Articles

Een exploratieve studie van het beurtfinale euh(m): De rol van gebaren en blikrichting

---

Abstract

Many studies describe uh(m) as a symptom of a production difficulty, a turn holding signal
or an announcement of a delay in speech (Christenfeld 1994, Maclay & Osgood 1959,
Clark & Fox Tree 2002). They all emphasize the role of uh(m) as a projection of further
talk by the same speaker. However, our data show that uh(m) can also occur in turn-final
position, thus not projecting continuation of a turn. This study compares turn-final occurrences
of uh(m) to the typical turn-medial uh(m) from a multimodal perspective. The
analysis shows that turn-final uh(m) is only rarely preceded by a pause, more often
accompanied by facial expressions and co-occurs with a retraction of a hand gesture.
Also, the speaker frequently gazes at the interlocutor during turn-final uh(m). These formal
differences may be linked to a functional difference between turn-final and turn-medial
uh(m).

How to Cite:

Jehoul, A., Brône, G. & Feyaerts, K., (2017) “Een exploratieve studie van het beurtfinale euh(m): De rol van gebaren en blikrichting”, Handelingen - Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse maatschappij voor taal- en letterkunde en geschiedenis 71, 151-172. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/kzm.v71i0.17549