“Um” is one of the most commonly used words in conversations. But using it in a written text was never that obvious. Except maybe in fiction. In the dialogues of a novel it can occasionally be used in doses to make those dialogues more colloquial.
That has now changed. ‘Eh’ has also been written (typed) much more often lately: on social media, in apps, in informal emails.
Those who talk are hardly aware of when and why he or she says ‘eh’. But as soon as you use it in a written text, it is always conscious. And so planned. The question then is: does consciously writing a word that you normally use unconsciously mean that that word suddenly takes on a new nuance of meaning?
Research into this was recently conducted by Lotte Hogeweg (Radboud University) and two of her colleagues. They analyzed how ‘eh’ – and also its longer variant: ‘ehm’ – is used on X. This was mainly in three ways. First of all, like this: the tweeter acts as if he or she has to search for a word, so that the word that follows the ‘eh’ gets extra attention. The effect is usually that the word becomes a bit funnier, a bit more ironic, and sometimes even a bit more sarcastic.
An example: “My husband still has a pair of… er… vintage… underpants for the real daredevil. Grab your safety glasses and gloves.” ‘Eh’ emphasizes here that the formulation ‘vintage underpants’ (a euphemism for used or completely unfashionable underpants) is meant to be funny and mischievous.
Another example: “Ignoring a fine and then being surprised about the consequences is also a bit… um… thoughtless.” The last two words, ‘um’ and ‘thoughtless’, make the tweet clearly ironic: you say something but mean something else. The Twitter user says ‘thoughtless’ but of course means ‘very stupid’, and ‘um’ seems to reinforce the irony here.
Just a bit more sarcastic
A second type of use that the researchers often encountered on For example, someone calls on X to vote left. Someone else’s response to this: “Um, no thank you! I vote #PVV clown this time!” “Um” makes that “no thank you” a bit more sarcastic.
Another example: “It’s all the left’s fault? Eh, how? We’ve had the right in power for 23 years…” ‘Eh’ ironically emphasizes that the Twitter user thinks the idea that ‘it’ ‘all’ is ‘all’ the left’s fault is very stupid. ‘Eh’ suggests a brief moment of (speechless) surprise at what the other person has said.
What also occurs on X, albeit less often, is: pretending to have misspoken and then correcting yourself. That’s also meant to be funny: “That’s what happens with those left-wing types, when their… er… other people’s money starts to run out!” Another example, about Frans Timmermans: “Precisely in terms of stature, er, I mean stature, you cannot imagine a better Prime Minister of the Netherlands.”
A side note about this study, which the researchers themselves also make, is that X is a medium in which irony, humor, sarcasm and hatefulness occur above average. So that could distort the results of the study.
Yet the conclusion seems clear. A spoken ‘eh’ often has little meaning, except that it shows that the speaker hesitates for a moment. A typed ‘eh’, on the other hand, is usually meant to be funny or ironic, and sometimes sarcastic.
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