Utterances like um, wow and mm-hmm aren’t garbage—they keep conversations flowing
Read the article and decide if the sentences below are true or false:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/interjections-are-uh-more-important-than-we-thought/
1. Linguists have historically regarded interjections like “mm-hmm” and “um” as irrelevant noise in conversations.
2. Interjections are only used for politeness and do not significantly impact the flow of conversation.
3. The interjection “mm-hmm” in a conversation about building IKEA furniture might indicate that the listener is ready to move on to the next step.
4. A lack of normal listener signals, like “mm-hmm,” can lead to less well-crafted stories.
5. The Canadian “eh?” is used to flag a statement as news to the listener, not the speaker.
6. Mandarin explicitly differentiates between telling someone something they didn’t know and something they already knew, while English relies on interjections for this purpose.
7. The interjection “huh?” is quick to produce and is likely universal because it is simple and effective.
8. Interjections are considered the easiest part of language for artificial intelligence to master.
Key: 1T; 2F; 3F; 4T; 5F; 6T; 7T; 8F
Glossary
- flotsam – anything or anyone that is not wanted or not considered to be important or useful
- jetsam – another word for flotsam
- detritus – miscellaneous remnants; odds and ends
- to upend – turn sth upside down
- ubiquitous – seeming to be everywhere
- to stumble on – to find or learn about (something) unexpectedly
- arcanum – plural arcana – mysterious or specialized knowledge, language, or information accessible or possessed only by the initiate (usually used in plural)
Practice makes perfect
Word formation: Change the word in CAPITALS to fill in the blanks.
For many decades, linguists regarded such 1. ……….. [UTTER] as largely 2. ………… [RELEVANT] noise, the flotsam and jetsam that accumulate on the margins of language when speakers aren’t as articulate as they’d like to be. But these little words may be much more important than that. (…) Many of these interjections serve to regulate the flow of conversation. (…) A quick huh? or what? from the listener, (…) can signal a 3. ………. [FAIL] of communication that the speaker needs to repair. (…) “In that moment of 4. …………… [DIFFICULT], you’re going to need the simplest possible question word, and that’s what huh? is,” says Dingemanse. (…) Sign languages often handle continuers differently, but then again, two people signing at the same time can be less 5. ……….. [DISRUPT] than two people speaking, says Carl Börstell, a linguist at the University of Bergen in Norway. In Swedish Sign Language, for example, listeners often sign yes as a continuer for long stretches, but to keep this continuer 6. …………… [OBTRUSIVE], the sender tends to hold their hands lower than usual. Different interjections can send 7. ………… [SLIGHT] different signals. (…) Continuers aren’t merely for 8. …………. [POLITE]— they really matter to a conversation, says Dingemanse. (…) Nguyen agrees that such words are far from 9. ………….. [MEANING]. (…) One of Wiltschko’s favorite examples is the Canadian eh? “If I tell you you have a new dog, I’m usually not telling you stuff you don’t know, so it’s weird for me to tell you,” she says. But ‘You have a new dog, eh?’ eliminates the 10. …………… [WEIRD] by flagging the statement as news to the speaker, not the listener. (…)
Key: 1. utterances; 2. irrelevant; 3. failure; 4. difficulty; 5. disruptive; 6. unobtrusive; 7. slightly; 8. politeness; 9. meaningless; 10. weirdness
Answer the questions:
- How do the “little words” or interjections help regulate the flow of conversation?
- What did the classic experiment with undergraduate students demonstrate about the importance of listener interjections?
- What is the purpose of “continuers” like mm-hmm in a conversation, and how do they differ from other interjections?
- What is the significance of the Canadian interjection “eh?” and how does it differ from simply stating a fact?
- Why do language teachers often overlook the importance of teaching students how to properly use interjections when learning a second language?
Watch and revise!
Why ‘Um’ and ‘Wow’ Matter More Than You Think!
https://www.cloud.worldwideschool.pl/index.php/s/9b7xkJfaQXyNRBr
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