WAITING TIME

**WAITING TIME**

*Time talks*. \--Edward T. Hall (*The Silent Language*)\
\
*Until the early 1300s, the length of an hour in London could vary from
38 minutes to 82 minutes. It wasn\'t because they had lousy clocks in
the Middle Ages. They just had a different attitude toward the passage
of that mysterious thing called time*. \--Curt Suplee (1994:H1)\
\
*Never check your watch at a party, unless it\'s time to go*.
\--Véronique Vienne (1997:156)\
\
*Chronemic
**[cue](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/cue.htm){target="_top"}***.
The number of minutes, hours, days, or weeks spent between a scheduled
appointment and a meeting with a business associate, medical
professional, program administrator, or friend.

*Usage*: Waiting time varies across cultures. Appointments with business
executives or government officials in Latin America, e.g., may require
longer waiting times than are customary for U.S. workers. The different
cultural norms for time spent waiting may trigger
[**anger**](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/anger.htm){target="_top"}
and strain
[**rapport**](rapport1.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/rapport1.htm"
target="_top"}. (***N.B.***: Waiting time is usually less with
attractive, liked, and high-status individuals.)\
\
*Cultural differences*. **1.** \"In northern Europe, the people are
exact and precise about time, much like Americans on the East Coast. The
northern Germans and Swiss are particularly punctual\" (Vargas
1986:127). **2.** \"In South America, most people know no other way of
living and never explain or apologize \[for being late\]. To my upper
Midwest sensitivity, their lack of respect for clock time is almost
unbelievable\" (Vargas 1986:127).\
\
***[Media](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/media.htm){target="_top"}***.
\"In Italy . . . television stations make no effort to begin their
programs on the hour or half hour. One program is run until finished,
and a new one begins with no concern for clock times or schedules\"
(Vargas 1986:127).

*Salesmanship*. \"It is vitally important that you do not hesitate or
pause in your entrance\" (Delmar 1984:31).\
\
*Time sense*. Along with balance, hearing, sight, smell, taste, and
touch, human beings have a highly developed sense of time. So time
oriented has our species become that we define distance in chronometric
terms. By international agreement, \". . . the meter is defined as the
distance light travels in 1/299,792,458 of a second\" (Itano and Ramsey
1993:64).\
\
***RESEARCH REPORTS***. As a nonverbal sign, waiting time (in the U.S.)
has eight levels of duration: *immediate*, *very short*, *short*,
*neutral*, *long*, *very long*, *terribly long*, and *forever* (Hall
1959).

Copyright 1999, 2000 (David B. Givens/[**Center for Nonverbal
Studies**](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/index.htm){target="_top"})

\
\


WALK

**WALK**

![On Walkabout](walk.jpg){border="0"
tppabs="http://members.aol.com/doder1/objects/walk.jpg" height="45%"
width="25%"}\
\
*He even walked like a crab, as if he were
[**cringing**](shoshrug.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/shoshrug.htm"
target="_top"} all the time*. \--Elia Kazan, commenting on actor James
Dean (Dalton 1984:53)\
\
\
***[Body
movement](bodymov1.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/doder1/bodymov1.htm"
target="_top"}***. To travel by taking steps with the legs and
**[feet](feet.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/feet.htm"
target="_top"}**, at a pace slower than jogging, sprinting, or running.

*Usage*: While we walk on our hind limbs to commute from point **A** to
point **B**, the manner and style of our gait (e.g., *marching*,
*mincing*, or *swaggering*) telegraphs
**[information](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/info.htm){target="_top"}**
about our status, feelings, and moods. Our bipedal walk\'s two-point
rhythm provides the neurological foundation for **a.** music\'s
syncopated beat, and **b.** the oscillating movements of
**[dance](dance1.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/doder1/dance1.htm"
target="_top"}**.\
\
*Anthropology*. A bipedal stride enabled our human ancestors to cover
great distances on African
**[grasslands](lawn1.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/doder1/lawn1.htm"
target="_top"}** ca. three m.y.a. Survival required that they stay
*continually on the move* (Devine 1985). The earliest physical evidence
for human-style walking dates back 3.5 m.y.a. to the tracks of three
upright ancients (probably australopithecines) who strolled across a bed
of fresh volcanic ash one day on the east-African savannah, in what is
now Laetoli, Tanzania. The footprints are nearly identical to those of
modern humans, only smaller.

*Evolution*. Our legs originated ca. 400 m.y.a. from the *lobe fins* of
Devonian fishes resembling *crossopterygians*.\
\
***[Media](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/media.htm){target="_top"}**
I*. \"I am in the moment, living the experience, when I am walking.\"
\--Joy Evans (*Washington Post*, November 25, 1995)

*Media II*. The scariest movie monsters walk upright like human beings.
Their resemblance to people renders them even more terrible than
ordinary land (i.e., quadrupedal), air, and sea monsters. Bipedal
dynosaurs (e.g., *Velociraptor* and *Tyrannosaurus* in the 1993 movie
*Jurassic Park*), insectoids (*Aliens*, 1996), and primates (*King
Kong*, 1933) resonate with horrific images of the upright human form.

*Pediatrics*. Babies begin advancing one limb at a time on all fours
between the 6th and 9th months of life, to *crawl* for the sheer
pleasure of movement (Chase and Rubin 1979). Infants are born with two
walking reflexes. The plantar reflex causes an infant\'s lower limbs to
contract the extensor muscles when their feet touch a horizontal
surface. Held under the arms, a baby can support its own weight and take
several steps forward. The plantar reflex lasts for two months, and is
not present in all infants. When a baby\'s leg touches the side of a
flat surface, it will automatically lift its leg and place its foot on
the horizontal plane. This, the tactile placing reflex, is also present
in many other terrestrial vertebrates.

*Philosophy I*. Followers of Aristotle (384-322 BC), who founded the
Lyceum in 335 BC, were known as *peripatetics* because they walked and
underwent \"restless practices\" (Flew 1979:265) as they thought and
shared ideas, rather than merely
[**sitting**](sit1.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/doder1/sit1.htm"
target="_top"} in place.

*Philosophy II*. The two-point rhythm of walking\'s stride clears the
mind for thinking. (***N.B.***: Perhaps, after telling the spinal
circuits to \"take a walk,\" the forebrain shifts to automatic pilot, so
to speak, freeing the neocortex to ponder important issues of the day.)
Many philosophers were lifetime walkers, who found that *bipedal
rhythms* facilitated creative contemplation and thought. In his short
life, e.g., Henry David Thoreau walked an estimated 250,000 miles\--ten
times the circumference of earth.\
\
*U.S. politics*. \"The black-footed species \[of Pacific albatross,
nicknamed \"gooney bird\"\] . . . has a more distinctive walk\--head
down and clavicles hunched like shoulders. \'After \[Richard Milhous\]
[**Nixon**](http://www.nixonfoundation.org/TheNixons/rnixon.html)
visited here \[Midway Island\] during Vietnam, the black-footed
species\' distinctive method of walking suddenly looked familiar,\' says
\[U.S. Fish and Wildlife manager Rob\] Shallenberger. \'Since then,
it\'s been referred to as the Nixon walk\'\" (Friend 2000:54).\
\

------------------------------------------------------------------------

***E-Commentary***: \"I was hoping you might be able to help me. I am a
New York based author writing a book called *The Encyclopedia of
Aggravations and Annoyances*. I am trying to find information on a
particular occurrence, when you\'re walking down the street and you try
to pass someone but you both dodge to the right then to the left. I have
read articles on this in the past, but I have been unable to find them
again. As the director of the Center for Nonverbal Studies, I was hoping
you might be able to point me in the right direction?\" Laura Lee
(4/5/01 8:56:24 PM Pacific Daylight Time)\

------------------------------------------------------------------------

***RESEARCH REPORTS***: **1.** \"The legs of an amphibian served the
same function as the inertial force of water for a swimming animal,
providing a fulcrum that enabled early
**[amphibians](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/amphibia.htm){target="_top"}**
to be little more than fish that swam on land\" (Jerison, 1976:11).
**2.** Basal ganglia initiate movement and \". . . are responsible for
the automatic movements we make without thinking\" (Restak, 1995:16).

*Neuro-notes I*. The natural rhythm of our upright, bipedal gait is
coordinated by the same spinal
**[paleocircuits](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/paleo.htm){target="_top"}**
which programmed the oscillatory *swimming* motions of the early fishes
(Grillner 1996).\
\
*Neuro-notes II*. Something deep in our vertebrate soul finds walking
for its own sake an evolutionary necessity. Impulses to go on walkabout
are coordinated by oscillatory circuits of the *spinal cord*, by
excitatory centers of the ***[aquatic
midbrain](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/aquatic.htm){target="_top"}***,
and by the **[basal
ganglia](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/basal.htm){target="_top"}**
of the ***[reptilian
forebrain](reptile.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/reptile.htm"
target="_top"}***. (***N.B.***: Neurologically, our nonverbal nature
lies in movement.)

See also
**[ARM-SWING](swing.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/swing.htm"
target="_top"}**,
**[GOLF](golf.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/golf.htm"
target="_top"}**,
**[RAPPORT](rapport1.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/rapport1.htm"
target="_top"}**,
[**SWAGGER-WALK**](swagger1.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/doder1/swagger1.htm"
target="_top"}.

Copyright **©** 1998 - 2001 (David B. Givens/**[Center for Nonverbal
Studies](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/index.htm){target="_top"}**)\
Detail of photo by George Rodger (copyright Magnum)

\
\
\
\
\
\

\
\


WOMEN'S SHOES

**[WOMEN\'S SHOES]{#WOMEN'S SHOES}**

*That I am part of the earth my feet know perfectly . . .* \--D.H.
Lawrence

***![Shoes of a Woman](B27981.jpg){border="0"
tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/objects/B27981.jpg"
height="35%" width="25%"}\
\
**I do not buy shoes. I covet them*. \--Elizabeth Kastor (1994:28)\
\
*Besides, one look at the shoes, he \[George Masters, \"Stylist to the
Stars\"\] said, told him all he needed to know about a woman*. \--Robert
McG. Thomas, Jr. (1998:A6)\
\
*Clothing cue*. A feminine style of
**[footwear](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/footwear.htm){target="_top"}**
marked with **[messaging
features](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/messafea.htm){target="_top"}**
designed to contrast with those of **[men\'s
shoes](mens.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/mens.htm"
target="_top"}** (see, e.g., **[HIGH
HEEL](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/highheel.htm){target="_top"}**).

*Usage*: In expressive style, women\'s shoes **a.** *reveal*, **b.**
*conceal*, or **c.** *mask* the feminine
**[foot](feet.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/feet.htm"
target="_top"}**.

*Bare*. Women\'s revealing shoes bare the toes, heel, ankle, and (or)
top of the foot (i.e., the *instep*). Revealing shoes call attention to
a woman\'s thinner bones, smaller joints, and delicate achilles tendons.
Examples include **a.** 1920s low-cut *pumps*, with straps buttoned or
buckled across the instep; **b.** 1930s *high heels* with ankle straps
and peep-toes; and **c.** pointed, *stiletto heels* of the 1950s and 60s
(which may reveal *toe cleavage*, i.e., the hollow between the big toe
and 2nd digit).

*Bind*. Concealing shoes cover, yet do not hide, the feet. Rather, they
enhance the foot\'s feminine silhouette, contour, and shape. A
concealing shoe\'s laces and close, binding fit transmit a suggestive,
erotic message of tight containment. Types of concealing shoes include
**a.** ankle-high buttoned boots of the 1900s; **b.** 1970s mid-calf
boots, cut close to the leg; and **c.** tight, patent-leather,
ankle-high shoes worn by pop singers of the 1980s (e.g., Madonna).

*Mask*. Revealing and concealing shoes proclaim femininity,
individuality, and sexual allure. The lady\'s masking shoe, in contrast,
covers the foot but suggests little about sexuality, individuality, or
mood. Indeed, because they are visually quiet, masking shoes downplay
personality by discouraging its notice. Often worn with socks,
\"sensible\" shoes tend to be boxy, sturdy, and squared-off (i.e.,
masculine).\
\
***[Media](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/media.htm){target="_top"}***.
**1.** In the *Washington Post Magazine*, Elizabeth Kastor poetically
describes the expressive force of women\'s shoes: \"Ahhhhh, shoes. Such
potent symbols of sexuality and fertility. Think of Cinderella. Think of
the old woman who lived in a shoe and her numerous children. Think of
the dancer in the movie \'The Red Shoes\' whose feet\--and conflicted
desires\--danced her to death. Think of tying shoes to the back of the
wedding car. Think of shoes as a narrow space in which something is
inserted . . .\" (Kastor 1994:29). **2.** \"\[Sonja\] Bata \[founder of
the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto\] says \[Edward\] Maeder \[museum
director\] is absolutely right \[about his statement, \'Skinny shoes
survived *because* people couldn\'t wear them\'\], adding that women
always have saved shoes of their childhood and youth and marriage, when
their feet were at their daintiest\" (Trueheart 1995:C10).

*Observations*. **1.** 2,600 years ago, Greek women favored white and
red, snug-fitting leather shoes, and owned as many as 20 pairs at a
time. **2.** Forty to 60 new styles of women\'s shoes appear each year
in U.S. shopping malls (Fleishman 1994). **3.** \"In the marriage
rituals of the Middle Ages, the father passed the bride\'s shoe to the
groom . . .\" (Kastor 1994:30). **4.** Today, American women buy an
average five pairs of shoes a year (American men average two).\
\
*Personality*. Women\'s shoes display more \"personality\" than do
men\'s. Many styles, e.g., are given personal names, such as the
Nordstrom line\'s \"Angelique,\" \"Gretta,\" and \"Bree.\" \"So, how
does it work? \'Well, say there\'s a tailored-type boot, and it looks
like the kind of shoe a woman might wear to a concert,\' he \[Richard
Leeker, a vice president and \"senior line builder\" at Brown Group\]
says, \'Well, we call it \"Concert\"\'\" (Fleishman 1994:F4).

*Evolution I*. The slimness of women\'s footwear evolved from a narrow
shoe known as the *poulaine* (originally from Poland), popular with men
in the 12th and 15th centuries. So long was the tip of its tapering
toe\--and so suggestive when wagged back and forth\--that in 1468, the
Pope condemned the poulaine as \"a scoffing against God.\" Near the end
of the 15th century, the masculine version of the poulaine was driven to
extinction by a wider, broad-toed shoe, shaped like the bill of a duck,
which completely replaced it.

*Evolution II*. While the poulaine died out, its
**[message](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/message.htm){target="_top"}**
lived on, and the
**[submissive](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/submit.htm){target="_top"}**
meaning of slim, pointed toes (\"I am harmless\--you may approach\";
see, e.g., **[BARBIE
DOLL](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/barbie.htm){target="_top"}**) is
still fashionable today. Narrow pumps and high heels, e.g., which
incorporate the poulaine\'s timid taper, are among the most popular and
attractive of women\'s shoes.

See also **[ARM
WEAR](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/armwear.htm){target="_top"}**,
**[LEG
WEAR](legwear1.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/doder1/legwear1.htm"
target="_top"}**.

Copyright 1999, 2000 (David B. Givens/**[Center for Nonverbal
Studies](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/index.htm){target="_top"}**[](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/index.htm){target="_top"})


WORD

**WORD**

![Verbal Dictionary](word.jpg){border="0"
tppabs="http://members.aol.com/doder1/objects/word.jpg" height="35%"
width="30%"}\
\
*\"I will say it to you in one word,\" Don Quixote answered, \"and that
word is the following: \'Set free at once that lovely lady whose tears
and mournful countenance show plainly that you are carrying her away
against her will and that you have done her some shameful wrong*.*\'\"*
\--Miguel de Cervantes (1605:455-56)\
\
*We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were
taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas only, and not for things
themselves*. \--Locke, *Essay on Human Understanding*

*There are no words*. \--Zinedine Zidane, French soccer player (after
France beat Brazil to win the 1998 World Cup; Wilner 1998:C1)\
\
\
*Verbal
**[signal](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/signal.htm){target="_top"}***.
**1.** In
***[speech](speech1.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/doder1/speech1.htm"
target="_top"}***, an articulated sound or sounds uttered **a.** to
convey
**[information](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/info.htm){target="_top"}**,
**b.** to express
**[emotion](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/emotion.htm){target="_top"}**,
**c.** to suggest ideas or opinions, or **d.** to greet a person, place,
or thing. **2.** In manual *sign language*, an articulated body movement
or movements used to communicate as in *speech* (above). **3.** In
*writing*, an alphabetical, ideographic, pictographic, or symbolic
version of a verbal sound or body motion which may be stored, e.g.,
through inscriptions carved in *stone*, characters printed on *paper*,
or images saved on *computers*.

*Usage I*: Words have diverse uses as labels for objects (e.g.,
\"walnut\"), directions (\"west\"), and activities (\"walk\"). Some
words (e.g., \"the\") have linguistic uses rather than referential or
conceptional meanings. Words are spoken, signed, or written in the
sequential order governed by cultural rules, *syntax*, and *grammar*.

*Usage II*: A great deal of our verbiage is about
**[artifacts](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/artifact.htm){target="_top"}**
(e.g., **[Big
Macs](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/bigmac.htm){target="_top"}®**,
**[blue
jeans](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/bluejean.htm){target="_top"}**,
and
**[shoes](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/footwear.htm){target="_top"}**),
i.e., about items in the ever-growing stockpile of material goods we
possess or dream of owning. The partnership between **[consumer
products](consprod.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/consprod.htm"
target="_top"}** and words may be as ancient as Oldowan stone tools and
the likely labels our ancestors used to articulate knowledge of their
design. (***N.B.***: Echoing prehistory, artifacts and brand names form
a natural partnership in the mind\--and in the media\--today.)\
\
*Usage III*. Words themselves may become consumer products: \"Protecting
English against the erosion of time has been a recurring theme in
attempts to save the language from decay. The time capsule entombed by
Westinghouse at the 1939-40 New York World\'s Fair was an attempt to
preserve Anglo-American civilization for a time when the language would
be as dead as Sumerian\" (Bailey 1991:223).

*Anthropology*. \"To know the \'true name\' of a thing was thought to be
a source of power over it in many traditions\" (Deacon 1997:321).

*Animal behavior*. Studies of apes, dogs, parrots, and sea lions have
\"demonstrated that other animals can acquire and use words\" (Lieberman
1991:113). Studies of chimpanzees have shown that humans are \"not,
after all, the *only* tool-making animals\" (Goodall 1990:5).\
\
*Astronomy I*. \"At its 17th general assembly in 1979, the IAU
\[International Astronomical Union\] decided that, except for one high
mountain already named for Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell, only
feminine names will identify Venusian surface features\" (Lupfer
1993:3).\
\
*Astronomy II*. \"In general, neither the names of politicians,
philosophers or military figures of the last two centuries, nor the
names of people associated with any still-practiced religion, are
accepted \[as names for newly discovered comets\]\" (Lupfer 1993:3).\
\
*Author\'s note*: When asked about the irony of using words to study
[**nonverbal
communication**](nvcom.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/nvcom.htm"
target="_top"}, I answer that words help raise nonverbal issues to a
more conscious awareness. (***N.B.***: As Joseph Conrad prefaced in *The
Nigger of the \"Narcissus\"*: it is \"by the power of the written word,
to make you hear, to make you feel\--it is, before all, to make you
*see*.\")\
\
*Evolution*. The earliest words may have been nouns. A *noun* (Middle
English *name*, from Indo-European ***no-men-***, \"name\") is used to
label persons, places, animals, plants, qualities, actions, and things.\
\
***[Gesture](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/gesture.htm){target="_top"}**
origin*. \"We take the view that language is based in gesture\--that is,
bodily movement to which human beings attach meaning\" (Armstrong et
al.1995:3). \[Author\'s note: Words themselves are produced by
articulated body movements of the vocal tract.\]

*Infancy*. At ca. 18 months, toddlers display a keen interest in naming
things, and their vocabulary of nouns rapidly grows.\
\
*Literary criticism*. \"The very act of naming something is an attempt
both to define it and possess it\" (Cohen 1993:3).

*Literature*. \". . . words clothed in reason\'s garb . . . .\" \--John
Milton (*Paradise Lost, Book II*; 1667)

***[Media](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/media.htm){target="_top"}***.
In the beginning was the *Pause*, which became the *Real Thing*.
**1929**: \"The Pause that Refreshes.\" **1961**: \"Things go Better
with Coke.\" **1969**: \"It\'s the Real Thing.\" **1982**: \"Coke is
it!\" **1993**: \"Always the Real Thing.\" **1995**: According to a
Gallup Organization poll, over 60% of the Chinese population say they
have heard the brand name,
***[Coca-Cola](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/cocacola.htm){target="_top"}*®**.\
\
*Odd object words*. **1.** The word \"chad,\" of unknown origin, is the
name for a small, circular piece of paper or cardboard produced by a
paper punch (source: *The American Heritage Dictionary*). **2.** The
word \"gry,\" for a measurement which is the equivalent of 0.008 inches,
comes from the Greek word for a speck of dirt beneath a fingernail
(source: *The Dent Dictionary of Measurement*). **3.** \"Jun,\" the name
of a single star located in the constellation Cepheus, belongs to movie
star Johnny Depp, according to the International Star Registry in
Ingleside, Illinois (Cohen 1993:3). **4.** Some 1,474 other names for
\"crayfish,\" including, Danish *signalkrebs*, Mayan *bab*, and two
Aboriginal Australian manual signs for the
[**arthropod**](shellfis.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/shellfis.htm"
target="_top"}, have been compiled by C. W. Hart, Jr., in his 1994
*Dictionary of Non-Scientific Names of Freshwater Crayfishes*
(Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution).\
\
*PET imaging*. **1.** \"In this positron emission tomography study we
examined the pattern of neural activation associated with performance on
number-letter sequencing \[NLS\], a purported measure of working memory
included in the new Wechsler scales for memory and intelligence. After
controlling for basic audition, verbalization, and attention, areas of
activation were observed in the orbital frontal lobe, dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex, and posterior parietal cortex. This is highly
consistent with reports from the literature on activation patterns
associated with working memory. *More activation peaks were observed in
the right hemisphere, suggesting the participants utilized visualization
of the verbal information*\" (Haut et al. 2000; italics added by D.
Givens to emphasize the neural link between verbal and nonverbal).
**2.** Activation was demonstrated in the right posterior temporal lobe,
right orbital frontal region, right posterior parietal cortex, right
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, right posterior premotor cortex, right
posterior parietal cortex, and the precuneus midline; regarding the
precuneus midline, slightly greater on the left) (Haut et al. 2000).
**3.** \"In conclusion, this study provides support for NLS as a task
with a working memory component. Beyond basic verbal attention span,
participants used areas of the brain associated with temporary storage,
active maintenance, and organization of information. *Despite the verbal
nature of the task, there was a large degree of right hemisphere
activation*, which may have been a result of utilization of visuospatial
components of working memory. At this point, clinicians should be
cautious with interpretations regarding laterality of deficits when
observing deficient performance on NLS, despite its apparent verbal
nature\" (Haut et al. 2000; italics added).\
\
****

------------------------------------------------------------------------

E-Commentary: \"Prior to becoming an attorney, I was a police detective
for a number of years. I am continually amazed how attorneys at
depositions are typically so focused on their outlines \[i.e., on
*words*\] than they completely ignore nonverbal, and even verbal,
indicators that practically give-away the case. My presentation focuses
on spotting and using these observations to determine where to probe for
the truth and what to do with it when you get it.\" H.L., USA (8/9/99
4:21:15 AM Pacific Daylight Time)\

------------------------------------------------------------------------

\
*Neuro-notes I*. At the level of neurons, saying, signing, or writing a
word is not unlike striking flakes from a pebble core to make a stone
tool. In right-handed people, all four activities involve premotor and
motor areas on the left side of the forebrain (which controls the right
side of the body). Older regions of forebrain\--including the **[basal
ganglia](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/basal.htm){target="_top"}**
and the thalamus of the **[reptilian
brain](reptile.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/reptile.htm"
target="_top"}**\--underlie tool making and the ability to speak.
Through general coordination of motor control, the substantia nigra of
the midbrain is part of the speech process, as well. The hindbrain\'s
neocerebellum, too, plays a role in coordinating the voluntary movements
of our very verbal digits and very vocal tongue. Thus, neural templates
for tools and words are shared on many levels of the brain.

*Neuro-notes II*. At the highest level, word order is overseen by
circuits of the prefrontal cortex, which guides the sequential
processing needed to build an artifact or utter a phrase. Regulating
speech sounds is the inferior frontal gyrus (Brodmann\'s areas 44/45).
Controlled by the frontal lobes, our fingers and speech organs follow
the correct sequences required to produce oral statements and material
tools.\
\
*Neuro-notes III*. The supplementary motor area of the neocortex is
involved in sequential processing, as well, both for verbal and some
nonverbal (e.g., mime-cue) articulations. \"We have found a group of
cells in the cerebral cortex of monkeys whose activity is exclusively
related to a sequence of multiple movements performed in a particular
order. Such cellular activity exists in the supplementary motor area . .
. . We propose that these cells contribute a signal about the order of
forthcoming multiple movements, and are useful for planning and coding
of several movements ahead\" (Tanji and Shima 1994:413).

*Neuro-notes IV*. **1.** \"Object-naming is unique to man because the
anatomical basis of the ability \[the *angular gyrus*\] is also unique
to man\" (Lancaster 1968:454). **2.** As reported in the November 17,
1994 issue of *Nature*, word recognition resides in the anterior
fusiform gyrus of the inferior temporal lobe, according to Gregory
McCarthy and colleagues at Oxford University. **3.** \"In both studies,
generation of color words selectively activated a region in the ventral
temporal lobe just anterior to the area involved in the perception of
color, whereas generation of action words activated a region in the
middle temporal gyrus just anterior to the area involved in the
perception of motion\" (Martin et al. 1995:102 \[*Science*\]).

*Neuro-notes V*. \"Scientists at the National Institute of Mental Health
in Bethesda, Md., have found that knowledge about the names of animals
and tools\--two broad categories of objects\--gets handled by largely
separate networks of brain regions\" (Bower 1996:103).\
\
*Neuro-notes VI*. Concrete words are processed more efficiently than
abstract words (Kiehl et al. 1999). According to fMRI data, word
processing involves the bilateral fusiform gyrus, the anterior cingulate
gyrus, the left middle temporal gyrus, the right posterior superior
temporal gyrus, and the left and right inferior frontal gyrus (Kiehl et
al. 1999). Abstract and concrete word processing both involve the right
anterior temporal cortex (Kiehl et al. 1999). \"The results are
consistent with recent positron emission tomography \[PET\] work showing
right hemisphere activation during processing of abstract
representations of language. The results are interpreted as support for
a right hemisphere neural pathway in the processing of abstract word
representations\" (Kiehl et al. 1999).\
\
See also **[HUMAN
BRAIN](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/human.htm){target="_top"}**,
**[NONVERBAL
WORLD](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/nvworld.htm){target="_top"}**,
[**VERBAL
CENTER**](verbal1.htm){tppabs="http://members.aol.com/doder1/verbal1.htm"
target="_top"}.

Copyright **©** 1998 - 2001 (David B. Givens/**[Center for Nonverbal
Studies](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/index.htm){target="_top"}**)\
*American Heritage Dictionary* (Third Edition) entry for \"word\"
(copyright 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Co.)


YAWN

**[YAWN]{#YAWN}\
\
![Deep Breath](yawn.jpg){border="0"
tppabs="http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/objects/yawn.jpg" height="35%"
width="25%"}**

***[Sign](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/sign.htm){target="_top"}***.
**1.** A sudden, deep *inhalation of air* accompanied by an open mouth,
tightened cheek muscles, eye closure, and tearing. **2.** An involuntary
*deep breath* due to sleepiness, fatigue, boredom, or emotional
conflict. **3.** A socially contagious *gaping* behavior, often
difficult to suppress.

*Usage*: Usually a sign of drowsiness, yawning also occurs, e.g., in
tense business meetings as a sign of *mild anxiety*, *disagreement*, or
**[uncertainty](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/uncert.htm){target="_top"}**.
When alert listeners yawn in response to controversial suggestions or
ideas, the yawn signals a **[probing
point](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/probe.htm){target="_top"}**,
i.e., an opportunity to explore unverbalized objections or clarify
unvoiced concerns.

***RESEARCH REPORTS***: **1.** \"I have also noticed that under slight
fear there is a strong tendency to yawn\" (Darwin 1872:291). **2.**
Yawning is a *displacement* sign of *mild conflict* (Tinbergen 1951).
**3.** In primates, yawning appears in *stress or conflict* situations
(Altmann 1967). **4.** Yawning is seen in *uneasy* or *aggressive*
chimpanzees, gorillas, gibbons, baboons, rhesus monkeys, patas monkeys,
and (rarely) vervet monkeys (Lawick-Goodall 1968). **5.** Yawning is a
sign of *stress or apathy* in bonnet macaques (Rahaman and Parthasarathy
1968). **6.** In humans, the yawn includes \"closing of the eyes and
lowering of the brows\" (Brannigan and Humphries 1972:58). **7.** In a
tense setting, *adrenaline* lowers the blood\'s oxygen level and yawning
speeds reoxygenation (Hill 1977).

*Neuro-notes*. Yawning is a reflexive, highly contagious act. Babies
born without a brain above the midbrain (i.e., *anencephalic* infants)
can still yawn (and *stretch*). Stimuli associated, e.g., with
tiredness, the sight of others yawning, or social stress pass **a.**
from higher brain centers, **b.** to respiratory centers in the
brain-stem\'s medulla, and then **c.** to somatic motor nuclei of the
*trigeminal* (cranial V) and *facial* (cranial VII) nerves. Excitement
of motor fibers in the facial nerve and in the trigeminal\'s mandibular
branch opens the mouth widely and stimulates activity in the *phrenic*
(cervical 3, 4, and 5) nerves to the diaphragm, and *intercostal*
(thoracic 1-12) nerves to the external intercostal muscles, causing a
deep inspiration followed by deep exhalation.

See also
**[CRY](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/cry.htm){target="_top"}**,
**[FEAR](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/fear.htm){target="_top"}**.

Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000 (David B. Givens/[**Center for Nonverbal
Studies**](http://members.aol.com/nonverbal2/index.htm){target="_top"})