I heard this on All Things Considered, yesterday. Language Removal Services electronically removes all linguistic elements from a speech sample, leaving behind non-verbal utterances and breathing. They did some of the more prominent Cali recall candidates. The spokesman singled out Huffington as extraordinary, since she had virtually no non-verbal utterances at all. I can't tell what I think his/her language-less recording says about each candidate (I mean, does Huffington's linguistic precision imply a precise mind, or a simple one?), but it's pretty interesting.
I would think it implies one of two things or even both: 1- Excellent rehearsal of the speech - near perfect memorization - and knowledge of the subjects talked about 2- No improvisations or ad libbing. Usually people say "hmmm" or other fillers (even ones such as "like") they are basically filling in the spae while thinking about the rest of their words.
Yep. On the other hand, I tend to hem and haw when reciting my own name. It would be useful to get the context for each of these recordings. If Huffington's recording was taken from a response on a talk show or during a debate, I'd say she was an android. Arnold's stutter-filled recording probably reflects his "English is not my first language" status more than anything else.
This isn't necessarily correct. These "fillers", as you call them, are often utterances that allow the brain to catch up with the mouth, or vice versa. In many cases, the person isn't thinking about the rest of their words, it's that they are not "synched up" properly. Or something like that. I could give you a more detailed explanation, but then I'd have to dig out my old Psychology of Language textbook. And that's not going to happen. Interesting stuff, though.
I heard Huffington on the debate a couple of weeks ago -- she may not have said "um" or "ah" a lot, but she did use filler like "and you know what?" which consist of actual words, and therefore are eliminated by this process.
Interesting???!!! Hardly - at least not to me, but I'll give ATC a break because it such a great program. I will say that this report made me happy. I realized that someone else had the job of created recordings by removing words from dialogue then attempting to make that activity relevant to other people. This made my job (and I presume all others) just a little bit more interesting and relevant in the grand scheme.
Arianna Huffington was created in a petri dish on an island in the Mediterranean. A person that annoying CANNOT be human.