Müller Cornelia, Cienki Alan, Fricke Ellen, Ladewig Silva H., McNeill David, Bressem Jana (Eds.). Body - Language - Communication: An International Handbook on Multimodality in Human Interaction: Volume 2

Walter de Gruyter, 2014. — 1085 p. — (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft 38.2).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.- The first reference work of how body movements relate to language and communication.
- It presents current and past perspectives on multimodal communication from multidisciplinary perspectives.
- 72 chapters by leading international scholars ranging from cognitive sciences to sign linguistics.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.