Which term refers to the unit of talk bounded by silence?

• A. Utterance
• B. Priming
• C. Diphthong
• D. Schwa

Answer: (A)

In spoken language analysis, the unit of talk bounded by silence is an utterance. An utterance is the stretch of speech spoken from one silence or pause to the next, and it may contain words, phrases, and intonation patterns. Pauses and silences mark the boundaries between utterances, helping listeners parse where one speaker’s turn ends and another begins. The other terms refer to different things: a diphthong is a vowel that slides from one sound to another within the same syllable, schwa is a specific neutral unstressed vowel sound, and priming is a cognitive effect where exposure to a stimulus influences subsequent responses. So utterance is the term that best captures the idea of a discrete spoken segment bounded by silence.