Your 'Not-Face' May Be The Same As Everyone Else's

Your face might actually be talking much more than you are aware of---but still everyone can understand it.

A facial expression that breaks all the barriers of language is the universal "not face", which acts like a punctuation for negative sentiments, say researchers at Ohio State University.

This interesting "not face" brings together the "furrowed brow, pressed lips, and a raised chin" which accompanies a person who declines to accept something. For instance, when a person expresses a negation such as "I do not agree" or "I am not going to the party," he sports a "not face."

This kind of face is made when anyone speaks any of the most common languages: English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, or American Sign Language (ASL), said the researchers.

The 'not face' is made by the ASL speakers instead of signing or using the word "not" to signify disagreement.

This facial grammatical marker, which "indicates the grammatical function of a phrase," is like suffixing -ed to the end of a verb so that it can be changed to past tense, says study author Aleix Martinez, a cognitive scientist at Ohio State University, according to christiansciencemonitor.

"Grammatical markers are part of the grammar. The grammar is what defines human language," Dr. Martinez says. "Other forms of communication are not considered a language because they do not have grammar."

It could hold the key to open the mysterious origins of human language.

"Language (i.e., grammar) is one of the most surprising cognitive abilities of humans," Martinez says. "Almost everything else we have can be traced back through evolution, except language. How's that our closest living relatives do not have it? Do they have some components of it? Primates can communicate nonverbally, is that where language evolved from?"

"We hypothesize that the answer is yes," he says. "Our hypothesis is that facial expressions of emotion (which is a type of nonverbal communication) evolved into grammatical markers (i.e. language). This provides a viable evolutionary route for the development of human language."

Researchers shot people in conversations through the medium of various native languages, and then examined the videos through every shot, in order to find out the facial muscles moving.

This face is a blend of three diverse expressions, anger, disgust, and contempt. The furrowed brow indicates anger, the raised chin is due to disgust and the pressed lips are out of contempt.

Hence, they are clear indicators of the evolution of communication, says Martinez. "Facial expressions are assumed to have evolved for sensory regulation and as a protective mechanism. For example, disgust is thought to protect us from germs; note it involves closing the mouth, nostrils, and eyes. Anger contracts the muscles of the face, potentially protecting us from punches or in a fall," he says.

Yet, disgust and anger have undergone through some physical, or more "moral" scenarios. For instance, when someone insults you or tells you something you do not like, you might assume the "not face," or the universal marker of negation.

The new study is published in the May issue of the journal Cognition.