In Japan, there exists a strange dichotomy. On the one hand, it is a noisy place: the constant announcements in the train stations and shopping centres, the loud cries of shopkeepers greeting customers to their stores, the hustle and bustle of the busy streets. On the other hand, the Japanese value silence. It might seem odd that silence is valued in a place where such a cacophony exists, but s...

Greeting behaviors are important tools for establishing and maintaining social relationships. Greeting expressions are abundant in English and Chinese. One major difference of greetings in English and Chinese lies in the content. They are influenced by the orientations of interpersonal relationships which in turn are underpinned by value orientations. Increasing awareness of intercultural diffe...

The work analyses the head nod, a down-up movement of the head, as a polysemic social signal, that is, a signal with a number of different meanings which all share some common semantic element. Based on the analysis of 100 nods drawn from the SSPNet corpus of TV political debates, a typology of nods is presented that distinguishes Speaker’s, Interlocutor’s and Third Listener’s nods, with their ...