Kinesics
Kinesics is the study of how body movements, gestures, posture, and facial expressions convey meaning in human interaction.
Nonverbal communication: Communication through channels other than spoken or written words, including gesture, gaze, touch, and vocal qualities. Kinesics is one channel within this broader study of communication.
Emblem (gesture): A conventional gesture with a widely recognized verbal equivalent within a particular culture. Emblems show how learned conventions can give a movement a relatively explicit meaning.
Ray Birdwhistell: An American anthropologist who developed kinesics as a systematic study of body movement in communication. Birdwhistell established the field and its name through detailed analysis of filmed interaction.
Emotion recognition: The process of identifying emotional states from observable cues such as facial expression, voice, or behavior. Facial and bodily movements are among the cues people use to infer emotion.
Chronemics: The study of how time and its use communicate meaning in social interaction. Chronemics examines temporal behavior, whereas kinesics focuses on bodily movement.
Gesture: A movement of the body, especially the hands or arms, used to express or support meaning. Gestures are a central class of movements studied in kinesics.
Illustrator (gesture): A gesture that accompanies speech to depict, emphasize, or organize what is being said. Illustrators reveal how movement can shape and clarify spoken language.
Gregory Bateson: An English anthropologist and social scientist whose work connected communication, culture, and systems of interaction. His research with Birdwhistell helped shape early studies of communication and bodily behavior.
Sign language: A natural language that uses patterned hand shapes, movements, facial expressions, and body positions. Sign languages use visible movement linguistically, not merely as nonverbal accompaniment to speech.
Haptics: The study of touch as a channel of communication and social interaction. Haptics isolates communicative touch, a channel distinct from visible movement.