Vagueness and dreams: Analysis of body signals in vague dream telling

Abstract

The paper provides a conceptual definition of the notions of vagueness and approximation (a lack of detail or precision in the knowledge one has of something), hesitation and hastiness (the act of waiting before, or hurrying up while speaking), and overviews some reasons why people can be vague, approximate, hesitating or hasty. A study is presented in which participants tell a recent dream of theirs, and a qualitative analysis is proposed of the words, gestures and other bodily signals that communicate vagueness, approximation, hesitation, hastiness, and word search during dream-telling, by pointing out their semantic differences and the features that distinguish them. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.