This collection deals with everyday (para)linguistic and visual communication processes and highlights their artful dimension. Aesthetic communication is not limited to artworks and the institutional art domains; nor is it sought in inner processes of consciousness or intentions, but instead on various levels of symbolic expression, above all, in oral communication. The majority of the studies making up the collection are empirical and deal with various semiotic phenomena in a wide range of different cultures. They include videoanalytic museum studies, conversation analyses of artistic oral genres and performance analyses in the domain of linguistic anthropology. All the contributing authors see verbal art as a meaningful process which can use all interactional modalities, from prosody and body Language to wording.

Dr. Helga Kotthoff arbeitet als wissenschaftliche Angestellte in einem linguistisch-anthropologischen Forschungsprojekt an der Universität Konstanz.