Verbal filler? [Meaningless insertions in speech]

[Dinsdale]

@Chefguy

I had one employee who started nearly every response to a question or statement with “To be honest. . .” Do you normally lie to me?

This one always gets me. Especially jarring when a lawyer/witness uses it in legal proceedings. “Oh, NOW you are being honest!” :dubious:

Not really what the OP is asking, but I invite you all to join me on my crusade to wipe out “With now further ado…” - a phrase that is, by definition, what it expresses a desire to avoid.

I would wager over half of all folk introducing a speaker/presentation/event, says that. I can only imagine they think that is simply something introducers are supposed to say.

[pulykamell]

@Dinsdale

Not really what the OP is asking, but I invite you all to join me on my crusade to wipe out “With now further ado…” - a phrase that is, by definition, what it expresses a desire to avoid.

Either I’ve never heard this construction, or my brain has always autocorrected it to “without further ado.”

[pulykamell]

@Leo_Bloom

“Uptalk.” Thanks so much for putting a name on that. Is it in wide use?

Uptalk seems to me to be an astonishingly strong generational marker, as strong as vocal fry or Valley Girl intonation–and it’s actually more depressing, since it reflects a cognitive note (of deficiency or struggle, actually) that the other ways of talking do not.

And it’s use to match others’ use then lumps you with others who you shouldn’t be lumped with in other contexts. My nephew, now eighteen, drives me crazy with it, primarily because the sentences he says–declarative ones, not interrogatives–are (usually) intelligent and perfect responses in any discussion, tentative or clearly focused, if not argumentative.

But I think I hear it from so many people older than him. So my “generational” marker might need to be extended. Or I’m just getting too damn old.

I’m 40 and I hear uptalk even with some people in my generation. I’ve grown used to it, but it does drive me ever slightly crazy. And there’s no correlation with intelligence or cognitive ability that I’ve noticed–I know Ph.Ds who go into uptalk.