Use of punctuation for pausing: Oral readings by German radio homilists

Summary Use of punctuation for pausing was investigated in a corpus of 20 German radio homilies by four speakers. Punctuation accounted for 91% of pause time and 84% of pause frequency in oral readings. Relative duration of pauses was according to punctuation type, as hypothesized. Pausing was also, as hypothesized, universal at paragraph positions and minimal at unpunctuated (null) positions. Commas accounted for 95% of the punctuated positions not used for pausing. Variation across speakers in the use of punctuation (commas in particular) in both writing and reading is interpreted as reflecting individual style. The viewpoint that syntactic analysis is a prerequisite for pausing in oral reading is discussed.The first author wishes to express his gratitude to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bad Godesberg, West Germany, for the support of this project. A preliminary version was reported at the meeting of the Psychonomic Society, November 23, 1985, Boston, MA