The Body In Language

The Body in Language provides theoretical reflections on grammaticalization, lexical semantics, philosophy, multimodal communication as well as on cognitive linguistics in general. Case studies discuss the embodiment in a wide range of languages and from diverse cultures on various continents.

Nationally renowned body language expert Tonya Reiman illuminates what until now has been a gray area in interpersonal communication: harnessing the power of your nonverbal cues to get what you want out of every aspect of life, from professional encounters to personal relationships. Unlike other books on this fascinating topic, The Power of Body Language is your practical, personal playbook for getting what you desire from others -- and zoning in on what others are saying to you without words. Once you know the hidden meaning behind specific gestures, facial cues, stances, and body movements, you will possess a sixth sense that can be a life-changing, career-saving, trouble-shooting skill you will never leave home without! Learn how to: Take control of your own secret signals Gain trust -- and detect untrustworthiness Ace a job interview Shake hands (the right way) Make a dazzling first impression Exude confidence -- even when you're not feeling it Recognize if someone is lying Understand why men and women "speak" a different language Read a face to know a person's inner emotional state...and much more. In an insightful and engaging narrative, Tonya Reiman analyzes all of the components of body language -- the languages of the face, the body, space and touch, and sound. She shows you how to become a Master Communicator with The Reiman Rapport Method, a surefire system for building an instant connection with anyone, in any situation. And she shares the experiences of her clients, from executives to politicians to relationship seekers: Learn from Cindy, a confident and ambitious manager who turned her career around by altering the subconscious messages she was sending her male colleagues...and Peter, the wedding DJ whose client list blossomed as soon as he practiced the art of social smiling! Peppered with photos and fun facts, The Power of Body Language is as entertaining as it is instructive. Get the power to send and receive the messages you want -- and never be left in the dark again.

Available for the first time in the United States, this international bestseller reveals the secrets of nonverbal communication to give you confidence and control in any face-to-face encounter—from making a great first impression and acing a job interview to finding the right partner. It is a scientific fact that people’s gestures give away their true intentions. Yet most of us don’t know how to read body language– and don’t realize how our own physical movements speak to others. Now the world’s foremost experts on the subject share their techniques for reading body language signals to achieve success in every area of life. Drawing upon more than thirty years in the field, as well as cutting-edge research from evolutionary biology, psychology, and medical technologies that demonstrate what happens in the brain, the authors examine each component of body language and give you the basic vocabulary to read attitudes and emotions through behavior. Discover: • How palms and handshakes are used to gain control • The most common gestures of liars • How the legs reveal what the mind wants to do • The most common male and female courtship gestures and signals • The secret signals of cigarettes, glasses, and makeup • The magic of smiles–including smiling advice for women • How to use nonverbal cues and signals to communicate more effectively and get the reactions you want Filled with fascinating insights, humorous observations, and simple strategies that you can apply to any situation, this intriguing book will enrich your communication with and understanding of others–as well as yourself.

The Language of the Body, originally published as Physical Dynamics of Character Structure, brilliantly describes how personality is expressed in the form and function of the body. The body is the key to understanding behavior and working with the body is the key to psychological health. The Language of the Body outlines the foundations of character structure: schizoid, oral, masochistic, hysteric, and phallic narcissistic personality types. Dr. Lowen examines the relationship between psychoanalytic theory and body therapy.

A revised and updated edition of the New York Times–bestselling classic on understanding body language from the author of Subtext. Body Language helps you to understand the unconscious body movements and postures that provide intimate keys to what a person is really thinking and the secrets of their true inner selves. You will learn how to read the angle of shoulders, the tilt of a head, or the tap of a foot, in order to discern whether an individual is angry, frightened, or cheerful. You will be able to use Body Language to discover the most—and least—important person in any group by the way others position themselves. The body is not able to lie, for it sends subtle signals to those who know how to read them. Body Language will even show you how to do it without others knowing you are observing them. Body Language was a huge best seller when first published and has remained in print ever since. It has been thoroughly updated and revised especially for this ebook edition.

This book opposes the position that meanings can be explained by way of intralinguistic relations, as in structural linguistics and its successors, and rejects definitional descriptions of meaning as well as naturalistic accounts. The idea that we are able to live by strings of mere signifiers is shown to rest on a misconception. Ruthrof also attempts an explanation of why arguments grounded in a post-Saussurean view of language, as for instance certain feminist theories, find it so difficult to show how precisely the body can be reclaimed as an integral part of linguistic signs. In reinstating the body in language, Ruthrof draws on Peirce, Husserl, Heidegger, Wittgenstein and Derrida, cognitive linguistics and rhetoric, as well as on the writings of Helen Keller.

What is the role of meaning in linguistic theory? Generative linguists have severely limited the influence of meaning, claiming that language is not affected by other cognitive processes and that semantics does not influence linguistic form. Conversely, cognitivist and functionalist linguists believe that meaning pervades and motivates all levels of linguistic structure. This dispute can be resolved conclusively by evidence from signed languages. Signed languages are full of iconic linguistic items: words, inflections, and even syntactic constructions with structural similarities between their physical form and their referents' form. Iconic items can have concrete meanings and also abstract meanings through conceptual metaphors. Language from the Body rebuts the generativist linguistic theories which separate form and meaning and asserts that iconicity can only be described in a cognitivist framework where meaning can influence form.