Verbal/Nonverbal
Words have been considered to be the ultimate abstraction by some. In essence, this is true because words only really are a string of letters, sounds and syllables spoken to assist communication. It really is fascinating that humans can communicate with each other at all, just by making sounds at one another and/or using written language. Yet sometimes, even though our speech is clearly understood, our thoughts or motives can be easily misconstrued. Human communication is considered to be symbolic, and is therefore, as Wood explains, "ambiguous, abstract and arbitrary." This is why people find ways to communicate in addition to speech.
Words can't always to justice to the message that people are trying to communicate. Often, people will speak in codes, depending on the audience they're attempting to reach. This is why nonverbal communication becomes essential, the reason being that nonverbal communication is considered more believable. Erving Goffman believed that people 'give' a message when they speak, but 'give off' even more information through impression and nonverbal cues. When politicans speak, for example, they are often very vague and their messages are often contradictory. What they mean by what they are saying is anyone's guess, but aspects such as their facial expressions, clarity of speech, and hand gestures can help give addtional information. If a politician is passionate about what they are saying, one would be able to notice.
One might also be able to tell if someone is telling the truth or not just by looking at someone's face. Humans also have a difficult time conveying their emotions because both verbal and nonverbal speech have unwritten rules to them. If a woman is angry with her husband in public, she may not be able to tell him in front of others, but she may be convey her message by either a stern glare (also known as "the eye"), or a swift kick under the table. Giving someone a hug may exemplify how someone feels about another, and may come across better than saying the vague phrase, "I like you."
Humans have had a really long time to develop the art of speech, and as a result there are many widely understood world languages that have been tempered and have evolved with time. Therefore, even though the words don't always come across as the intended message, people still have a highly sophisticated form of communication that at least puts us ahead of the animals. Language is a uniform method of communicating adapted by a particular culture. Depending on one's command of the language or the attentiveness of the audience, most messages can be effectively communicated and easily interpreted. Over the course of time, people have developed different kinds of media to help communication and have created advanced networkings and techniques to reach different groups of people. Verbal speech makes up a great deal of the way we communicate, but we can interpret with more than just our ears.
Nonverbal communication involves interpretation through sight, taste, touch, and scent in addtion to sound. Thus, it makes up a large percentage of the information we take in. The majority of interpretation of information that is communicated is taken in by other senses than hearing, so naturally humans have become expert communicators because they use speech as a tool in addition to being able to interpret sensory clues.