When you speak, your face says a lot more than you know. The facial expressions can be understood by many people and in most of the cases, the understanding is subtle and automatic. Ohio State University researchers have discovered a particular facial expression that transcends language barriers. They have named the universal expression the ‘not face’ because it punctuates negative sentiments in a way similar to the word ‘not’.

The combination of a furrowed brow, pressed lips, and a raised chin make the ‘not face’. They found that such an expression is given by people when they express a negation like ‘I do not agree’.

It is language free. The researchers reported in a paper appeared in the journal Cognition that subjects made the ‘not face’ no matter they were speaking English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, or American Sign Language (ASL).

The research subjects not just made the ’not face’ when giving negative statements, but in fact a few of the ASL speakers also used the ‘not face’ without signing the word ‘not’.

Study author Aleix Martinez, a cognitive scientist at Ohio State University, said that the ‘not face’ was a kind of facial grammatical marker, somewhat indicating a phrase’s grammatical function, such as adding -ed after a verb for changing the tense.

He said that this is what makes the facial expression part of language. In an email, Dr. Martinez told The Christian Science Monitor, “Grammatical markers are part of the grammar. The grammar is what defines human language. Other forms of communication are not considered a language because they do not have grammar”.

The discovery of the fact that the ‘not face’ is universal may unlock the baffling origins of human language.

Martinez said that language that is grammar is among the humans’ most surprising cognitive abilities.