3 ms·
> The most common justification for all this grunting and groaning is, "I'm not always certain of the next thing to say, so I need time to think of it." I knew
by inopinatus 8y ago
> The most common justification for all this grunting and groaning is, "I'm not always certain of the next thing to say, so I need time to think of it."
I knew someone whose strategy in this situation was simply to speak
with
lots
of space
between
...
each word.
Thereby supplying himself an opportunity to think.
Sadly his fate was the same as unhappy Julius.
- retsibsi 8y agoI've noticed a similar, but less extreme strategy that a lot of polished speakers seem to use: they'll insert large gaps every now and then, but not in the places you'd expect. Rather than doing it between two different ideas, or at a point where you'd expect them to need to pause for thought, they'll stop at a point where the next words are quite obvious. Then when they resume, they'll ride smoothly through those more natural break points. In conversation I think this is a way of holding the floor (it's harder to interrupt someone who is obviously in the middle of a thought or a sentence). When addressing an audience, perhaps it adds an air of authority -- it enables you to eliminate obvious pauses for thought, by substituting what feel like pauses for effect.