Delay sound

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A delay sound (also fill volume , embarrassment According to , Pause According , Flick sound , Eng. Hesitation vowel , hesitation sound ) is a mostly monosyllabic, stretchable in length discourse particle , the Germans usually uh , um or mhh that in spoken language to bridge a silence is used between two words or speaking units.

Pause for thought for the speaker

Particles of discourse fill pauses while the brain makes a choice of words, puts them in the correct order, and sets emphasis and grammar.

Motor and respiratory function

The way people breathe when they speak (or sing), the so-called speech breathing, differs considerably from their breathing without articulation of speech sounds, the so-called resting breathing. While the latter is only used for oxygen uptake and the release of CO 2 , speech breathing also fulfills the function of providing the air flow required for sound formation, the so-called phonation flow, which is primarily an expiratory air flow, as normally only exhaled air Air is used for sound formation ("bellows function").

In resting breathing, the inhalation phase ( inspiration ) and exhalation phase ( expiration ) are approximately the same length, while in speech breathing the ratio of inhalation and exhalation times shifts significantly in favor of the latter. The switch from breathing at rest to breathing takes place through a complex, neuronal process, mainly controlled in the cerebral cortex, as well as a motor process in which the breathing rhythm is changed and, with the involvement of the motor control of the vocal folds in the larynx, air is partially converted into phonation current .

Maintaining speech breathing depends on the fact that speech content or "speech material" is immediately available. In order not to continually fall back into resting breathing when there is an intermittent lack of provision and have to breathe in again and again, with the possible consequence of a respiratory imbalance ( e.g. hyperventilation syndrome), motor replacement routines with the help of delay sounds ( filler sounds or filler words ) fulfill the purpose of speech breathing to maintain and thus serve a considerable economization of the breathing process.

Communicative function

Delay sounds have no lexical meaning in the narrower sense and are in this respect comparable to interjections , but in contrast to these are usually not used with a special expressive or appeal function. In addition to the purely motor and respiratory function of maintaining speech breathing, they can also have a certain communicative function, namely maintaining linguistic contact with the listener and indicating that the speaker wants to continue his utterance or replace a previous word with a more appropriate one ( We're going to the airport, uh, to the train station ). This makes delay sounds one of the mechanisms that are involved in regulating the change of speaker in a conversation.

The borderline between embarrassed sounds and interjection is fluid in that embarrassment sounds such as interjections can be used for further expressive intentions, e.g. As an expression distancing irony or doubt ( So travel with her, uh, wife? , I do not, um, we should really do that? ). It is then not a question of deceleration sounds in the strict sense of the word, provided that the motor-respiratory cause is not given, but is only staged aloud in order to achieve a specific expressive effect.

Assessment of embarrassed sounds

Frequent and unmotivated use of delay sounds as a characteristic of individual speaker behavior is often interpreted as an indication of a lack of concentration or even the presence of speech disorders . The speech training and training for public appearances or sales calls are applied to the acquisition of liquid speech and thus avoiding delay sounds.

In pre-produced radio broadcasts to delay sounds usually comes out (a-stopper), the shorthand of speeches they are ignored. When preparing transcripts in social research , it depends on the methodological approach whether embarrassing sounds are transcribed or left out. In written language they only appear as a stylistic feature of sought-after orality.

Depending on the region, the words yes or stop are also inserted as particles of discourse.

Equivalents in other languages

Although the embarrassed sound does not have its own lexicalized content, it occurs in different languages ​​in different phonetic forms:

  • English: he, erm, uh, um
  • French: euh
  • Japanese: え っ と (etto), あ の お (anō)
  • Swedish: hm
  • Chinese: nà ge

humor

Since frequent or habitual use of embarrassed sounds is seen as a sign of inadequate preparation or lack of knowledge, or as a personal quirk, overdrawing imitation of such speaking behavior is a popular means of parody by politicians and other celebrities (e.g. Edmund Stoiber , Boris Becker , Barack Obama ).

literature

  • Bastian Conrad / PW Schönle: Hesitation vowels: a motor speech respiration hypothesis . In: Neuroscience letters 55.3 (1985), pp. 293-296
  • Bastian Conrad / PW Schönle: Speech and Respiration . In: European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience (1979), p. 226
  • H. Maclay / C. Osgood: Hesitation phenomena in spontaneous English speech. In: Word 15 (1959), pp. 19-44
  • RL Rose: The communicative value of filled pauses in spontaneous speech. Dissertation, University of Birmingham, 1998
  • Lawrence Schourup: The basis of articulation . In: Ohio State University Working Papers in Linguistics 25 (1983), pp. 1-13
Audio publication
  • Jörg Sobiella : Justice for the 'Uh' - saboteurs of understanding. Radio feature, MDR Kultur / rbb Kultur, first broadcast on December 28, 2019

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The little question: Why do you say "uh" or "uh"? ( Memento of the original from November 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kastenmaier.de
  2. ↑ https://sperrsitz.net/?p=4030 , accessed on January 30, 2020