Cover not available

Article published In: Sign Language & Linguistics
Vol. 17:2 (2014) ► pp.123–180

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Phonological and morphological faces

Disgust signs in German Sign Language

 | Department of Experimental and Neurocognitive Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
 | Dahlem Institute for Neuroimaging of Emotion (D.I.N.E.), Berlin, Germany
Published online: 24 November 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.17.2.01ell
In this study, we verify the observation that signs for emotion related concepts are articulated with the congruent facial movements in German Sign Language using a corpus. We propose an account for the function of these facial movements in the language that also explains the function of mouthings and other facial movements at the lexical level. Our data, taken from 20 signers in three different conditions, show that for the disgust related signs, a disgust related facial movement with temporal scope only over the individual sign occurred in most cases. These movements often occurred in addition to disgust related facial movements that had temporal scope over the entire clause. Using the Facial Action Coding System, we found some variability in how exactly the facial movement was instantiated, but most commonly, it consisted of tongue protrusion and an open mouth. We propose that these lexically related facial movements be regarded as an additional layer of communication with both phonological and morphological properties, and we extend this proposal to mouthings as well. The relationship between this layer and manual lexical items is analogous in some ways to the gesture-word relationship, and the intonation-word relationship.
References (68)
Aarons, Debra, Ben Bahan, Judy Kegl & Carol Neidle. 1992. Clausal structure and a tier for grammatical marking in American Sign Language. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 151. 103–142. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anderson, Diane E. & Judy S. Reilly. 1997. The puzzle of negation: How children move from communicative to grammatical negation in ASL. Applied Psycholinguistics 18(4). 411–429. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aryani, Arash, Markus Conrad & Arthur M. Jacobs. 2013. Extracting salient sublexical units from written texts: ‘Emophon’, a corpus-based approach to phonological iconicity. Frontiers in Psychology 41.654. .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker-Shenk, Charlotte. 1983. A micro-analysis of the non-manual components of questions in American Sign Language. PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, CA.
Bartels, Christine. 1999. The intonation of English statements and questions: A compositional interpretation. New York/London: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blevins, Juliette. 2012. Duality of patterning: Absolute universal or statistical tendency? Language and Cognition 41. 275–296. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boer, Bart de, Wendy Sandler & Simon Kirby (eds.). 2012. New perspectives on duality of patterning: Introduction to the special issue. Language and Cognition 41. 251–259. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crasborn, Onno & Els van der Kooij. 2013. The phonology of focus in Sign Language of the Netherlands. Journal of Linguistics 49(3). 515–565. .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crasborn, Onno, Els van der Kooij, Dafydd Waters, Bencie Woll & Johanna Mesch. 2008. Frequency distribution and spreading behavior of different types of mouth actions in three sign languages. Sign Language & Linguistics 11(1). 45–67. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dachkovsky, Svetlana & Wendy Sandler. 2009. Visual intonation in the prosody of a sign language. Language and Speech 52(2/3). 287–314. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Darwin, Charles. 1904 [1872]. The expression of the emotions in man and animals. London: John Murray.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ebbinghaus, Horst & Jens Heßmann. 2001. Sign language as multidimensional communication: Why manual signs, mouthings, and mouth gestures are three different things. In Penny Boyes Braem & Rachel Sutton-Spence (eds.), The hands are the head of the mouth, 133–152. Hamburg: Signum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. 1975. Similarities and differences between cultures in expressive movements. In Robert A. Hinde (ed.), Non-verbal communication, 297–312. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ekman, Paul. 1972. Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. In James K. Cole (ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation, 207–283. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1975. The universal smile: Face muscles talk every language, Psychology Today September. 35–39.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. An argument for basic emotions. Cognition and Emotion 61. 169–200. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Emotional and conversational nonverbal signals. In Jesús M. Larrazabel & Luis A. Pérez Miranda (eds.), Language, knowledge, and representation, 39–50. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ekman, Paul, Wallace V. Friesen & Joseph C. Hager. 2002a. Facial action coding system: Investigator’s guide. Salt Lake City, UT: A Human Face.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002b. Facial action coding system: The manual. Salt Lake City, UT: A Human Face.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Elliott, Eeva A., Mario Braun, Michael Kuhlmann & Arthur M. Jacobs. 2012. A dual-route cascaded model of reading by deaf adults: Evidence for grapheme to viseme conversion. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 17(2). 227–243. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Elliott, Eeva A. & Arthur M. Jacobs. 2013. Facial expressions, emotions, and sign languages. Frontiers in Psychology 41. .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fridlund, Alan J. 1997. The new ethology of human facial expressions. In James A. Russell & José-Miguel Fernandez-Dols (eds.), The psychology of facial expression, 103–129. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fuks, Orit & Yishai Tobin. 2008. The signs B and B-bent in Israeli Sign Language according to the theory of phonology as human behavior. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 22(4-5). 391–400. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos. 2002. Intonation and interpretation: Phonetics and phonology. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Speech Prosody , Aix-en-Provence, France, 47–57.
Happ, Daniela & Marc-Oliver Vorköper. 2006. Deutsche Gebärdensprache: Ein Lehr- und Arbeitsbuch. Frankfurt am Main: Fachhochschulverlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hockett, Charles. 1960. The origin of speech. Scientific American 203(3). 88–96. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hofmann, Markus, Lars Kuchinke, Sascha Tamm, Melissa L.H. Vo & Arthur M. Jacobs. 2009. Affective processing within 1/10th of a second: High arousal is necessary for early facilitative processing of negative but not positive words. Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience 9(4). 389–397. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hohenberger, Annette & Daniela Happ. 2001. The linguistic primacy of signs and mouth gestures over mouthings: Evidence from language production in German Sign Language (DGS). In Penny Boyes Braem & Rachel Sutton-Spence (eds.), The hands are the head of the mouth, 153–190. Hamburg: Signum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Izard, Carroll E. 2010. The many meanings/aspects of emotion: Definitions, functions, activation, and regulation. Emotion Review 2(4). 363–370. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Izard, Carroll E., Christina A. Fantauzzo, Janine M. Castle, O. Maurice Haynes, Maria F. Rayias & Priscilla H. Putnam. 1995. The ontogeny and significance of infants’ facial expressions in the first 9 months of life. Developmental Psychology 31(6). 997–1013. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnston, Trevor & Adam Schembri. 2006. Issues in the creation of a digital archive of a signed language. In Linda Barwick & Nicholas Thieberger (eds.), Sustainable data from digital fieldwork, 7–16. Sydney: Sydney University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keller, Jörg. 2001. Multimodal representations and the linguistic status of mouthings in German Sign Language (DGS). In Penny Boyes Braem & Rachel Sutton-Spence (eds.), The hands are the head of the mouth, 191–230. Hamburg: Signum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kelly, Spencer D., Aslı Özyürek & Eric Maris. 2010. Two sides of the same coin: Speech and gesture mutually interact to enhance comprehension. Psychological Science 21(2). 260–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klima, Edward & Ursula Bellugi. 1979. The rate of speaking and signing. In Edward Klima & Ursula Bellugi (eds.), The signs of language, 181–194. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krahmer, Emiel & Marc Swerts. 2009. Audiovisual prosody – Introduction to the Special Issue. Language and Speech 521. 129–133. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ladd, D. Robert. 1996. Intonational phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewin, Donna & Adam Schembri. 2011. Mouth gestures in British Sign Language. Sign Language & Linguistics 14(1). 94–114. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liddell, Scott K. 1980. American Sign Language syntax. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. Grammar, Gesture, and Meaning in American Sign Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matsumoto, David & Bob Willingham. 2009. Spontaneous facial expressions of emotion of congenitally and noncongenitally blind individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96(1). 1–10. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mayberry, Rachel, Joselynne Jacques & Gayle DeDe. 1998. What stuttering reveals about the development of the gesture-speech relationship. New Directions for Child Development 791. 77–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McIntire, Marina L. & Judy S. Reilly. 1988. Nonmanual behaviors in L1 and L2 learners of American Sign Language. Sign Language Studies 611. 351–375. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNeill, David. 1992. Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Cornelia & Roland Posner (eds.). 2002. The semantics and pragmatics of everyday gestures. The Berlin conference. Berlin: Weidler Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Neidle, Carol, Judy Kegl, Dawn MacLaughlin, Ben Bahan & Robert G. Lee. 2000. The syntax of American Sign Language. Functional categories and hierarchical structure. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nespor, Marina & Wendy Sandler. 1999. Prosody in Israeli Sign Language. Language & Speech 42(2/3). 143–176. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pellegrino, Francois, Christophe Coupe & Egidio Marsico. 2011. A cross-language perspective on speech information rate. Language 87(3). 539–558. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pittam, Jeffery & R. Klaus Scherer. 1993. Vocal expression and communication of emotion. In Michael Lewis & Jeannette M. Haviland (eds.), Handbook of emotions, 185–197. New York/London: Guilford Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reilly, Judy S. 2005. How faces come to serve grammar: The development of nonmanual morphology in American Sign Language. In Brenda Schick, Mark Marschark & Patricia E. Spencer (eds.), Advances in the sign language development of deaf children, 262–290. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reilly, Judy S., Marina McIntire & Ursula Bellugi. 1990. The acquisition of conditionals in American Sign Language – grammaticized facial expressions. Applied Psycholinguistics 11(4). 369–392. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reilly, Judy S., Marina McIntire & Howie Seago. 1992. Affective prosody in American Sign Language. Sign Language Studies 751. 113–128. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Russell, James A. 1980. A circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39(6). 1161–1178. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Russell, James A. & José-Miguel Fernandez-Dols (eds.). 1997. The psychology of facial expression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sandler, Wendy. 1999a. Cliticization and prosodic words in a sign language. In Tracy Hall & Ursula Kleinhenz (eds.), Studies in the phonological word, 223–255. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999b. Prosody in two natural language modalities. Language and Speech 42(2-3). 127–142. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Symbiotic symbolization by hand and mouth in sign language. Semiotica 1741. 241–275.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sandler, Wendy & Diane Lillo-Martin. 2006. Sign language and linguistic universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taub, Sarah. 2001. Language from the body: Iconicity and metaphor in American Sign Language. New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tobin, Yishai. 1997. Phonology as human behaviour. Durham & London: Duke University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vo, Melissa L.H., Markus Conrad, Lars Kuchinke, Karolina Urton, Markus J. Hofmann & Arthur M. Jacobs. 2009. The Berlin affective word list reloaded (BAWL-R). Behaviour Research Methods 41(2). 534–538. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vos, Connie de, Els van der Kooij & Onno Crasborn. 2009. Mixed signals: Combining linguistic and affective functions of eyebrows in questions in Sign Language of the Netherlands. Language and Speech 52(2/3). 315–339. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Waleschkowski, Eva. 2009. Focus in German Sign Language. Poster presented at Workshop “Nonmanuals in Sign Languages”. University of Frankfurt/Main.
Wierzbicka, Anna. 1996. Semantics: Primes and universals. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Emotions across languages and cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilbur, Ronnie B. 2009. Effects of varying rate of signing on ASL manual signs and nonmanual markers. Language and Speech 52(2/3). 245–285. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilbur, Ronnie B. & Cynthia Patschke. 1999. Syntactic correlates of brow raise in ASL. Sign Language & Linguistics 2(1). 3–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woll, Bencie. 2001. The sign that dares to speak its name: Echo phonology in British Sign Language (BSL). In Penny Boyes Braem & Rachel Sutton-Spence (eds.), The hands are the head of the mouth, 87–98. Hamburg: Signum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zipf, George Kingsley. 2012 [1949]. Human behaviour and the principle of least effort: An introduction to human ecology. Mansfield Centre: Martino Fine Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Aryani, Arash & Arthur M. Jacobs
2018. Affective Congruence between Sound and Meaning of Words Facilitates Semantic Decision. Behavioral Sciences 8:6 ► pp. 56 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue