Editing Paralanguage (section)

{{Short description|Communication of additional meaning, nuance, or emotion in speech}}

'''Paralanguage''', also known as '''vocalics''', is a component of [[meta-communication]] that may modify meaning, give nuanced meaning, or convey emotion, by using [[suprasegmental]] techniques such as [[Prosody (linguistics)|prosody]], [[Pitch (music)|pitch]], [[loudness|volume]], [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]], etc. It is sometimes defined as relating to [[Phoneme|nonphonemic]] properties only.  Paralanguage may be expressed [[conscious]]ly or [[Unconscious mind|unconsciously]].

The study of paralanguage is known as '''paralinguistics''' and was invented by [[George L. Trager]] in the 1950s, while he was working at the [[Foreign Service Institute]] of the U.S. [[Department of State]]. His colleagues at the time included Henry Lee Smith, [[Charles F. Hockett]] (working with him on using [[descriptive linguistics]] as a model for paralanguage), [[Edward T. Hall]] developing [[proxemics]], and [[Ray Birdwhistell]] developing [[kinesics]].<ref>Leeds-Hurwitz, W. (1990). Notes in the history of intercultural communication: The Foreign Service Institute and the mandate for intercultural training. ''Quarterly Journal of Speech'', 76, 262–281.</ref> Trager published his conclusions in 1958,<ref>Trager, G. L. (1958). Paralanguage: A first approximation. ''Studies in Linguistics'', 13, 1–12.</ref> 1960<ref>Trager, G. L. (1960). Taos III: Paralanguage. ''Anthropological Linguistics'', 2, 24–30.</ref> and 1961.<ref>Trager, G. L. (1961). The typology of paralanguage. ''Anthropological Linguistics'', 3 (1), 17–21.</ref>

His work has served as a basis for all later research, especially those investigating the relationship between paralanguage and culture (since paralanguage is learned, it differs by language and culture). A good example is the work of [[John J. Gumperz]] on language and social identity, which specifically describes paralinguistic differences between participants in intercultural interactions.<ref>Gumperz, J. J. (1982). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=aUJNgHWl_koC&q=paralinguistic Discourse strategies]''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</ref> The film Gumperz made for [[BBC]] in 1982, ''Multiracial Britain: Cross talk'', does a particularly good job of demonstrating cultural differences in paralanguage and their impact on relationships.

Paralinguistic information, because it is [[phenomena]]l, belongs to the external speech signal ([[Ferdinand de Saussure]]'s [[langue and parole|''parole'']]) but not to the arbitrary conmodality. Even [[vocal language]] has some paralinguistic as well as linguistic properties that can be ''seen'' ([[lip reading]], [[McGurk effect]]), and even ''felt'', e.g. by the [[Tadoma]] method.