Pragmatics and Non-Verbal Communication

Tim Wharton

09/2009 · Cambridge University Press

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The way we say the words we say helps us convey our intended meanings. Indeed, the tone of voice we use, the facial expressions and bodily gestures we adopt while we are talking, often add entirely new layers of meaning to those words. How the natural non-verbal properties of utterances interact with linguistic ones is a question that is often largely ignored. This book redresses the balance, providing a unique examination of non-verbal behaviours from a pragmatic perspective. It charts a point of contact between pragmatics, linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science, ethology and psychology, and provides the analytical basis to answer some important questions: How are non-verbal behaviours interpreted? What do they convey? How can they be best accommodated within a theory of utterance interpretation?

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Tim Wharton is an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London. He is a member of the International Pragmatics Association and is a regular contributor and reviewer for a number of international journals in language, philosophy and cognition. His previous book publications include contributions to The Routledge Encyclopedia of Pragmatics (2009), for which he was a consultant editor, and Pragmatics and Theory of Mind (2009). Prior to his academic career, he was a singer-songwriter and has written and recorded a number of songs which are still used as teaching resources for those learning English as a foreign language.