Multimodal Analysis of Handshake Etiquette at a State Visit Welcome Ceremony based on the ELAN Program

Abstract

The handshake is an important element of etiquette in many cultures. It is used in various, not only official, but also informal situations that express greetings, farewells, gratitude, etc. In this work, the object of study is the etiquette of shaking hands during the welcome ceremony of a state visit. The subjects of the study are various modalities and their meanings when performing a handshake. The authors consider in detail such aspects as the requirements of a handshake in official communication: the duration of the handshake, the distance between the communicants, the types of modalities: facial expressions, visual gaze, body movement. Particular attention is paid to highlighting and analyzing the significance of handshake modalities during the welcoming ceremony. The conducted research provides information about the meaning of the handshake and the role of other non-verbal modalities: distance, gestures, gaze and facial expressions, which are designed to demonstrate politeness in a communicative situation. A special contribution of the authors to the study of the topic is to identify the function and meaning of various modalities during a handshake. The study helps to study the expression of politeness in various modalities during a welcome ceremony. The novelty of the study lies in the analysis of etiquette in terms of multimodality. Using the ELAN software, the modalities of the handshake at the ceremony are displayed visually, which allows statistical methods to match verbal and non-verbal elements during the handshake.