The importance of studying the role of filled pauses in the construction of a coherent representation of spontaneous spoken discourse

Abstract

Filled pauses indicate that the speaker is searching for information or deciding how to continue. In this review, we summarize recent research on the production and comprehension of these pauses. We also present studies that have focused on the establishment of meaningful connections during discourse comprehension, and preliminary research on the role of filled pauses in the establishment of these connections. Overall, these studies suggest that filled pauses promote that listeners focus attention on upcoming speech, and that research on this topic has not tended to focus on the comprehension of connected discourse. Studies on the comprehension of connected discourse suggest that the establishment of causal connections plays a central role, and that the presence of filled pauses does not create a break with information that is relevant to their establishment. Finally, this review presents an integrated view of research on the processing of disfluencies and discourse connections.