We’re all victims of sloppy enunciation at one point or another. Nerves often exaggerate one’s tendency to use filler words especially during times of high stress and uncertainty. But have
these fillers become a normal part of our
society’s dialect? Is everyone just always nervous? Or are we just not aware what comes out of our mouth? No matter what it is, slowly eliminating your usage of filler words will not only
make you sound smarter, but it’ll also make you more conscious of what it is that you’re actually saying.
You can most easily identify a filler word if it’s a part of speech that is commonly said by word of mouth and almost never written. They’re often irrelevant transitory words used to give yourself
more time to find the right word you’re looking for, gather your complete thought or idea, and finally finish your sentence.
“I mean…”
This one is for those of you in love
with meta-commentary. You cannot
avoid a reflexive posture to your own
speech, and must narrate your own
dialogue. “I mean” acts as a
reassurance of intent, both to others
and to yourself. But isn’t there always an unspoken “I mean” before anything you say? Before every argument, every
sentence, every word? You simply
draw attention to your own attempt to
communicate meaning. Props to you
for speaking the unspoken, for
meaning what you say, and saying that
you mean.
“Ummm…”
Meditative types, this one is for you.
The most common filler word is
perhaps also the most abstract. What
does it mean; what do you mean?
Exactly. The “umm” is the
onomatopoeia for thinking of what to
say, how to best express oneself. We
all know this to be true, but why?
There may be a crypto-religious
explanation; “ummm” can also sound
suspiciously like “ Om ,” the Sanskrit
sound often used in Hindu prayer and
meditation. And like “Om,” “ummm”
might very well stand outside
language, or as a surrogate for
language; it is up for debate whether
“ummm” is a word at all.
“You know…”
For the inner mystic in all of us. The
repetition of “you know” as filler
suggests some unspoken knowledge
between and behind language. At its
heart “you know” is the opposite of “I
mean;” while “I mean” is practical,
reinforcing communication, “you
know” acknowledges that
communication is impossible, or, rather, that all has already been communicated. It also inspires in listeners the question: Do I know? What do I know? But don’t get it twisted; this filler phrase is not
supposed to create a crisis in either
speaker or audience. Like all of these
examples, “you know” is the invocation of a process, one which both questions and answers the state of knowing in the conversation. You know?
As with all mystical phrases, “you
know” is at its heart empowering.
“Like…”
This filler word has the worst
reputation of the lot, mostly because of
its association with a particular kind
of seemingly ditzy young woman . But
if Cher from Clueless tells us anything,
it is that apparent inarticulateness can
hide true wisdom or cunning within. A
word like “like” can provide you, like
Cher, with the cultural ethos that
allows to take the time to perform
considered speech.
Moreover, the use of “like” suggests a
proclivity for abstraction. All the
world is symbolic rather than
particular; everything is “like”
something. The “like”-sayer is an
intensely relational person; she is
interested not in objects in the world,
but in the matrices of meaning that
connect and organize these objects.
Just, like, feel the searching out of
relative concepts. You might think that
the approximation of “like” might lead
to relativism; this is untrue. The “like”-
sayer simply understands that all
knowledge is situational, all language
approximate. Searching for the proper
word, phrase, or concept is, like, the
best we can do to express the
particular with the general. There is
the world, and there is speech; what
word can better, more accurately
bring these together than “like”? Pope
Francis recently said that “truth is a
relationship”; with this he implied his
favorite filler word.
these fillers become a normal part of our
society’s dialect? Is everyone just always nervous? Or are we just not aware what comes out of our mouth? No matter what it is, slowly eliminating your usage of filler words will not only
make you sound smarter, but it’ll also make you more conscious of what it is that you’re actually saying.
You can most easily identify a filler word if it’s a part of speech that is commonly said by word of mouth and almost never written. They’re often irrelevant transitory words used to give yourself
more time to find the right word you’re looking for, gather your complete thought or idea, and finally finish your sentence.
“I mean…”
This one is for those of you in love
with meta-commentary. You cannot
avoid a reflexive posture to your own
speech, and must narrate your own
dialogue. “I mean” acts as a
reassurance of intent, both to others
and to yourself. But isn’t there always an unspoken “I mean” before anything you say? Before every argument, every
sentence, every word? You simply
draw attention to your own attempt to
communicate meaning. Props to you
for speaking the unspoken, for
meaning what you say, and saying that
you mean.
“Ummm…”
Meditative types, this one is for you.
The most common filler word is
perhaps also the most abstract. What
does it mean; what do you mean?
Exactly. The “umm” is the
onomatopoeia for thinking of what to
say, how to best express oneself. We
all know this to be true, but why?
There may be a crypto-religious
explanation; “ummm” can also sound
suspiciously like “ Om ,” the Sanskrit
sound often used in Hindu prayer and
meditation. And like “Om,” “ummm”
might very well stand outside
language, or as a surrogate for
language; it is up for debate whether
“ummm” is a word at all.
“You know…”
For the inner mystic in all of us. The
repetition of “you know” as filler
suggests some unspoken knowledge
between and behind language. At its
heart “you know” is the opposite of “I
mean;” while “I mean” is practical,
reinforcing communication, “you
know” acknowledges that
communication is impossible, or, rather, that all has already been communicated. It also inspires in listeners the question: Do I know? What do I know? But don’t get it twisted; this filler phrase is not
supposed to create a crisis in either
speaker or audience. Like all of these
examples, “you know” is the invocation of a process, one which both questions and answers the state of knowing in the conversation. You know?
As with all mystical phrases, “you
know” is at its heart empowering.
“Like…”
This filler word has the worst
reputation of the lot, mostly because of
its association with a particular kind
of seemingly ditzy young woman . But
if Cher from Clueless tells us anything,
it is that apparent inarticulateness can
hide true wisdom or cunning within. A
word like “like” can provide you, like
Cher, with the cultural ethos that
allows to take the time to perform
considered speech.
Moreover, the use of “like” suggests a
proclivity for abstraction. All the
world is symbolic rather than
particular; everything is “like”
something. The “like”-sayer is an
intensely relational person; she is
interested not in objects in the world,
but in the matrices of meaning that
connect and organize these objects.
Just, like, feel the searching out of
relative concepts. You might think that
the approximation of “like” might lead
to relativism; this is untrue. The “like”-
sayer simply understands that all
knowledge is situational, all language
approximate. Searching for the proper
word, phrase, or concept is, like, the
best we can do to express the
particular with the general. There is
the world, and there is speech; what
word can better, more accurately
bring these together than “like”? Pope
Francis recently said that “truth is a
relationship”; with this he implied his
favorite filler word.
