Group items tagged

This article explains why filler words, such as "like," "um," "uh," "you know" and "yeah", are used so extensively when we speak in conversation. What studies have own through this article is that the use of filler words has increased over the past 30 years. There are many factors that contribute to the utilization of filler words. As we know, there is no actual need for filler words, but nervousness and lack of confidence does play a factor in why filler words are used so much . Another reason we use filler words is because we are unsure about the topic of a specific conversation. Studies showed that when talking about a topic that is complex or that the subject is unfamiliar with, they tend to use more filler words as opposed to when a subject is talking about themselves or a simple topic.

This language talks about the use of filler words in sentences and speech. Used limitedly, there are nothing wrong with filler words, but they may take away from how confident and put together you appear. It also covers hedge words, and how they make your sentences less impactful.

This article took another take on filler words and expanded on how filler words can actually be useful if used in an intentional way.

This study explores the use of filler words through the lens of gender. Filler words are more commonly associated with women due to the "valley-girl" stereotype. However, these researchers found that, while filler words were used more frequently by women in the past, men use tend to use more filler words than women present-day. This paper discusses how the shift in gender roles and social dynamics between the genders contributes to speech patters.

Filler words ("um", "uh", "like", etc) play an important linguistic role in communication. This article explores explains the different types of filler words that exist, as well as the function that they serve in conversation. It also briefly touches on the use of filler words in different demographics.

This study from the University of Pennsylvania explores whether or not Asian-Americans have a certain "sound" to their speaking that distinguishes them from their White counterparts. White and Asian-American audio samples were curated for a test group to listen to in order to guess their races. On average, White and Asian-American participants in the study were around 65% accurate in their guesses, suggesting more success than random guessing. Some individual participants had accuracy as high as 85% or 90%. Some audio samples yielded guesses that were accurate upwards of 90% of the time. Asian-American participants were often more accurate in their guesses, but less able to express how they knew. White participants described the "upspeak" often used as a "lack of assertiveness." They also identified "increased pauses between words" and "jerkier speech". They also noted that Asian Americans used more "filler material" in their sentences like "um," "uh," or "like." I thought that was interesting because in Japanese, similar filler words like あのう and ええと are used. In Indonesian, we often hum as a filler, which I found to be different than typical English speakers' hums, and that I as a bilingual person have started to do when speaking English as well.

In spoken language, especially in conversations, people are prone to using filler words or - as linguists call them - discourse particles. By inserting these semantically and syntactically neutral words in an utterance, they allow for a speaker to pause while collecting their thoughts while preserving the position of speaker, a coveted social role.

A USC professor of Communications unexpectedly found himself at the center of controversy when he used the Chinese phrase "那个" (neige= literally "that"= the Chinese equivalent of the English "um") to illustrate the concept of "filler words." A letter to the USC administration, signed "Black MBA candidates class of 2022" decried the use of the word, because it sounded too close to the n-word for comfort.

For those of you like me - the grammatically challenged - function words are the smallish words that tie our sentences together. The. This. Though. I. And. An. There. That. "Function words are essentially the filler words," Pennebaker says. "These are the words that we don't pay attention to, and they're the ones that are so interesting." According to the way that Pennebaker organizes language, the words that we more often focus on in conversation are content words, words like "school," "family," "live," "friends" - words that conjure a specific image and relay more of the substance of what is being discussed.

This author of this article explains that using filler words like, 'like,' can actually be a sign of intelligence

This was an interesting study I read while doing my research experiment on filler words. It is a similar study however it examines disfluency not only due to filler words but other factors as well.

Forcing language isn't possible, it just happens on its own. Many people have looked down and wanted to get rid of these speech features but surprisingly using filler words says a few things about a person. Saying "um" doesn't just fill in pauses but also signals a new topic/idea wanting to be mentioned in the conversation. Whenever someone says filler words, they are working hard in a conversation. The article also goes into how women adopted vocal fry, which is where a person goes into their lowest register and usually sound very raspy and creaky. Many people complain about it but it's all cultural bias. The bias that people have on women's voice affects how people view speech feature that they have contributed to the English language.

This article by Candice Jalili on Time discusses the body language people tend to have when lying. Everyone can lie, in fact, the average American tells one to two lies each day. It explains how to detect honesty in a conversation, including where their eyes go and how their voice sounds. When someone is lying, they are likely uncomfortable, so they may fidget or have frequent voice cracks. Doctors from the healthcare community provide input on signs people display when lying. The main sections of this article are body cues, facial cues, tone of voice, and content of speech. Body cues include hand movement and itching/fidgeting. Facial cues are eye movement, mouth position, change in complexion, and sweating. The section on tone of voice consists of a high pitched voice and changes in volume while speaking. Lastly, content of speech includes phrases people use, filler words, and slip-ups.

"Our main conclusion is that delays in word onset facilitate word recognition, and that such facilitation is independent of the type of delay. ... Our findings support the perhaps counterintuitive conclusion that fillers like um can sometimes help (rather than hinder) listeners to identify spoken words. But critically, the data show that the same is true for silent pauses and pauses filled with artificially generated tones. "

What our speech reveals about us

New research suggests that dolphins may have a spoken language of their own; in a recent study by Russian researchers two dolphins communicated using a series of whistles and clicks (called pulses), and didn't ever interrupt each other. They also noted that the pulses sounded like sentences. With new recording technologies, the researchers were able to separate potential words from filler clicks, and the researchers hope to one day build a machine that will allow humans and dolphins to communicate.

You know when you're searching for a word, or trying to say something more nicely than you actually mean it, or trying to make up your mind after you've already started speaking? Whether you reach for an "um" or an "uh" in those situations might depend on whether you're male or female. Our verbal pauses actually speak volumes: "Like," as eighth-grade English teachers will tell you, makes the speaker sound young or ditzy; "sort of" smacks of uncertainty. But according to the linguist Mark Liberman, who works at the University of Pennsylvania and blogs at Language Log, even a difference as subtle as the one between "um" and "uh" provides clues about the speaker's gender, language skills, and even life experience.