ASL Linguistic Markers

Facial expressions, head movements, and body postures that serve grammatical and semantic functions in American Sign Language and other sign languages, distinct from emotional facial expressions. Common ASL linguistic markers include MM (meaning effortlessly or regularly, produced with lips pressed together), TH (meaning carelessly, with tongue protruding), CS (meaning recently, with cheek drawn to shoulder), INTENSE (meaning much greater than expected), PUFF (meaning a great deal, with cheeks puffed), and PS (meaning smoothly or easily). These markers can significantly alter the meaning of a signed message — for example, adding MM to a sign changes "he drove" to "he drove along effortlessly." A critical accessibility concern is that both untrained human observers and commercial facial expression recognition AI systems frequently misinterpret these linguistic markers as negative emotions (anger, sadness, disgust, fear), which could lead to discrimination against Deaf signers in settings where emotion recognition technology is deployed, such as job interviews, security screening, or classroom monitoring.