Most of our communication with other people occurs in ordinary conversation – that is, in spontaneous face-to-face dialogue. Whether we are talking at home, at work, or in a public place, the format is most likely to be face-to-face conversation. Many scholars treat conversation as “among the most pervasive forms of human interaction” (Goodwin, 1981, p. 12; see also Clark & Wilkes-Gibbs, 1986, p. 1; Levinson, 1983, p. 284). Because of the ubiquity of conversation, any serious examination of the communicative functions of faces must consider what our faces are doing during dialogue. Yet until very recently, the literature contained almost no empirical or theoretical resources. This chapter is a prospectus for this new area of research: the study of facial action in dialogue. We propose that the facial displays of conversants are active, symbolic components of integrated messages (including words, intonations, and gestures; see Bavelas & Chovil, 1994). After elaborating on these features, we describe the methodological implications of our theoretical framework and some preliminary findings.

The mobile face

One of the most striking aspects of the face in actual dialogue is the rapidity and precision of movement and change. In contrast to other primates, humans' faces are flexible, with an extraordinary number of highly enervated, independent muscle groups.