Thursday, March 19, 1998 at 06:39:14

What about...like...when you..like...use "like" in your...like...filled pauses? Is that considered...like...viable? Or...ya know...using "ya know?"

- AM

Generally speaking, yes, these may also be considered lexicalized filled pauses.   However, not always.  There are times when these expressions appear to serve a communicative purpose rather than a stalling purpose.  For instance, 'you know' can often be used to refer to some shared knowledge between speaker and hearer.  It is those seemingly random, unrelated occurrences which may be viewed as filled pauses. In my own research I found less than half of 'you know's, 'well's, etc. could be confidently classified as filled pauses.  What I find interesting are some idiosyncratic filled pauses.  One of the subjects in my study frequently tagged her sentences with "and that".  Have you heard any other interesting idosyncratic filled pauses?

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