What is the English word to describe the habit of unthinkingly using many meaningless words such as “ah,” “well,” “I mean” in speaking?
I was annoyed to hear a famous economist used the word, “yousuruni (in essence)” incessantly in discussion about Japan’s economic policy - “Abenomix” in recent TV show. The economist shouldn’t have been aware of doing that.
We call the habit to repeat the same interjection such as “well,” “I mean,” “in essence,” “so-called” unconsciously in conversation or speech 口癖- kuchiguse ('mouth habit' by literal translation) in Japanese.
Actually many people have the habit of using the same ‘filler word’ unconsciously.
Masayoshi Ohira (1910 -1980), the 68th Prime Minister of Japan was famous and ridiculed for inserting “ah” and “uh” frequently in his speech and conversation. His nickname was 'Ah, uh PM." He was said to be the PM whose speech is unclear (because of the use of too many "Ah," "uh" and inarticulate interjections) though the meaning is clear in contrast to the 74th Prime Minister, Noboru Takeshita (1924-2000) whose speech was articulate, but meaning was unclear.
How do you say such habit like we call ‘Kuchiguse’ in English in single word?
P.S.
Please note that I'm asking the English equivalent to the habit of using stuff words like 口癖 (mouth habit) in a single word, not looking for "filler,""gabbage," or "stuff word." I know them, and I already mentioned 'filler' in the above question.
Solution 1:
I believe the term you are searching for is "embolalia":
inserting useless words or utterances into speech, usually to stall for time while collecting one's thoughts, such as "like", "you know", "I mean", etc.
Solution 2:
I don't have enough reputation yet to post this as a comment (since this doesn't exactly answer your question), but I wanted to add that what you called "filler" is more precisely referred to as a "verbal crutch
". The excessive use of useless (or unnecessary) words is called "verbiage
", but this is more a synonym for "wordiness" as opposed to a reference to the use of verbal crutches.
Solution 3:
..."Crutch words are those expressions we pepper throughout our language as verbal pauses, and sometimes as written ones, to give us time to think, to accentuate our meaning (even when we do so mistakenly), or just because these are the words that have somehow lodged in our brains and come out on our tongues the most, for whatever reason. Quite often, they do little to add meaning, though. Sometimes we even use them incorrectly. Almost always, we don't need them at all, which doesn't mean we won't persist in using them."...
http://www.thewire.com/entertainment/2012/09/actually-literally-what-your-crutch-word-says-about-you/56614/