Abstract

The purpose of this survey is to show how 10 Japanese and 6 American TV newscasters moved their heads while talking to the viewers with a special emphasis on the movements of the nose. It was foundthat the American subjects were more conspicuous than the Japanese subjects both in frequency and variety. Overall, the Japanese tended to show falling movements whereas the Americans tended to show rising movements. With respect to the relationship between the position of the sentence and nose movements, the Japanese showed a closer (psychological) relationship in sentence-final position, and ‹fall+fall› type as opposed to the American ‹rise+fall› type as the most predominant pattern of sentence-initial-final movement. The relationship of American nasal movements and “adjective+noun” combinations was also investigated, the result of which shows that more movements occurred in adjectives and that adjectives had more rising movements than falling ones.