The Significance of Body Signals in Literary Works

This paper attempts to prove the importance of body
signals in literary works .In order to accomplish that, the
author shows how analyzing and decoding the nonverbal language in
literary works helps the reader to have a better understanding of
the characters and their relationship. This paper decodes a short
story by analyzing the communicative and realistic functions of
the body signals in it.

Burgoon and Saine (1990: 9) defined non-verbal
communication(NVC) as a group of human attributes or actions in
which words are not involved, but which have a social shared
meaning. They are intentionally sent or interpreted as
intentional, and consciously sent or consciously received. They
can provide the receiver with feedback. Other authors such as
Ekman and Friesen (1981) also consider that NVC is intentional
and conscious (as cited by Padrón, 2000).

However, since NVC is part of the communicative process
in general we communicate even if our behavior is unconscious or
unintentional (Porter and Samovar (1985: 19)). Therefore, Burgoon
and Saine"s definition eliminates the possibility of the
existence of unconscious NVC, as it occurs when there is a
contradiction between words and facial expressions. It only
analyzes the external manifestation of the phenomenon, and
eliminates involuntary non-verbal elements that provide
information, like sweat, pupils" expansion, blinks, blush, etc.
Then, Padrón"s definition of NVC is one of the most
accurate in our opinion. Padrón states that NVC is "a
group of face-to-face human automatic socially – significant
actions that occur in a communicative act based on body movements
not on words" (2000: 10).

The criteria on the components of NVC also varied, it
encompassed all kinds of non-verbal elements ranging from body
signals to architecture. We concentrated our attention on those
elements that can be more regularly studied and focused on what
Argyle (1990) called "body signals": facial expressions, gaze,
gestures and bodily movements, postures, body contact and spatial
behavior.

Argyle calls "signals" to those elements of the
behavior, appearance, etc. of one organism that are received by
the sense of the organs of a second organism and affect its
behavior. These elements have goal-directed meaning, which does
not mean that they are always conscious. They can be unconscious,
but they are part of a goal-directed evolutionary process. He
sets an example, "a person may indicate that he has come to the
end of a sentence by looking up, and returning his hand to rest,
or indicate that he wants to go on speaking by keeping a hand in
midgesture. In none of these cases the involved are usually aware
of the signals being used or of what they mean" (1990: 5-6).
Argyle"s taxonomy for body signals comprises face expressions,
gaze, gestures, body movements, posture, bodily contact and
spatial behavior (proximity, orientation, height and movement of
the physical setting).

However, does analyzing and decoding non-verbal language
(NVL) in literary works helps the reader to have a better
understanding of the characters and their relationship? This is
the area under discussion in our research which holds the purpose
of attesting that in order to have a complete understanding of
the situation presented in a literary work; the reader should pay
attention not only to verbal language, but also to nonverbal
language.

Imaginative
Literature

Michael Meyer in the book The Bedford Introduction
to Literature describes literature "…as a fiction
consisting of carefully arranged words designed to stir the
imagination. Stories, poems, and plays are fictional. They are
made up -imagined- even when based upon actual historic events"
(1993:3).According to this author such imaginative writing is
different from other kinds of writing since its main purpose is
to transmit facts or ideas. Imaginative literature should be
considered as a source more of pleasure than a source of facts or
information. Readers get involved with this kind of literature
for the sake of enjoyment, delight and contentment. The same way
other art manifestations do, imaginative literature usually tries
to express a perspective, moods, feelings, or experiences and
writers have the miraculous task of converting the facts the
world provides -people, places, and objects- into these
experiences that at the same time will suggest
meanings.

The importance of
the presence of body signals in imaginative
literature

In the same way -since imaginative literature
constitutes a reflection of real life, and people use nonverbal
language when they communicate- writers use nonverbal language to
create a more realistic world. When it comes to understanding a
piece of writing so intricate as a novel , we should remind
ourselves of Fernando Poyatos"s words when he stated: "A cursory
reading of a page in a novel where both the characters and the
writer speak… shows that if we were to rely exclusively on what
words those characters say… and on a few punctuation marks,
plus some instances of extralinguistic communicative features, a
good part (perhaps the most important one) of the total human
message would be simply lost, even though not so in the mind of
the novelist". (1981: 107).

Communicative
functions and realistic functions

According to Finocchiaro and Brumfit (1989),
communicative functions are related to the purpose for which
language is used. In the book The Functional-Notional
Approach. From Theory to Practice, they refer to the
communicative functions of verbal language and its categories.
However, both of them can be also applied to non-verbal language
since it is closely related to verbal language. It has already
been stated that in most cases NVC co-exists with verbal
communication.

In their book, Finocchiaro and Brumfit (1989:61-68)
provide the different categories of communicative functions
according to different authors. They show the eight categories
under which Wilkins grouped communicative functions (Finocchiaro
and Brumfit (1989:63), the six categories proposed by van Ek
(Finocchiaro and Brumfit 1989: 64), and they also provide the
five categories under which they preferred to group communicative
functions (Finocchiaro and Brumfit 1989:65-66). But most of these
categories overlap. For example, two of Wilkins" categories,
"Emotional Relations" and "Interpersonal Relations" (1989:63)
have many points in common with van Ek"s sixth category,
"Socializing", and also with Finocchiaro"s second
category("Interpersonal" category)(1989:65)

In order to simplify the work, since most of the
categories proposed by those three authors overlapped and since
the number of communicative functions is so great, the two broad
categories suggested in the Professional Handbook "Teaching
English in a World at Peace" were adopted for this
research(Terroux,1991: 29).

Communicative
situations

It must be taken into account that the communicative
functions of body signals are necessarily related to the context
in which communication takes place, that is to say, to the
communicative situation. Finocchiaro and Brumfit (1989: 66-68)
also provide the categories of situation according to Richterich
and van Ek. They should be kept in mind when analyzing the
excerpts from which body signals will be taken because that helps
the reader to visualize the context.

CATEGORIES OF COMMUNICATIVE SITUATIONS

Richterich (1989: 67-68)

(Many of his examples are omitted or
condensed)

1. Agents

A. Identification ( occupation, age, sex, name, place of
residence, civil status)

B. Number in the situation (one, two, three to five,
etc.)

C. Roles:

a. Social: old/young, parent/child, asker/giver,
friend/friend, stranger/stranger, etc.

b. Psychological: respect, obedience, admiration,
antipathy, disdain, etc.

c. Language: one single speaker; one speaker + one
addressee, etc.

2. Time

Time of day

Duration of the speech act

Frequency-first time, occasionally, regularly

Events-prior (to the) meeting, present,
subsequent

3. Place

A. Geographical location (country, region,
locality)

B. Place-outdoors (square, street, beach, building
site), indoors: private life (flat, villa, room); public life
(shop, hotel, school, station, theater, office); work (office,
workshop)

C. Means of transportation (car, bus, train, plane,
subway, boat)

D. Surroundings (family, friends, acquaintances,
learning, anonymous)

E. Environment (relevant to the language act)

Van Ek (1989: 68)

1. Social roles (strange/ stranger, friend/friend,
private person/official, patient/doctor, etc.)

2. Psychological roles (neutrality, equality, sympathy,
antipathy)

3. Settings

A. Geographical location (foreign country where the
target language is the native language, foreign country where the
target language is not the native language, one"s own
country)

B. Place

a. outdoors (park, street, seaside)

b. indoors: private life (house, apartment, room,
kitchen); public life (purchases, eating and drinking),
accommodation (hotel, camping site, etc.), transport (gas
station, lost and found), religion, physical services (hospital,
pharmacy or chemist"s), learning site, displays (museum, art
gallery), entertainment, communication, finances, work, means of
transport

4. Surroundings (human) family, friends, acquaintances,
strangers

It is obvious that they are very similar. However,
Richterich' categories are more suitable to the present paper.
Richterich includes "Time" as a category, while van Ek does not.
"Time" is an element to take into account when studying gestures'
communicative functions. For example, if a speech act has a long
duration, a person can make a gesture expressing boredom or
else.

Realistic
functions

Fernando Poyatos devoted a great part of his time to
study nonverbal communication, and in his paper "Forms and
Functions of Nonverbal Communication in the Novel: A New
Perspective of the Author-Character-Reader Relationship"
(1981) he stated clearly the importance of the nonverbal elements
in imaginative literature and how it contributes to an effective
relationship between the work, the writer and the audience. We
considered appropriate to present Poyatos" criteria on the
realistic functions of nonverbal communication in
literature.

Physical realism, as differentiated from the
psychological one, conveys the sensorial perception of people's
behavior and, therefore, their intended authenticity.

As a variety within physical realism, it is interesting
how the description of task-performing behaviors contribute to
what have been classified as documentary or historical
realism.

Distorting realism, that is the literary, or
artistic, expressionistic rendering of psychological reality,
meant to ridicule, to offer a caricature of reality, to
gratuitously exaggerate it, or, truly to show what the eyes
cannot see.

Individualizing realism, which shows a conscious
effort to differentiate the characters, as to their physical and
psychological characteristics, by means of their verbal
repertoires and, in the best cases, by their nonverbal ones as
well.

Psychological realism is, of course, the
conscious ultimate aim … individualizing realism, and includes
also the sensorial world (as the… perception of it may let us
probe deeper into subtle inner reactions…)

Interactive realism is always a thoughtful
depiction of the mechanism of conversation, mainly in face
to-face encounters, and its study offers and interesting
socio-psychological angle of narration, as we observe whether
that mechanism reflects reality or seems rather
improbable.

Documentary realism (or historical realism)
through non-verbal behavior, finally, is a logical result of
physical realism, mostly, and another rich source of research
material.

About Flannery
O"Connor

When Flannery O'Connor died of lupus in 1964, before her
fortieth birthday, her work was cruelly cut short. Nevertheless,
she had completed two novels, Wise Blood (1952) and
The Violent Bear It Away (1960), as well as thirty-one
short stories. Despite her short life and relatively modest
output, her work is regarded among the most distinguished
American fiction of the mid-twentieth century. Her two
collections of short stories, A Good Man Is Hard to Find
(1955) and Everything That Rises Must Converge (1965),
were included in The Complete Stories of Flannery
O'Connor (1971), which won the National Book
Award.

O'Connor's fiction is related to living a spiritual life
in a secular world. Although this major concern is worked into
each of her stories, she takes a broad approach to spiritual
issues by providing moral, social, and psychological contexts
that offer a wealth of insights and passion that her readers have
found both startling and absorbing. Her stories are challenging
because her characters, who initially seem radically different
from people we know, turn out to be, by the end of each story,
somehow familiar- somehow connected to us.

Although her personal life was largely uneventful,
O'Connor inhabited simultaneously two radically different worlds.
The world she created in her stories is populated with bratty
children, malcontents, incompetents, pious frauds, bewildered
intellectuals, deformed cynics, rednecks, hucksters, racists,
perverts and murderers who experience dramatically intense
moments that surprise and shock readers.

Method

Materials

A number of 23 excerpts where taken from the short story
Revelation (year) by Flannery O"Connor. Each excerpt
represents a given communicative situation in which the main or
one of the secondary characters is involved. In the process of
analyzing and decoding the non-verbal language of the characters,
the communicative functions (Finocchiaro & Brumfit, 1989)
they express and the realistic functions (Poyatos, 1981) they are
related to were taken into consideration as well. The target
excerpts were selected from a large sample of communicative
situations that manifest different types of body signals
according to Argyle"s categorization (1990).

Procedure

The 23 excerpts were analysed and decoded in a chart
were they were set according to the body signal each of them
represented. For each communicative situation, the communicative
function they embodied was shown (explaining which subcategory
was being represented specifically) as well as the realistic
function they belonged to.

In terms of what type of excerpts we took from the short
story, we decided to vary among examples of gestures, gaze, body
movements, facial expressions and body contact. As we explained
before our classification for body signals is based on Argyle"s
(1990). In the case of communicative functions and realistic
functions taxonomies we followed Finocchiaro & Brumfit"s
(1989) and Poyatos"s (1981) respectively.

The following constitutes a resume of the short story we
worked with while decoding and analyzing the different body
signals.

Revelation (1964)

Mrs. Turpin enters a crowded doctor"s waiting room
accompanied by her husband Claud. She immediately starts labeling
and analyzing the other patients based on their physical
appearance and behavior, particularly a young girl named Mary
Grace. She establishes a conversation with a well-dressed,
pleasant lady, Mary Grace's mother, and her thoughts reveal that
she thinks of herself as a superior, grateful, lucky, Christian
woman. In her head she constantly thanks Jesus Christ for not
making her neither a black nor a "white trashy" woman, but a
middle class, white, decent, married woman. She is proud of her
charity work and her "love" for white people. However, when all
of a sudden Mary Grace hurls a book right to her face without
apparent reason, Mrs. Turpin begins questioning her own attitude
towards life and faith.)

Results

From the 23 excerpts analyzed and decoded, among all the
body signals facial expressions was the most frequent one
with 11 cases and in one case it was combined with
gestures. The body signal of gestures as such was
the second one most found through the all the excerpts with three
cases and it came together in three occasions with body
movements. The third body signal most found was body
contact with 4 cases. Finally, only three cases of
gaze were found through all the excerpts.

As to the communicative functions it is marked the
presence of the personal category with 19 cases; more
specifically 14 belong to the subcategories of expressing
emotions (despair, resignation, anger, emotional pain,
discomfort, sympathy, dislike, embarrassment, among others) and
the other 5 cases to the act of expressing social
interaction (give moral support, call someone"s attention,
way of farewell or greeting). The category of rational was
relegated to a second level with 4 cases distributed among the
subcategories of suasion (1 case: having someone do
something), judgment and evaluation (2 cases: condemn,
deplore) and argument (1 case: agreeing with a
statement).

The fact that the expression of emotions was a relevant
outcome of the analysis illustrates that nonverbal communication
is a powerful instrument for a writer. By decoding the characters
NVL, we are able to figure out the characters' personality traits
and their roles when establishing a relationship. For example,
once we analyze Mrs. Turpin's body signals, we

learn that she is a strong, determined, confident woman
who is accustomed to taking the lead and being always right (i.e.
1. "[Mrs. Turpin] put a firm hand on Claud"s shoulder… and gave
him a push down"). Based on that we can totally understand why
she gets so upset when Mary Grace shows clear signs of disliking
her. We can also realize that Mrs. Turpin thinks of herself as a
superior person and that she is very fond of people like her
(i.e. 2. "Her gaze settled agreeably on a well
dressed…lady…").

We also notice that Claud Turpin likes to please and
obey her wife (i.e. 5. "Claud only grinned…"). Likewise, Mary
Grace's facial expressions and gazes constitute a prediction of
what is going to happen. Her non-verbal behavior reveals that she
despises Mrs. Turpin (i.e. 12. "Her lower lip turned downward and
inside out… as if she has known and dislike her all life…"
14. "Her eyes fixed like two drills on Mrs. Turpin").

In the same way, we can enter the other characters"
personal worlds if we, besides reading what the author write
about their personalities and actions in an explicit way,
interpret their non-verbal behavior.

Bibliography

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Canada: McGill University, Faculty of Education,
1991

Autor:

Arlen Herrera
Rodríguez

Department of English Language

School of Foreign Languages. University of
Havana