The Silent Language
by Edward T Hall
First published 1959
In The Silent Language anthropologist Edward Hall analyses
many aspects of non-verbal communication and considers the concepts of space
and time as tools for transmission of messages, in work that is both scientific
and accessible. Pecking orders and changing status in space, and our
unconscious gestures and actions are the vocabulary of his “silent language.”
According to Hall, the concepts of space and time are tools with which all
human beings may transmit messages. Space, for example, is the outgrowth of an
animal’s instinctive defence of their territory and is reflected in human
society in many ways. Time is also used as a means for dominance or status such
as the businessman who keeps a client waiting. Cultural factors are referred to
throughout.