Paralinguistics

[inbfenby]

Can anyone give me an 'understandable' answer to what 'paralinguistics' really means. The dictionary answers aint much help & I have a hunch it's some pseudo-scientific American bullsh*t made up by business training companies to fund their suntans.

[WendyW]

Take a look at http://202.144.125.41/thesaurus/QERC/termrep_24_44
04.htm they seem to give a pretty comprehensive answer.

[ravenhair]

It's absolutely not pseudo-scientific nonsense made up by Americans, but a perfectly legitimate branch of the academic discipline of linguistics - I studied paralinguistics as part of the linguistics part of my degree and it's a serious subject. In a nutshell, it's non-verbal communication, ie everything you communicate except the words themselves. Facial expressions, gestures, hesitations and so on are all paralinguistic phenomena. If you want to know more, go to the linguistics department of any academic bookshop and see how much has been written about it by respected linguists.

[inbfenby]

Thanks guys. I've done the course know, (communication), & Raven you know your stuff as your explanation is virtually word for word how they explained it.