Sentence:  Sometimes it is not a verbal stereotype - a `` How are you <WSD>now</WSD> '' ? or an `` I want to go home '' , or whatever - but a nonverbal one which reveals itself , gradually , as the condensed expression of more than one latent meaning . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  in the historical present; at this point in the narration of a series of past events