Filler (linguistics)

In linguistics, a filler, filled pause, hesitation marker or planner (sometimes called crutches) is a sound or word that participants in a conversation use to signal that they are pausing to think but are not finished speaking. These are not to be confused with placeholder names, such as thingamajig, whatchamacallit, whosawhatsa and whats'isface, which refer to objects or people whose names are temporarily forgotten, irrelevant, or unknown. Fillers fall into the category of formulaic language, and different languages have different characteristic filler sounds. The term filler also has a separate use in the syntactic description of wh-movement constructions (see below).

Usage 
Every conversation involves turn-taking, which means that whenever someone wants to speak and hears a pause, they do so. Pauses are commonly used to indicate that someone's turn has ended, which can create confusion when someone has not finished a thought but has paused to form a thought; in order to prevent this confusion, they will use a filler word such as um, er, or uh. The use of a filler word indicates that the other person should continue listening instead of speaking.

Filler words generally contain little to no lexical content, but instead provide clues to the listener about how they should interpret what the speaker has said. The actual words that people use may change (such as the increasing use of like), but the meaning and reason why people use them does not change.

In English
In American English, the most common filler sounds are ah or uh  and um  (er  and erm  in British English). Among younger speakers, the fillers "like", "you know", "I mean", "okay", "so", "actually", "basically", and "right?" are among the more prevalent. Christopher Hitchens described the use of the word "like" as a discourse marker or vocalized pause as a particularly prominent example of the "Californianization of American youth-speak", and its further recent spread throughout other English dialects via the mass-media.

In different languages 
 In Afrikaans, , , and  are common fillers (um, and uh being in common with English).
 In American Sign Language, UM can be signed with open-8 held at chin, palm in, eyebrows down (similar to FAVORITE); or bilateral symmetric bent-V, palm out, repeated axial rotation of wrist (similar to QUOTE).
 In Arabic,   ("means") and   ("by God") are common fillers. In Moroccan Arabic,   ("like") is a common filler, as well as  (so). In Iraqi Arabic,  ("what's its name") is a filler.
 In Armenian,   ("thing"),  , ("maybe"),   ("c'mon") and   ("as if") are common fillers.*
 In Bengali,  ( and  ("..er..that is")) are common fillers.
 In Bislama,  is the common filler.
 In Bulgarian, common fillers are  (),  (, 'well'),  (, 'so'),  (, 'thus'),  (, 'well'),  (, 'this') and  (, 'it means'),  (, 'right').
 In Cantonese, speakers often say   ("that is to say"; "meaning") and   ("so; then") as fillers.
 In Catalan,  ,  ("so"),  ("therefore"),  ("it means"), saps? ("you know"?) and  ("say") are common fillers.
 In Croatian, the words  (literally "this one", but the meaning is lost) and  ("so"), and  ("meaning", "it means") are frequent.
 In Czech, fillers are called , meaning "word cotton/padding", or , meaning "parasitic expressions". The most frequent fillers are ,  or  ("so"),  ("simply"),  ("like").
 In Danish,  is one of the most common fillers.
 In Dhivehi,    , , ,  and  (“aww”) are some common fillers.
 In Dutch, , and  ("thus") are some of the more common fillers. Also  ("actually"),  ("so"),  ("come on") and  ("so to say") in Netherlandic Dutch,  ("well") or  ("well") in Belgian Dutch,  ("you know?") etc.
 In Esperanto,  ("well") and  ("so") are the most common fillers.
 In Estonian,  ("so") is one of the most common fillers.
 In Filipino, , , , and  ("what"),  ("like"),  ("isn't it right?"),  ("that's") are the most common fillers.
 In Finnish,  ("like"), , and  are the most common fillers. Swearing is also used as a filler often, especially among youth. The most common swear word for that is , which is a word for female genitalia.
 In Metropolitan French,   is most common; other words used as fillers include  ("what"), ,  ("well"),  ("you see"),  ("you see what I mean?"), ,  ("you know"),  (roughly "well", as in "Well, I'm not sure"), and  (roughly "suddenly"). Outside France other expressions are  ("y'know what I mean?"; Québec), or  ("go one time"; especially in Brussels, not in Wallonia). Additional filler words used by youngsters include  ("kinda", "like"),  ("like"), and  ("style"; "kind").
 In German, traditional filler words include  , ,  , , , and  ("actually"). So-called modal particles share some of the features of filler words, but they actually modify the sentence meaning.
 In Greek,  (),  (),  (, "so") and  (, "good") are common fillers.
 In Hebrew,  () is the most common filler.  () is also quite common. Millennials and the younger Generation X speakers commonly use  (, the Hebrew version of "like"). Additional filler words include  (, short for   "that means"),  (, "so") and  (, "in short"). Use of fillers of Arabic origin such as  (, a mispronunciation of the Arabic , ) is also common.
 In Hindi,  (, "it means"),  (, "what do you say"),  (, "that") and  (, "what it is") are some word fillers. Sound fillers include  (, ), अ (a, [ə]), (, ).
 In Hungarian, filler sound is , common filler words include ,  (well...) and  (a variant of , which means "it says here..."). Among intellectuals,  (if you like) is used as filler.
 In Icelandic, a common filler is  ("here"). , a contraction of  ("you know"), is popular among younger speakers.
 In Indonesian,  and  are among the most common fillers.
 In Irish,   ("say"),   ("well"), and   are common fillers, along with  as in Hiberno-English.
 In Italian, common fillers include  ("um", "uh"),  ("well then", "so"),  ("like"),  ("there"),  ("actually", "that is to say", "rather"), and  ("well", "so"; most likely a shortening of  or , which are themselves often used as filler words).
 In Japanese, common fillers include  (, or "um"),  (, literally "that over there", used as "um"),  (, or "well"),  (, used as "hmmm"), and  (, used as "huh" as a response of surprise or confusion).
 In Kannada,  for "also",  for "the matter is" are common fillers.
 In Korean,  (),  (),  (), and  () are commonly used as fillers.
 In Kyrgyz,   (, "then", "so"),  (, "that"),  (, "that"),  (, "this"),  (, "um"), are common fillers.
 In Lithuanian, , ,  ("you know"),  ("meaning"),  ("like") are some of common fillers.
 In Malay, speakers often use words and phrases such as  (literally, "what name") or  ("that") as common fillers.
 In Malayalam,  (, "that means...") and  ("then...") are common.
 In Maltese and Maltese English,  ("then"), or just , is a common filler.
 In Mandarin Chinese, speakers often say ;  (pronounced nàge/nèige), meaning 'that'. Other common fillers are  and .
 In Mongolian,   (, "now") and  (, "that") are common fillers.
 In Nepali,  (, "meaning"),  (),  (),  (, "No?") are commonly used as fillers.
 In Norwegian, common fillers are , ,  ("in a way"),  ("just")  (literally "not true?", meaning "don't you agree?", "right?", "no kidding" or "exactly")l,  ("well"),  ("like") and  ("is it", "it is"). In Bergen,  ("true") is often used instead of . In the region of ,  (comes from  which means "you see/understand)", "as you can see/understand") is also a common filler.
 In Persian,  (, "look"),  (, "thing"), and  (, "for instance") are commonly used filler words. As well as in Arabic and Urdu,  (, "I mean") is also used in Persian. Also,   is a common filler in Persian.
 In Portuguese, , ,  ("so"),  ("like") and  ("well") are the most common fillers.
 In Polish, the most common filler sound is   and also   (both like English um) and while common, its use is frowned upon. Other examples include,   (like English well),   ("you know").
 In Punjabi,  (, , "it means") is a common filler.
 In Romanian,   ("therefore") is common, especially in school, and   is also very common (can be lengthened according to the pause in speech, rendered in writing as ), whereas   is widely used by almost anyone. A modern filler has gained popularity among the youths – gen , analogous to the English "like", literally translated as "type".
 In Russian, fillers are called  (, "parasite words"); the most common are  (, "eh"),  (, "here it is"),  (, "this"),  (, "that kind, sort of"),  (, "some kind [of this]"),  (, "well, so"),  (, "I mean, kind of, like"),  (, "so"),  (, "what's it [called]"),  (, "kinda"),  (, "[just] like, sort of"), and  (, "understand?, you know, you see").
 In Serbian,  (, "means"), па (pa, "so"), мислим (mislim, "i think") and  (, "this") are common fillers.
 In Slovak,  ("that"),  ("this"),  ("simply"), or  ("it's like...") are used as fillers. The Hungarian  (or  in its Slovak pronunciation) can also be heard, especially in parts of the country with a large Hungarian population.  is a filler typical of Eastern Slovak and one of the most parodied features.
 In Slovene,  ("indeed", "just", "merely"),  ("right?"),  ("well"), v bistvu ("in fact"), and pravzaprav ("actually")  are some of the most common fillers.
 In Spanish, fillers are called . Some of the most common in American Spanish are , ,  (roughly equivalent to uhm, literally means "this"), and  (roughly equivalent to "I mean", literally means "or be it"). In Spain the previous fillers are also used, but  ("right?") and  are very common too. and occasionally  ("well") is used. Younger speakers there often use  (meaning "as", "like" or "in [noun] mode"). The Argentine filler word che became the nickname of rebel Ernesto "Che" Guevara, by virtue of his frequent use of it. Other possible filled pauses in Spanish are: a, am, bueno, como, and others.
 In Swedish, fillers are called ; some of the most common are  or  ,  ("yes"),  or  (for example ) or  (comes from , which means "only"),  or  ("therefore", "thus"),  (comes from , which means "what"), and  and  (both similar to the English "like").
 In Tamil,  ("if you see...") and  ("then...") are common.
 In Telugu,  (, "what's here is...") and  (, "then...") are common and there are numerous like this.
 In Turkish,  ("meaning..."),  ("thing"),  ("that is"), and  ("as such", "so on") are common fillers.
 In Ukrainian,  (, similar to "um"),  (, "well"),  (, "and"),  (, "this"),  (, "this one") are common fillers.
 In Urdu,  (, "meaning..."),  (, "this and that" or "blah blah"),  (, "yeah yeah") and  (, "ok") are also common fillers.
 In  Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt), "ơ" or "à" (surprise); "ý là" (I mean); ...
 In Welsh (Cymraeg),  or , from  — ‘Is it not so?’ — is used as a filler, and in a similar way, especially in southern dialects  and  (abbreviations of  and  — the singular and plural/respectful forms of ‘you know’) along with  and  (abbreviations of  and  — ‘you see’);  (from  — ‘so/such/like/in that way’, used in northern dialects) ;  (‘alright/right’) is used as a filler at the beginning, middle or end of sentences ;  — used loosely to mean ‘alright’ ; , an abbreviation of  — ‘there we are’;  and  are used similarly to the English ‘um…’ and ‘uh…’.

In syntax

The linguistic term "filler" has another, unrelated use in syntactic terminology. It refers to the pre-posed element that fills in the "gap" in a wh-movement construction. Wh-movement is said to create a long-distance or unbounded "filler-gap dependency". In the following example, there is an object gap associated with the transitive verb saw, and the filler is the wh-phrase how many angels: "I don't care [how many angels] she told you she saw."

See also 
 Interjection
 Like: as a discourse particle
 Phatic expression
 So (word)
 Speech disfluency

References

External links 
 Why do people say "um" and "er" when hesitating in their speech?, New Scientist, May 6, 1995 
  Citing  
 Nino Amiridze, Boyd H. Davis, and Margaret Maclagan, editors. Fillers, Pauses and Placeholders. Typological Studies in Language 93, John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 2010. Review

Linguistics
Human communication