Nonverbal Behavior Is Communicative

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You communicate nonverbally when you convey a message without using any words. But you also communicate nonverbally when you use nonverbal behaviors in addition to words: when you smile, frown, or gesture as you speak or when you use a particular tone or volume while talking. For example, as a kid, maybe you knew when your parents were angry with you because they called you by your full name while using “that tone.”

Consider the examples we just gave. American Sign Language (ASL), a visual language with its own grammatical structure used by hearing-impaired individuals in the United States and English-speaking Canada, is still verbal communication. It is nonvocal because the communicators don’t use their voices. However, it is still a language because it uses gestures (rather than spoken words) as symbols and it has grammar rules. Likewise, the note that your colleague writes to you uses words, so it too is a form of verbal communication. Only the third example is nonverbal communication—tapping a watch signals meaning without use of linguistic symbols. Yet this example reminds us that nonverbal behavior and verbal communication are connected. Had the friends not made a verbal agreement to meet for lunch, the act of tapping the watch might be confusing.