Comments on: Equivocation and Discourse (76)

By: Keith

Keith — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 20:16:29 +0000

I think that upspeak occurs when the speaker isn’t confident enough to simply make a statement and assume that the listener is still paying attention. They use that rise in pitch to hint at “are you still with me?” – - hoping to get a “mmm” or “uh huh” from the listener in response.

Some listeners use that kind of “positive reinforcement response” continually. The result is an almost constant, annoying chant of “mmm’s,” “huh’s,” and “uh huh’s,” designed to show how attentive they are, but actually disrupting the speaker’s thoughts. I call these people “cheerleaders.”

By: Pamela Rosen

Pamela Rosen — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 20:59:37 +0000

Dear Word Nerds,

As a corporate communications consultant, it is my job to work with senior level executives at Fortune 5 companies, helping them craft their messaging and other communications. I find that I have to use equivocal speech as a matter of respect. Such execs are unaccustomed to change anything by a subordinate, yet that is exactly what they have hired me to do. So when I see written disasters coming my way, I have to be very careful and say things like “That may be a little bit too strong,” or “perhaps if you changed it to this, it might be clearer” every single day. For someone like me not to do that is an unequivocal kick out the door.

Also, on Upspeech, the German term “Oder?” crossed my mind. As you know, it’s always preceded by an absolute statement, and then softened with the question. I used to think it was related to the American usage of “Right?” but after working in Munich for awhile, I determined that it’s not quite the same. Do you think the “Oder?” is a German form of Upspeech?

By: Jonathan Grunert

Jonathan Grunert — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:05:45 +0000

Of course, there is the opposite of upspeak. I’ve noticed this mostly in speech from Pennsylvania natives. When they ask questions, there is no rise in their vocal inflection. Instead, a question such as “Where are you going this weekend?” comes out as a sentence: “Where are you going this weekend.”

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 01:59:36 +0000

Ardith: Regarding “upspeak,” the rising inflection is not a question, but a cue that the speaker is not finished speaking yet. The final statement will not have the rising inflection unless it is actually a question.

We didn’t say (or at least we didn’t mean to say) that the rising inflection signals a question. It is, however, the intonation pattern of a question; therefore, someone who is not a member of the “upspeak linguistic community,” or anyone who doesn’t accept upspeak as simply a dialect feature, may hear that intonation as a question.

I believe Howard was suggesting that this is what makes upspeak so frustrating for many people. Non-interrogative statements are intoned as questions, and this intonation seems to demand a response, just as a question does.

By: deb

deb — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 23:49:06 +0000

Listening to it a second time I realize that hem and was mentioned. But what else comes to mind are word whiskers.

Word whiskers are the extra little phrases like little whiskers that need to be shaved off our speech. Words like ‘uh,’ ‘an uh,’ ‘now,’ ‘and now,’ ‘and then,’ and ‘you see’….

First understand why we do it. Our brain is following it’s programming. Actually it is a mental programming flaw telling us we must talk all the time. It is like our brain says, “If I am not talking, something must be wrong. There for I must talk, even if I have to say, ‘and uh.’”

By: Ardith

Ardith — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 20:19:17 +0000

Regarding “upspeak,” the rising inflection is not a question, but a cue that the speaker is not finished speaking yet. The final statement will not have the rising inflection unless it is actually a question.

By: deb

deb — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 20:04:28 +0000

Listening to this podcast I was reminded of a favorite idiom: “hem and haw.”

By: Chris from the Amateur Traveler podcast

Chris from the Amateur Traveler podcast — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 16:44:07 +0000

It seems to me that the other reason for equivocation is that sometimes we cannot be as accurate with with what sounds like exact language. So any statement made about the behavior of a large group of people is probably more accurate when we say that “people of a certain age” tend to be this way or that, rather than making that statement more declarative. Statements like “women are” or “men do” are going to be wrong for some segment of that population.