What term describes self-correction by filling in a detail which should have occurred earlier in speech?

• A. Back Tracking
• B. Repair
• C. Revisions
• D. Echo-back

Answer: (A)

Self-correction by filling in a detail that should have appeared earlier in speech is repair. In conversation, speakers monitor what they say and when they realize something is missing or needs clarification, they insert the missing detail or rephrase to fix the utterance. This insertion of the omitted detail is the repair process, helping the message come across clearly. It’s not about retracing the whole discourse (backtracking) or editing in writing (revisions), and echo-back isn’t a standard term for this phenomenon. For example: “I lent Jamie my book last week—the travel guide I found in the library” shows the speaker repairing the sentence by adding the specific book to clarify which item was lent.