Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
Lecture Notes
Chapter 8: The Nonverbal Code
Learning Objectives
8.1. Define nonverbal communication
8.2. Compare and contrast verbal and nonverbal codes
8.3. Identify and define the eight channels of nonverbal communication
8.4. Compare and contrast the eight channels of nonverbal communication across
cultures
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
A. When interacting with someone from a different culture, the challenge is learning
the implicit rules of interpersonal communication.
II. Definitions of Nonverbal Communication
A. The study of nonverbal communication focuses on the messages people send to
one another that do not contain words, such as messages sent through body
motions; eye contact, touch, and vocal qualities; and the use of time, space,
artifacts, dress, and even smell.
B. During intercultural communication, verbal and nonverbal messages are sent
simultaneously.
i. Verbal communication represents the literal content of a message.
ii. Whereas the nonverbal component communicates the style or how the
message is to be interpreted.
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
D. Digital communication: Verbal communication.
E. Analogic communication: Nonverbal communication.
III. The Relationship between Verbal and Nonverbal Codes
A. Noam Chomsky argues that verbal language is an advanced and refined form of an
inherited nonlinguistic (nonverbal) system.
D. Formal Versus Informal Code Systems
i. All verbal languages have a formal set of sounds, syntax, and semantics.
The degree of formality of verbal language is not found in the nonverbal
code.
ii. Although rules govern the use of nonverbal communication, a formal
grammar or syntax does not exist.
IV. Channels of Nonverbal Communication
A. Kinesics: General category of body motion, including emblems, illustrators, affect
displays, and adaptors.
i. Emblems and Illustrators
a. Emblems: Primarily hand gestures that have a direct verbal
translation; can be used to repeat or to substitute for verbal
communication.
b. Emblems vary considerably across cultures.
ii. Affect Displays: Facial Expressions of Emotion
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
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a. Through facial expressions, one can communicate our personality,
open and close channels of communication, complement or qualify
other nonverbal behavior.
iii. Cross-Racial Recognition of Faces
a. Own-race identifications are those in which we identify someone of
the same race as our own.
b. Cross-race identifications are those in which we identify people
from a race different from our own.
c. Cross-face recognition is most effective when people are motivated
to process and recognize cross-race faces.
iv. Regulators: Nonverbal acts that manage and govern communication
between people, such as stance, distance, and eye contact.
a. Communicator distance during conversation can also govern the
B. Oculesics: The study of eye contact.
i. Both eye gaze and affect (i.e., emotion) are closely associated with
approach–avoidance tendencies.
a. Direct gaze is associated with approach tendencies.
b. While averted gaze is associated with avoidance tendencies.
C. Paralanguage: Characteristics of the voice, such as pitch, rhythm, intensity,
volume, and rate.
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
i. Knapp, Hall, and Horgan divide paralanguage into two broad categories:
voice qualities and vocalizations.
a. Paralinguistic voice qualities include pitch, rhythm, tempo,
articulation, and resonance of the voice.
b. Paralinguistic vocalizations include laughing, crying, sighing,
belching, swallowing, clearing the throat, snoring, and so forth.
iv. Some languages, called tonal languages, rely on vocalized tones to
communicate meaning. In these languages, a rising or falling tone changes
the meaning of a word.
v. English speakers can communicate anger or sadness by changing the pitch
of their voice.
a. Without the appropriate inflection, the meaning of an English
speaker’s sentence can be misinterpreted.
vi. Nonnative accent often stigmatizes a person as foreign-born and as
someone who does not apply the language competently.
vii. Silence can be used to avoid directness, such as bluntly saying “no” to a
request.
D. Proxemics: The perception and use of space, including territoriality and personal
space.
i. Territoriality refers to physical geographical space; personal space refers to
perceptual or psychological space.
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a. Privacy in densely populated locations is often accomplished
psychologically rather than physiologically.
iv. Culture can affect proxemic distances, however, such as the age and sex
of the interactants, the nature of the relationship, the environment, and the
ethnicity of the interactants.
E. Haptics: The use of touch and physical contact between interactants.
iii. Factors influencing nature of touch:
a. The relationship between the interactants,
b. The location and duration of touch,
iv. Schut and her colleagues had nearly 3,500 participants complete the
Touch-Shame-Disgust-Questionnaire:
a. It measures pleasure in touching oneself, touching in a partnership,
parental touching during childhood, and skin-related feelings of
shame and disgust.
F. Olfactics: The perception and use of smell, scent, and odor.
i. Human scent comes from two types of glands that lie beneath the skin.
a. Sebaceous glands are all over the body, wherever there are hair
follicles.
b. Apocrine glands are a type of sweat gland.
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Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
G. Physical Appearance and Dress
i. Communication with another is often preceded by visual observations of
the other’s physical appearance.
H. Chronemics: The use of time.
i. Monochromatic (M-time) orientations emphasize schedules and the
compartmentalization and segmentation of measurable units of time.
a. Many M-time cultures are low context, including the United States,
Germany, Scandinavia, Canada, France, and most of northern
Europe.
ii. Polychromatic (P-time) orientations sees time as much less tangible and
stress multiple activities with little emphasis on scheduling.
V. Nonverbal Communication and Dimensions of Cultural Variability
A. Individualism-Collectivism
i. Persons in individualistic cultures tend to be distant proximally, whereas
persons in collectivistic cultures tend to work, play, live, and sleep in close
proximity.
ii. Body movements tend to be more synchronized in collectivistic cultures
than in individualistic cultures.
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B. Power Distance
i. It refers to the extent to which less powerful members of a culture expect
and accept that power is distributed unequally.
ii. Cultures with a smaller power distance emphasize that inequalities among
people should be minimized and there should be interdependence between
less and more powerful people.
C. High and Low Context
i. Persons in low-context cultures focus less on the social or physical context
and more on the explicit verbal code.
VI. Nonverbal Expectancy Violations Theory: Theory that posits that people hold
expectations about the nonverbal behavior of others.
A. When these expectations are violated, people evaluate the violation positively or
negatively, depending on the source of the violation.
C. The evaluation of the violation depends on (a) the evaluation of the communicator,
(b) implicit messages associated with the violation, and (c) evaluations of the act
itself.
D. In presenting the theory, Burgoon outlines several key assumptions:
i. Assumption 1: Humans have two competing needs, a need for affiliation
and a need for personal space (or distance).
ii. Assumption 2: The desire for affiliation may be elicited or magnified by
the presence of rewards in the communication context. The rewards may be
biological or social.
Instructor Resource
Neuliep, Intercultural Communication, 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
v. Assumption 5: Human interaction patterns, including personal space or
distance patterns, are normative.
vi. Assumption 6: Humans may develop idiosyncratic behavior patterns that
differ from the social norms.
ix. Assumption 9: Deviations from expectations have arousal value.
x. Assumption 10: Interactants make evaluations of others.
E. Cultural Contexts and Noverbal Experiences
i. High-context have restricted code system:
a. Members do not rely on verbal communication as their main source
of information.
ii. Low-context has elaborated code system:
a. Verbal messages are extremely important when information to be
shared with others is coded in the verbal message.
iii. According to NEV theory, the greater the degree to which a person is
perceived as rewarding, the greater the tendency for others to approach that
person.
a. Likewise, the greater the degree to which a person is perceived as
punishing, the greater the tendency for others to avoid that person.