Non-Verbal Communication and Respect in Kurdish Social Situations with Reference to English

Abstract

Communication can have different forms by different people in diverse ages. Communication can be generally verbal and non- verbal. Non- verbal communication is any gesture or action used by people to show many functions of language, being informative, directive, interpersonal, aesthetic, etc. This study is an attempt to investigate this means of communication in terms of politeness both pragmatically and sociolinguistically in the Kurdish social situations. Despite of the scarce pragmatic and sociolinguistic attention to politeness in non- verbal communication in the Kurdish community, this means of communication is of vital importance in this culture due to its inferential influence on politeness and expression of respect. People can show respect to others by some gestures and traditional practices without stating any polite expression verbally. The non- verbal cues like gestures and actions can be socially normalized ones and/or be institutional. After conducting focus group discussions with the Kurdish native speakers and analyzing the data primarily qualitatively, the study revealed that there is a direct relationship between respect and non- verbal communication, the cultural practices and gestures employed by the Kurdish informants are being socially conventional in the Kurdish community. Despite of the great impact of non- verbal cues on communication, the majority of the informants preferred to use verbal communication in terms of sending the message intended, the perception, i.e. understanding of the message got almost similar voices for receiving the message of communication as visualized the bar graphs in the analysis section. Expressive speech acts like, greetings; thanking, congratulating, etc. related to politeness can be saliently conveyed non- verbally. The rituals and gestures practiced by the Kurdish community   are almost fixed and used similarly by all individuals.