Body - Language - Communication
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Edited by:
Cornelia Müller
The field of multimodal communication and topics concerning embodiment in relation to language have been gaining increasing prominence within linguistics, anthropology, sociology, computer science, psychology, cognitive science, semiotics, and the arts. However, what has been lacking until now has been an overview of this research from these diverse perspectives. This handbook documents the state of the art in the investigation of how bodily forms and movements relate to language and communication. It interrogates the term 'nonverbal communication' (and its presumed opposition to the verbal) and popular notions like 'body language', revealing instead the subtle connections between language and its physical source: the body. Scholars who have made prominent contributions to our understanding of these issues from a wide range of disciplines across the humanities and sciences have authored articles for this handbook on key issues. These include: the multimodal nature of language, communication and interaction, embodiment as a resource for meaning-making, conceptualization as felt experience, and the emergence and evolution of language from body movements.
Author / Editor information
Cornelia Müller, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany; Alan Cienki, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Ellen Fricke, Technische Universität Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Germany; Silva H. Ladewig, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany; David McNeill, University of Chicago, USA; Sedinha Teßendorf, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany.
Volume I of the handbook presents contemporary, multidisciplinary, historical, theoretical, and methodological aspects of how body movements relate to language. It documents how leading scholars from differenct disciplinary backgrounds conceptualize and analyze this complex relationship. Five chapters and a total of 72 articles, present current and past approaches, including multidisciplinary methods of analysis. The chapters cover:
I. How the body relates to language and communication: Outlining the subject matter,
II. Perspectives from different disciplines,
III. Historical dimensions,
IV. Contemporary approaches,
V. Methods.
Authors include: Michael Arbib, Janet Bavelas, Marino Bonaiuto, Paul Bouissac, Judee Burgoon, Martha Davis, Susan Duncan, Konrad Ehlich, Nick Enfield, Pierre Feyereisen, Raymond W. Gibbs, Susan Goldin-Meadow, Uri Hadar, Adam Kendon, Antja Kennedy, David McNeill, Lorenza Mondada, Fernando Poyatos, Klaus Scherer, Margret Selting, Jürgen Streeck, Sherman Wilcox, Jeffrey Wollock, Jordan Zlatev.
Volume II of the handbook offers a unique collection of exemplary case studies. In five chapters and 99 articles it presents the state of the art on how body movements are used for communication around the world. Topics include the functions of body movements, their contexts of occurrence, their forms and meanings, their integration with speech, and how bodily motion can function as language. By including an interdisciplinary chapter on ‘embodiment’, volume II explores the body and its role in the grounding of language and communication from one of the most widely discussed current theoretical perspectives. Volume II of the handbook thus entails the following chapters:
VI. Gestures across cultures,
VII. Body movements: functions, contexts and interactions,
VIII. Gesture and language,
IX. Embodiment: the body and its role for cognition, emotion, and communication,
X. Sign Language: Visible body movements as language.
Authors include: Mats Andrèn, Richard Asheley, Benjamin Bergen, Ulrike Bohle, Dominique Boutet, Heather Brookes, Penelope Brown, Kensy Cooperrider, Onno Crasborn, Seana Coulson, James Essegby, Maria Graziano, Marianne Gullberg, Simon Harrison, Hermann Kappelhoff, Mardi Kidwell, Irene Kimbara, Stefan Kopp, Grigoriy Kreidlin, Dan Loehr, Irene Mittelberg, Aliyah Morgenstern, Rafael Nuñez, Isabella Poggi, David Quinto-Pozos, Monica Rector, Pio Enrico Ricci-Bitti, Göran Sonesson, Timo Sowa, Gale Stam, Eve Sweetser, Mark Tutton, Ipke Wachsmuth, Linda Waugh, Sherman Wilcox.
