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In this study, we investigate the use of the filler particles (FPs) uh, um, hm, as well as glottal FPs and tongue clicks of 100 male native German speakers in a corpus of spontaneous speech. For this purpose, the frequency distribution, FP duration, duration of pauses surrounding FPs, voice quality of FPs, and their vowel quality are investigated in two conditions, namely, normal speech and Lombard speech. Speaker-specific patterns are investigated on the basis of twelve sample speakers. Our results show that tongue clicks and glottal FPs are as common as typically described FPs, and should be a part of disfluency research. Moreover, the frequency of uh, um, and hm decreases in the Lombard condition while the opposite is found for tongue clicks. Furthermore, along with the usual F1 increase, a considerable reduction in vowel space is found in the Lombard condition for the vowels in uh and um. A high degree of within- and between-speaker variation is found on the individual speaker level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xiang (hsn) remains a poorly understood grouping within Sinitic, with no satisfactory conclusions on how to demarcate its boundaries or define its subgroupings. One general observation is that there is a rough typological split between the Northeast and Southwest related to contact from northern- and southern-type Sinitic varieties, respectively, which can be supported with phonological, lexical, and syntactic evidence. It is predicted here that an additional source of evidence can be found in the phonetic features of hesitation markers (HMs; 'fillers', 'speech disfluencies', etc.), which tend towards the central area of the vowel space (approaching [ə], [ɤ], [e], etc.) but still conform to the phonologies of the languages in which they occur. This study introduces a novel three-way division of Xiang in terms of phonemic central vowels found in open syllables (either [ə/ɤ], [e/ɛ], or both) which is then evaluated against the vocalic quality found in HMs to determine whether they can be used as evidence for Xiang internal typology. Data are gathered from 47 speakers representing 16 Xiang localities, distributed across Hunan province, recorded performing the Pear Stories paradigm, with 304 hesitation markers extracted. Features reported on include vowel quality (F1-F2), tonal contour (F0), and duration (ms). It is found that Xiang HMs demonstrate four distinct vowel qualities, but that their distribution does not neatly fit established taxonomic schemes; however, the evidence does support the transitional status of Xiang varieties as a site of mixture of northern and southern Sinitic features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the interplay of spoken and gestural hesitations under varying amounts of cognitive load. We argue that not only fillers and silences, as the most common hesitations, are directly related to speech pausing behavior, but that hesitation lengthening is as well. We designed a resource-management card game as a method to elicit ecologically valid pausing behavior while being able to finely control cognitive load via card complexity. The method very successfully elicits large amounts of hesitations. Hesitation frequency increases as a function of cognitive load. This is true for both spoken and gestural hesitations. We conclude that the method presented here is a versatile tool for future research and we present foundational research on the speech-gesture link related to hesitations induced by controllable cognitive load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extended hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (EHFLTS) is an effective means to assess the hesitant qualitative information in multi-criteria group decision-making environment. We extend the Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) method to the extended hesitant fuzzy linguistic environment, which use average solution for appraising alternatives. The average solutions according to all the criteria are determined by the extended hesitant fuzzy linguistic center OWA operator, which is based on convex combinations of two EHFLTSs and center OWA operator. In order to calculate positive distance from average and negative distance from average, the possibility degree formula for comparing EHFLTSs is proposed. According to the appraisal score, the preference order or the most suitable alternative can be ranked. Finally, the feasibility and efficiency of the extended EDAS is demonstrated by through the example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transferring information orally in background noise is challenging, for both speaker and listener. Successful transfer depends on complex interaction between characteristics related to listener, speaker, task, background noise, and context. To fully assess the underlying real-life mechanisms, experimental design has to mimic this complex reality. In the current study, the effects of different types of background noise have been studied in an ecologically valid test design. Documentary-style information had to be presented by the speaker and simultaneously acquired by the listener in four conditions: quiet, unintelligible multitalker babble, fluctuating city street noise, and little varying highway noise. For both speaker and listener, the primary task was to focus on the content that had to be transferred. In addition, for the speakers, the occurrence of hesitation phenomena was assessed. The listener had to perform an additional secondary task to address listening effort. For the listener the condition with the most eventful background noise, i.e., fluctuating city street noise, appeared to be the most difficult with markedly longer duration of the secondary task. In the same fluctuating background noise, speech appeared to be less disfluent, suggesting a higher level of concentration from the speaker's side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simon-Vandenbergen (2000: 61) concluded her study of I think in political discourse by noting the importance of further study of its prosodic realisation. Consequently, I investigate the prosodic realisations of I think in political debates. At the same time, I examine the lexico-grammatical form of the construction, and its surrounding co-text. My exploration confirmed that I think is frequent in political speech, and revealed that it projected four types of meanings. Three of the meanings occurred irrespective of the intonational choices, though prosody influenced the likelihood of the occurrence of a particular meaning. There was a greater likelihood of the speaker expressing a tentative statement if think was prominent/tonic. Intonational prominence on I explicitly warranted the source of the evaluation. When the construction did not contain an intonational prominence it tended to signal commitment to a proposition, or if followed by a filled pause or rhythmic disjunction a hesitation marker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extended hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets (EHFLTSs) are helpful to model uncertain linguistic information in qualitative group decision making (QGDM). Total orders are essential whenever more than two EHFLTSs have to be compared, such as aggregating them by the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operator. However, the existing studies only focus on partial orders of EHFLTSs and thus their application may be limited. The main purpose of this paper is to develop total orders of EHFLTSs. A constructive approach is proposed to generate total orders by aggregation functions. Three distinct total orders are defined for potential applications as well. To clarify the importance of total orders in QGDM, the extended hesitant fuzzy linguistic OWA operator is developed and some properties are demonstrated. Finally, based on the proposed techniques and the social choice theory, an approach formed by two algorithms is presented to solve the QGDM problems in which some necessary parameters, e.g. risk preferences, are complicated to determine. The proposed total order resolves one current challenge of EHFLTSs and thus can serve as a foundation of decision making with EHFLTSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Researchers have demonstrated qualitative differences in witness verbal reports made in the presence and absence of misinformation. The present study examined changes in linguistic markers present in verbal reports in the context of a repeated-retrieval misinformation study. After witnessing an event, an immediate retrieval group engaged in a free-recall test associated with the event. The delayed retrieval group completed a filler task. Following, all participants were presented with a post-event narrative that included neutral, consistent, and misleading details. Both groups then took two free-recall tests. We found that hesitations were more likely to accompany correctly remembered details if those details were altered in the narrative, than if there was consistency between the original event and narrative. We also found that retrieval prior to misinformation positively influenced the inclusion of hesitations in free-recall reports that immediately followed the narrative.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualitative and hesitant information is common in practical decision making process. In such complicated decision making problem, it is flexible for experts to use comparative linguistic expressions to express their opinions since the linguistic expressions are much closer than single or simple linguistic term to human way of thinking and cognition. The hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (HFLTS) turns out to be a powerful tool in representing and eliciting the comparative linguistic expressions. In order to develop some approaches to decision making with hesitant fuzzy linguistic information, in this paper, we firstly introduce a family of novel distance and similarity measures for HFLTSs, such as the cosine distance and similarity measures, the weighted cosine distance and similarity measures, the order weighted cosine distance and similarity measures, and the continuous cosine distance and similarity measures. All these distance and similarity measures are proposed from the geometric point of view while the existing distance and similarity measures over HFLTSs are based on the different forms of algebra distance measures. Afterwards, based on the hesitant fuzzy linguistic cosine distance measures between hesitant fuzzy linguistic elements, the cosine-distance-based HFL-TOPSIS method and the cosine-distance-based HFL-VIKOR method are developed to dealing with hesitant fuzzy linguistic multiple criteria decision making problems. The step by step algorithms of these two methods are given for the convenience of applications. Finally, a numerical example concerning the selection of ERP systems is given to illustrate the validation and efficiency of the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over thirty years the 4/3/2 technique has been promoted as a means of developing speaking fluency in the language classroom, but it is a technique that has received surprisingly little research attention. Existing research focuses on the ESL context and quantifiable measures of fluency such as speed and hesitation phenomena. This paper adds to the existing literature by reporting on an exploratory, small-scale study in an EFL context that looks at the effects of the technique on learners' spoken production. It identifies changes in the quality of speech, specifically lexical repair and changes in the signalling of content and organisation. These findings suggest the 4/3/2 offers second language learners important opportunities to consolidate their existing linguistic knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present study examines the relative ability of variables from three motivational frameworks to predict four non-linguistic outcomes of language learning. The study examines Action Control Theory with its measures of (1) hesitation, (2) volatility and (3) rumination. The study also examined Pintrich''s expectancy-value model that uses measures of (1) intrinsic and (2) extrinsic goal orientation, (3) task value, (4) self-efficacy, (5) control beliefs, and (6) test anxiety. The third motivational framework is Gardner''s (1985; 2010) Socio-educational model with its measures of (1) attitudes toward French Canadians, (2) attitudes toward learning French, (3) interest in foreign languages, (4) desire to learn French, (5) motivational intensity, and (6) French class & use anxiety. The four non-linguistic outcomes are (1) perceived communication competence, (2) language anxiety, (2) willingness to communicate, and (4) the intention to continue language study. Participants include 117 high school French-as-a-second-language students (mean age = 16.6 years; 62% female). Regression analyses show that hesitation plays a significant role in predicting perceived communication competence, language anxiety, and willingness to communicate. The intention to continue French studies, however, was best predicated by positive attitudes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Hesitations have been considered to serve both cognitive and linguistic functions. This study presents analyses of children's hesitations while producing English derived words with the suffix -ity. Two questions were considered: Do children's linguistic skills influence their use and frequency of hesitations when producing derived words, and do children's use of hesitations vary as a function of word frequency. Eight real words derived with the suffix -ity were produced by 20 third grade children and analysed for different hesitation types. Four of the target words were high in lexical frequency, and four were low in lexical frequency. Results indicated varying hesitation patterns based upon stress accuracy skill. Children with good stress accuracy skills tended to produce false starts, whereas children with poor stress accuracy skills tended to produce glottal stops and intra-word pauses. Word frequency had a specific effect only for children with good stress accuracy skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the use of hesitations and discourse markers such as "uh" and `like," sex of an interviewee, and professional or student participants on hiring decisions of job interviewees. Participants consisted of 105 students between the ages of 18 to 43 years and 71 professionals between the ages of 22 to 76 years (120 women, 56 men). Adult professionals and students were least likely to want to hire, perceived the applicant as less professional, and were less likely to recommend the interviewee for hiring if the interviewee overused the word "like" compared to "uh" or control. Professionals were less likely than students overall to want to hire interviewees across conditions. Sex of the interviewee was not found to be significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hesitation disfluencies after phonetically prominent stranded function words are thought to reflect the cognitive coding of complex structures. Speech fragments following the Swedish function word att ‘that’ were analyzed syntactically, and divided into two groups: one with att in disfluent contexts, and the other with att in fluent contexts. Complexity was calculated in terms of a number of measures related to syntactic tree structures produced by the analysis tool GRAMMAL. Results showed that disfluent att is in general associated with significantly higher mean complexity values than fluent att. This information can be used to predict whether the function word at the beginning of a fragment is likely to be disfluent or not. Two kinds of statistical classification algorithms (Bayesian and neural networks) were used to test this hypothesis. The best result was 71% correctly classified cases, which is significantly better than a system that is based on selecting the data's majority class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an empirical investigation of the use of hesitation phenomena, specifically filled pauses ( ums and ers), automatisms ( sort of, at the end of the day), repetitions and reformulations, in both the mother tongue (L1) and second language (L2) of highly proficient adult bilingual speakers (English and German). Its purpose is to ascertain: i) whether speakers who are highly proficient in L2 produce an approximately similar amount of hesitation phenomena in both languages; and ii) whether the production of such elements (in both languages) is linked to working memory capacity. Results show that: i) despite high proficiency, speakers produced a higher overall rate of hesitation phenomena in their L2, indicating that there was an additional cognitive load imposed by working in L2; and ii) in each language there was an underlying negative relationship between memory capacity and the production of hesitation phenomena, implying that speakers with lower memory ability rely more heavily on such time-buying devices. Furthermore, it was shown that the individual types of hesitation phenomena produced by speakers in their L1 were carried over into their L2, which suggests that a speaker's planning behaviour is mirrored in both languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the utterances of normal and articulatory-defective children aged five to six. Analysis of samples of each recording for eight categories of hesitation phenomena; Finding that children used "ah" phenomena and repetitions/stutters significantly more often than other hesitation phenomena; Observation that hesitation phenomena decreased with age for the males in the study but increased for females.

Examines the location and frequency of occurrence of vocal, non-ah hesitation and kinesic hesitation phenomena in an interview setting involving college students. Relation between the occurences of vocal hesitations and movement; Differences in the frequency of occurrence of the kinds of vocal hesitations and movements; Location of a kinesic phenomenon.

Looks at quantitative data concerning hesitation phenomena in relation to the subjective perceptions of listeners of nonnative English. Total pausing time, percentage of pause time and length of the longest pause in discourse as the basis of subjective judgments.

Focuses on the sampling of sentences containing several types of hesitation from the interaction of families of schizophrenic and normal children. Identification of successive word in the sentence; Predictability of words antecedent; Difficulty in comprehending conversations among schizophrenic family members.

Focuses on the occurrence of spontaneous speech hesitation pauses. Distribution of hesitation pauses within a clause; Termination of phonemic clauses; Importance of pauses occurring at terminal junctures in speech segmentation analysis.

Focuses on the usefulness of the terminal juncture as a means of segmenting a linguistic corpus. Occurrence of juncture and hesitation phenomena; Consistency in perception; Perception of the pitch contour accompanying a terminal juncture.

The article presents a study which focuses on the role of hesitation phenomena in the communication process and typewriting. The study also discusses relationship between hesitation phenomena and different aspects of encoding behavior. There are certain hesitation types and syntactic considerations which have been included in the study. They are comparative assessments of syntactic constraint, a computer parsing programme, and stochastic analysis of phrase structures. Verbatim transcripts of the spoken messages were made as a part of the study.

The article presents research comparing the functional and methodological distinction between the pause perception threshold for junction and hesitation pauses in speech. Psycholinguistic investigators have increasingly turned to the study of pauses because they are considered extralinguistic and thus less subject to uniform cultural control. Researchers, using highly sensitive recording equipment capable of capturing pauses far below the human threshold for pause discrimination, found the juncture pause to be more subject to cultural control than the hesitation pause. Study results also suggest that juncture pauses are functionally different than hesitation pauses as they aid a listener by helping them grasp the syntactic structure of a communication.

The article focuses on a study that concerns in the occurrence of filled and unfilled pauses of hesitations with respect to their location in phonemic clauses in spontaneous English speech. Both types of hesitation were most frequent after the first word in the clause, regardless of length. In this study, the data to be presented concern the location of these hesitations in extended utterances, but the basic theoretical issue involved is the nature of the grammatical encoding process in speech. These data are regarded as directly challenging the transitional probability theory of hesitations. In addition, the phonemic clause is proposed as the encoding unit of speech at the grammatical level.

The article presents a study examining the hesitation forms in children's speech conducted in Ithaca, New York. The hesitation phenomenon refers to filled or unfilled pauses that occur in daily human conversation. The researchers focused on the variables of the phenomenon such as zero segregates, vocal segregates, repetitions of units, corrections and slips of the tongue. The study made use of 48 fifth-grade children consisting of equal numbers of boys and girls that were tasked to tell a story in either of two situations, in front of an audience or alone. Results yielded that stress related hesitation is relative to whether the child was speaking in public or private just as deliberate hesitation is predictable relative to the character of the child.

The article studies the predictability of words on context and length of pauses in speech by researchers from London, England. Previous studies have shown that fluency and hesitation in spontaneous speech are symptomatic of variations in word transition probability. In this study, the researchers aimed to corroborate this conclusion by evidence demonstrating the influence of transition probability on selective behavior stimulated in an experimental situation. An experiment in sentence completion was designed in such a way as to recreate the conditions for word selection in sentences.