The chronological order of non-verbal communication is

Concept

Non-verbal communication is any transfer of meaning that uses no words. The Paper 1 syllabus treats four of its forms - sign, symbol, code and colour - as a standard set, and items of this type ask for the sequence in which that set is conventionally listed. What has to be known is therefore two things: what each of the four terms means, and the order in which the standard exam material arranges them.

The four terms are distinguished as follows:

• Sign - the basic unit of meaning studied in semiotics: one thing standing for another and directing attention to it, such as an arrow, a footprint or a raised hand. Symbols, codes and colour conventions are all discussed as varieties or arrangements of signs.

• Symbol - a sign whose connection to what it stands for rests on shared agreement rather than on resemblance, and which typically stands for something abstract: a flag for a nation, a dove for peace, a cross.

• Code - an organised set of signs together with rules for combining and interpreting them, so that whole messages can be built and read back: Morse, semaphore, flag codes, traffic-signal systems.

• Colour - hue used as a communicative device, its meanings fixed by convention and varying with culture and setting: red for stop, green for go, colour-coded wiring, colour-coded alert levels.

The standard listing for this paper runs sign, symbol, code, colour - from the single unit, through the unit whose meaning rests on agreement, to the rule-governed system, ending with colour. That listing is an exam convention for organising these four terms; "chronological" in the stem points to it, and not to any dated historical record of when each form appeared.

Applying it here

Reproducing the standard listing in order gives:

1. Signs - single units that stand for something and direct attention to it.

2. Symbols - signs whose meaning rests on shared agreement.

3. Codes - rule-governed systems that arrange signs into messages.

4. Colours - hues used with conventionally fixed meanings.

The sequence asked for is therefore signs, symbols, codes, colours, and UGC NET Paper 1, December 2009 keys this item to that sequence.

Cross-check against the other sequences

Each remaining sequence departs from the standard listing at a specific point:

Note the wording: the stem asks for the standard listed order of these four forms, not the order in which a modern message is decoded, which would run the other way.