LINKING WORDS AS HESITATION MARKERS IN SPONTANEOUS SPEECH

Abstract

This paper focuses on the analysis of linking words in the cases of linear and prosodic sentence structuring in verbal communication. The data on verbal communication was gathered by hand. The importance of the distribution, formal characteristics and functional load of linking words is addressed. Ten advanced Bulgarian students of Russian have read and retold the Russian version of Aesop’s fable 'The North Wind and the Sun'. Their retellings were recorded and analyzed using PRAAT software. A complex research method, including perceptive, acoustic and statistic analyses of prosodic units of speech, was used. The findings suggest that linking words, placed in between the breaks of discursive units, l perform a delimiting unction and become the locus of hesitation.