“TRANSLATING” PEOPLE’S FEELINGS THROUGH PARAVERBAL SIGNS

Abstract

Negotiation is a process of communication between partners who have different points of view regarding the reality they both share. Negotiation, as an aspect of oral communication, becomes the most obvious place for the manifestation of personal
implication, identified at multiple levels (the paraverbal one being included), as the speaker permanently tries to adapt to his message, to the situation and to the interlocutor. The speaker qualifies, judges, comes up with arguments, persuades, and influences his partner, provoking him to a reaction, transforming him into an active factor of the verbal exchange.
The speaker’s choice of paraverbal signs is, from a stylistic point of view, strongly related to the expression of his feelings. By choosing a certain tempo of speech, a high or a low voice, a powerful or a weak intensity or an emphatic accent, the speaker follows the logic of affectivity, translating his feelings, indicating his position towards himself, towards his message but also towards the interlocutor from whom he expects a certain action.