Study On The Paralanguage Of Mencius And Chuang-Tzu

Paralanguage refers to a meaningful symbol system in the process of communication, through nonverbal voice, facial expressions, actions and other means to transmit communication information and express emotion or attitude. It includes the meaningful symbol which is nonverbal and voiced, also including silent and tangible meaningful symbol. It mainly studies all aspects of transmitting communication information except language structure and words’ surface meaning. Paralanguage has three essential elements: first, in the process of communication; second, the use of certain means of paralanguage; third, transmission of communication information or express emotion or attitude. According to the standard that is the relationship with the sound, paralanguage is divided into categories: one kind is audio paralanguage, including pause, silence, volume, stress, sigh, laughing and crying; the other is silent paralanguage, including facial expressions, physical appearance, actions,communication distance and so on. Paralanguage is important in the process of communication. The information of Paralanguage is more rich and real than that of verbal communication.Mencius and Chuang-tzu produced about the same time, and the two books are argumentative prose which is based on dialogue.Taking paralanguage as the breakthrough point,we will adopt the method of example analysis of two books in the study on typical pair of language useage. Based on paralanguage analysis of Mencius and Chuang-tzu, and then compare the similarities and differences between paralanguage usage of the two books.They have in common is: first,two books are aware of the importance of paralanguage; second,the function of paralanguage is similar. The differences lie in: first, the paralanguage use cases in“Mencius”,no matter the quantity or frequency slightly below the Chuang-tzu; second, the same kind of paralanguage mean has different connotations in two books; third, the kinds of paralanguage means in Chuang-tzu are more abundant than the kinds of Mencius.Through the analysis and comparison the paralanguage of Mencius and Chuang-tzu,on the one hand,we can learn about the usage of paralanguage in the Warring States period;on the other hand we can better understand and grasp the ideological content and communication features of the two books. At the same time, through the research of paralanguage, the field of language research is widened, which is helpful to the further study of the way and means of human communication.