摘要

语言是一种交流工具，但是起辅助作用的身势语在人类交流中也起着不可忽视的作用。身势语又称体态语，是人类交际中最常见的一种非语言交际手段。身势语对话语意义起着不可低估的作用，如补充，强调，表情，象征或替代作用。身势语同语言一样，都是文化的一部分。在不同文化中，身势语的意义并不完全相同。各个民族有不同的非语言交际方式。了解英汉身势语的不同文化内涵，有助于中西国家的人民之间更好地交流，增进感情与心态的理解。本文着重分析中美身势语的差异，就具体的手势、姿势、面部表情和眼神等进行了对比分析和论证。通过对中美身势语的比较研究，帮助人们尊重理解中美文化的差异，提高跨文化交际能力，从而促进有效交流，避免误解。

关键词: 身势语；文化差异；跨文化交际；

Abstract

As a communicative tool, body language is very important in many situations. Body language is also called kinesics which belongs to the scope of nonverbal communication. But in different cultures, body language means the different things. Different people have different ways of making nonverbal communication. Body language plays an important role in utterance meaning such as supplement，accenting，expression，symbol or substitute. Understanding the different cultural implication of English and Chinese body language can promote people’s cross-cultural communication competence, reinforce the heart-to-heart understanding and in the end will benefit the communication between easterners and westerners. This thesis intends to study the cultural differences in body language between Chinese and American cultures, and gives examples of body language differences in China and America ranging from gestures, postures, facial expressions and eye contacts. We can understand the culture differences through comparative study of body languages between two countries, and reach the aim of communication effectively and successfully, and then we can avoid misunderstanding.

Key Words: Body Language; Cultural Difference; Cross-cultural Communication

1 Introduction

In modern society, most countries in the world communicate with each other frequently. The world is becoming smaller and smaller, which has become a global village. We are beneficial from cross-cultural connection. Intercultural communication is the process of communication between people from different cultural backgrounds. It can be divided into two types: verbal communication and non-verbal communication. People can communicate with one another not only through verbal communication but also through nonverbal communication; moreover, the latter plays an essential role and mainly expresses real emotion and attitude through facial expression, posture, eye behavior, sound, etc. When we speak, we use much more than just words. We also communicate with our face, our hands, and even our own bodies.