{"ID":6023434,"CreatedAt":"2026-07-08T01:00:23.257252134Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-07-10T07:58:41.377760688Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.05964","arxiv_id":"2607.05964","title":"Umm... With Transformers? Insights from Filled Pause Use across Four Slavic Parliaments","abstract":"Filled pauses (FPs) are a universal feature of spontaneous speech, yet most studies rely on small, single-language corpora, limiting the generalisability of their findings. We analyse ~4,000 hours of parliamentary speech across four related Slavic languages (Croatian, Czech, Polish, Serbian). FP occurrence is obtained via transformer-based automatic detection, while FP rate is modelled using Generalised Estimating Equations (GEE) with Mundlak correction to distinguish within- from between- speaker effects. We replicate a negative association of age and speech rate with FP rate, but find that gender effects are language-specific and directionally opposite to most prior literature. Novel analyses of sentiment, political orientation, and power status reveal a consistent positive association between sentiment and FP rate, alongside parliament-specific modulation by orientation and power status, with opposition speakers tending toward lower FP rates than governing coalition speakers.","short_abstract":"Filled pauses (FPs) are a universal feature of spontaneous speech, yet most studies rely on small, single-language corpora, limiting the generalisability of their findings. We analyse ~4,000 hours of parliamentary speech across four related Slavic languages (Croatian, Czech, Polish, Serbian). FP occurrence is obtained...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.05964","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.05964v1","authors":"[\"Ivan Porupski\",\"Branimir Dropuljić\",\"Nikola Ljubešić\"]","published":"2026-07-07T08:02:23Z","proceeding":"cs.CL","tasks":"[\"cs.CL\",\"stat.AP\"]","methods":"[\"Transformer\"]","has_code":false}