Verbal “fillers”

1. Repetition

2. Introductory fillers

in response to

to facilitate

error

false

to maintain

“Fillers” – words, phrases, noises (-er-), which do not contribute much to the new information of the utterance, but perform several valuable functions.

Normally while the speaker is speaking he’s simultaneously planning what he’s going to say next and monitoring, sometimes people do make phonetic errors which they correct promptly.

The production of speech is a very complex business. No wonder, few speakers are entirely fluent when they speak spontaneously. Normally spontaneous speech is full of false starts and hesitations. Typically the speaker in a conversation begins by uttering some sort of hesitation noise (-mm-, -um-, -er-, -erm- …) and then utters a word or a phrase and only then he begins to express his thought.

So the hesitation noises, helpful words and phrases, repetition, must be interpreted as performing the same function → to fill the silence and maintain the speaker’s right to speak while he organizes what he wants to say. Thus, these phenomena are called “fillers”.

Repetition of “no” or “yes” doesn’t add anything to the meaning of the utterance, it just give the speaker time to work out what he’s going to say next. It’s rare for a speaker to utter simple “yes”/ “no” in response to a general question.

1. – May I use this phone, sir?

– Yes, yes, of course, you may certainly use it.

2. – Mr. Robins wants to help you…

– Yes, yes, he does.

Sometimes the speaker repeats one or more words that the previous speaker’s just used, and agrees or disagrees.

– Is it going to be impossible?

– No, I’d not say impossible, no.

The repetition of what somebody else says is a common feature of all sorts of dialogues – formal/ informal.

Sometimes as speaker repeats what the previous speaker has said and what’s more in a very similar way we find the speakers repeat what they’ve said themselves.

Yes, there’s much crime in this area… yes… much crime

The function of informal conversation is to maintain social relationships. The function is not to facilitate the exchange of information but to allow the formation of social relationship. The role of a participant in an informal conversation is to agree (dis-) with what has been said and from time to time to shift the topic slightly either by introducing a new topic or by modifying what a previous speaker has said.

Introductory fillers

It’s very rare to meet a native speaker who doesn’t produce some sort of filler when he is asked direct questions and expected to produce an immediate reply.

The most common filler: “Well…” closely followed by some non-verbal noise. For example –er-.

• Well – er – we can certainly rely on him

• Well – em – I’m not quite sure.

In all cases this introductory filler’s followed by a pause. These forms have a so-called “channel – holding” function. They give notice that the speaker is about to produce a reply and (that) indeed he’s working on it. A different pattern of behavior can be observed in the speech of those who initiate utterances, who open a conversation or enter a conversation or enter a conversation without replying directly to a question.

A very common introductory technique is to utter a phrase which suggests that this is a personal opinion of the speaker, rather than an agreed one.