Adeola Abdulateef Elega

2.5.3 Verbalization of Non-verbal Communication 
The reason
why some gestures still remain and are still in use in some languages and 
cultures over generations is because of the continuous verbal usage of them. In 
English language for instance “I cross my heart for you” “hit below the belt” “bite 
more than you can chew”. Some of them are even used more than the nonverbal cues 
as argued accordingly by Max S.kirch who said that the everyday use of this gestures 
are aligned into words in our writing and speaking makes them still relevant with an 
instance of “Daumen halten” which the Germans used before which is now 

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represented in words now as “I will hold my thumbs for you” which is a way of 
wishing goodluck, for the French speaking countries is verbally represented as 
“ristringerse nelle palle” which is “to shrug ones shoulder” and same example in 
Spanish language is “encogerse de hombros”.
Figure 7: Daumen halten 
(http://blogs.hutchesons.org/LanguageAssistants/post/2012/02/29/Redewendung-der-
Woche-Daumen-drucken.aspx) (Modern Language Assistants, 2012) 
Also positions of authorities or social level may put you to the use of nonverbal 
communication as verbal communication. An example is that of the United States’ 
Deputy Attorney General Benjamin who once said “neither his agency nor the FBI 
has any idea of kind of shrugging its shoulders and closing the file”. Most people 
verbalize gestures without thinking much of its nonverbal cues. They see it as if it is 
supposed to be said in the verbal form. Gestures can be more complete than use of 
mouthed communication, an incomplete verbal message can be sent but as soon as 
you see two people shake hand, you already get a full message delivered. The 
connection between both types of interpersonal communication is that they both 
make you prefer a face to face interaction than a phone call. People tell you 

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something positive but the look on their face tells you something else. Nonverbal 
communication is very important and it plays a great role in verbal communication 
(Kirch, 1979 p. 418).