Essay topic
Posted on March 18, 2008 by doctoralstudent
On Thursday my first essay synopsis is due. The course is “Phonology and Morphology”, and right now I’m trying to figure out how to connect my research interest (production and perception of pauses) to the course.
One idea is to look at realizations of filled pauses in speech, i.e. allophones of filled pauses. I’m not sure yet, I will have to keep thinking. By the way: when I googled “filled pause” I got 6360 hits - I guess I’m not the only language nerd on the net…
Filed under: PhD studies, language | Tagged: filled pauses, pauses, studies
Hi …and good luck with your essay and your new courses. I stumbled on your blog and found your topic for your essay fascinating. I’d like to ask you; as you refer to a ‘filled pause’ - is it the same as a ‘pregnant pause’ ?
Thank you for taking time to read and comment!
A filled pause is a pause filled by sound, such as “eem” and “er”. A pregnant pause is used as an expression for a pause that is used e.g. in comedy and rhetoric. The pause is used actively to create suspense etc. There is a little on pregnant pauses in the article on comic timing in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_timing