To make it clearer, another example taken from Stenstrm (1994, p.5) is presented:
A : I mean (---) the British are at a loss in a sense to understand problems like this because it doesn't fit -- it doesn't fit into any of the criteria --
that (.) em -- they understand being I mean sort of *rather a ((dull lot of ...))*
B : *Well I just feel you know personally I think you all* well know my feelings about this I just (.) feel that the whole business about partition was terribly terribly unjust.
Holding a Conversation Turn
Furthermore, fillers serve an important purpose in helping a speaker to hold a conversation turn. Juan (2006, par.2) states that in a two-person conversation, people speak by taking turns. When someone thinks it is her/his turn to talk, s/he does. Otherwise, s/he listens. A two-person conversation becomes like a tennis match. Inevitably there are short periods of silence as people pause to let the other person take over the speaking. But sometimes a speaker does not want to give up her/his turn and instead wants a little extra time to think about what s/he is going to say next by using fillers to signal this.
Clark (1977, p.273) states the same theory that under the press of a conversation, speakers must make clear when they still have something to say and when they are finished. If they hesitate too long at any point, someone else may take over the conversation. This might push speakers into starting the first word of the next constituent before having the constituent all planned out. It might also push them to use more filled pauses -- uh, for example -- to fill spaces where other speakers might possibly take over. When a listener hears the fillers, s/he continues listening rather than starts talking. According to Hayamizu (2002, par.3), this function is called as communicative function.
The example below is taken from Stenstrm (1994, p.4):
A : but I don't I mean (.) because (.) because in Ireland (.) everyone insists on remembering things right back to -- ehm Henry the second -- I mean all those things are important this is where in British (.) just sort of completely can't understand them because (.) I mean all we're we're quaintly interested in -- things that happened (.) two hundred years ago here I mean they are of historical (.) interest -- but it doesn'tÂ
really affect our day to day thinking -- but (.) I mean (.) I don't (.) I mean ...
The use of fillers I mean and just sort of in the utterances above shows that the speaker is busy to plan what to say as s/he goes along and shows how the speaker tries to hold the turn to speak.
