评论
打印
We find that normally, after 10 to 15 people have provided responses, we have catalogued the great majority of the emblems of their culture.
我们发现，一般在10至15人回答了问题之后，我们就可以归类出他们文化中的绝大多数象征性动作。
Analyze the results. If most of the people cannot supply a "performance" for a verbal message, we discard it.
（第二步）分析结果。如果大多数人不能“表演”出某一条口头信息，我们就删掉这一条。
Study the remaining performances further to eliminate inventions and illustrators. Many people are so eager to please that they will invent a gesture on the spot. Americans asked for a gesture for "sawing wood" could certainly oblige, even if they had never considered the request before, but the arm motion they would provide would not be an emblem.
（第三步）进一步研究剩余的动作，以排除那些虚构出来的动作和说明性动作。有许多人急于取悦别人以致当场发明出一个手势。当我们要求美国人做出“锯木头”的手势时，就算他们之前从未考虑过怎么做，他们也肯定会乐意配合我们，可是他们做出的手臂动作并非象征性动作。
To weed out these "false emblems," we show other people from the same culture videotapes of the performances by the first group. We ask which are inventions, which are pantomimes and which are symbolic gestures that they have seen before or used themselves. We also ask the people to give us their own meanings for each performance.
为了剔除这些“虚假的象征性动作”，我们给同一文化背景的其他人看第一组人演示的录像带。我们问他们，哪些是虚构的动作，哪些是示意性动作，哪些是他们以前看过或亲自使用过的象征性动作。我们还要求这组人向我们提供他们自己对每个动作的解释。
The gestures remaining after this second round of interpretations are likely to be the emblems of that particular culture. Using this procedure, we have found three types of emblems:
在第二轮解释之后保留下来的手势很可能就是那种特定文化的象征性动作。运用这种程序，我们已经发现了三种类型的象征性动作。
First, popular emblems have the same or similar meanings in several cultures. The side-to-side head motion meaning "No" is a good example.
第一类是大众的象征性动作，它们在几种文化中都具有相同或相似的含义。左右摇头表示“不”就是一个很好的例子。
Next, unique emblems have a specific meaning in one culture but none elsewhere. Surprisingly, there seem to be no uniquely American emblems, although other countries provide many examples. For instance, the French gesture of putting one's fist around the tip of the nose and twisting it to signify "He's drunk" is not used elsewhere.
第二类为特定的象征性动作，它们在一种文化中具有某种特定的含义，但在其他文化中则没有这种含义。令人惊讶的是，美国并没有某种特定的象征性动作，尽管其他国家有很多这样的例子。例如，法国人把一只拳头放到鼻尖旁同时扭动的动作表示“他已经喝醉了”，这个手势在其他国家并没有用到。
