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Here's a simple experiment. First bend over so your torso is parallel to the ground, like an aircraft fuselage. Now imagine the aircraft doing a partial barrel-roll. You can't move your torso much that way, but you can move your head. When you are oriented in the normal upright position, that head-roll
is, in Western culture, a gesture that means "no".
Next, back to bending over; the second primary aircraft motion is called "pitch", and that's what a plane does when it dives or ascends. You can move your head like that, too, and when you are oriented upright, this gesture, in Western culture, means "yes".
The third primary aircraft motion is called "yaw". It leads to either a left turn or a right turn. To move your head this way, you would try to place your ear on a shoulder (without moving the shoulder). If you did this from side to side, this would be a distinct gesture different from either "yes" or "no", and yet Western culture does not seem to have assigned a particular meaning to it.
How about "maybe"?
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Annotation:
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Doesn't it already have that connotation on the Indian sub-continent?
[EDIT] Thinking back, I seem to remember it has that meaning too in France ("comme ci, comme ça"), which leads to the inevitable "invented by someone French" (however, this can be countered by assuming that France isn't part of "Western culture"). |
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I thought it meant stiff neck. |
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oh that's relieved my stiff neck, thanks vernon. |
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Using this same technique, you can achieve satisfaction in elimination while on the jon. Old Chinese technique.......+.......
Third motion quaranteed. |
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Actually, I would describe motions in terms of the torso in its
normal position, in which case a "nod" is pitch, a "no" is yaw
and this third movement would be "roll". |
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But, as noted, roll is quite widely used already. As an aside,
the relationship between yes/no and nod/shake is not
universal: a colleague of mine shakes his head for yes, and
nods for no. |
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[MaxwellBuchanan], if your colleague is from a non-Western culture, then that's why I specified the culture in the main text. |
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I would concur with [coprocephalous] that it is used with this meaning, and various others, in people of South Asian descent or culture. |
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I'm told that in some places (perhaps parts of India? I don't remember) the third, side-to-side head wobbling motion means "I'm thinking about it", much like in the UK we might say "Errrrrrr..." or "Ummmm..." before actually starting to reply. |
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//I specified the culture// Ah yes, so you did - apologies.
However, I do see Westerners using this movement when
they are undecided (usually whilst saying a long "Hmmmm"). |
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There are two different movements here: you can either roll your head from side to side, so it tilts left and then right; or you can slide your head side to side so it remains level. |
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That's true. By the same token, there are a total of six
basic
movements (roll, yaw, pitch, fore-back, left-right, up-
down). |
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Given that they can be combined pairwise (at least), there
should be a very much larger repertoire of compound
movements. For example, a combination of pitch
(nodding) and yaw (head shake) leads to a variety of
movements, depending on the rate, phase and amplitude
of the two components. (Eg, the nose can describe a
circle, a diagonal, the other diagonal, figure of 8, etc). |
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Some options would probably require novel anatomy. |
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Maybe we should start a YouTube-based competition to
see
who can demonstrate the greatest repertoire of compound
head movements? |
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// would probably require novel anatomy // |
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Perhaps not, but they might turn out to be one-time-only actions........ |
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In Bulgaria, 'Yes' and 'No' are reversed between the nod and shake. |
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