Hesitation phenomena in Maltese political speakers

Abstract

This study concentrated on language as a tool and the use of hesitation phenomena by Maltese political speakers. It was hypothesised that hesitation phenomena would be more frequent in speech situations which are spontaneous and less in contexts for which speech content is prepared; the distribution of hesitation phenomena would vary between speakers and that it would be influenced by the speech situation; the rate of speech would vary between speakers and that differences in speech rate would be found within those contexts requiring greater expression. Speech samples of four Maltese public figures were analysed and the subsequent results supported all three hypotheses.