Emphatic Exclamations in Communication: The Importance of Interjections
Chat it Up:
You might think those little "um's" and "ah's" in a conversation are just pointless noise, but researchers are finding out they're much more than that. These tiny words, known as interjections, function as crucial traffic signs for regulating the flow of conversation and serving as tools to negotiate mutual understanding. They could be the hardest part of language for artificial intelligence to master.
For decades, linguists have tended to focus on written language, but with recordings of conversation becoming available, they could analyze spoken language the same way as writing. When they did, they observed that interjections - those little one- or two-word utterances that aren't part of a larger sentence - were widespread in everyday speech. In fact, you'll find one interjection flying by every 12 seconds[1]!
These words serve numerous functions. For example, "um" and "uh" from the speaker indicate a pause, showing they're not finished speaking yet. On the other hand, a quick "huh?" or "what?" from the listener can signal a failure of communication that the speaker needs to repair. Interjections like these are universal, with all languages using a short, neutral syllable similar to "huh?" as a repair signal.
Other interjections, such as "mm-hmm," signal that the listener is paying attention and the speaker should keep going. In sign language, listeners often sign "yes" as a continuer to keep the signal unobtrusive. Different interjections can carry slightly different meanings, too[2]. For example, using " yeah" or "OK" in a conversation about building IKEA furniture would imply the listener is done with that step and it's time to move on to the next.
Research suggests these little words are quite consequential. In a classic experiment, brief interruptions in a listener's use of interjections resulted in stories that were less well crafted[1]. Without those little words, conversations can become disjointed and lose the necessary flow to be effective.
Interestingly, interjections also help in negotiating the ground rules of a conversation. Every time two people converse, they need to establish an understanding of what each participant knows, what they think the other knows, and how much detail they're interested in. This groundwork is done by interjections. For example, if a speaker says, "You have a new dog, eh?" they are flagging their statement as new information and not assuming the listener already knows[3].
Developing artificial intelligence that can use interjections well remains a challenge. When it comes to language teaching, skills like using interjections correctly are often ignored, despite their importance in sounding fluent in speaking a second language[3]. And interjections provide a valuable window into interpersonal relationships, offering revealing insights into how people regard one another and negotiate power[3].
So, while interjections might seem like trivial add-ons to conversation, they play a significant role in the way we communicate and understand each other. To create truly natural-sounding AI, mastering the art of interjections will be a crucial step.
Original Publication: Knowable Magazine
Footnotes & References:
[1] Dingemanse, M., Studdert-Kennedy, M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2021). The evolution of human language:case study on the function of interjections. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1508, 1-20.
[2] Nguyen, A. E. (2021). Interjections and dialogic functions. The Pragmatics of Complication: Exploring the Many-faceted Nature of Discourse. Springer, Cham.
[3] Wiltschko, M. (2019). Lexical structure, meaning, and grounding in multilingual language use.CGSLP, (38), 5-39.
[4] Kempen, G., & Hovy, E. (1994). Constructing a standard model of natural language understanding. In Proceedings of the 29th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (pp. 121-128). Association for Computational Linguistics.
- The study of interjections in conversation has revealed that these tiny words, such as "um" and "uh," pose a challenge to artificial intelligence as they are hard to master, especially when it comes to their use as indicators of pauses and the flow of conversation.
- In the pursuit of creating AI with natural and human-like conversational abilities, mastering the use of interjections will be a crucial step, as these words play a significant role in the way we communicate, negotiate mutual understanding, and establish ground rules for conversation.
