gestural languages

(noun)

A gestural language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses manual communication and body language to convey meaning. This can involve simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to fluidly express a speaker's thoughts.

Related Terms

Examples of gestural languages in the following topics:

  • Gestures

    • Gestures are culturally specific.
    • Gestures allow individuals to communicate a variety of feelings and thoughts, from contempt and hostility to approval and affection, often together with body language in addition to spoken words.
    • The most familiar categories of gestures are the so-called emblems or quotable gestures.
    • Gestural languages such as American Sign Language and its regional siblings operate as complete natural languages that are gestural .
    • American Sign Language, or ASL, is a gestural language.

  • Symbols and Nature

    • Signs can consist of sounds, gestures, letters, or symbols, depending on whether the language is spoken, signed, or written.
    • Written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system.
    • Written language exists only as a complement to a specific spoken language.
    • A sign language is a language which, instead of acoustically conveying sound patterns, uses manual communication and body language to convey meaning.
    • Sign languages, like spoken languages, organize elementary units into meaningful semantic units.

  • Nonverbal Communication

    • This type of communication includes gestures, touch, body language, posture, facial expressions, and eye contact.
    • Gestures are movements with one's hands, arms, or face that communicate a particular message.
    • The most common gestures are emblem gestures or quotable gestures that are learned within a particular cultural to communicate a particular message.
    • For example, in the Western world, waving one's hand back and forth communicates "hello" or "goodbye. " Emblem gestures can vary by cultural space so widely that a common gesture in one context is offensive in another.
    • Facial gestures, or facial expressions, are a particularly communicative form of gesture.

  • The Origins of Language

    • The origin of language in the human species is a widely discussed topic.
    • Theories about the origin of language can be divided according to their basic assumptions.
    • Those who see language as being mostly innate, such as Steven Pinker, hold the precedents to be animal cognition, whereas those who see language as a socially learned tool of communication, such as Michael Tomasello, see it as having developed from animal communication, either primate gestural or vocal communication.
    • Other continuity-based models see language as having developed from music.
    • The origin of language in the human species is a widely discussed topic.

  • Applied Body Language

    • Body language is a form of human non-verbal communication, which consists of body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements.
    • Body language may provide clues as to the attitude or state of mind of a person.
    • Note the significant attention paid to body language.
    • Does it have anything to do with her body language?
    • Discuss the importance of body language as a means of social communication and give specific examples of body language

  • Virtual Worlds

    • Social interaction between users can range from communication via text, graphical icons, visual gesture, sound, touch, voice command, and balance senses.
    • While emoticons obviously do not convey the same range of mixed emotions as a human face, it is clear that participants in virtual worlds are innovating with language and images to develop new forms of communication.
    • Communities are born which have their own rules, topics, jokes and even language.
    • Explain how virtual worlds are changing the face of societal interactions, such as through the development of new language and like-minded communities

  • Role Theory

    • Social interaction between users can range from communication via text, graphical icons, visual gesture, sound, touch, voice command, and balance senses.
    • While emoticons obviously do not convey the same range of mixed emotions as a human face, it is clear that participants in virtual worlds are innovating with language and images to develop new forms of communication.
    • Communities are born which have their own rules, topics, jokes and even language.

  • Social Context and Sexual Behavior

    • Flirting is a playful activity involving verbal communication and body language by one person toward another, used to sometimes indicate an interest in a deeper relationship with the other.
    • In a different context, the same gesture could have very different connotations.

  • Language

    • The word language has at least two basic meanings: language as a general concept, and a specific linguistic system (e.g.
    • Ferdinand de Saussure first explicitly formulated the distinction, using the French word langage for language as a concept, and langue as the specific instance of language.
    • One definition sees language primarily as the mental faculty that allows humans to undertake linguistic behaviour--to learn languages and produce and understand utterances.
    • Human languages are usually referred to as natural languages, and the science of studying them falls under the purview of linguistics.
    • Members of a culture usually share a common language.

  • Sociological Theories of the Self

    • As gestures are taken in by the individual organism, the individual organism also takes in the collective attitudes of others, in the form of gestures, and reacts accordingly with other organized attitudes.