Formulaic utterances are chunks of spoken or written language that have a fixed form. They include fillers such as "um," "like," or "well." And they include more elaborate constructs such as "That's a difficult question but I'll try to answer it as best I can…" or "Let me start by saying/noting/observing that…". Estimates are that formulaic utterances account for 25-70% of all discourse. Like all communication, formulaic utterances transmit information, but transmitting information might not be their primary function.
The meanings formulaic utterances actually transmit might differ from their literal meanings. For example, "with all due respect" can actually transmit contempt or disrespect. Two relatively recent additions, "his or her" and "he or she," convey not an ambiguity of gender, but rather the speaker's (writer's) acknowledgment of the neutrality of gender relative to the topic at hand. One of the shortest of the formulaic utterances, "um," has no literal meaning whatsoever.
How formulaic utterances can be risky to use
An important Some formulaic utterances — fillers — let
the speaker collect his or her thoughts while
keeping control of the audio "channel,"
and not risking its loss to someone elsefunction of some formulaic utterances is the "filler" role. They give the speaker the ability to keep control of the audio "channel" without risking its loss to someone else while the speaker collects his or her thoughts. Investigations of the use of fillers have shown elevated use when the speaker experiences high cognitive load — that is, when the speaker must devote significant resources to managing memory of elements of the communication exchange. One can reasonably suppose that use of fillers might become elevated when the subject of the exchange is unfamiliar, complex, or otherwise a source of stress to the speaker.
Fillers include "like," "um," "That's a great question," or even, at times, "indeed." By culture-specific convention, listeners grant speakers a quota of fillers. Speakers who exceed their quotas pay penalties in the form of loss of audience attention or loss of credibility. Repeat offenders might experience career stagnation.
Using other formulaic utterances at work can present risks in other forms. Some examples of characteristics that present risk include:
- Out of place in the workplace culture
- Too closely identified with low social status
- "Unprofessional"
- Overused to the point of being trite
- Too bulky
- Condescending
- Sexist or racist
- Excessively and too predictably sarcastic
- Graphically depicting violence
- Otherwise generally offensive
Formulaic utterances that can be risky to use
Some examples of formulaic utterances that present risk to the user:
- Very, very
- Very, very, very
- In your face
- How all this will play out
- Keep in mind that
- Remember that
- On the front lines
- You've got to be/must be kidding
- Excuse me?
- Seriously?
- Really?
- Hang on a minute
- Not so fast
- Hold on there, chief
- We can walk and chew gum at the same time
- I get that
- News flash
- The biggest thing I hear from them is
- You know
- You know what I mean
- You know what I'm saying
- I mean
- I have neither the time nor the inclination to
- So I asked myself
- Let that sink in
- Break down the silos
- Do more with less
- Work smarter, not harder
- Throw her/him/them under the bus
- Drink the Kool-Aid
- It is what it is
- Take it offline
- Tee it up
- Off the rails
- Opening a can of worms
- This is about X, This is not about X
- The fact of the matter is
The most important characteristic of any formulaic utterance is that it is formulaic. It isn't original. It's familiar to (nearly) all speakers of the language, or to (nearly) all participants in the micro-culture in which the utterance is in wide use. In Part II of this survey, we'll examine some properties of formulaic utterances that present advantages to their users. And we'll include examples. Next in this series Top Next Issue
Is every other day a tense, anxious, angry misery as you watch people around you, who couldn't even think their way through a game of Jacks, win at workplace politics and steal the credit and glory for just about everyone's best work including yours? Read 303 Secrets of Workplace Politics, filled with tips and techniques for succeeding in workplace politics. More info
Your comments are welcome
Would you like to see your comments posted here? rbrendPtoGuFOkTSMQOzxner@ChacEgGqaylUnkmwIkkwoCanyon.comSend me your comments by email, or by Web form.About Point Lookout
Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and that you'll consider recommending it to a friend.
This article in its entirety was written by a human being. No machine intelligence was involved in any way.
Point Lookout is a free weekly email newsletter. Browse the archive of past issues. Subscribe for free.
Support Point Lookout by joining the Friends of Point Lookout, as an individual or as an organization.
Do you face a complex interpersonal situation? Send it in, anonymously if you like, and I'll give you my two cents.
Related articles
More articles on Effective Communication at Work:
- Long-Loop Conversations: Asking Questions
- In virtual or global teams, where remote collaboration is the rule, waiting for the answer to a simple
question can take a day or more. And when the response finally arrives, it's often just another question.
Here are some suggestions for framing questions that are clear enough to get answers quickly.
- The Ups and Downs of American Handshakes: I
- In much of the world, the handshake is a customary business greeting. It seems so simple, but its nuances
can send signals we don't intend. Here are some of the details of handshakes in the USA.
- On Facilitation Suggestions from Meeting Participants
- Team leaders often facilitate their own meetings, and although there are problems associated with that
dual role, it's so familiar that it works well enough, most of the time. Less widely understood are
the problems that arise when other meeting participants make facilitation suggestions.
- Four Overlooked Email Risks: I
- Working together to resolve issues or make decisions in email is fraught with risk. Most discussions
of these risks emphasize using etiquette to manage emotional content. But email has other limitations,
less-often discussed, that make managing email exchanges very difficult.
- Chronic Peer Interrupters: III
- People who habitually interrupt others in meetings must be fairly common, because I'm often asked about
what to do about them. And you can find lots of tips on the Web, too. Some tips work well, some generally
don't. Here are my thoughts about four more.
See also Effective Communication at Work and Effective Meetings for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
- Coming March 20: Top Ten Ways to Make Meetings More Effective
- Meetings are just about everybody's least favorite part of working in organizations. We can do much better if only we take a few simple steps to improve them. The big one: publish the agenda in advance. Here are nine other steps to improve meetings. Available here and by RSS on March 20.
- And on March 27: Allocating Action Items
- From time to time in meetings we discover tasks that need doing. We call them "action items." And we use our list of open action items as a guide for tracking the work of the group. How we decide who gets what action item can sometimes affect our success. Available here and by RSS on March 27.
Coaching services
I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates. Contact Rick for details at rbrendPtoGuFOkTSMQOzxner@ChacEgGqaylUnkmwIkkwoCanyon.com or (650) 787-6475, or toll-free in the continental US at (866) 378-5470.
Get the ebook!
Past issues of Point Lookout are available in six ebooks:
- Get 2001-2 in Geese Don't Land on Twigs (PDF, )
- Get 2003-4 in Why Dogs Wag (PDF, )
- Get 2005-6 in Loopy Things We Do (PDF, )
- Get 2007-8 in Things We Believe That Maybe Aren't So True (PDF, )
- Get 2009-10 in The Questions Not Asked (PDF, )
- Get all of the first twelve years (2001-2012) in The Collected Issues of Point Lookout (PDF, )
Are you a writer, editor or publisher on deadline? Are you looking for an article that will get people talking and get compliments flying your way? You can have 500-1000 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site. More info
Follow Rick
Recommend this issue to a friend
Send an email message to a friend
rbrendPtoGuFOkTSMQOzxner@ChacEgGqaylUnkmwIkkwoCanyon.comSend a message to Rick
A Tip A Day feed
Point Lookout weekly feed