The Embodied Morphemes of Gaze

The paper presents some empirical studies aimed at singling out the meanings of specific items of gaze and of some of their parameters. It argues that the values on some parameters of gaze items are not comparable to phonemes in a verbal language, but rather to morphemes, since by themselves they convey some specific meanings. The different positions of the upper and lower eyelids are combined and the meanings conveyed by their possible values are investigated. It is found that wide open upper eyelids and raised lower eyelids convey activation and effort, while half open and half closed upper eyelids convey de-activation and relaxation. These embodied morphemes, stemming from particular physical states, become part of the meanings of gaze items conveyed by the combination of these eyelid positions.