. Berdvistla.

A serious study of sign language in the late 70s of XX century were started by an Australian scientist Allan Pease, who is a recognized expert in the psychology of human communication and the author of the basics of teaching methods of communication. In his book, «The language of movement», he gave an interpretation of body language, facial expressions and body language of man - «body language». [A. Pease, 1978]

Modern representatives of the academic field (John Fast, John Nirenberg) revealed patterns of influence of non-verbal ways of communication in establishing contacts and mutual understanding between the partners.

In our country, the studies of nonverbal means of human interaction were made by I.N. Gorelov, G.A. Kovalev, V.A. Labunskaya, A.A. Leontiev and other scientists. To the studies non-verbal means of communication refer the works of Russian psychologists E.A.Petrova, V.Mironenko, M. Bityanova.

Scientists had detected and record more than 1,000 non-verbal signs. Every year scientists become more and more convinced of how important non-verbal means are in the course of human interaction.

Albert Mehrabian found that the transmission of information is done only by 7% of words, by means of sounds (including tone of voice, intonation) by 38%, and due to non-verbal means by 55%. K. Berdvistel, having done similar studies on the proportion of non-verbal means of communication between people, found that the average person speaks the by the means of words for only 10-11 minutes a day, and that approximately every sentence does not sound more than 2.5 seconds.

These figures speak eloquently about the importance of non-verbal communication for the psychology and understanding of people, paying particular attention to the importance of human gestures and facial expressions. [Mehrabian, 2001]

Another special feature is the current scientific work in the confusion of «non-verbal language», with «nonverbal communication» and «non-verbal behavior» which are often used as synonyms. However, it is important to separate these concepts and to clarify the context. According to the definition proposed V.A. Labunskaya, «non-verbal language - is a form of communication, for which it is common to use the non-verbal behavior and nonverbal communication as the primary means of communication, the organization of interaction, the formation of the image and the concept of partner, effect on the implementation of another person». Thus, for example, the concept of «non-verbal language» is broader than the concept of «non-verbal communication». [Labunskaya, 2003]

Another difficulty is establishment of hierarchy of concepts and classification of concepts relevant to the vertical and horizontal levels of this hierarchy. The reason for this is that, for example, various elements come together in a qualitatively different relationship and form new constituent elements with a completely different meaning. In this sense, in terms of the basic element, according to Chanysheva Z.Z. and Ivanova S.V., the basic code in interpersonal communication is the proxemic code [Ivanova SV, Chanysheva ZZ, 2010]

The modern definition of nonverbal communication is quite broad, corresponding to aims aroused in this work. It is as following:

Nonverbal communication is a communicative interaction between individuals without the use of words (the transmission of information or influence each other through intonation, gestures, facial expressions, pantomime and through changing of the mise en scene of communication), that is without speech and language means, presented in a direct or any other sign form .

The tool of such a «communication» is the human body, which has a wide range of means and methods of transmitting or exchanging information, which includes all forms of human self-expressiveness. A common work name, which is used among people – is non-verbal codes or «body language».

During the special experiments the scholar Mehrabian found that significant part of speech information in the exchange is perceived through the language of poses and gestures and the sound of voices. About 55% of the messages are perceived by facial expression, postures and gestures, and 38% - through intonation and modulation of voice. Thus only 7% of the words are perceived by the recipient when we are talking. This is of fundamental importance. In other words, in many cases how we say something is more important than the words we speak. Professor Berdvistel, having done similar studies on the proportion of non-verbal means of communication between people, found that verbal communication in a conversation made less than 35% and more than 65% of information that used for the discussion of interpersonal relationships is transmitted by means of gestures and facial expressions. [Mehrabian , 2003]

Encoding – is a way of combining non-verbal means of communication to express the meaning. Features of non-verbal codes are as follows:

• Some non-verbal codes which defined by genetics are universal. In particular, this applies to signals of threat and biologically determined emotional reactions.

• Non-verbal codes are able to simultaneously transmit different messages with the help of face, body, voice, etc.

• They cause an automatic response without thinking (e.g., response to red light).

• They often occur spontaneously (for example the discharge of nervous energy, or redness of the face).

Nonverbal communication is made by the means of sign language and other elements of the human and the world surrounding him, which are analogous to letters and words of ordinary language. [Kreydlin, 1998]