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Baker inquires into the meaning and purpose of common hesitative interjections in the speech of testees responding to word association tests. Paraphasias, deviations and disturbances in the stream of speech such as, 'ha', 'ah', 'um', 'er', 'hmm' are interpreted as marginal linguistic resistances. Resistance in the responses of testees is also betrayed by extra-linguistic mannerisms and acts such as fidgeting, scratching, yawning, belching, coughing, sighing, laughing, borborygms and passage of flatus, as well as by the use of temporal delay. This has been noted by other analysts. Ferenczi remarked on talkativeness as a resistance and Freud recognized his patient's (Dora's) dyspnoea, coughing and aphonia as 'somatic statements' which were guides to her anxiety and resistances. Both groups of acts, the marginal linguistic (paraphasias) and the extra-linguistic, are considered involuntary processes linked by common innervation by the autonomic nervous systems.
Baker suggests that the aim of this kind of 'speech' is an aggressive attempt to resolve an intrapersonal conflict. It is designed to restore the testee's disturbed equilibrium by silencing the tester and attaining the tension-free silence which is 'the unconscious aim of all speech'.