Gestures In Nonverbal Communication Essay

Gestures are the most obvious forms of nonverbal communication. Among numerous classifications of gestures, a continuum developed by Krauss et al. (1996) is worth mentioning. As Figure 1 shows, different types of gestures are arranged on a continuum of lexicalization, which describe the extent to which they resemble words.
Conversational gestures

Symbolic gestures Lexical movements Motor movements Adapters

high degree of lexicalization low Figure 1. Continuum of gestures (Krauss et al.1996: 392)

At the low end of the continuum Krauss et al. (1996: 392-393) put the so-called adapters, also called expressive movements, body-focused movements, self-touching gestures, or manipulative gestures. They can be described as “hand movements that tend not to be considered gestures,” such as “the kinds of scratching, fidgeting, rubbing, tapping, and touching that speakers often do with their hands.” They are rarely performed with any communicative intention and in fact they tend to convey little meaning, although they may indicate the speaker’s disposition, such as boredom, tiredness, or nervousness. At the opposite end of the continuum are symbolic

(1996: 393-394) remark, are more controversial than the two categories described in the previous paragraph. This type of gestures tend to accompany speech, usually being related to the content of an utterance; unlike symbolic gestures, they never occur in the absence of speech. Two major types have been distinguished in the above continuum, namely motor movements and lexical movements. The former can be described as simple and rhythmic gestures with no obvious relation to the speech, but coordinated with the rhythm of the utterance, as they tend to be accompany stressed syllables. The latter, in turn, are non-repetitive, complex, and changing; Krauss et al. define them as “hand-arm movements that consist of more than two independent vectorial components” (2001: