Comments on: Linguistic Tics (106)

By: ann

ann — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:54:51 +0000

I think John McCain’s incessant use of “my friends” is a verbal tic, and sounds insincere.

By: Dale

Dale — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:01:17 +0000

Verbal tics aren’t limited to English or other western languages. When my wife, who speaks Mandarin Chinese, often uses “ni zhidao” (????which is literally “you know”. In speech this often gets shortened to something like “nizdao”, which is similiar to y’know in English.

By: Teddy

Teddy — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:32:12 +0000

This was the first episode of your podcast that I listened to - and you got me directly. I’m from Germany and was searching for some substitute for ESL podcast. I believe I just found it. Great!

By: Alexandre

Alexandre — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:00:16 +0000

Did an unrehearsed presentation yesterday, under less-than-optimal conditions. A friend who was in the audience (a brillant communication expert) later told me about my “y’know” tic of that day. Made me think of this show and I clumsily tried to explain my approach to tic-management (which partly revolves around switching them around). Made me think of Parry and Lord’s oral-formulaic theory (used to explain Homeric prose as well as Serbo-Croatian epic performance).
My friend’s point was more about replacing those tics with pauses, which is something I did start working on a few months ago after a workshop on effective presentations.
As this friend said so eloquently, much happens during those pauses as audience members ponder on what has been said. It’s obviously an excellent point, which relates to cognition and communication (Wilson and Sperber’s Relevance Theory shouldn’t be too far). It can help us move beyond the realm of pet peeves into the domain of post-neo-classical rhetorics.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:08:05 +0000

I always find myself saying, “I don’t know” “Dunno” unnecessarily

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:16:23 +0000

I noticed that people use “like” and “go” instead of “say.” And I do it sometimes too “And I was like…” but it is annoying, even when I do it.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 03:05:35 +0000

I thought of another good celebrity linguistic tick. Chef Gordon Ramsey! He says “yeah?” or “yes?” at the end of every instruction.

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:55:46 +0000

I really had to steel myself to listen to this episode. }:-\

Certain verbal tics drive me absolutely nuts, and “y’know” is right at the top of the list. It seems to have risen to the placeholder position previously held by “like” and “um”. It’s become pervasive in American speech to such a degree that people often don’t even realize they’re saying it anymore, sometimes several times in a row.

Conversations with my mother are occasionally painful due to her frequent use of long, drawn-out “uuuummmm”s. Ever since I realized that I did the same thing myself (back in college), I have made an effort to curb that particular habit.

The one that irks me but seems to be unique is my boss’s habit of interspersing her recounts of previous conversations with “I said” and “he said” much more than is necessary for clarity. It comes out something like this: “I told him, I said, ‘We don’t have to go there if you don’t like the food,’ I said.” At first it just seemed quirky, but after several years of it I have to resist the urge to twitch and cringe when she does it.

Yes, misuse of language can cause a physical reaction.

By: Alexandre

Alexandre — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:00:30 +0000

The shift from “y’know” and “so” to “I mean” can have interesting implications. One might say it’s more personal. And it’s a kind of reverse hedge.

By: Edward Penn

Edward Penn — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:53:20 +0000

I’ve noticed in recent years a linguistic tic used primarily by athletes in interview settings. It’s not used solely there, but that’s where I hear it most. Athletes begin responses to questions with, “I mean.” Typically, English speakers use this expression to clarify something just previously said that might otherwise be confusing. The use of “I mean” is a perfect linguistic stalling tic to perhaps come up with something substantive as a response. Instead of saying “um” or “uh” or “you know,” the speaker begins the sentence with “I mean.” It could not be used more incorrectly. There has been nothing said yet by the speaker to explain or clarify. I might add that this tic cuts across racial and gender lines. I hear it equally from non-whites, whites, men, and women.

Example: Interviewer - “You played well tonight during the first half of the basketball game on both ends of the court. Were you aware that you set the record for most points scored in one half in a Big East tournament game?” Interviewee - “I mean, I knew I played well, but I was not aware of the scoring record.”

By: Alexandre

Alexandre — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:14:21 +0000

Howard said «enfin!», which is in fact fairly common in French. At least, in France. Francophones outside of France tend to use it less.
As they’ve discussed, «enfin» means “at the end” (from «en»+«fin»).

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:30:52 +0000

I just listened to the show, and I heard something mentioned about Bill O’Reilly in the “right-wing.” Last I knew, he was an independent. And even thought a lot of his viewpoints are concervative, being an Independent makes him not right-wing no matter his beliefs. I just wanted to point that out.

Also, Howard mentioned a French tic/sound that he didn’t know what it meant. It sounded like he was trying to say “enfant” which is French for “child”. It sounds similar to “infant” in English. But I don’t really know what he was trying to say. I studied French in high school but I didn’t know about that tic, so it was interesting to find out about it.

Keep on rocking on!

By: Alexandre

Alexandre — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 05:51:00 +0000

What’s funny is that, not 24 hours before listening to this episode, I was asking myself if “tic” was also the term in English (we say «tic verbal», in French).
Maybe the term doesn’t carry exactly the same meaning. Seems to me, in my language community, tics include all sorts of “mannerisms” and habits but these need to be very noticeable, frequent, or unusual to warrant the label.
My sense is that almost all public speakers have them, especially during extended periods of ad libbing. They do make lots of would-be and frequent public speakers quite self-conscious, even self-unconscious!
When I can, I try to vary them. They appear much less like tics when they’re varied, especially if they’re unremarkable.
The verbal tic which got me thinking was “awesome” and, for some reason, I kept using it during a party, the other day. Sure, my use was stereotypical and would have annoyed some people of a certain speech community. But it fit too well during that evening. (Most people there were Post-Busters, born in the early 1970s.)
Thanks for telling me about the shift in thr meaning of “hence” from “henceforth” to “therefore” (or some such semantic shift). The new meaning of “hence” is common in academia, but it’s useful to know there could be confusion.