Filler (linguistics)

In linguistics, a filler is a sound or word that is spoken in conversation by one participant to signal to others a pause to think without giving the impression of having finished speaking. These are not to be confused with placeholder names, such as thingamajig, whatsamacallit, whosawhatsa and whats'isface, which refer to objects or people whose names are temporarily forgotten, irrelevant, or unknown. Fillers fall into the category of formulaic language, and different languages have different characteristic filler sounds. The term filler also has a separate use in the syntactic description of wh-movement constructions.

In English, the most common filler sounds are ah or uh /ʌ/, er /ɜː/, and um /ʌm/. Among younger speakers, the fillers "like", "you know", "I mean", "okay", "so", "actually", "basically", and "right" are among the more prevalent. The use of the Valleyspeak word "like" as a discourse marker or vocalized pause is a particularly prominent example of the "Californianization of American youth-speak", and its further recent spread throughout other English dialects via the mass-media.

Ronald Reagan was famous for beginning his answers to questions with "Well...". President Barack Obama is known for often beginning statements with "Look..." "If, if, if", "lemme be clear" as well as ahs and stammers that characterized the speaking style of William F. Buckley.

Among language learners, a common pitfall is using fillers from their native tongue. For example, "Quiero una umm.... quesadilla". While less of a shibboleth, knowing the placeholder names (sometimes called kadigans) of a language (e.g. the equivalent of "thingy") can also be useful to attain fluency, such as the French truc: "Je cherche le truc qu'on utilise pour ouvrir une boîte" ("I'm looking for the thingy that you use to open up a can").

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