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I don’t particularly mind having anyone complete my sentences,
as long as I can snarl “Yeah, thanks for finishing my sentence,
but I don’t think that was what I was going to say!” and he or she
quickly says “I’m sorry” and makes only a pained grunt when, a
little farther into my paragraph, I again pause in mid-sentence.
Furnishing an ending to my sentence typically costs the interrupter
at least twice the time of my deliberative pause, because, after I have
commented on the mistaken assumption expressed in the completion,
I then must resume and lengthen my hesitation
um
to, um—where was I?—to, as I was saying, to figure out
what I was going to say next.
♦
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