[ExI] You know what?

spike spike66 at att.net
Wed Jan 23 06:43:44 UTC 2008


> Lee Corbin
> Subject: [ExI] You know what?
> 
> Has anyone besides me noticed a big increase over the last
> several years of the phrase "you know what?"   I hear it
> everywhere now.  Someone speaking will even interrupt himself 
> or herself just to get it in... ol' Lee

Lee what we are hearing is a good example of a speech diluter or filler.  It
serves the purpose of giving the speaker time to think by inserting a
meaningless word or phrase.  Notice that these fillers are absent from
written text.

Another good example is like.  Like isn't new; teenagers said like a lot
when we were their age.  Notice that like is always followed by, and often
preceeded by a pause.  This is used as thinking time.  Take a spoken
sentence with the filler like, take out the pauses before and after, then
repeat the sentence.  Now it scarcely makes sense, or rather the term like
takes on a different meaning, and changes the meaning of the sentence.  {8^D
Try it.

Try another experiment.  Record a typical office conversation, type it,
eliminate all fillers and meaningless phrases, see what is left.

Another experiment.  In another post, someone called attention to the odd
phrase "I could care less."  If you find a place to use a phrase meaning "I
don't care," instead utter "I could care more."  It makes perfect sense and
catches the listener's attention.      

For years now I have made great efforts to eliminate all fillers from my own
spoken word.  Lee I notice your speech sounds so much more erudite because
it is free of fillers.  Damien, J. Andrew, et.al, the same goes for you, and
I do thank you for that.  It is so much easier to converse with one if one
distills their speech.

Exi-ers, speak as you write; sound smarter by freeing your speech of
fillers.

ol' spike  






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