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摘 要

随着国际贸易的飞速发展，国际商务谈判日趋重要。众所周知，国际商务谈判是跨文化语境下的人际交流，而人与人之间的交流不外乎语言和非语言两种手段。提到谈判和交流，人们通常关注更多的是语言层面的运用，而忽视非言语的表达。体态语，作为非语言表达中的重要环节，在跨文化商务谈判中传达的信息甚至比语言本身更为丰富。同时，因文化的差异人们对体态语的解读又千差万别，因此体态语的得体使用在跨文化商务谈判中起着至关重要的作用，它与语言交流的互补，有时甚至可以使谈判峰回路转，柳暗花明。本文通过对体态语交际功能的分析来解读其在跨文化商务谈判中的作用，旨在加深人们对于体态语的重视和理解，并提高人们进行跨文化商务谈判的成功率。

关键词：体态语；国际商务谈判; 文化；交际功能；运用

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. The Classification and Application of Body Language 2

3.1 The definition of body language 2

3.2 The classification of body language 3

3.3 The application of body language 10

4. Communicative Functions of Body Language 11

4.1 Repetition 11

4.2 Supplement 12

4.3 Replacement 12

4.4 Adjustment 13

4.5 Contradiction 13

5. Strategies in Cross-cultural Business Negotiation 14

5.1 Respect in negotiation 14

5.2 Adaptation to culture difference 14

5.3 Establishment of cross-cultural consciousness 14

5.4 Avoidance of cultural prejudice 15

5.5 Preparation in advance 15

6. Conclusion 15

Works Cited 17

1. Introduction

With china’s entry to WTO, international trade in various levels is becoming increasingly frequent and important for us to learn cultural factors. There is no denying that body language in different cultures exerts great impact on international business negotiation.

Body language referring to the physical nonverbal symbol, includes not only language but expressions of another important means of communication (Hu Wenzhong, 1999: 29).

Then, we need to know what international business negotiation is. Negotiation means the exchange of views involving the personal rights and interests that both sides completely solve problems, and finally reach an agreement in cooperative process. The two sides have their own needs. International business negotiations are cross-border business negotiation, which has two characters: communication and internationalism (Mitchell, 2001: 122). Communication achieved by two or more opinions, especially verbal language and body language. Language communication, through words to express thoughts, is the basic method of negotiation, while body language is also called posture language or non-verbal language, conveying meaning by nonverbal symbols. With the development of internationalism, cross-cultural business negotiation is indispensable in the process of the global economy.

A study of the 20th century shows that, on the negotiation table, 60% ~ 80% of the decisions of business talks are made under the influence of body language. (Kuang Xinhuaamp; Zeng Jianping, 2004: 11) Many studies have showed that the main functions of body language are the complement of language and the vital factor of forming impressions. To achieve effective negotiation, negotiators are requires the to be able to accurately read each other"s body language, combining language information, exploring each other"s psychological and ideological changes, then to make proper decisions. So before dealing with body language appropriately, we need to have a systematic view of it. In this thesis, there is a summary of different kinds of body language used in business negotiation and analysis of the communicative functions of human body language.

2. Literature Review

Early in the 19th century, Charles Wen has begun his research on body language. In the middle of the 20th century, a pioneer of body language, Albert Michael Rabin made a discovery that a letter generated 7% of the influence from language (text only), while 38% from the sound (including voice, tone, and other sound), and the remaining 55% are all from the silent body language. Anthropologist Ray bo west (Ray Birdwhistell) found that in a face-to-face communication, only35% of information was transferred in the total amount of information, and the rest of the more than 65% information is conveyed by body language.

Nowadays，with the rapid development of international business，similar courses have been set in Chinese universities，which are named international business negotiation, aiming to cultivate students with skills in international business communication. Due to the fact the majority of our teaching books focus only on verbal language, many non-verbal languages are neglected. However, non-verbal language means a lot, and here what I will come to is body language. Up to now, many studies have been done in intercultural communication. In this thesis, I would like to have a light analysis of different body languages and a summary will be presented on their communicative functions.

3. The Classification and Application of Body Language

3.1 The definition of body language

The earliest research on body language can be traced back to ancient Greece, and body language being a separate branch was built in 1950s. In a book of An Introduction to Kinesics by American anthropologist Birdwhistell, body language was raised and caught people’s attention. Another American anthropologist Edward T. Hall also published a book tittled The Silent Language in 1959 after many years of study, revealing the use of body language in communication. Julius Fast, a famous behaviorist in the United States published many books successively in 1970s, especially Body Languages in which they were introduced and laid a solid foundation of application research in intercultural communication.

They think human body is the source of message including basic stance, small movement and basic etiquette in cross-cultural communication. Some scholars put the object language and environmental language in the study which covers eye language, sign language, space distance, facial expressions and so on.

According to the different principles and perspectives, body language can be classified differently.

First, according to parts of human body, the classification involves gesture, facial expressions, head language, shoulder and foot kinesics. Second, based on the feature and number of points, simple body language and complex body language are included. Simple body language includes one complete action as well as the repetition of the same motion; complex body language consists of several different actions. Third, by way of meanings conveyed, it can be divided into directive body language, descriptive body language and symbolic body language. In this essay, I would like to exemplify body language as follows (Liu Baiyu, 2006: 45).

3.2 The classification of body language

3.2.1 Gesture

Gesture refers to the movements of parts of human body, including head, hand, leg and arm gesture, among them hand and head gestures are two important part of it. Here gesture may be more refer to hand movements. Gesture is usually called “the second mouth of people”. Some people cannot talk without using their hands. They stretch out as they explain, at the same time almost shaping, enforcing, emphasizing and exaggerating with their hands. Gesture is necessary and useful in daily communication. Everyone has his hands, and communicate with gestures. In business negotiation negotiators often use a variety of sign languages to express their feelings, attitudes, opinions, such as shaking hands to agree on the business advice, and motioning with his hand to mean that he disagrees with others. For different cultural customs, a simple gesture, in different countries usually means differently. For example, we Chinese express goodness by thumb-up while showing the badness by stretching out the little finger. However, in America, people use thumb-up to thumb a lift which means to ask for a lift. This is a body language indicating a request. Conversely, in Australia the gesture means rudeness. Thus, when one has an international business negotiation with Chinese he can have his thumb up to express his appreciation of other’s projects, but one can never thumbs up to an Australia, lest causing their displeasure. Using gesture properly can strengthen your opinions, as well as emphasize your mood. An English businessman once negotiated with an Arabian, after months of intensive lips war, they were to finally sign a contract. The Englishman happily thumbed up after signing the contract, but unfortunately his cooperative partner went off in a huff leaving the rest all in chaos. Why such a seemingly smooth negotiation finally turned out to be a failure？It is the culture difference. In Arab, that gesture means unpleasant, what’s worse, maybe described as nasty and mean. So their relationship to some extent was influenced badly though the CEO of Arabic company at last forgave the English businessman.

A little difference of gesture can make really huge diversities of intention. Another instance, when using your fingers to make an “OK”, Americans post ”OK”, telling others that everything goes well but when we have a business negotiation with Tunisians, we’d better never introduce the “OK” gesture. For in their culture that it means “I’ll kill you!”

3.2.2 Posture

Experts say there are more than 500000 kinds of body signals, and even the word “various” is pale to describe them. Unlike gesture, posture emphasizes motions of the whole body. While different parts of the body posture express different meanings. Posture communicates just as language does, and “the popularity of one posture over another and the emotion conveyed by a given posture seem to be largely determined by culture.” We have found that posture offers insight into a culture’s deep structure and often reflects one’s attitude to a conversation (Zhang Zhiying, 2000: 23).

Head gesture as important as hands is a kind of posture we should take into consideration when negotiating with others. Nodding and shaking heads are the two mostly used. In most western and eastern countries, nodding means agreement and shaking heads means disagreement. However, things do not always like that. Because of the affection of high context culture, the majority of Asians are not willing to say “no” directly, but nodding to show that they understand the other. In addition, nodding may even mean NO in some countries.

Unlike head posture, legs are often the first parts to show the subconscious emotions. In our country, some people often shake with their leg or foot unconsciously when seating leisurely. But in English countries such kind of action will be regarded as one who is fidgety, impulse, dull, mood depressed or angry. The location of the wrist "high" or "low" can also reflect a person"s mental state in most countries. In Japan, low posture is an indicator of respect. There is no denying that in negotiation, holding on bosom shows confidence and pride, for it means the enemy cannot attack on them.

The manner of sitting, standing and moving can also reflect their life style in a certain culture. As we know, being casual and friendly is valued in the United States, and people often fall into chairs (Samovar, 2000: 78). So it is common for an American woman sitting with her legs crossed even in public. However, in many other countries, such as Sweden and Germany, where life style tends to be more formal, such postures are rude and impolite. Posture is meaningful and colorful. In cross-culture negotiation, one using posture appropriately will make his expression clear and easier to reach consensus.

3.2.3 Eye contact

Spanish philosopher Ortega wrote: “Every gaze gets out of the journey of the watcher.” Ralph Waldo Emerson also described eyes: “People"s eyes like tongue, say a lot, we can understand the whole world from eyes. This is eye’s advantages.” So it is inevitable to have eye contact in our conversation. In addition, eye language is vital for negotiators to grasp the initiative negotiation. Almost all human activities and emotional communications are conduced through eye contact, so does inter-culture negotiation. What’s more, some culture conventions are included in it. Of course, the frequency of eye contact varies according to countries. A study of this aspect shows, people have different eye contact time during 10 minutes of conversation in America, Japan, and Brazil. The figures are 1.3 times for Japanese, 3.3 for Americans, and 5.3 for Brazilians. An American merchant once said: “It seems that we are getting along well with each other on the phone. I am so relieved to trade with a real Englishman after dealing with so many bohunk for many years. After all, we speak the same language and have similar way of thinking which accounts for my trust in him.” But later what happened confused the American when they had a face-to-face talk. “No Americans, including the fellow who had talked with me on the phone envisaged us. They seemed to have something to hide. Although we finally signed the contract, most of our members did not feel at ease. So it almost ruined our relationship and the trade. People from America and England share the similar cultures, however, this subtle differences bring so much misunderstanding. Americans believe that it is sincere and honest to have eye contact with others while British interpret that as an impolite behavior.

In china, an old saying goes like that: “Eyes are windows to the soul.” It is known to us all that if one is to deceive others intentionally, his eyes will not, but telling the truth in their mind. The example above shows people in the similar culture may have different eye language, so there’s no doubt that there are strange eye language in completely different cultures. Taking Japanese for instance, when they are talking, their eyes generally falls on others’ side of the neck, leaving the person"s face and eyes in their eye rim. For Japanese it is impolite to have eye-to-eye behavior in their talk. Like Chinese and Korean, Japanese listening to their elders or seniors often don"t look in their eyes. During international business negotiators who do not understand eye language in cross-cultural communication may cause misunderstanding, and even lead to business failure. A newly-graduated female college student was appointed to receive two Canadian customers. At first, the director was very glad on the phone and promised giving the most preferential price. When they met, continuing discussing the price that Japanese company had presented, these two Canadian customers stared at the young girl and asked: “Is this your lowest price?” The college students wanted to show respect to her customers then lowered her head, and with a modest voice said: “Yes.” Because of the Japanese girl not firmly looking at their eyes, the two sophisticated Canadians thought the girl was not sincere, and in fact the Japanese company provided them with a lower price, but the two customers said goodbye and left politely. So the promising negotiation and cooperation finally became a failure. Apparently, this unsuccessful business negotiation is due to the girl’s unawareness of the importance of eye contact for western people. Of course, the Canadian customers also misunderstood the eye language of Asians.

3.3.4 Facial expression

Study shows that man can create almost 250 thousands kinds of facial expressions. Human feelings such as joy and sadness in most cultures as facial expressions are hard to conceal. In our daily life, people’s face is a barometer of their mood. But in business negotiation, people are more likely to turn a hair. Nevertheless, no matter how the person hides himself, facial expressions will betray him. We all have some knowledge about some universally used facial expressions in most cultures.

As a Chinese idiom says, “Happiness appears on the eyebrows”. Eyebrows jumping up and down show agreement and excitement. Contrary, people frown to express their unpleasant feeling or disagreement. In negotiation, when you find the negotiator’s eyebrows jumping up and down, there’s no doubt that he is interested in what you are describing. That is to say the plan you have presented is cater to the negotiator’s appetite.

What’s more, Pursed mouth also shows dissatisfaction. When being discontent or stubborn, corners of the mouth is often down. There was an experienced negotiator, when he was talking eloquently, his partner kept silent. At first, he thought the potential co-operator were very satisfied with what he said, however, he failed to notice the man’s sagging corners of the mouth. It was fortunate to him to realize the disagreement of his partner. Then he enquired for their advice. The others then raised some questions and felt satisfied with the man’s response. Finally, both the two sides achieved an agreement happily.

Last but not least, I would like to discuss the smile widely used in our daily life. Also, for people all over the word, smile means politeness in their daily life. But this time, I just want to uncover it’s slight different meanings in different countries. In cross-cultural negotiation, smiling is considered to be a sign of hospitality by Americans. So commonly they are used to beaming with joy when talking, whereas in France, people smile more prudently. They smile for definite things that worth smiling. However, the Japanese never smile during the negotiation. Only when finishing the endorsement would they smile. To a Japanese people, smiling at will in a negotiation is a performance of lacking seriousness. What’s worse, that kind of smile may be a malicious laughter. Although Americans smile a lot in negotiation, they can hardly understand Chinese people’s smile in some situation. For example, Chinese say ‘sorry’ and smile simultaneously just to express their regrets and ease the embarrassing atmosphere. Such smile, on the contrary, is a mendacious smile to make their false apology in the eyes of Americans.

3.2.5 Distance

Every live thing has a visible physical boundary --- its skin, separating it from its external environment. This visible boundary is surrounded by a series of invisible space, which expands and contracts depending on a number of things: the relationship to the people nearby, the person’s emotional state, and cultural background. (Xu Lisheng, 2005:254) Everyone has his own private space. When others invade our personal space, we become extremely nervous. But the scope of "personal space" varies from culture to culture. Dr Hall puts forward 4 lines of our space:(1) intimate distance 0—45cm (2) personal distance 45—120cm (3) social distance 120—360cm (4) public distance 360—750cm. For business negotiation, the third one is the most important and proper space. Yet, the individualism culture needs larger personal space than collectivism culture. So space language is of great significant to make communications under different cultures go on smoothly. Cultures emphasizing on individualism, especially some western countries like America, Britain have a comfortable distance nearly one meter. While Arabians emphasizes collectivism culture, stand very close to talk to each other. The distance between them is less than about a foot.

An American goes to Arab countries for business. Because he doesn"t understand the fact Arabs prefer a closer distance than Americans, he nearly loses a big business. When they are talking v happily, the Arab moves closer to the American less than 0.2 meters. The American feels uncomfortable immediately, so he steps back to keep the distance. The Arab feels so strange but to show his hospitality and favorable impression to the American, then he still takes a step forward. Again, the American moves away, his colleague hurriedly motion with hand to suggest that he should not act like that. Finally, the American achieves the deal uncomfortably.

3.2.6 Silence

In cross-cultural communication, silence refers to feedback without sound, and a silent response or pause.

Keeping silent is not a passive action. Its meaning diversifies in different culture. American scholar Brosnahan did a survey to compare the meaning of Chinese and American’s silence, which shows Chinese are much more silent than Americans. (Samovar et al. 1991: 23) In Chinese culture, silence is not a kind of failure or deny. Yet most English speaking countries view silence as a negative attitude. Americans always keep speaking to avoid silence. They hold that silence means unconfident, impolite and contumelious. Compared with Americans, Chinese people are much more modest. They don’t like to argue. They attach the importance to the role of silence. Sometimes they use silence to replace saying “No” to avoid hurting others. They believe in that few words are good, because there is an old idiom; “The tongue cuts the throat”. Therefore, the Chinese believe: Silence is golden. In the East, silence is given positive meaning, especially the Japanese. At the right time, there is no wisdom can surpass silence. Here is a typical and funny case:

An American factory is having a negotiation with a Japanese one. When it comes to price, the American company proposed a price first. The Japanese company habitually keeps silent for half a minute. The representative of the American company is uneasy for this kind of silence, being afraid of that the Japanese thinks the price is too high. So they lower the price on their own initiative. The Japanese company is happy and confused, because they decide to accept the primary price. The example tells us that silence sometimes make the unexpected effect.

3.2.7 Dressing

Body language also includes people’s dressing and clothing. Dressing indicates the negotiators’ attitudes towards each other, and an essential factor to make comment on people. So it is very important to impress others. If you wear weird, with complex decorations, you, as a representative of the company, will seriously affect the image of individuals and your company.

In Chinese business culture, dressing combined with downy color is normal. Women usually wear a suit or dress while men should wear a suit and tie. In America, people have more freedom in their business culture. They prefer casual dressing. However, in formal business negotiation, people in all cultures should usually dress formally. In Britain, people do not care much about the style of clothes and fashion, but it is high for the quality requirement

Countries in the world, because culture, customs, fashion, and many other aspects of good nature are different, dressing varies. Therefore, in international business negotiations, people especially pay much attention to it (Mitchell, 2001: 124).

3.3 The application of body language

It is obvious to borrow body language to achieve the effect of negotiations. There are a large number of familiar stories and examples, in which body language play a significant role. Let’s look at the Hilton Hotel corporation chairman Hilton"s trick to "smile". When the Hilton hotel’s initial business assets increased to $51 million, his mother admonished Hilton: "You should come up with a simple way at no cost which can be a way to attract customers, so your hotel is promising." After thinking hard about it, Hilton finally finds a magic weapon--smile. He is also asking employees to keep smiling to passengers. The decision does make his hotel win the grand development all over the world. Now Hilton Hotel developed from one to more than 70 cities all over the five continents, its assets to billions of dollars, the largest in the world. In the Hilton’s career of more than 50 years, he kept everyday contact at least with a subordinate. From the general manager to the general waiter, what he usually asked is:" did you smile at the guests today?" Smile should become a most basic language in negotiation. Because smile can transcend national, cross-cultural boundaries, then create a harmonious atmosphere.

In addition, language may not suitable in negotiations to express the real feelings, but body language can. Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, once for a defendant, turned unsatisfied with the plaintiffs" lawyers’ argument statement for more than two hours. Lincoln was fed up it, but in that situation it was inconvenient to speak out criticism. Thus, when Lincoln was to speak, he did not directly express his opinions. He said nothing, only first took off the coat, put it on the table, and then picked up a glass and drunk, and then to put on the coat, and then to drunk water again. Such action was repeated for five or six times, making all attendees laughter. At that time, Lincoln just started his defense in laughter. This is a series of his posture expression. In view of the complicated words of plaintiffs" lawyers, Lincoln’s body language not only mocked the opponent, expressed dissatisfaction cleverly, but the effect was better than the use of oral language directly. By doing so, Lincoln created a vivid image to keep his charm and show his wisdom.

The following story reflects that body language not always help people understand others, but are used to creating illusion to confuse others. It is what we call “Cats hide their claws”. In December 1941, Japan"s envoys and secretary of the United States Hill held meetings. During the talks, the two envoys were always smiling, after the talks they then bowed to make a farewell with a smile. The American negotiators thought the Japanese was friendly. They did not know that the real purpose is to confuse the America before they launch a attack against the United State. On December 7, the Japanese furtively attack Pearl Harbor.

4. Communicative Functions of Body Language

4.1 Repetition

Body language, having a strong role in supporting verbal communication，can emphasize information. Head and hands are often used for emphasis. As a speaker said:“ We must remove the obstacle.” At the same time, he had his head forward and made his fist firmly to show his confidence. When denying, we shake hands. When speakers emphasize their own point of view, they often use eyes, gestures, intermittent to attract the attention of audience. As a result, body language with the repetition matches the language, illustrating the meaning of the conversation.

4.2 Supplement

Oral expression is sometimes pale, while body language has the effect of modification and description of language behavior. According to the foreign psychologist, people need to use 55% of the body posture and movements, 38% of sound, and only 7% to express thoughts and feelings (Liu Baiyu, 2006: 189). Through eye contact, facial muscle movement, gesture, posture, silence, distance and so on, people visualize language to achieve better understanding.

Chinese people are implicative to expresses feelings. They often control their emotions when they feel happy or sad in formal negotiation. Their true feelings are often "Quiet". So body language is very important in this situation which can make a supplement of Chinese words. As to U.S. Scholars, Davis says, “When you have a clear understanding of the voice and facial expression, you will realize that even if ‘I hate you’ sounds very intimate.”. In real life, when people are tired of fulsome words or anathema, a smile, a sincere kiss, get friends back.

4.3 Replacement

Individuals in some situation cannot or are inconvenient to use oral language and written language to express their feelings. At this level, body language can take replace. For instance, people use sign language at ports, the traffic police command cars and pedestrians by traffic signs. The main alternative functions of body language can be classified as follows. The first is that the communication can be more clear and concise with body language, highlighting the main information. The second is special occasions where body language communication is more implicative, appropriate. In negotiation, one wanting to point out his partner’s shortcomings, but afraid of hurting his self-respect, will give him a wink to prevent such behavior. The third is about redundant discourse and the fourth is due to environmental obstacles, people can overcome and communicate with body language.

In daily work and life, people often use body language to replace the language communication: for instance, people greet with a handshake, wave to say goodbye, welcome somebody with applause, and thumb up to praise.

4.4 Adjustment

Non-verbal communication has the function of adjusting social communication. This can suggest speaker to keeps on, repeat it again, or change the subject for another. When you listen to others, seeing each other from time to time to show that you are interested. In negotiation if you don"t look at each other, it means you don"t like each other. If you stretch out your legs yawning that means you have tired of others. People often make use of body language to maintain or adjust the conversation, and suggest that the other party to continue or stop. In negotiation, the speaker often stop and ask you a question and stare at your eyes, to indicate that he is prepared to follow you. The listener can strengthen the gaze of the speaker. A nod, a sound or a deep breath, shows he wants to say something. It is accurate to coordinate interpersonal conversation with a nonverbal symbol structure.

4.5 Contradiction

Language is direct and convenient, but the human body language is the true expression of the feelings. When non-verbal and verbal information are in conflict, there is no doubt that nonverbal information has more authenticity. In cross-culture business negotiation, the contradiction is much more difficult for negotiators to understand. Take Chinese and American for example, the former tend to be more modest in talking. In American culture, people tend to be more direct, if an American just believes what a Chinese is modest about, he will easily lose a great cooperator. In fact, both body language and language itself can be the interference of one’s true attentions. Examples: A says to B: “you did really well.” while he is making the eye to C at the same time. One smiles to you but he actually murmurs to you. However, experience tells us that once people act in communication, verbal symbols are not consistent with body language. We tend to believe each other more than his words.

5. Strategies in Cross-cultural Business Negotiation

5.1 Respect in negotiation

No matter what we do, the most is to show our respect. If one is not respected, the negotiation will not continue. Respecting others reflects your attitude and personality, whether you wish to cooperate with each other or not. It also shows your great qualities and represents the positive image of the company. All in all, respect is the first step to have a successful cross-cultural business negotiation.

5.2 Adaptation to culture difference

When we are making cross-culture business negotiation, what we need to do first is to adapt to other’s point of views. This also calls empathy theory. Only when we try to learn others can we really understand others. Each people and country has its own interpretation of body language. The same gesture may represent different meanings in different cultures (Rogers and Steinfatt, 1999: 227). So in negotiation, we should not just behave in the style of our own, but also take others’ position, guessing what if we act like that, how they will feel.

5.3 Establishment of cross-cultural consciousness

International business negotiators sometimes don"t realize that body language is influenced by cultural customs and values. In negotiations, they always inadvertently take their own criteria to interpret and judge others. Therefore, in order to have better control over the negotiation process, international negotiators need to strengthen the consciousness of cross-cultural negotiations and recognize that they should behave in different body languages, under different cultures.

5.4 Avoidance of cultural prejudice

Cultures differ in thousands of ways in the world. Every country, every region, nation has its own culture. So we can not take it for granted that the culture in poor countries is not good. Every country has its own great potential for economy, politics. We should not have bias against them. With economic globalization, cross-cultural business negotiation is prevailing among countries. Fairness and equality in tradition and customs will make a cross-cultural business negotiation smoothly.

5.5 Preparation in advance

It is possible and necessary to collect information about our opponents. After examining and analyzing their behavior, shoulder, head, neck and hands to find the relationship between these body languages. By observing these decision-makers’ we can help negotiators know more about their partners and avoid offending them.

6. Conclusion

With the rapid development of technologies, globalization has become a trend in business activities which makes us have to negotiate frequently with people from different cultures and can not be separated from the world to exceed our respective development. For a win-win policy, we must know that negotiation is an indispensable part in economic life and plays a primary role in business activities. In the process of negotiation, there’s no denying that language is the most important tool to advance the business. However, only verbal language is not enough and effective. As a carrier of culture, body language creates its unique way of negotiation for the success of trade business.

This thesis has given account of difference and applications of some kinds of body language in cross-cultural business interaction, and has done a summary of its communicative functions. The example likes Hilton’s smiling trick indicates the great power of smile, a kind of facial expression. Lincoln’s repeated action shows great power of body language. Actually, the stories and examples in which people use body language to exert wonderful impact in communication are countless. Through these applications of body language, we can conclude five communicative functions of body language: repetition, supplement, replacement, adjustment and contradiction (Hu Deqing, 2002: 38). Through analysis above, people can better understand each other and increase their negotiation effectively. However, body language is colorful and multifarious. There’s no doubt my classification cannot cover all kinds of body language and describe them elaborately. What’s more, new communicative function of body language will be discovered in the future. The strategies for body languages achieving successful business negotiation should also be replenished. Although the case studies and suggestion mentioned can’t cover all situations in inter-cultural negotiation, an opportunity is offered for us to learn some cross-cultural skills.

Works Cited

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[4] 胡德清.《试论体态语的功能》.外语与外语教学2002.

[5] 胡文仲.《跨文化交际》北京：外语教学与研究出版社1999.

[6] 况新华,曾剑平.《论人体语言的交际功能及其文化性》.外语与外语教学, 2004(8):11-13.

[7] 刘白玉.《身势语与国际商务谈判研究》.商场现代化 2006.

[8] 张治英.《英汉身势语的语用特征及其文化差异》.外语与外语教学，2000(7): 22-24.

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