Question

describe the non lexical fillers in english and its uses

Answer 1

Non lexical fillers are extra words which comes meaninglessly in case of verbal communication.

Typical non-lexical fillers in English are: er, erm, um, mm, hm, h-nmm, hh-aaaah, hn-hn, unkay, nyeah, ummum, uuh and um-hm-uh-hm.

Answer 2

[clear-throat] 2 hh-aaaah 1 nuuuuu 1 uam 1 uumm 1

[click] 22 hhh 1 nyaa-haao 1 uh 36 uun 1

[click]neeu 1 hhh-uuuh 1 nyeah 1 uh-hn 2 uuuh 1

[click]nuu 1 hhn 1 o-w 1 uh-hn-uh-hn 1 uuuuuuu 1

[click]ohh 1 hmm 2 oa 1 uh-huh 3 wow 1

[click]yeah 1 hmmmmm 1 oh 20 uh-mm 1 yah-yeah 1

[noisy-inhale] 1 hn 1 oh-eh 1 uh-uh 2 ye 1

achh 1 hn-hn 1 oh-kay 1 uh-uhmmm 1 yeah 70

ah 6 huh 2 oh-okay 2 uhh 4 yeah-okay 1

ahh 1 i 1 oh-yeah 1 uhhh 1 yeah-yeah 1

ai 1 iiyeah 1 okay 8 ukay 2 yeahh 2

am 1 m-hm 2 okay-hh 1 um 20 yeahuuh 1

ao 1 mm 2 ooa 1 um-hm-uh-hm 1 yegh 1

aoo 1 mm-hm 1 ookay 1 umm 5 yeh-yeah 1

aum 5 mm-mm 1 oooh 1 ummum 1 yei 1

eah 1 mmm 3 ooooh 1 unkay 1 yo 1

ehh 1 myeah 2 oop-ep-oop 1 unununu 1 yyeah 1

h-nmm 1 nn-hn 4 u-kay 1 uu 6

haah 1 nn-nnn 1 u-uh 4 uuh 1

hh 3 nu 1 u-uun 1 uum 6

Table 1: All Conversational Non-Lexical Sounds in the Corpus, with numbers of occurrences

Answer 3

Non lexical fillers serve as connecting devices. They are used when the speaker needs time to think, agrees to other's opinion or denies the matter, asks others to continue, expresses hesitatation and expresses doubt etc.

Examples:uh, ah, mmm, er, hmm, sh, ow