NONVERBAL CUES AS PRAGMATIC MARKERS IN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

This paper explores the role of nonverbal cues as pragmatic markers in intercultural communication. Nonverbal communication, including gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, proxemics, and paralanguage, often carries pragmatic functions that shape the meaning of verbal messages. In intercultural contexts, such cues may cause misunderstanding due to cultural differences in interpretation. Drawing upon Hall’s theory of high-context and low-context cultures, Goffman’s interactional analysis, and Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory, the study argues that nonverbal cues serve as essential pragmatic markers that either facilitate or hinder communication across cultures. Examples from English, Uzbek, Japanese, and Arab communication traditions illustrate how the same nonverbal behavior may generate different pragmatic meanings. The study concludes that a deeper awareness of nonverbal pragmatic markers can enhance intercultural competence and minimize communication failures.