Pausehyppighet

Pausehyppighet, or pausing frequency, refers to the rate at which pauses occur in spoken language. It is typically expressed as the number of pauses per unit of time (often per minute) and can apply to both silent pauses and filled pauses (such as ums and ers). In research, pausehyppighet is used as an index of fluency and planning, alongside measures such as pause duration and articulation rate.

Measurement and definitions: A pause is usually defined as a segment of silence that exceeds a minimum duration, commonly in the range of 200–300 milliseconds, though thresholds vary across studies. Pauses may be annotated manually or detected automatically from audio using silence detection and related thresholds. Some studies report per-minute pause rates, while others use per 100 syllables or per word.

Factors: Pausehyppighet is influenced by language and genre; spontaneous conversation generally has different pause rates than prepared or read speech. Speaker differences (native versus non-native), cognitive load, discourse structure (planning versus response), and fluency disorders all affect the rate of pauses.

Applications: In linguistics and psycholinguistics, pausehyppighet helps study fluency, processing speed, and speech planning. In clinical settings, abnormal pausing patterns can indicate stuttering or other speech disorders. In speech technology, pause rate informs prosody in text-to-speech systems and can affect the performance of speech recognition.

Limitations: Because thresholds and annotation schemes vary, pausehyppighet values are not directly comparable across studies. Distinguishing silent and filled pauses is important for interpretation, and cross-language comparisons should consider typical prosodic and tempo differences.