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Considering communication from an anthropological viewpoint, Dell Hathaway Hymes (born in 1927) introduced the language in action – verbal and non-verbal – within the sociolinguistic analysis. His study of language, considered as a social and cultural behaviour, will move from an “anthropology of speech” (centered on linguistic variation and actual practice) to an anthropology of communication, opening the way towards a communicational anthropology and pragmatics.