What is the term for when a person repeats a phrase or word often in speaking?

Question

I apologise if this question has already been asked, but I could not find the original post if it has been.

I'd like to know the word which describes the linguistic phenomena whereby a speaker repeats a phrase or word, often at the end of each sentence.

E.g. New Yorkers often say 'right' at the end of almost every sentence, teenage girls in the U.S. often use the word 'literally' at the beginning of sentences, and some British people often use the phrase 'you know' at the end of sentences.

The use of these words and phrases resembles a verbal tick. They are not used for rhetorical or linguistic purposes.

Answer 1

As the paper "Um...Who Like Says You Know: Filler Word Use as a Function of Age, Gender, and Personality" explains, these are filler words. According to that paper, there are two main categories of filler words: filled pauses (such as "uh" and "umm") and discourse markers (such as "like" and "y'know"); your examples fall into the latter category. As that paper explains:

Unlike filled pauses, discourse markers are short phrases that do not contain any grammatical information yet are prevalent in natural speech (Fox Tree & Schrock, 2002; Fuller, 2003; Matei, 2011; Strassel, 2004). Although they do not serve a gram- matical purpose, both laypeople and researchers alike perceive discourse markers as purposeful signals to a listener rather than as mere signs of disfluency (Fox Tree, 2007). They are generally proposed to act as transitions between different sections of conversation (Clark, 1996), but discourse marker use seems to heavily depend on the specific discourse marker. Often, the actual basic meanings of the words that constitute a discourse marker determine its function.

Before you judge people for using such phrases, note that:

What type of people are more likely to use discourse markers or filled pauses? In our correlational results, conscientious people used more discourse markers. The possible explanation for this association is that conscientious people are generally more thoughtful and aware of themselves and their surroundings.

One aside: you mention the overuse of the word "literally." This is in fact not a discourse marker but rather an adverb used as an informal intensifier, much to the consternation of prescriptivists.

Answer 2

The word you were looking for is Phatic. It's a word or phrase used by someone that helps define them. Although, if it's common to a group there may be a different word based on it's root.

eg. Doctor McCoy on original Star Trek would be defined by his phrase, "Damn it, Jim. I'm a doctor, not a (insert profession or object here).."

The Merriam-Webster dictionary expands the meaning vs. certain other dictionaries, to include emotive purposes, not neccessarily communicating information.

In the above example, McCoy knows Jim Kirk understands his normal job roles, but wants to playfully indicate he is out of his comfort zone. He isn't directly providing direct information, therefore it's a phatic statement showing his emotion. Also, in the show, his lines are delivered with obvious emotion, despite not communicating information.

Merriam-Webster says that phatic is: of, relating to, or being speech used for social or emotive purposes rather than for communicating information.

Maybe there's a better word, but not off the top of my head. 🫣