Category: metablogging

um…uh…what do you mean?

I’m experiencing some internal conflicts. Namely, there is often a gap between how I want to be spending my time, and how I should be spending my time. One thing I want to be doing is writing for fun. One thing I should be doing is writing for work and school. So sometimes I try to reconcile these by writing for fun and work. So in the interest of reconciliation, I bring you…the filled pause.

As part of my work and study, I do a lot of transcriptions (of various types: orthographic, phonetic and prosodic) of actual speech. (And by speech, I mean people speaking. Not speeches.) One of the common features of spoken language (in contrast to written language), is the occurence of what are commonly called filled pauses. In English, the two most common/frequent of these are uh and um (or er and um in British English). These are generally considered to be non-linguistic speech elements, i.e. sounds that we make in the course of speaking that are not really part of the language. However, I just read a really cool article that makes the argument that um and uh should actually be considered words, in particular interjections:

We will argue that uh and um are, indeed, English words. By words, we mean linguistic units that have conventional phonological shapes and meanings and are governed by the rules of syntax and prosody. We will also argue that uh and um must be planned for, formulated, and produced as parts of utterances just as any other word is.

They suggest that the meanings of uh and um lie in their usage, as with other interjections. Whereas nouns, verbs and adjectives will be defined by way of a paraphrase or with synonyms, interjections typically have a description of how or when it is used. Take a word like ouch. Its most common usage is an interjection, and dictionary.com gives its definition like this:

ouch 1 /aʊtʃ/
(used as an exclamation expressing sudden pain or dismay.)

Notice how the definition is in parentheses. Compare this to your typical noun or verb, like, say, ouch (Okay, this is a totally new word for me, too, and nearly as surprising to me as the alternate definition of mother….):

ouch 2 /aʊtʃ/
noun
1. a clasp, buckle, or brooch, esp. one worn for ornament.
2. the setting of a precious stone.
–verb (used with object)
3. to adorn with or as if with ouches.

So the authors of this article (Clark and Fox Tree, 2002), suggest that uh and um are words with meanings that can be defined in terms of their usage: to signal that the speaker is expecting a delay in speaking. Further, they go on to elaborate that uh is used when the speaker expects a shorter delay before resuming their speech than for those cases when um is used. They found evidence to support this in several spontaneous speech corpora. They also discuss various implicatures (in the Gricean sense) associated with using uh and um, including many which have been explored in the literature. For example, a speaker may use a filled pause (or filler) to implicate difficulties in speaking (um…it’s the…doohickey…uh…um), or a desire to hold the floor lest someone else tries to get in a word edgewise (um…hello, still speaking here).

Anyhow, I found their arguments to be quite compelling. And considering um as a word squares quite nicely with my own recent awareness of written uses of um. I’ve found myself using um occasionally in emails, or in blogging, or blog comments. I use it to signal discomfort, or perhaps even embarrassment. For example, considering the following totally hypothetical comment exchange in response to an entry I’ve written about a childhood memory or finding a duck in the dishwasher:

comment from “Bob12497”:
Great post, and great layout! I agree with everything you say. I explore similar topics on my website.

comment from me:
Hi, Bob12497-
Um…thanks.

Or consider the following hypothetical email:

Hi, Bob-
It was great seeing you at the meeting this morning. As you could probably tell, I was very enthusiastic about our upcoming goals and my commitment to participation in these new projects. Um…could you remind me what the new projects are about?

Anyhow…um…I should probably get to some cleaning. The squirrels have started complaining about the clutter.

References:
Clark, H. H., & Fox Tree, J. E. (2002). Using uh and um in spontaneous speaking. Cognition, volume 84, 73-111.

Snodgrass, G. & McSnorfle, Q.R.S. (2007). “Managing your duck in the dishwasher.” Unusual Duck Sightings Weekly, volume 23, pp. 23-99.

wearing my late-night cranky pants

We’re down in New York again, to visit John’s parents. John’s father has been in and out of the hospital since July, when he (re)broke his hip. So we’ve been coming down here to visit quite often. (Actually, this summer, we estimate that we spent more time here than at home.) I’m glad that we are able to come down here pretty easily, as it’s only a 3 and half hour drive for us. And it’s so important to be with family, especially in difficult times.

Anyhow, John’s father is back in the hospital again, and here we are. To offer help and support. My main job is to offer Phoebe, who offers much cuteness and huggage. Never underestimate the power of distraction.

But, while I’m glad we can be here, and even pushed for us to make this trip down this week, I also (selfishly) am going batty. Because I have even less time to myself than I have at home. I don’t know why I expect to get things done on these trips. I had in mind all sorts of work I’d get done, and packed accordingly. Book to read for my class. Stationery for writing the last of my seriously overdue thank you notes. Soundfiles on my laptop for annotation. Microphone to do some recordings for work. Articles to read for work. But the days slip away with socializing with John’s mother, visiting the hospital, and caring for Phoebe, who is going through a tough teething period. The most I’ve gotten done of my work was to start the reading for my class, and then get distracted…

And once again, here it is really freakin’ late at night. And rather than sleeping or getting to any of the work I should be doing, I sit here with my laptop writing about the work I should be doing and the sleep I should be getting.

pants in the media

Here’s something I’ve been meaning to share. In a reflection of pants synergy in the universe, as soon as I’d posted my last pants musings, I came across this excellent pants-related post on a blog I frequent:

Dressing Down the Media’s Attention on Pelosi’s Pants

(synopsis: Media says “Nancy’s pants are fancy pants.” Alice rants.)

the power of pants

Fooled ya! This post isn’t really about pants at all. Well, I guess it’s about “pants,” the tag.

WordPress has this feature by which you can check out other posts from WordPress blogs with the same tag. And for each tag, it will also show you a list of “related tags,” in case you want to follow up with other posts on similar topics. For example, for the tag “politics,” you currently get the following list of tags:
news, blogroll, life, culture, personal, religion, iraq, music, media and books

Recently, I decided to add the tag “pants” to my recent posts on pants. I am pleased to inform you that right now, at least, if you click on the “pants” tag, you get to see the following “related tags:”

  1. words
  2. linguistics
  3. humor

pants_tags.jpg

Those are actually the only related tags WordPress lists right now. (You’d expect to see “trousers” or “slacks”, perhaps “shirts” or even “fashion”…)

What I find even funnier, is that I see that the list of related tags for “linguistics“, which has related tags such as “languages”, “sociolinguistics,” and other terms you might expect, also includes “pants”. My friends, that is the power of pants.

linguistics_tag.jpg

By the way, this suggests to me that perhaps looking at blog tags would not be the most reliable means of investigating, say, semantic networks. (Though it could lead to lots of entertainment.)

a shallow cut

Last night I called my sister and mother in California. I asked if they’d heard about Hillary Clinton announcing her candidacy. I was a bit giddy yesterday from such historic news. It turns out they hadn’t heard, having been occupied all day with my sister’s baby shower. I talked to my sister first, and among other things we talked about, I told her I was excited that my blog entry about my reactions to the candidacy announcement got quoted. When my mother got on the phone, I again brought up the announcement. And she commented that it was funny to be hearing the news from me, because (and I’m paraphrasing) I don’t pay much attention to political issues.

Huh?

I talk about politics. I think about social issues. I get outraged by injustices. I’ve volunteered, I’ve donated, I’ve protested. Not as much as so many others, maybe. But I feel like, at heart, I am deeply political. Maybe I haven’t talked about these things much with her, at least lately. Maybe I’ve been pretty self-absorbed. My mother’s comment stung, even though she back-pedaled. Even though I know she didn’t mean to suggest I was shallow. I felt deflated, and didn’t even tell her about my excitement in being quoted. Especially since the article that quoted me more-or-less said “even women who usually write about trivial crap felt inspired to write about this news:”

Because while BlogHer’s list of Politics & News blogs by women is 379 strong, in this case I found sudden and serious grassroots engagement everywhere, from mommyblogs to myspace diaries.

It’s true that I don’t tend to write much about political or social issues. I started my blog to write largely for fun. And I realize that, indeed, my topics are largely shallow. I write mostly about stuff. Movies. TV. Funny words. Pants. I’ve had the most fun writing parodies of etiquette and advice columns.

Anyhow, I’m still planning to keep writing about topics that I enjoy writing about. Shallow though some may seem. And some of the topics I write about may have some social relevance. It’s all part of the package that is me.

post postscript: I should add that my mother is an extremely supportive woman, a close friend as well as a much-loved relation, and that the innocuous comment she made was merely the catalyst for my own fit of self-critical introspection. Why are we doomed to hurt the people we love most?

back in 5

out_to_lunch.jpgJust thought I’d post a note to say that I have not been abducted by aliens, nor have I been buried under an avalanche of plush toys. (Both of those sound somewhat appealing, though.) Much like a few nights ago, my stress levels are high, and concentration levels low. So I can’t really write much now, beyond blah blah blah. Perhaps I will be able to write tonight, when I should be doing work.

approaching level orange

rings300.jpg I have to say that my stress levels are not great tonight. Due to a variety of factors good (my mother is visiting) and bad (we are renegotiating Phoebe’s terms of sleep), my time and concentration have been reduced to critically low levels.

Please note that it is almost 1:00 a.m., and that rather than going to sleep I have chosen to: a) spend time writing, re-writing, re-re-writing (etc.) this largely incoherent rant due to stress-induced cognitive deficits and b) use a picture for which I had to 1) go on a scavenger hunt around the living room to locate a set of rings 2) set up said rings for a photo 3) upload pictures to my laptop 4) determine what application to use to put an arrow on a picture and 5) look up appropriate image-spacing html tags. And I wonder where my time goes.

actions speak louder through words

Since I may not have time to post much myself, I just wanted to send a pointer to some cool posting that’s going on elsewhere. There are a couple of bloggers who are organizing an ongoing project of collecting posts from their blogging community written about social causes. On the 10th of each month, the anniversary of a group wedding of minds, they have promised to post links to other posts written during the previous month. This month’s list can be found now on their respective blogs.

I’ve only had a chance to read a few of the posts so far, but the ones I’ve looked at treat a diverse range of issues including universal healthcare, climate change/global warming, racism, and excessive consumerism.

I’m hoping to be inspired and motivated to, at least periodically, post something of redeeming social value. But I can at least resolve to read what others have written. And reading counts. Awareness matters.

blogbrain

Here it is. January 1, 2007. After 11:00 p.m. And I really should be going to bed. But the compulsion…compels. It’s this damn blog a-callin’ to me. Now I’ve discovered a new toy I need to get for it: a real site meter. (I’m apparently missing out on all sorts of fun potential for…knowledge.) Plus I’ve got several posts in progress that I’d like to finish, some of them in my kick-ass women project. I even have more to say on the subject of pants. And then the idea has come up a couple of times that this is a time of year when people write resolutions. Hey, I could write resolutions. (That sounds like a list, and I love lists.)

But I’ve told myself I shouldn’t work on this blog until I’ve finished a particular task. Namely, to finish writing those thank you notes. “Wow,” you may be thinking. “She’s so organized to be already almost finished with her thank you notes.” But I’m not talking about thank you notes from this past big holiday. I’m talking about thank you notes for presents people gave for Phoebe’s birth. Um. That was more than 10 months ago. I’m not sure what the etiquette is in this matter. It’s a question I’d rather not find the answer to. But I’ve made up an answer: finish the notes in the same calendar year as her birth. As of yesterday, I had 25 notes left to go. I’ve managed to get through 10 of them. And I’ve decided to flub the date on the last few, as long as I can get them mailed by tomorrow. Which strikes a bit like a retroactive resolution. I think perhaps this type of resolution may be easier to achieve than the ones for the future. Perhaps that is what I’ll do instead of a list of 2007 resolutions. I’ll make a list of resolutions for 2006. Carefully selected to make me feel like I’ve accomplished some goals.

Okay. I really must get back to those letters. 15 left to go. (Does it count if I just write the date on the top of each of them?) I told myself I wouldn’t post until I finished writing them. (This one doesn’t count, does it?)