21. Comparison of verbal and non-verbal communication

• Non-verbal communication and non-verbal communication
• Nonverbal language

The term "non-verbal" - a very broad concept - is interpreted as "non-verbal language." It brings together a wide range of phenomena, including not only human body movements and the sound modality of speech, but also various elements of the environment, clothing, appearance design elements, and even various spheres of art.

Terminological difficulties are associated with the differentiation of the concept of “non-verbal communication” and “non-verbal communication”. The traditional approach in foreign and domestic social psychology was the study of non-verbal communication (communication, behavior) as a certain opposition to verbal communication. The main object of this study were paralinguistic. extralinguistic, psychosemiotic aspects associated with the information transmitted by voice, as if "between words".

By non-verbal communication (in the narrow sense) we should understand the medium of information: a system of non-verbal symbols, signs, codes used to convey a message. The key point of this understanding is an indication of the external accompaniment of mental phenomena.

In a broad sense, the concept of “non-verbal communication” is practically identified with the concept of “non-verbal behavior” and means a socially determined system of interaction, in the structure of which involuntary, unconscious complexes of movements that express a person’s personal identity prevail.

The American psychologist R. Harrison characterizes a non-verbal language as natural, primary, unlike verbal language. Verbal language is easily encoded and decoded, which is not the case with non-verbal language. A non-verbal language consists of various movements, while a verbal language is a vocal-sound phenomenon.

• What caused the terminological difficulties of definitions?
• When is a non-verbal language used?