Govor, Vol. 39 No. 2, 2022.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.22210/govor.2022.39.07
Disfluencies in narratives of adult speakers of the Croatian language
Ana Leko Krhen
; Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Gordana Hržica
; Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Mirjana Lasan-Grevelhörster
; Logodem – Private Practice, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The spontaneous speech of speakers with typical speech and language status is rarely completely fluent. There are two basic groups of disfluencies that occur in speech (Table 1). Stuttering disfluencies mainly occur within words and are usually the result of speech disorders. Normal disfluencies occur between words and are not necessarily related to speech disorders.
Most research shows that an adult speaker has 6 disfluencies per 100 words. Stuttering disfluencies can also occur in fluent speakers, although they are less common than normal disfluencies. The most common types of disfluencies are interjections of fillers or filled pauses,
phrase revisions, word revisions, repetitions of monosyllabic words, and prolongations. The purpose of this study was to describe the disfluencies of adult speakers of Croatian during the
narration of an unknown fictional story. We had three research questions:
1. What is the average ratio of disfluencies?
2. What types of disfluencies occur?
3. What is the ratio of each type of disfluency?
Young adult speakers of Croatian (min = 18 years, max = 29 years, M = 24.2) were tested (N = 32) with a narrative elicitation material consisting of a sequence of pictures (Table 2). Their narratives were recorded, transcribed, and each disfluency was coded (Table 3 and 4). The results show that the average number of disfluencies per 100 words was 6.5 (Table 6). Speakers produced all types of normal disfluencies (Table 7, 8 and 9): repetition of multisyllabic words, repetition of phrases, revision of words and phrases, pauses and interjections (filled pauses, fillers). They also produced stuttering disfluencies (Table 10, 11 and 12): prolongations, broken words, repetition of a sound or a syllable and repetition of a monosyllabic word. However, blocking was not attested. The most frequent disfluencies are
interjections of fillers, phrase revisions, word revisions, prolongations, and monosyllabic word
repetitions (Figure 1). These results are in line with the majority of earlier research. The study
describes the disfluencies of adult speakers of Croatian in a specific genre of spoken language
(narratives) and contributes to the body of evidence about the prevalence and types of disfluencies in adult speech. Its results are also relevant for clinical work, most specifically in
the diagnosis and therapy of stuttering.
Keywords
disfluencies of adult speakers; stuttering disfluencies; normal disfluencies; narration
Hrčak ID:
294127
URI
Publication date:
21.2.2023.
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