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Glite Dictionary
💼 Not physical work 🙂 Face or body signal 🙂 A face signal
nonmanual

nonmanual

9.9
A facial or head movement that adds meaning in sign language
  • noun
  • /nɒnˈmæn.ju.əl/
  • Specialized
: no manual
  • In sign language, a raised eyebrow is a common nonmanual signal that can indicate a question.

Examples

  • Facial expressions are an important type of nonmanual communication in sign language.

  • The teacher used various nonmanual cues to help the students understand the emotional tone of the story.

  • For this new equation that Snow gave to Lewis-Beck, the values were urban manual workers .28, urban nonmanual workers -.47, rural nonmanual workers -3.07, and internal migrants .30, all of them significant (R2 equals .24).

    Academic text (1998)

How Manual

sign
87 1.8
nonmanual
  • Specialized
9.9

Surface Forms

nonmanual singular
nonmanuals plural

Morphology

nonmanual = manual (transparent) = non + manual

The meaning is straightforwardly compositional: it means 'not manual' in the relevant sign-language sense.

Etymology

The word nonmanual comes from non- 'not' and manual 'hand'. A nonmanual is a facial expression, head movement, or other signal in sign language that is not made with the hands.