A Study of “E”(呃) Type Fillers in Spoken Language of the Elderly

Liu Chuqun

Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning ›› 2020, Vol. 5 ›› Issue (1) : 78-89.

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Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning ›› 2020, Vol. 5 ›› Issue (1) : 78-89. DOI: 10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20200106

A Study of “E”(呃) Type Fillers in Spoken Language of the Elderly

  • Liu Chuqun
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Abstract

A filler word is an apparently meaningless word or sound that marks a pause or hesitation in oral utterance, which is also known as a pause filler or hesitation marker. In Chinese, filler words such as “e, ng, ai” often appear in the spoken language of the elderly and they are neither interjections nor modal particles, but redundant filler, which belong to the phenomenon of non-fluency in spoken language. The types of filler include habitual, delayed and modified. Based on an oral language corpus with 400 000 characters obtained through solicitation from 75 pensioners of Jiangxi Normal University on fix topics, this paper attempts to illustrate features and functions of ‘E’ type fillers and its relationship with the ageing process. The findings show that there is a positive correlation between the frequency of filler and ageing: the older the age is, the higher the frequency is. Among them, 70‒74 age marks an important turning point, and the frequency is significantly higher than that of the 66‒69 age group. The study also finds that positive attitude and living habit can play a role in checking the frequency in using of ‘E’ type filler word in daily communication.

Key words

language of the elderly / filler / e / ng / ai

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Liu Chuqun. A Study of “E”(呃) Type Fillers in Spoken Language of the Elderly[J]. Chinese Journal of Language Policy and Planning. 2020, 5(1): 78-89 https://doi.org/10.19689/j.cnki.cn10-1361/h.20200106

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