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

Tszyan Shan' PhD in Philology Postgraduate student, Department of General and Russian Linguistics, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 117198, Russia, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 3, sq. 462 699shan@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Chulkina Nina Leonidovna Doctor of Philology Professor, Department of General and Russian Linguistics, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 117198, Russia, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 10, office 643 nina.chulkina@yandex.ru

In the modern world, a state visit is an effective means of intensifying exchanges and promoting friendly relations between the two countries. All countries attach great importance to the visits and meetings of honored guests. A state visit is an official diplomatic visit by the head of state of one country at the invitation of the head of another state, this is the highest level of diplomatic exchange between the two countries. The purpose of such visits, as a rule, is to discuss important political issues and plans for cooperation between the countries^[16]. The welcoming ceremony is the most important event during the state visit, which expresses the highest respect for the guest of honor. And, accordingly, the diplomatic etiquette at the ceremony must be fully understood and observed so that the ceremony can be conducted in accordance with official protocol and to the satisfaction of both parties. Diplomatic etiquette is regarded as an international courtesy. International politeness (etiquette) is "the rules of benevolence, correctness, restraint, attention, mutual respect of participants in international communication." Politeness and etiquette are interrelated concepts with a common goal of regulating interstate relations ^[3].

In a situation of diplomatic communication, a handshake is a very important element of etiquette. According to Erasmus of Rotterdam, the handshake was introduced by Quakers at the end of the XVII century, who did not want to bow or take off their hat in front of another person. This gesture was conceived as a greeting of an equal to an equal, since bowing or removing the hat often carried undesirable connotations of inequality between the gesticulating and the addressee^[5]. Greeting is usually accompanied by additional non-verbal means, such as gestures, facial expressions, tone, proxemics, etc. ^[12]Greeting gestures can be divided into substitutive and accompanying^[1]. First of all, each nation has an idea of the appropriate communication distance for different communicative situations^[11]. When shaking hands, both sides should face each other, keep about one step apart, palms slightly straight forward and down, thumbs separated from palms, and the other four fingers naturally closed. The right hand is used to shake hands: the palms and five fingers hold each other tightly, and the left hand naturally hangs on the outside of the thigh^[4]. Secondly, a handshake can be very informative, especially its intensity and duration, which are also part of the etiquette of a handshake^[6]. The handshake time is about 1-3 seconds. Especially in the case of a welcoming ceremony, when a lot of people gather, it is inappropriate to shake hands with only one person for a long time, so as not to cause misunderstanding of others. At the same time, the strength of the handshake should be moderate, too strong handshakes seem rude, and too easy grasping of the fingertips when shaking hands seems arrogant or careless. As a sign of respect, when shaking hands, the upper part of the torso is slightly tilted forward, the head is slightly lowered, a smile is on the face, the interlocutor's eyes meet, and greeting words are pronounced. When shaking hands, you can shake your hands up and down to show enthusiasm, but it is not recommended to shake from side to side or be stiff. The handshake sequence is also a very remarkable moment. The order of extending the hand should be determined in accordance with the social status, age, gender and personality of the giver and the recipient of the handshake. As a rule, the principle of "decisions of respected persons" is observed, that is, the so-called priority of the superior, the priority of the senior, the priority of the master and the priority of the lady ^[15]. Obviously, the handshake (strong, sluggish, faceless) says a lot. This is a kind of "signal", just like a smile^[2]. In order to better visualize and analyze the functions of different types of modalities during the handshake, it is necessary to use the ELAN program, which helps to identify the modalities used in the communication process. The ELAN program is widely used in multimodality research. In the modern study of intercultural communication in linguistics, scientists are increasingly considering "multimodality" as an important area of research. The definition of "multimodality" has been dynamically developing since its inception. According to A.A. Kibrik, the concept of (multi)modality in the narrow sense of the word refers to the difference between human sensory organs, primarily the difference between the visual and auditory channels. However, within each of these channels there are further, more fractional differences, which are also covered by the concept of multimodality. Modality is how things are perceived and happen. A person lives in a world consisting of many information modalities, including visual, auditory, textual, olfactory and many others, we call this a multimodal problem. Basically, the modalities are studied, including "3B": verbal (text), vocal (speech) and visual. As stated in A.A. Kibrik's work “Multimodal linguistics”, verbal and nonverbal components interact in communication. Nonverbal components include gestures, gaze direction, facial expressions and other aspects of “body language”. ^[7] If we take as an example the meeting ceremony in China and Russia, then, due to the language barrier between the two sides, etiquette can manifest itself through certain gestures or body language, which also reflects the multimodal nature of communication. ^[8] A multimodal study of the correlation of verbal and nonverbal components of communication is conducted on the basis of different programs for annotation of video fragments. ^[9]

ELAN is one of the most frequently used programs. Elan was developed by the Max Planck Institute in the Netherlands for the study of psycholinguistics. The purpose of the program is to provide good technical support for annotation and multimedia development. ELAN is a professional tool for complex annotations of video or audio files. When using ELAN, you can add an unlimited number of annotation layers to video and audio. Annotation can be carried out using sentences, words, translations, or a description of the details of the video^[13] (see Figure 1). The "layer" is the main function of the ELAN program. This is the basis for transcription and annotation. Different annotation contents can be assigned to different layers. In accordance with the needs of the research object, various annotation layers are installed in the annotation software in order to annotate the corpus from different points of view^[17].

This paper analyzes the etiquette of a handshake between a person being met (Xi Jinping) and a greeter (the head of the welcoming delegation of the Russian Federation) at a meeting ceremony at the airport, which is presented in the video "Xi Jinping arrives in Moscow to begin his state visit to the Russian Federation on June 5, 2019" ^[10]. Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow on a state visit URL?http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2019-06/05/c_1124587811.htm [Accessed: 10/20/2022]. The video is divided from 00:02:24:680 to 00:02:30:047 into eight layers (see Fig. 2), the used modalities of the met (Xi Jinping) and the greeter (the head of the welcoming delegation of the Russian Federation) when shaking hands are annotated.

The main purpose of the Xi Jinping handshake and the greeter's handshake layers is to reflect the sequence of stretching hands. Judging by the sequence in the annotations (see Table. 1), the first person who will extend his hand in the video is the greeter (the head of the welcoming delegation of the Russian Federation). According to the international general rules, the host is obliged to be the first to extend his hand to the guest. Therefore, when meeting foreign guests of honor at the airport, regardless of whether it is a man or a woman, the receiving party should be the first to extend its hand to express its greeting. ^[14].

The annotation in the layer of Xi Jinping's facial expressions is a smile (see the table. 2). A smile is a form of greeting that requires a relaxed, natural face and slightly raised corners of the mouth. A smile shows respect for a person. The rigidity and indifference of the face when shaking hands can cause people to feel detached and dissatisfied.

In the layers of Xi Jinping's gaze and the gaze of the greeter, one nonverbal signal that accompanies a handshake is a glance. (see the table. 2). It is very important to look into each other's eyes when shaking hands. If your eyes look around or run around, you will look defiant and careless, which, of course, is extremely impolite.

In two layers, the accompanying gestures of Xi Jinping and the greeter are marked by the accompanying actions shown by the two sides when shaking hands (see Table 3). The torso leans slightly forward, and the head drops slightly when shaking hands, which indicates the respect of both sides for each other.

In this layer, attention is paid to the sequence and duration of actions (see the table. 4). According to the “Average duration” column, it can be seen that the handshake lasts a little more than a second, which also corresponds to the optimal range of handshake duration, which we mentioned above.

Conclusion

A handshake is the most common element of etiquette that people use in almost any communication situation. A handshake accompanied by speech or replacing speech, and as a non-verbal means, has a rich content. This article analyzes the use of handshake etiquette at the state visit welcome ceremony, the main meanings are greeting (the greeter) and gratitude (the met). With the help of ELAN software, the functions of other nonverbal means when performing this element of etiquette are analyzed. The analysis allows us to draw the following conclusion: the meaning of handshake etiquette is very rich, as is the role of other nonverbal modalities, such as distance, gestures, gaze and facial expressions, which are also worth paying attention to, since they are designed to demonstrate politeness in a communicative situation.