Roland Posner
Introduction
Peter Winterhoff-Spurk
Mimic in requests and reports. The distinction between verbal and nonverbal
communication
Hermann Kalkofen
SA greeting ceremonies.The "ritualization" of a political signal
Hans-Joachim Hoffmann
The function of clothing. Intended, expected and desired audience
Lutz Huth
Televised news pictures as elements of communication
Terminology discussion
Roland Posner
Nonverbal signs in public communication
The history and use of communication theoretical key concepts
Mimic in requests and reports. The distinction between
verbal and nonverbal communication
Peter Winterhoff-Spurk, University of Mannheim
Summary. Bühler's sign theory provides the basis for a discussion of the
distinction between verbal and nonverbal communication. Criticizing the usual
simplistic attribution of referential function to verbal behavior and of
expressive function to nonverbal behavior, the author argues that each speech
act produces a unified complex sign (supersign) which realizes a referential,
expressive, or directive function only if taken as a whole. The relationship
between the vocal verbal constituents and the nonvocal nonverbal constituents
of such a supersign is then empirically investigated through examination of
oral requests in every-day situations and of oral reports in television news.
Requests are rated according to the parameters of informativity and
instrumentality. It is shown experimentally that the utterer of an indirect
request usually compensates for a deficit of informativity through prolonged
eye-contact ("requesting gaze") and that the utterer of a direct request
compensates for a deficit of instrumentality through smiling and mitigating
intonation. An analysis of television news demonstrates that the speaker uses
pseudo-eye-contact more to accentuate the thematic objects of the news than the
assertions made about them. In both text types, eye-contact has the function of
guiding the recipient's attention.
SA greeting ceremonies.The "ritualization" of
a political signal
Hermann Kalkofen, Institute for Scientific Film, Göttingen
Summary. This article uses historical photos to document the development of the
greeting ceremonies practiced at the NSDAP Party meetings in Nuremberg by the
paramilitary forces known as the SA. The author asks whether sign change of
this type can be correctly described as ritualization, and responds on the
basis of the anthropological and ethological definitions for this semiotic
concept.
The function of clothing. Intended, expected and
desired audience
Hans-Joachim Hoffmann, Berlin Academy for the Arts, HdK
Summary. The author presents the results of a study about the vestimentary
appearance of 2866 persons in magazine photographs. The author contends that
the function of clothing in the spheres of politics and industry is signemic
and affiliative, whereas it is stimulating, paradoxical, and sexually ambigous
in the spheres of entertainment and fashion. The public addressed by the use of
clothing is classified as intended, expected, or desired. Expressive dressing
is interpreted as an attempt to show what kind of public the dresser desires.
The option of dressing expressively is more open to women than to men; the
latter dress so only if they are part of the entertainment scene.
Televised news pictures as elements of communication
Lutz Huth, Linden-Leihgestern
Summary. The author advocates a comprehensive content analysis of the verbal as
well as nonverbal constituents of multi-media texts. Within this perspective,
he discusses recipientoriented principles for the classification of the
functions of televised news pictures. Distinctions such as auditory vs. visual
sense modalities, iconic vs. digital sign types, referential vs. emotive sign
functions, and object equivalence vs. functional equivalence of pictures are
scrutinized, and it is argued that the recipient's interpretation of the
picture as a sign depends, among other things, on his rating of the picture on
a continuum of iconic/digital sign matter. The following functions of visual
material in television news are distinguished: (1) attribution of roles to the
depicted media people, (2) specification of text topic, (3) text structuring,
(4) identification of the subject matter of verbal assertions, (5)
demonstration of the content of verbal assertions, (6) elucidation of verbal
assertions, (7) independent presentation of assertions, (8) motivation of
interest in recipients, (9) dramatization of the verbally represented events,
(10) production of an impression of authenticity; (11) estrangement of the
verbal text, (12) thematization of the visual code (metacommunicative
function). In conclusion, the author asks (a) whether for a given case there
are intersubjective indicators for the presence of these functions and (b) how
plurifunctionality should be dealt with.
Terminology discussion
Nonverbal signs in public communication.
The history and use of the concepts "verbal" and
"nonverbal", "interaction" and
"communication", "audience" und "public",
"medium", "mass medium"
and "multi-media"
Roland Posner, Technical University Berlin
Summary. The author discusses the terminology of descriptive semiotics in the
fields of nonverbal communication and media studies, encompassing both history
and current usage. He develops a definition for nonverbal signs and clarifies
the relationship between nonverbal signs and linguistic, paralinguistic,
extralinguistic and nonlinguistic behavior. Communicative and interactive signs
in verbal and nonverbal, linguistic and nonlinguistic behavior are analyzed
with the help of examples. The role of communication in the formation of an
audience, a public, and a public opinion is investigated and current
conceptions of the mass media, of mass communication and of multi-media
communication are examined. On the basis of these conceptual analyses, the
author points out what is required for public communication to become mass
communication and for nonverbal communication to become multi-media
communication.
