According to a familiar phrase, the "language" of love is universal. Recent ethological
studies of nonlinguistic communication in courtship using facial expression, gesture,
posture, distance, paralanguage, and gaze have begun to establish that a universal,
culture-free, nonverbal sign system may exist (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1975), which is available
to all persons for negotiating sexual relationships. The nonverbal mode, more powerful
than the verbal for expressing such fundamental contingencies in social relationships
as liking, disliking, superiority, timidity, fear and so on, appears to be rooted
firmly in man's zoological heritage (Bateson, 1966, 1968). Paralleling a vertebrate-wide
plan, human courtship expressivity often relies on nonverbal signs of submissiveness
(meekness, harmlessness) and affiliation (willingness to form a social bond). Adoption
of a submissive-affiliative social pose enables a person to convey an engaging, nonthreatening
image that tends to attract potential mates. This report explores several conspicuous
nonlinguistic cues that appear to be used widely in contexts of flirtation, courtship,
and seduction. The expressive units are discussed from the standpoint of their occurence
in five phases of courtship, and are illustrated by four cases.