Many studies describe uh(m) as a symptom of a production difficulty, a turn holding signalor an announcement of a delay in speech (Christenfeld 1994, Maclay & Osgood 1959,Clark & Fox Tree 2002). They all emphasize the role of uh(m) as a projection of furthertalk by the same speaker. However, our data show that uh(m) can also occur in turn-finalposition, thus not projecting continuation of a turn. This study compares turn-final occurrencesof uh(m) to the typical turn-medial uh(m) from a multimodal perspective. Theanalysis shows that turn-final uh(m) is only rarely preceded by a pause, more oftenaccompanied by facial expressions and co-occurs with a retraction of a hand gesture.Also, the speaker frequently gazes at the interlocutor during turn-final uh(m). These formaldifferences may be linked to a functional difference between turn-final and turn-medialuh(m).
