词汇大师-- Writer Says Bias Against Sayers

　　AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: our guest is writer Michael Erard, author of a new book called "Um..."　　MICHAEL ERARD: "People who have studied speech patterns notice that there are really two groups of people: one group that says 'uh' or 'um' more frequently and another group that [restarts] their sentences and they also repeat words more frequently. People who say 'uh' or 'um' are not necessarily uneducated or unprepared or unintelligent, in the same way that people who don't use filler words are necessarily more intelligent or competent."
AA: Michael Erard points out that all languages give speakers a way to indicate some sort of delay.
MICHAEL ERARD: "In many languages it's a word like 'um' or 'uh,' that kind of neutral vowel¹. In some languages, it's 'eh' -- that's Hebrew. In French, vowels² are a little rounded, so it's 'oo.' There are other languages that take a word that actually means something and they repurpose it for the filler word. So in Japanese the thinking word is 'ano,' which means 'this' or 'that.' So you'll hear people say 'ano, ano, ano.' In Spanish, it's 'este' [meaning 'this']. And it's something that people have to learn. Children have to learn it. And adults who are learning a language as a foreign language would be better off learning how to pause and delay and make the thinking sound in that language."
AA: Michael Erard has a master's degree in linguistics³ and a doctorate⁴ in English. He wanted to trace the source of the notion that good speakers don't use 'uhs' or 'ums.' He says he figured it had deep roots because it's so strongly held. So he checked ancient Greek and Roman literature but couldn't find any advice against 'um,' or its ancient equivalent.
MICHAEL ERARD: "I thought, well, maybe it's a particularly American concern, and I went looking in some of the nineteenth century literature about how people could improve their vocabulary, improve their pronunciation, get rid of their regional dialects, and there was no discussion of 'uh' or 'um' either. It doesn't really appear until the early twentieth century, particularly after the advent⁵ of radio, but certainly after the phonograph.
"And so what I think had happened was that the phonograph was people's first opportunity to hear their own voices recorded back to them. And that really becomes an issue in the age of radio. And it turned out that one of the important aspects of the radio performance was to remove the 'uhs' and the 'ums' -- I think because it didn't sound right somehow. But there was also the fact that the radio broadcasts were commercial. They were selling things, selling advertising⁶ on the radio, and the 'uhs' or the 'ums' would take up valuable time that you could use to sell pet food and mattresses⁷ and whatever other sorts of sponsorships."
RS: "What is the takeaway message from the book for students who are learning English as a foreign language?"
MICHAEL ERARD: "Part of it, I think, is to not try to speak the way that English is written, but to speak the way native speakers speak. And one of the ways that native speakers speak is they pause and they think and they indicate to their listeners that they are doing so. And so they say 'uh' or 'um,' they say 'you know' and things like that.
"I think for those students and for their teachers, it also becomes important to understand different situations, that there are formal situations and less formal situations and that each of those comes with a set of rules. Because, while I wouldn't want an 'um' in a State of the Union address or some other formal situation, when I'm in my own home I want to be able to use that word without being judged."
AA: Michael Erard is author of "Um... Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean." And that's WORDMASTER for this week. To learn more about American English, go to voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is [email protected]. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

1 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

2 vowels   

n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Note the various sounds of vowels followed by r. 注意r跟随的各种元音的发音。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

3 linguistics   

n.语言学

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• Linguistics is a scientific study of the property of language.语言学是指对语言的性质所作的系统研究。

4 doctorate   

n.(大学授予的)博士学位

参考例句：

• He hasn't enough credits to get his doctorate.他的学分不够取得博士学位。
• Where did she do her doctorate?她在哪里攻读博士？

5 advent   

n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临

参考例句：

• Swallows come by groups at the advent of spring. 春天来临时燕子成群飞来。
• The advent of the Euro will redefine Europe.欧元的出现将重新定义欧洲。

6 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

7 mattresses   

褥垫，床垫( mattress的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The straw mattresses are airing there. 草垫子正在那里晾着。
• The researchers tested more than 20 mattresses of various materials. 研究人员试验了二十多个不同材料的床垫。