Exprésense

Exprésense is a sociolinguistic concept describing how speakers in multilingual settings coordinate language choice with nonverbal means of communication to convey meaning beyond the literal content of utterances. It emphasizes the integration of code-switching, prosody, gesture, facial expression, and timing to express stance, emotion, emphasis, and social relation.

Etymology and scope: The term blends expressiveness with sense-making across languages, highlighting how speakers construct communicative intent through multiple channels. It is used in studies of everyday interaction, classrooms, workplaces, and online environments where multilingual practices are common.

Core features: Key components of exprésense include multilingual code-switching or language mixing, synchronized prosody (intonation, rhythm, stress), gesture and gaze, and turn-taking that signals readiness, agreement, or disagreement. Analysis often focuses on how these cues align with context, audience, and goals of interaction, as well as how digital mediations affect expression.

Methodology: Researchers examine transcripts, video recordings, and acoustic cues to identify patterns of expressive signaling. Methods combine discourse analysis with multimodal analysis to capture how speech, gesture, and visual cues co-create meaning in real time.

Applications and significance: Exprésense informs studies of language contact, intercultural communication, and discourse analysis. In technology and design, it guides the development of multilingual spoken interfaces and social AI that can recognize and respond to expressive cues across languages and modalities. It also supports language education by highlighting expressive norms in bilingual communities.

See also: Code-switching, Multimodality, Prosody, Discourse analysis.