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Expressive smiles or leucosignals?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2010

Paul Bouissac
Paul Bouissac
Affiliation:
French Linguistics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1K7, Canada. paul.bouissac@gmail.com
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Abstract

The assumption that a complex and fuzzy notion like smile can be the basis of a scientific, rather than semantic, inquiry can only lead to confused and inconclusive results. It would be more productive to start with the well-defined and measurable patterns of the clearly visible contrasts that are produced on the human face by various muscular contractions around the white patches formed by the sclera and the teeth. These features are universal, whereas a common word, in whatever language, is necessarily ambiguous, culture-dependent, and historically rather than biologically determined.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 33 , Issue 6 , December 2010 , pp. 436 - 437
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

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