Hesitation Phenomena Free Essays

Hesitation phenomena is one of two types of pauses that occur during our speech and the other type is breathing pauses. Although hesitation does not have a linguistic function, it plays a role in the study of speech production and speech planning. There are three main categories of hesitation: 1- silent pauses,   2- filled pauses, which composes of non-linguistic or non-lexical vocalizations and the most common ones are: umm, ah and er. We will write a custom essay sample on Hesitation Phenomena or any similar topic only for you Order Now 3- speech disturbances such as slips of the tongue, stuttering, repeating, omitting or repairing speech. Psycholinguists have paid special attention as to where these pauses -whether silent or filled- occur in our speech. Some studies- like the one conducted by Boomer 1965- found that pauses are more frequent after the first word in the phonemic clause. On the other hand, some studies found that most pauses occur before important lexical words. Even though the findings of these studies goes to different directions, it has one thing in common that it suggest that speech planning and speech production are processes that happen in a parallel manner.In this experiment subjects are asked to perform tasks on speaking spontaneously and reading aloud as well as talking about a concrete object and an abstract concept. All topics are determined by the experiment conductors. The aim of this experiment is to ascertain whether the frequency of hesitation is higher in one of the tasks and to find whether hesitation occurs mostly in clauses or between them. Subjects All subjects participants in this experiment are undergraduate females ages 20-24 and speak English as a second language.Experiments conducted on 5 subjects. Methods : We’ve applied our experiments systematically putting in considerations the rules we must follow in order to get clear results. First of all we’ve chosen three different topics for our experiments : ( Reading aloud Vs Spontaneous speech ):1 †¢ We’ve chosen ( Chocolate production ) as a topic that the participants should talk about , a passage which is 17 lines including difficult concepts and lexical words . †¢ Then we’ve decided to have a standardized duration of recording each data which is one minute . The participants included in this experiments will read the passage , at the same time we prepares a recorder to record the speaker while she’s talking . †¢ One important aspect that we had to put into consideration is that the recording should be 100% clear i n order to be easy for us for analyzing the speech . †¢ After the speaker finish reading the passage, here comes our rule to analyze the record tape putting in our minds the types of hesitation pauses such as † pauses , complex pauses , filled pauses and word lengthening † After that the speaker should speak spontaneously about chocolate , we prepares our tape recorder and a stop watch because in this step the participants are allowed to talk only for 1 minute. Sometimes we get forced to interrupt the speaker because of the one-minute limit. 2 ( Concrete Vs Abstract ): In this experiment we’ve chosen two different general topics that the speaker should talk about : Concrete : Food Abstract : Democracy †¢ Before the speaker started to talk about the Concrete topic which is food we should prepare a recorder and stop watch. The speaker must talk for 1 minute about food. †¢ Then, we will replay the sound clip and write our comments. †¢ And when we come to the Abstract topic which is democracy, we will follow the same procedure. By conducting those experiments, including their steps systematically, we will be provided with results that will help us in drawing a clear, final conclusion that we wish to reach. Data: |Speaking spontaneously |Reading aloud | |†¦.I don’t know much about chocolate , but I know it is a tree ,|The strange-looking tree that is the source of chocolate was | |I mean that we can have chocolate from a tree specialize only |named Th-Theobroma cacao, food of the gods, over 200 years ago | |in producing chocolate [uh]†¦. and there is I mean there are |by the great Swedish botanist; [uh] Carolus Linnaeus. The | |different types of chocolate liquid, milky and solid†¦.. There |bright red or yellow cacao seed pods grow directly from the | |are different colors and flavors white chocolate which tends to|trunk of the tree.Each pod contains 30-40 almond like white | |be milky, brown which is the original and [uh] oh yes the dark |seeds in a sticky, unappetizing pulp that resembles insect | |chocolate which is flavored like coffee. We-ll†¦ what else to |larvae [uh]. Scientists generally agree that the native people | |say [laughs] oh yes I like chocolate although it has a lot of |of South America were initially attracted to this cacao pulp | |calories and makes you fat [laughs] and [um] that’s it. |for its sweetness.But no one knows for certain what led to the| | |discovery of chocolate in the bitter and inedible raw seeds. | | |Cacao trees grow only in the regions within 20 degrees | | |noth-.. north and 20 degrees south of the equator . [um] | | |Scientists believes that the first species of cacao grow in | | |South America. |I love chocolate†¦ specially the dark one†¦ It’s really  good |The strange looking tree†¦ that is the source of chocolate was| |for the heart and [um] it’s really rich in caffeine [uh] I also|named [um]†¦ Thobroma cacao, food of the gods over 200 years | |love chocolate cake, chocolate ice-cream and everything that |ago by the great Swedish botanist, [um]. .. Carolus Linnaeus. | |has chocolate in it†¦ [uh] . .. But I always worry about the |The bright red or yellow cacao seed†¦ pods grow directly from | |calories in the chocolate.. . products that I eat because I can |the trunk of the tree.Each pod contains†¦ 30-40 almond-like | |get really fat real quick if I eat chocolate all the time.. . so|white seeds†¦ in a sticky†¦ unappetizing pulp†¦ that | |I try not to snack on chocolate that much †¦ but we really |resembles insect la. .. larvae. Scientists generally agree that | |can’t resist it can we? I mean it’s just a guilty pleasure†¦ |the native people of South America were. .. initially†¦ | |and it tastes so good  and there is nothing like chocolate. I |attracted to this cacao pulp for its sweetness. But†¦ no one | |mean, you can fake it, try healthy stuff†¦ ut really nothing |knows for certain what led to the discovery of chocolate in the| |taste like chocolate even caramel is not  as sweet as |bitter and [um] inedible. . | |chocolate†¦ | | |First of a-ll [uh] I wanna say that chocolate is [uh] one type |The strange looking tree that is the source of chocolate was | |of my favorite food [uh] I pref-er many types of chocolate, I |named [uh] the o†¦ the obroma cacao.. food [uh] food of the go. †¦| |don’t like white chocolate or dark chocolate [um].What else, |food of the gods, over 200 years ago by the great Swedish bo.. | |my favorite type more specificall-y is Galaxy†¦. [uh], from |botanist , [uh] carols†¦. Linnaeus. The bright red or yellow | |other names of chocolate [um], what else, I like to eat |cacao seed po-ds grow directly from the trunk of the tree. Each| |chocolate as a [uh] a dessert o-r even during a meal†¦.. [um]†¦. |pod contains 30-40 almond like white seeds in a sticky, [uh] | |[laughs], let me think†¦. I don’t like [uh] chocolate-flavored |unappetizing pu-pulp that resem†¦[uh] resembles an.. uh] insect| |cake. |larvae. Scientists generally agree that the native people of | | |South America were initially attracted to this cacao pulp for | | |its s-sweetness. | |Hi [laughs] I-’ll talk about chocolate. Chocolate is†¦ [um] nice|The strange-looking tree that is the source of chocolate was | |sweet kind of food, is brown of course [laughs]. Some chocolate|named th-e obr-ama cacao, food of gods, over 200 years ag-o by | |is dark and other is light chocolate.And we have also white |the great Swe-dish bo-tanist, carolus [laugh] Linnaeus. The | |chocolate†¦. [um] I really like chocolate that much because I |bright red yellow cacao se-ed pods grow directly from the | |like any kind of sweet that has chocolate†¦[um] like nice†¦ [um] |tru-nk of the tree. Each pod contains 30-40 almond†¦[eh] like | |cupcake, ice-cream, I don’t know [laughs] that’s all what I |white seeds in a sticky, una–ppetizing pulp that resembles | |have about chocolate. O-k I prefer light chocolate than dark |insect lar–vae.Scientists generally agree that native people | |chocolate because it’s a little bit better. |of South America were initially attracted to this cacao pulp | | |for its sweetness. | |[um] Chocolate i-s the thing that I-.. worship the most in my |The strange-looking tree that is the source of chocolate was | |life. [em] I honestly [uh] I adore chocolate, I’m addicted to |named †¦. Theobroma c-cacao, food of the gods, over 200 years | |chocolate. I feel pleasure when I eat chocolate. I feel [uh] |ago by the great Swedish bo-botanist, Carolus Linnaeus.The | |more active even though I’m a lazy person. [uhh]. . What else†¦. |bright red o-r yellow cacao seed †¦ [uh] pods grow directly from| |[laughs]†¦ healthy? No, not for me, no because I have acne so- |the trunk of the tree. Each pod contains [uh] 30-40 almond-like| |it raises so much a-nd it hurts a lot but I can’t quit†¦.. |white seeds in a sticky, un-unappetizing [uh] pulp that | |[laughs] what else? I hate dark chocolate [uh] but I like the |resembles [uh] insect la-larvae. [uh] Scientists generally | |white chocolate and milk chocolate. The type I like the most |agree that the native people of South America were initially | |i-s actually brown chocolate. |attracted to this cacao pulp for its sweetness. | |Concrete |Abstract | |Fo-od, actually I don’t like food that’s why am thin†¦ [um] no, |Demo-cracy†¦ actually, I don’t know much about democracy and I’m| |I like some sort of food like , for example, [um] some kind of |not interested in democracy, but all I know is that†¦ democrac-y| |Chinese food, Italian food like pizza, basta, no I hate basta†¦. is something li-ke†¦ you have the right of choice or you are | |[uh] I like light kind of food not heavy o-r†¦ [laugh]†¦. [um] I |free to do whatever you like, whatever you want †¦. [um] as long | |like fast food and I hate food that made at home or in houses |it has the benefit of the whole society†¦ This is what I think, | |because I think it’s a little bit hea–vy and causes stomach | an-d here in Kuwait, all the things that they are practicing is| |ache most of the time — [eh] yeah.. Food, I do like sweet |democracy in Kuwait†¦ but I don’t think so †¦[um] that’s why | |food more than salty food I don’t know why, maybe because I’m |there is something they always fight for. This is all what I | |like children. |know about democra-cy and I’m really not interested in | | |democracy b-ut I think if you practice it in a correct way or| | |in a rig-ht way †¦. [um] it will be a nice thing [laugh]. | |[um] Food is what keeps us alive [uh] it’s my guilty |Democracy is reedom†¦ it’s very important because without | |pleasure†¦ i love food [um]†¦ I think about it almost all the|freedom you have nothing. .. without freedom we are not | |time [um] †¦ I love nutritional healthy food [uh] to keep me |humans.. . [uh] I think it’s very important for countries to have| |healthy [uh] but I also like junk food or fried food which I |a democratic system [uh] rather than a communist one [uh] | |know everyone say that we shouldn’t eat but†¦ after all we are|because that [uh] encourages the society to be [uh] well, more | |only living once so [um] †¦ hy not eat all the food you |intellectual and mo-re productive perhaps. And to feel a sense | |want†¦ you can always exercise †¦ and burn it†¦ what else |of loyalty and [um] †¦ well without democracy we will have | |. .. [uh] †¦ well i also love foo-d from different cultures, |civil wars and [uh] rebellion actions and maybe revolution. So | |from different [um] . .. like †¦ different cuisines. |definitely, I think democracy [uh] maintain the peace and order| | |in the country. .. nd also maintain the relationships with | | |other countries. | |Food, yummy! [laughs] Food is important in our life, provide us|[oh] Such an interesting topic [laughs] Democracy is related to| |with energy specially the health food , ops! Sorry, I mean |politics and it is applied by satisfy all the groups in your | |healthy food like fruits and vegetables†¦ And here in Kuwait we |country to practice their rights equally [uh]†¦. Here in | |have different restaurants which specialize with different |Kuwait.. -ell, Kuwait is considered as one of the democratic | |types of food like Chinese, Indian, American and Kuwaiti food |countries and you can see that through media and journalism and| |[uh]†¦. W-ell, my favorite is Chinese [laughs]†¦. what to say |I mean journalism from the days o f sheikh Abdallah Al-Salem, | |[um]†¦ Ok, I have an advice, beware of what you are eating |so– if there is no democracy the society will be divided into | |because it will affect your health a-nd [uh] practice sports in|groups and a war may start.Thank god we are in a democratic | |order to not be fat like me [laughs]. |area [laughs] | |†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. [uh] Food generally is [uh] considered as [uh] one |Ok, democracy and the concept of democracy in the world.. [uh] | |requirement of†¦ requirement to live [uh] in order to live, you |the concept of democracy in the world differs [uh], if you | |have to eat †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦[uh] generally I†¦ I like to eat, you know, many |consider generally or specifically. Most nations or countries | |types of food. uh] I’m not a picky person in my†¦ food.. and |assume they are democratic .. democratic or they†¦ look for, or| |I-†¦ and I like to try new†¦ new dishes of food [um], on the |seek democracy. But, in fact or indeed they .. are very very | |other hand, I specifically don’t like meat . |very , you know, away from democracy. To me I think democracy | | |is [uh] democracy is that space of freedom which enables you | | |to.. uh] to act freely but this freedom ends when you hurt | | |someone or [um] others. . oth-others around you . | |Ok, when it comes to food I’m not healthy. I’m so addicted to |[uh].. Democracy.. When I hear the word democracy I always | |junk food [uh] though I like American food, Italian but I hate |relate it to [uh] something that.. has to do with politics | |Chinese kind of food. [uhh] I don’t like rice alth-ough at home|which I have no clue about.I don’t have enough knowledge about| |they cook a lot of rice, like†¦ in every single minute of the |policy and I don’t want to know anything about policy but | |day. [um] A-nd [uh]†¦ I’m not organized in my eating schedule. |democracy [uh]. . al-so has to do with our daily life [er] you | |Like [uh].. I’m only obligated to eat breakfast and that’s all. |know, I can compare it .. or . . it could be equal to-.. justice| |And then the rest of the day is all junk food. [uh]†¦ But I like|maybe.. to be-. . fair. [uh] Democracy may-be†¦ could be.. [um] | |to go on a healthy diet, you know.But I’m luck I’m on shape, |between parents a-nd their children maybe. They can be | |thank God. |democratic, like, [uh] not- not to prefer a child over another†¦| | |maybe. | Analysis: Categorizing according to types of pauses: When examining the data we collected, we could pinpoint four types of speech pauses: silent pauses, filled pauses, word lengthening and nervous laughter. Complex pauses such as swallowing, breathing and stops between sentences were not taken into consideration.Also, timing was not included. |Types of hesitation pauses taken into account | |Filled pauses (uh, um, .. etc) | |Silence (†¦. ) | |Word lengthening (we-ll, .. etc) | |Nervous laughter | Results: Speaking spontaneously |Reading aloud | | |24 |18 |Silent pauses | |25 |16 |Filled pauses | |12 |20 |Word lengthening | |8 |1 |Nervous Laughter | |69 |55 |Total | | 55. 6% |44. 3% |Percentage | [pic] [pic] |Abstract |Concrete | |20 |27 |Silent pauses | |20 |27 |Filled pauses | |14 |9 |Word lengthening | |2 |4 |Nervous Laughter | |56 |67 |Total | |45. 5% |54. 4% |Percentage | [pic] [pic] Discussion: Many people tend to hesitate to make important decisions or to take necessary action. Hesitation might be caused by lack of self-confidence, nervousness, or the person may be looking for a feedback for what s/he will talk about.It seems like subjects hesitate before difficult and unfamiliar names to them. Example; in reading aloud experiment, (#1) they hesitate before the noun (Thobroma cacao) and before (Carolus Linnaeus). Also they may hesitate in the middle of the word (#4) (Swe-dish) because they are trying to read the word. They also hesitate at the beginning of sentences because they are thinking of how to express their thoughts. Example in speaking spontaneously (#3) said (First of a-ll [uh] I wanna say that chocolate is [uh] one type of my favorite food [uh] I pref-er many types of chocolate, I don’t like white chocolate or dark chocolate). Subjects hesitate before giving causes, example from abstract VS oncrete, (#2) ([uh] because that [uh] encourages the society to be [uh] well, more intellectual and mo-re productive perhaps. ). In these experiments, subjects tended to hesitate before choosing a lexical item which is semantically appropriate for their sentences (nouns, verbs). They tended to hesitate more when they say something in a wrong way and try to repair or correct it. Example from abstract VS concrete, (#4) (†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. [uh] Food generally is [uh] considered as [uh] one requirement of†¦ requirement to live [uh] in order to live, you have to eat †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦[uh] generally I†¦ I like to eat, you know, many types of food. ). Our experiment in spontaneous speech and reading aloud shows that a person hesitates more in speaking spontaneously than in reading aloud.This is clear in the cases of silent pauses (24 in comparison to 18), filled pauses (25,16) and nervous laughter (8,1). But in word lengthening it is more in reading than speaking (20, 12). The other experiment is talking about concrete / every day things VS talking about an abstract concept. A person should hesitate more in abstract concepts than concrete objects but in our experiment, it surprisingly shows different results in which a person hesitate more in concrete than abstract concept. And silent pauses are more frequent in concrete (27, 20). Filling pauses are also more in concrete (27, 20), the nervous laughter is (4, 2). On the other hand, the word lengthening (14, 9) which is more in the abstract than concrete. Conclusion :In our experiment, hesitation was measured by counting the numbers of hesitation pauses in speech. It appears that under certain conditions of speech production the hesitation pauses reflect different reasons. Hesitation could be caused by either psychological factors or internal processes. Psychological as in the person could be nervous or lacks self-confidence (nervous laughter), or internal processes as in the person may be looking for a feedback for what s/he will talk about in spontaneous speech whether abstract or concrete, or when facing new lexical items such as ([uh] Carolus Linnaeus) or less frequent words ([um] inedible) in reading aloud.We have expected subjects to hesitate more in Speaking spontaneously in comparison to Reading aloud for a reason which is; subjects need to plan what they’re going to say and have to mentally construct grammatically and semantic ally correct sentences which, predictably takes more time than just reading a text that has been prepared beforehand, no matter how many difficult lexical items were in said text. The results came out supporting our assumption. Indeed, planning for speech consumes more time than reading. What was surprising to us was that hesitation was more in the second experiment in talking about the concrete concept more than the abstract object.The results were opposite to what we previously expected. The frequency of hesitation in concrete was 54. 4% to 45. 5% for the abstract. A possible explanation for such results could be that we constantly try to explain the abstract concepts in our minds while concrete concepts are taken for granted i. e. we don’t have to think about them, they’re there in front of our eyes. But a major point we would like to point to is English is a second language for all the subjects who took part in our experiment that might have been another reason for the hesitation in our experiments. All of the reasons mentioned above are not only reasons but actually examples of hesitation in our lives.Fox Tree (1995) estimated that the rate of disfluencies in spontaneous speech is about 6 words per 100 . Therefore, it is fairly common in our lives. Unfortunately we could not find any studies supporting or contradicting what we reached. References: Aichitson Jean – The articulate Mammal – Fifth edition Fox Tree, J. E. (1995). The effects of false starts and repetitions on the processing of subsequent words in spontaneous speech. Journal of Memory and Language, 34,709. 738 http://hourglass. rskrose. com/archives/5 Sophia University – A study by Hede Helfrich ———————– Hesitation Phenomena Reading Aloud VS Speaking Spontaneously Concrete VS Abstract How to cite Hesitation Phenomena, Papers