# Looking angry and sounding sad: The perceptual analysis of emotional expression Trip Glazer
**Keywords:** Expression, Emotion, Perception, Evidence, Language “We see emotion.” – As opposed to what? – We do not see facial contortions and make the inference that he is feeling joy, grief, boredom. We describe a face immediately as sad, radiant, bored, even when we are unable to give any other description of the features. – Grief, one would like to say, is personified in the face. (Wittgenstein 1980, §570) A satisfying analysis of “emotional expression” ought to specify the necessary and jointly suffici
**Abstract:** According to the Perceptual Analysis of Emotional Expression, behaviors express emotions by making them perceptually manifest. A smile is an expression of joy because an observer who sees a smile can see joy. A pout is an expression of grief because an observer who sees a pout can see grief. And a growl is an expression of anger because an observer who hears a growl can hear anger. The idea is not simply that expressions can enable the perception of emotion, but that expressions essentially do so. In the course of defending this analysis against challenges, I develop a novel account of the relationship between language and expression.
**Authors:** [[Trip Glazer1]]