PAUSE PHENOMENA IN SPONTANEOUS
ENGLISH SPEECH
BY THE TEACHERS OF BROTHERHOOD
ENGLISH COURSE
IN PALEMBANG: PSYCHOLINGUISTIC
ANALYSIS
By :
Budi Setiawan, S.S., M.A.
ABSTRACT
In the analysis, the researcher
analyzes pauses in spontaneous speech. In this
thesis the researcher explains
about a characteristic of pauses in spontaneous
speech that are classified into
four, they are: the types of pause; the causes of the
pause; the places of the pause;
and the meanings of the pause produced by the
teachers of Brotherhood
English Course in Palembang.
Spontaneous speech, as opposed to
planned speech, is a more natural way in which people communicate with each
other. However, the recognition of spontaneous speech is made more challenge by
the pronunciation variants and unpredictable pauses or laughter in between
words.
Heeman (1998: 1) assumes that in
spontaneous speech, speakers will often utter more than one contribution during
their turn of speaking. Unlike written text, there are no explicit punctuation
marks that delimit one utterance from the next.Furthermore, due to the online
nature of spontaneous speech, speakers sometimes need to revise what they have
just said, by making a speech repair. Hence, a first step in understanding
spontaneous speech is to segment the speech into distinct utterances and
determine the speaker's intended contributions by resolving any
speech repairs that might have occurred.
A pause is a way to indicate a
hesitation or to cover a confusing in finding words in a speech, especially in
spontaneous speech. Goldman-Eisler`s hypothesis also stresses the connection
between pauses and planning. However, speakers need not pause every time they
plan; Furthermore, some pauses primarily for breathing, and others are
stylistic – they make the point of utterance clearer.
a. Types of
Pause
1) Empty Pauses. That is
defined as a blank in the sentence. No sound, or when the speaker is just
breathing. In here, the speaker stops for a second and just be quiet and after
the speaker found the word which searched he continues the sentence. Empty
pauses are often used for breath. But sometimes in empty pauses the speaker
ever been use it for their hesitation and beside the speaker fill with a sound
of filled pauses, the speaker also repeat the last words which said before to
clearing the meaning. Susanne
Burger (2004: 7) states that there are few rules of this pause, as follows:
Empty pause is set when a speaker has stopped or halted his speech; The minimum
length of a pause is the time it would take the speaker to say a two-syllable
word at his normal speech rate; And empty pauses can appear after a repetition
or correction.
2) Filled Pauses. Based on
an article entitled “Filled Pauses” (2007: 1), filled pauses are hesitation
sounds that speakers employ to indicate uncertainty or to maintain control of a
conversation while thinking of what to say next. Filled pauses do not add any
new information to the conversation (other than to indicate the speaker's hesitation).
Filled pauses are marked as ‘eh’, ‘er’, ‘em’, ‘erm’, ‘mm’, 'uh', etc. Not only
those words which are used by the speaker when they hesitate, but sometimes a
simple sentence is an option by the speaker to hesitate, such as “I
mean”, “You see”,
etc., that refer to editing expression.
b. The Causes of
Pause
1) Respiration. In general
people pause for a second, even for taking abreath or for others. In speaking,
pause to take a breath is not often used by the speaker; it is just about 5%
(Aitchinson, 1998: 238). But it is often used because people always need a
breath in each few second. According to Susanne Burger (2004: 6) the definition
of respiration or breathing is the inhalation or exhalation that occurs during
spontaneous speech that often happens at prosodic or syntactic
boundaries. Breathing often
occurs in combination with (lip smack, tongue smack), which is described in the
Human Noises section, or in combination with an empty (silent) pause.
2) Hesitation. It is
pauses that speakers make whenever they have some kind of hesitation. Speaker
can make these pauses anywhere, at any point in the speech stream.
Speaker can make them not only in the middle, but also at the end or at the
beginning of idea units. Based on an article “How to Deal with Hesitation” in
www.fluntzy.com, there are many reasons why hesitation happened. One of the
reason is the speaker is carefully in choosing words in order the effect to the
listener is not too surprising or sensational.
c. The Places of
Pause
Dardjowidjojo
(2005: 146) stated that based on an agreement of all masters
(Clark
& Clark, 1977: 267) there are three places of pause, they are :
1) Grammatical Juncture. It is a place of
pause of planning a framework or the first constituent from sentence which will
be said. This grammatical juncture tends to long and often. This is also used
for breathing. In reality, this pause is not included into type of hesitation.
But it can be said that hesitation is not between clauses, but in the clause.
For example: The girl [EH] who sit over
there
is my daughter. This is the logical place to stop and to plan the skeleton and
first constituent
of
the next sentence.
2) Other Constituent Boundaries. At
boundary between the constituent and others constituent the speaker can be
pause because in here the speaker plans a detail from the next main
constituent. A pause here formed to filled pauses. It sign the mains syntax
that planned by the speaker or possibility it is intentionally effort to sign a
difficult sentence for the hearer. However, it becomes dividing-line to parts
of surface structure which abstract that had separated in linguistic.For
example: I do not know the answer, sir [EM] because I was tired, so I did not
come
to the class yesterday.
3) Before the first content word within a
constituent. After a framework shaped, so the constituent must filled with
words. The phrase that started with word “the” can emerge a pause,
because the speaker unintentionally could say that word but then the speaker
has to search the next word or other word which matched. For example: The
[EMPTY PAUSES] crying woman lying on the pavement over there.
d. The Meanings
of Pause
Based on Susanne Burger (2004:
12), pause has two meanings, they are:
1) Affirmation. That are
used by speakers engaging in spontaneous speech to indicate agreement with,
certainty about, or understanding of something that has just been said. For
example the sound “well” is an agreement with what the speaker said
before or other speaker said. The sound “You see” is also expressing an
agreement with the information which the speaker said. The sound “mhm” express
an understanding of something the new information.
2) Negation. It is the
opposite meaning when utilized in speech as that of the affirmation. For
examples: The sound “mm” is produced nasally with the lips closed, and
it is generally accompanied with a shake of the head carrying the meaning 'no';
The sound “I mean” is used to represent disagreement. It means the speaker
disagrees to the words which the speaker or the other speaker said before, and
the speaker has to correct it in the next words. The sound “uh” is also
carries the meaning 'no' and disagreement. Not all the sounds included to those
meanings.
Several sounds have own meaning.
Such as the sound “ah” indicate to surprise for something said. The
sound “eh” and “em” expresses a confusion, a hesitation, and sometimes a
panic.
