Semiotics is the study of signs in body language, sounds and words. Researchers in this area look for rules that determine how people read these signs. They study how people use and interpret signs in social situations. Semiotics became a major area of study during the 1960s. Some scholars take a Marxist approach, examining how ideology changes the way people interpret signs.
A major part of nonverbal communication is how close people stand or sit to one another. During interpersonal communication, people will become uncomfortable if talking to someone who invades their personal space. Likewise, a person can come across as standoffish if he communicates from too far a distance. The acceptable social distance changes within cultures. What is too close in one culture may be acceptable in another culture. Gender also plays a role. Women are often uncomfortable when a man moves closer to them than custom allows.
Kinesics looks exclusively at body language. Every body movement, from facial expressions to posture to the way a person sits or walks, can potentially have a communicative meaning. Sometimes the speaker intends for these actions to have meaning. Other times, listeners see unintended meanings in a person's body language, such as fear, anxiety or dishonesty. It is also possible for people to misinterpret a person's body language.
This theory examines how nonverbal communication changes across cultures. Each society develops its own rules for interpreting nonverbal behavior. Many behaviors, such as smiling and frowning, are universal. Others can have dramatically different interpretations. While crossing one's legs is common in the United States, in Arab countries it is seen as a sign of disrespect to cross one's legs and show the heel of the shoe to another person. What is usually viewed as a peace sign in the United States may be viewed as an obscene gesture in the United Kingdom.