Sense-group
When we listen to someone talking, we first take in a sequence of sounds, a phonetic event, but our understanding is not a matter of grasping one sound after another, nor even one word after another. We organize the message into sense-groups (Clark and Clark 1977:43–57). Possibly the speaker helps by speaking in sense-groups, making the pauses that are needed for breathing between sense-groups; for example, at some of the places marked ‘(pause)’ in this utterance:
“I’ll let you know the answer (pause)
as soon as I get the information (pause)
from a friend of mine (pause)
who lives in Winchester.”
(What we call a ‘pause’ may be an instant of silence or it may be simply the lengthening of a final sound, for example, informationn-n.) But conversational speech is not usually so neatly organized. As speakers we typically hesitate as we figure out what we intend to say; we put in ‘fillers’ (“Well”; “As a matter of fact…”); we repeat; we correct ourselves (“I mean”), we appeal to the addressee’s understanding (“you know”). So even a short utterance like the one above may come out this way:
“Well, I’ll uh let you know (pause) the answer (pause)
as soon—as soon as I get the information (pause)
from a friend of mine (pause) um you know (pause) who
lives in Winchester.”
This may look strange on the printed page because in written English we are used to seeing the result of careful planning and polishing, but conversational speech is scarcely ever planned or polished. As listeners we ‘edit’ what we hear, separating the pauses, fillers and repetitions from the ‘gist’ of the message. Thus, although we can’t grasp a spoken message without hearing it (perception), our knowledge of the language enables us to distinguish between what communicates and what does not. Listeners—and readers—use their implicit knowledge of the language to grasp the message they are dealing with. For instance, if we encounter the verb put in an utterance, we are prepared to find three expressions telling us who puts, what is put, and where it is put. With the verb travel we unconsciously recognize that there will be information about the person(s) traveling and perhaps about the starting point, the goal, the route taken, and the duration of time. The verb buy must be accompanied by an expression that names the buyer and item(s) bought and there is likely to be information about seller and price, as well. One part of semantic analysis, therefore, is concerned with describing the kinds of expressions which usually accompany various verbs—what roles these expressions play with respect to the verb and to each other—the who, what, where and when.
“I’ll let you know the answer (pause)
as soon as I get the information (pause)
from a friend of mine (pause)
who lives in Winchester.”
(What we call a ‘pause’ may be an instant of silence or it may be simply the lengthening of a final sound, for example, informationn-n.) But conversational speech is not usually so neatly organized. As speakers we typically hesitate as we figure out what we intend to say; we put in ‘fillers’ (“Well”; “As a matter of fact…”); we repeat; we correct ourselves (“I mean”), we appeal to the addressee’s understanding (“you know”). So even a short utterance like the one above may come out this way:
“Well, I’ll uh let you know (pause) the answer (pause)
as soon—as soon as I get the information (pause)
from a friend of mine (pause) um you know (pause) who
lives in Winchester.”
This may look strange on the printed page because in written English we are used to seeing the result of careful planning and polishing, but conversational speech is scarcely ever planned or polished. As listeners we ‘edit’ what we hear, separating the pauses, fillers and repetitions from the ‘gist’ of the message. Thus, although we can’t grasp a spoken message without hearing it (perception), our knowledge of the language enables us to distinguish between what communicates and what does not. Listeners—and readers—use their implicit knowledge of the language to grasp the message they are dealing with. For instance, if we encounter the verb put in an utterance, we are prepared to find three expressions telling us who puts, what is put, and where it is put. With the verb travel we unconsciously recognize that there will be information about the person(s) traveling and perhaps about the starting point, the goal, the route taken, and the duration of time. The verb buy must be accompanied by an expression that names the buyer and item(s) bought and there is likely to be information about seller and price, as well. One part of semantic analysis, therefore, is concerned with describing the kinds of expressions which usually accompany various verbs—what roles these expressions play with respect to the verb and to each other—the who, what, where and when.
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