Occurrences and Durations of Filled Pauses in Relation to Words and Silent Pauses in Spontaneous Speech

Abstract

Filled pauses (i.e., gaps in speech production filled with non-lexical vocalizations) have been studied for more than sixty years in different languages. These studies utilize many different approaches to explore the origins, specific patterns, forms, incidents, positions, and functions of filled pauses. The present research examines the presence of filled pauses by considering the adjacent words and silent pauses that define their immediate positions as well as the influence of the immediate position on filled pause duration. The durations of 2450 filled pauses produced in 30 narratives were analyzed in terms of their incidence, immediate positions, neighboring silent pauses, and surrounding word types. The data obtained showed that filled pauses that were attached to a word on one side were the most frequent. Filled pauses occurring within a word and between two silent pauses were the longest of all. Hence, the durations of filled pauses were significantly influenced by the silent pauses occurring in their vicinity. The durations and occurrence of filled pauses did not differ when content or function words preceded the filled pause or followed it. These findings suggest that the incidence and duration of filled pauses as influenced by the neighboring words and silent pauses may be indicative of their information content, which is related to the processes of transforming ideas into grammatical structures.

Filled pauses in child-adult conversations: Data from 5- and 9-year old Hungarian children

“…However, at age of 5 the most common turn-taking time-gaining means are filled pauses which later become hát 'well'. The use of turn-taking time-gainers appeared in all children, but their frequency and type differed between individuals; this is also in line with other research that has pointed to individual strategies in the areas of the use of disfluencies and discourse markers [2], [20].…”

“…[ǝm], [ǝh] and other forms [1], [2]. The occurrence of hesitations is related to the complexity of language planning and language production [3], and is also influenced by many other factors, such as speech type, gender, or individual characteristics [4], [5].…”

Silent pauses and disfluencies in consecutively interpreted Hungarian speech

“…This confirms our third hypothesis. Gósy [15] found that the duration of filled pauses highly depends on the position of filled pauses, whether they are between two silent pauses or they are attached to a word. We didn't consider this factor, but a future avenue of research could be to examine whether the phonetic position of filled pauses changed as interpreter trainees progressed in their training.…”

Word final prolongations: acoustic characteristics and influence on speech fluency perception

“…Prolongation is a stuttering-like disfluency (Costa, Ritto, Juste & Andrade, 2017) and it can be characterized as a sound (consonant or vowel) spoken with a larger duration than normally expected (Johnson, 1961), causing an inappropriate elocution duration, and it may be accompanied by pitch elevation (Yaruss, 1998). In the literature related to linguistics, the prolongation is called elongation or filled pauses (Betz & Kosmala, 2019;Gold, Ross, & Earnshaw, 2018;Defracq & Plevoets, 2018 ) and it is defined as a conversational marker (Betz & Kosmala, 2019;Bellinghausen, Fangmeier, Schröder, & Keller, 2019) until the utterance is complete (Betz & Kosmala 2019;Gósy, 2019), showing the end-of-shift indication, attention and confirmation of the listener (Gósy, 2019), related or not to difficulties that the speaker has in planning and formulating what is said. Some studies point to the presence of prolongation in the speech of the fluent individuals, regardless of age (Pinto, et al 2013;Rose & Watanabe, 2019;Andrade, & Martins, 2007;Götz, 2019;Andrade & Martins-Reis, 2011;Castro, Martins-Reis, Baptista, & Celeste, 2014;Silva, Fabron, Picoloto, & Oliveira, 2016;Nogueira, Oliveira, Giacheti, & Moretti-Ferreira, 2015;Natke, Sandrieser, Pietrosky, & Kalveram, 2006), reinforcing the prolongation being directed as a discursive marker (Betz & Kosmala, 2019;Bellinghausen et al, 2019;Gósy, 2019) that can be used as a strategic tool of the interlocutor in communication (Celeste & Reis, 2013).…”

“…In the literature related to linguistics, the prolongation is called elongation or filled pauses (Betz & Kosmala, 2019;Gold, Ross, & Earnshaw, 2018;Defracq & Plevoets, 2018 ) and it is defined as a conversational marker (Betz & Kosmala, 2019;Bellinghausen, Fangmeier, Schröder, & Keller, 2019) until the utterance is complete (Betz & Kosmala 2019;Gósy, 2019), showing the end-of-shift indication, attention and confirmation of the listener (Gósy, 2019), related or not to difficulties that the speaker has in planning and formulating what is said. Some studies point to the presence of prolongation in the speech of the fluent individuals, regardless of age (Pinto, et al 2013;Rose & Watanabe, 2019;Andrade, & Martins, 2007;Götz, 2019;Andrade & Martins-Reis, 2011;Castro, Martins-Reis, Baptista, & Celeste, 2014;Silva, Fabron, Picoloto, & Oliveira, 2016;Nogueira, Oliveira, Giacheti, & Moretti-Ferreira, 2015;Natke, Sandrieser, Pietrosky, & Kalveram, 2006), reinforcing the prolongation being directed as a discursive marker (Betz & Kosmala, 2019;Bellinghausen et al, 2019;Gósy, 2019) that can be used as a strategic tool of the interlocutor in communication (Celeste & Reis, 2013). Despite these previous findings, prolongation is considered as a typical stuttering disorder in the speechlanguage literature (Costa et al 2017;Natke et al 2006;Campbell & Hill, 1998;Souza, Paschoalino, Cardoso & Oliveira, 2013;Tumanova, Zebrowsi, Throneburg & Kayikci, 2011).…”