Facial Expression

The use of facial muscles to convey emotions, reactions, or linguistic meaning. In sign languages such as ASL, facial expressions serve a grammatical function far beyond conveying emotion — they mark questions (raised eyebrows for yes/no questions, furrowed brows for wh-questions), indicate negation, modify adverbs, and provide essential context that changes the meaning of manual signs. This dual role makes facial expressions critical to accessibility in both sign language communication and in technologies that attempt to interpret or transform video of signers.