I ask because I caught myself being a huge hypocrite again.
I’m a millennial and I criticized a Gen Z friend for her constant use of the word ‘lowkey.’
I then realized do I not do the same thing? I often say ‘sorta’ or ‘kinda’ when I do just mean I did the thing in the same way she uses ‘lowkey.’
No, I didn’t ‘kinda’ delete a guy’s account at my stupid IT job. I DELETED HIS ACCOUNT! I didn’t ‘sorta’ leave too late for work. I FUCKING LEFT LATE!
So I am a massive fucking hypocrite who needs to just let Gen Z chill and do what the want as I am the same flavor of asshole, but what about you?
The filler words do carry meaning just not content although using them every time establishes a new baseline. They can be used to convey vibes, to harden, soften or communicate lack of confidence for example.
If you kinda/sorta deleted a person’s account, you still deleted the account but you are implicitly saying you didn’t mean to for example. Lowkey can be a modifier to mean you don’t feel strongly about something.
Of course I do and I think most people do. Its pretty hard to go without filler words in conversation. You’d need to be well spoken and thoughtful in every conversation to avoid using them.
I still use “cool” a lot, but I think its become one of those words that will persist through generations.
It’s not really a filler word, but I’ve been corrected on my use of “just,” particularly at my work place. “Just” is often used by some people to minimise the impact of what they’re saying intentionally. For example, “I just think we should change the wording in this law.” If you take out ‘just’ (and some of the other words) and say the thing you meant to say - it becomes a far punchier statement, “We should change the wording in this law.”
The OP made me think of a poem by Taylor Mali, “Speak With Conviction.”
Why use more word when less word work
More word sometimes make talk pretty and precise, but sometimes opposite. Words hard :(
s** world 🐟🌎
Oceans. Fish. Jump. China.
Why more? Less word work
More? Less.
? .
It can subtly influence meaning
For decoration, signalling emotional state, and to play with words.
unga bunga, genius!
Filler words carry meaning, even if they don’t have specific definitions in context. Like, “like” has a dictionary definition, but if you use it as, like, a filler word, you aren’t using that definition (necessarily), but it still conveys something about how the speaker is thinking. They don’t just pop up in speech at random. I like catching them and trying to interpret why speakers insert them where they do.
Like, “lowkey” is
usually* sometimes used to soften harsh language e.g. “I’m lowkey gonna murder Sarah if she doesn’t stop chewing her gum with her mouth open”. Kinda how “kinda” works as a filler to tone down whatever is being said. I don’t actually want to murder Sarah, I just kinda want to murder her. I don’t even know if I would call them “proper filler words” in the same sense that “like” is, since they do have a particular function that “like” as a filler lacks. More research is needed it seems.For me, I let 'em fly. If I had to deliver a speech I would probably include fewer than I usually use in casual conversation, but I don’t hold with the rule that they’re strictly to be avoided. I think they’re neat.
* edit: I just know how I’ve heard it used, I have no idea how it’s usually used. I’m lowkey not in the lowkey demographic.
I’m lowkey literally gonna murder Sarah.
Lowkey slay.
I heard someone use “literally” the other day in a way that made absolutely no sense, even in the not-literally-correct way we’ve all gotten used to. Almost like its heading for the sort of fits-anywhere role that “fucking” has.
“Like” can also be a softener.
“I ate like 20 corn dogs” is different than “I ate 20 corn dogs.”
The former means a larger than standard number of corn dogs, maybe six or seven. The latter means twenty.
It has other practical uses as well.
Yeah, I think some is phatic and some is to subconsciously maintain rhythm to hold attention. Both of which are not only fine, but if not abused, preferred in many contexts.
i concluded lowkey is similar to “down low”, personally. a bit like keep this quiet, but…
No, I mean I don’t use them needlessly or whatever. I kinda use them to sorta let my thoughts buffer.
I mean like it’s kinda like fuck man like you know like it’s kinda sorta like fuck man like fuck you know man like sorta kinda like fuck man like fuck man you know like it’s kinda like-
The curse-filler version of the rainbow wheel.
You have a good point there, English is a quite efficient language (which gets shortened even more, like saying “o” instead of zero) and this maybe leaves less time to think.
The Title should be “Do You Use Filler Words?” not “Do You Needlessly Use Filler Words?”. At least I really, really, really think so. /s
no, why use many words when few do trick
I’m french, and it’s a geberational thing I guess. People my age often say “genre” (equals “kinda”), and older people find this very annoying (I’m 22)
Yes I use needless filler words, but i use them because I need them ;)
Low key is a really egregious one though because it is not designed to be a filler word. The thing about filler words is that every adverb is a filler word, as neuroneiro points out. Using them less makes you sound confident and precise. Sometimes they are useful or necessary. But by definition - a filler word. It is likely our overuse of adverts which trains us to use filler words like sort of, low key, kind of
Do you
needlesslyuse filler words?It’s funny how people will be particular over filler words but not over speaking a shitty language with a grammar that barely makes sense.
Fixing one’s use of filler words is orders of magnitude easier than learning a “better” language. Doubly so for convincing everyone you know to also put in that effort for the same “better” target language.
Um, like, no?
You know what I mean?
I do, at the end of the day.
IRL I often use too few filler words and get perceived to be blunt or direct. So I think there is a middle ground.
I’ve been pretty aware of fillers from an early age and had a similar problem
I come from low socioeconomic so often a few words was enough. As I have grown and travelled I have adopted fillers, esp when writing. I often feel like I use too many which feels like I am betraying my natural way of communicating. But this also boosted by my likely ADHD. It’s usually too much, or too little, I just can’t get that middle ground.
So, similar background, and my issue is that, as I’ve traveled, widened my circle, and now (in my late 30s) made my way into higher education; I somewhat refuse to use the expanded vocabulary that these more “sophisticated” circles prefer. I feel like I’m exposing myself to thee parts of society in order to bring the better parts of it and ways of thinking back to help build my preferred community, but knowing that the only why I can bring it back is if I maintain the “local lingo” if you will. Otherwise, I feel I’ll be seen as an outsider.
I think I may have gone pretty hard and to the left of what we were originally talking about…but this is the internet, I may have just needed to scream into the void. Idk, but that constant strive for a middle ground is a familiar feeling.
I understand that and unfortunately the industries I work in expect waffle and showiness. The weird thing is in almost every exit interview my bosses tend to mention the appreciated my frankness. It must just slip out. I do get tired of the pretentiousness. It may not be that for a lot of people but that’s how it feels, like a linguistic game.
You can adapt how you speak to the people you’re talking to. In fact most people do that somewhat automatically, but you can consciously encourage it to happen more fully.
I do to a point, but there is intended refusal on my part when speaking with those that I get the impression that they do so to be impressive, especially in higher ed.
In a big believer in knowing how to and practicing the ability to speak to the least formally educated among us is a more valuable skill than is using the longest and most sophisticated words I can muster. I know the words, and I CAN use the words, but why? Especially if it runs the risk of someone around me feeling like they can’t or shouldn’t engage due to societal pressures of inadequacy. Fuck that noise.
I have often felt like I don’t belong in the space I am occupying for similar reasons, I would hate to be the reason someone else felt that way.
like, totally!
For some reason, I have an incredibly difficult time not saying like.
I bet if there were a word cloud of mymost commonly used words of all of my posts, “like” would be the sun in my fucking word solar system.
This is super common on the west coast of Canada (and I assume the United States as well.) Most of my friends from there say it constantly.
Filler words are normal, and every language has them.
It’s got California origins in the US, but it’s spread.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_girl
A valley girl is the stereotype of a materialistic upper-middle-class young woman, associated with unique vocabulary, vocal mannerisms, and California accent features, who comes from the Los Angeles commuter communities of the San Fernando Valley.[1] A youth subcultural identity and stock character in American popular media, it originated in and is most associated with the 1980s and 1990s.
Valleyspeak, or valspeak, is a (stereotypical) California English social dialect and accompanying vocal features, best associated with Valley girls, though elements of it may be used by other demographics, including some men of a similar background (“val dudes”).[3] This sociolect became an international fad for a certain period in the 1980s and 1990s. Valleyspeak is popularly characterized by both the steady use of uptalk, certain vowel sounds, and its vocabulary. The vowel sounds are in fact part of the larger California vowel shift becoming more common in the American West and Canada, as well as elsewhere in the U.S. Certain features once associated with Valspeak are now simply mainstream in many American speakers born since the late 20th century.[4]
Features and qualifiers
- “Like” as a discourse marker. “Like” is used as a filler word, similar to “um” or “er”, as in, “I’m, like, totally about to blow chunks.” When “like” is functioning as a discourse marker, the word itself does not semantically change the phrase or sentence. Instead, it provides time for the speaker to formulate what they will say next. The word is always unstressed when used in this way. “Like” does not always function as a discourse marker in Valspeak. Consider the following two sentences: “It was like eight feet deep,” and “I think that, like, it is entertaining.” Even though both sentences contain the word “like,” they employ it differently. In the former, “like” serves as an adverb that is synonymous with “approximately”, whereas the latter “like” is a discourse marker, adding no additional meaning to the sentence.[15] Furthermore, “like” is frequently used to introduce quoted speech. For example, a person can recount a conversation by stating, “So, uh, I’m like, ‘Where did he go?’ And she was like, ‘I don’t know, I haven’t seen him.’”[16]
