Interjection abuse in speech
One of my numerous, albeit fairly minor, peeves concerns when someone who "has the floor" (for the non-native English speakers, this equates to "is in the position to be speaking" or "is commanding the audience's attention") chooses to use interjections in a noticeably frequent way. It's a technique we often use to buy thinking time, rather than pausing long enough to fully formulate sentences prior to delivering them.
A couple of common ones in my experience are "at this point in time" instead of just saying "now" and "you know". The second example is one I've used on occasion (much to my chagrin), usually when trying to rephrase a point to be made. In German, it seems that the equivalent phrase I hear most often is a translation of the Latin "id est" or "i.e."; "das heißt". Another one I used to hear discomfitingly frequently was "to be perfectly honest with you". After hearing it umpteen times in a row, I had to suppress my strong desire to inquire "so if you don't say this, I may presume you're being disingenuous?"
Admittedly when I also fall into this trap, I can impersonally observe and explain the shift in my speech. It's partially triggered by a desire to nurture business relationships through the telephone through mirroring others' verbal mannerisms.
In any case, my struggle to curb the (excessive) use of interjections continues daily.
I think we all battle this. I work with a lot of strong, "Type A" personalities and getting floor time can be difficult. I'll interject an idiom now: "to get a word in edge-wise." A common technique to maintain control of the conversation is to use interjections to avoid pauses that allow others to speak. I find myself falling into that behavior trap myself when I have a point I really want to make to completion.
ReplyDeleteI catch myself doing this occasionally; afterwards I often wonder if the point I was trying to make was really worth monopolizing that portion of the conversation. I suspect not.
Meanwhile, the rest of us plebs simply go "um...."
ReplyDeleteSo, Mick, are you admitting to being a little Type A yourself? :-) What sorts of job roles do these participants have?
ReplyDeleteCaesar, I believe the UK equivalent of "um" is "er". In Ireland, I heard "ehm" more often than not.
It's interesting. In a religious context (e.g. prayer) people tend to use phrases like "father", "god"*, etc. in much the same way. I wonder if it's an inherent tendency that we can only eliminate if we make a conscious effort, and really, does it detract from the communication so much that we need to encourage its removal in all its forms?
ReplyDelete* the funniest is when they can't think of anything to say, and string several together "father-lord-father" :-P
Caesar, I have a different take on what you're describing. Specifically, while I think that taking a/the Lord's name in vain for emotional emphasis ("God, what terrible weather we've been having") does use it as an interjection, in prayer ("God, hear my plea") the same term would be in vocative (or less ambiguously, appellative) form (but English doesn't have many grammatical inflections, so it's not apparent).
ReplyDeleteIn Latin, we see instances of this both in scripture and in Shakespeare: "O Lord = Domine" and "Et tu, Brute" (Brutus gets inflected the same way Dominus is changed to take the -e).
When used for emotional emphasis, expletives are just as effective to convey a metal layer of information than just tone of voice (though inappropriate for work environments); in that context I would condone its use, if sparingly (in fact, if I do swear it makes a huge impression on my conversation partner(s) since it is such a rare occurrence, so its impact is greater).
I do have a good friend who, when extremely frustrated, will express his ranting where the f-word in all its forms and comprises 80% of the words that come out. While humourous for his audience to hear, I'd say that's more than a little excessive. ;-)
Yes, Mayo - I've been accused of type-A behavior more than once :-). And I work in technology consulting for big financial services companies so lots of strong personalities.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up another interesting point that might be good material for a future post: the use of swearing in language. Many years ago I worked summers in the oil fields of northern Wyoming. Cursing was a fine art in that environment: a person's popularity was directly related to how prodigious and creative their use of foul language was. It could be quite entertaining to hear!
Ah, Mayo I see what you mean, but maybe I was negligent in describing the form of the prayers that I spoke about (incorrectly assuming that most would be familiar with them). If you've ever gone to a modern Protestant church, you're very likely to hear something along the lines of:
ReplyDelete"Lord, we pray -Father Lord- for you to bless Mayo -Father Lord- as she -Lord- continues to blog about all of the quirks -Lord- in the English language, Lord."
... not so much the "O God, hear our prayer" use that you mentioned.
Also, I think I take the very same stance as you on swearing - saving them for very specific, acute occurrences where no other word can adequately convey the depth of frustration/pain/excitement that I feel.