The occurrence of filled and unfilled pauses was examined with respect to their location in phonemic clauses. Both types of hesitation were most frequent after the first word in the clause, regardless of length. These data are regarded as directly challenging the transitional probability theory of hesitations. The phonemic clause is proposed as the encoding unit of speech at the grammatical level.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Berry, J. (1953). Some statistical aspects of conversational speech. In Communication Theory, ed. W. Jackson (London).
2.
Bloomfield, L. (1933). Language (New York).
3.
Boomer, D. S. and Diitmann, A. T. (1962). Hesitation pauses and juncture pauses in speech. Language and Speech, 5, 215.
4.
Boomer, D. S. and Dittmann, A. T. (1964). “Speech rate, filled pause, and body movement in interviews.” J. nerv. ment. Dis., 139, 324.
5.
Carroll, J. B. (1953). The Study of Language (Cambridge, Mass.).
6.
Chomsky, N. (1959). Review of ‘Verbal Behavior’ by B. F. Skinner. Language, 35, 26.
7.
Dittmann, A. T. and Wynne, L. C. (1961). Linguistic techniques and the analysis of emotionality in interviews. J. abnorm. soc. Psychol., 63, 201.
8.
Francis, W. N. (1958). The Structure of American English (New York).
9.
Fries, C. G. (1952). The Structure of English (New York).
10.
Goldajan-Eisler, Frieda (1958). Speech production and the predictability of words in context. Quart. J. exp. Psychol, 9–10, 96.
11.
Harris, Z. S. (1951). Methods in Structural Linguistics (Chicago).
12.
Hill, A. A. (1958). Introduction to Linguistic Structures (New York).
13.
Hockett, C. F. (1960). Grammar for the hearer. Proc. Symposia in Applied Mathematics, Vol. 12, New York, 220 (Providence, R. I.).
14.
Jakobson, R. and Halle, M. (1956). Fundamentals of Language (The Hague).
15.
Little, L. (1963). The syntax of vocalized pauses in spontaneous cultivated speech. Ph.D. Dissertation, George Peabody College for Teachers.
16.
Lounsbury, F. G. (1954). Transitional Probability, Linguistic Structure and Systems of Habit-family Hierarchies. In Psycholinguistics: a survey of theory and research problems, ed. C. E. Osgood and T. A. Sebeok (Baltimore).
17.
Maclay, H. and Osgood, C. E. (1959). Hesitation phenomena in spontaneous English speech. Word, 15, 19.
18.
Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal Behavior (New York).
19.
Trager, G. L. and smith, H. L. (1951). An Outline of English Structure (Norman, Okla.).
20.
Wepman, J. M. and Jones, L. V. (1964). Five aphasias: a commentary on aphasia as a regressive linguistic phenomenon. In Disorders of Communication, ed. D. M. Rioch and E. A. Weinstein (Baltimore).
