The notion that there are universal facial expressions of basic emotion remains a dominant idea in the study of emotion. Inspired by pragmatics, and based on behavioral ecology and psychological constructionism, this chapter provides an alternative to the concept of facial expression of basic emotion: the concept of natural facial expression. Actual, observable natural facial expressions do not mean self-contained, discrete basic emotions; they are instead related to different components of diverse emotional episodes. Their communicative function is not semantic (e.g., a smile does not means happiness) but pragmatic (e.g., a smile prompts, on the receiver’s side, important inferences about the context and course of the interaction between sender and receiver).
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