| Two experiments using spontaneous speech tested the influence of the discourse markers I mean, you know, like, and I don't know. In Experiment 1, you know was found to increase the perceived politeness and mitigation of conversations. Speakers using like and I don't know were judged as more mitigated on some measures, but were not seen as more polite. The presence of I mean did not influence judgments about the mitigation or politeness of speakers. In Experiment 2 the same spontaneous speech trials were used to test the moment by moment availability of concepts occurring during the speech. Only I mean influenced the availability of concepts as measured by reaction times using a semantic verification task. Participants were about 78ms slower when I mean was present. |
