Spacing | Occurs when speech gives way to silence or absence. Spacing can refer to the gaps formed by accidental interruptions, by the indexation of speech to an external event, or to rhetorical strategies used to cut up, establish, and strengthen one’s discourse.

We are having a conversation: I let you speak; you let me answer. This is the clearest example of spacing created by the alternation of speakers exchanging words, as in this telephone conversation. But spacing is above all a process, and often a resource, that takes place within the flux of speech: we search for words, we recall ideas, we punctuate sentences, we draw blanks. To solely associate spacing to the negative ideas of “silence” or, worse, “emptiness,” would be to underestimate its richness and creativity: often, spacing is also what is being said.

Pauses

Spacing is a resource that helps structure magisterial speech. Anne Fagot-Largeault’s pauses in a class at the Collège de France punctuate and highlight certain utterances, in much the same way as those of Jacques Vergès do in his plea at Klaus Barbie’s trial. The poet Henri Chopin cuts his words into very short segments, and in this Catholic sermon, it is the regularity of spacing which paces the priest’s speech and underscores his desire for clarity (see also Tu es mon autre). This formal cutting-up of speech can also be seen in the reading of a statement between two rounds of the French presidential election, or in this poem by Claude Royet-Journoud read by the author, in which spacing corresponds to the blank space left on the page being read from.

As noted by this journalist, pauses can be tools for dramatization in the media, like Dominique de Villepin’s emphatic cuts outside of the Clearstream trial. In the same way, one can enjoy the silences that say much about about Jacques Lacan at the Free University of Louvain in 1972, or American senator Robert Byrd’s pauses during a speech against the training of combat dogs in 2007.

Increasingly large spacing gives a hypnotist’s speech all the seductive breadth it needs: in a very similar way, it emphasizes the impression of trust and intimacy sought by Laurie Anderson in this excerpt of her record Big Science.

Stretching

One can choose to idealize constancy of flow in speech. But if spacing is often interesting, it is because of its capacity for creating distance from a norm. Spacing becomes time for reflection when Jean-Pierre Léaud’s question is a little harsh, when Raphaël Enthoven’s is “so good,” when the journalist questioning Michel Foucault tries to unsettle him, or when Juliette Binoche plays with the limits of mutism to challenge the norms of an interview (see also Ah, un paysan! and C’est quelqu’un qui euhm). It becomes a form of stretching, marking the process of recollection, in this excerpt from a hypnosis session, or when actor Grégoire Monsaingeon describes his allotment of actions in a play. Such recollections can bring about strong emotions which demand a certain amount of stretching, like when Mike Tyson speaks about his mentor Cus d’Amato.

Spacing can also be heard when speech depends upon an external event. For the poet Klaus Groh, counting falling drops, for Georges Perec, simply describing what is taking place in the street, for this radio reporter during the invasion of Bagdad in 2003. For these shepherds, the length of an echo determines the frequency of calls made from one valley to another; in this example, it is the time consonants and vowels take to be turned around, or here a way of regulating an announcement aimed at the stream of travelers in a train station.

An event can lead to speech being spaced out, as experienced by Roland Barthes in this excerpt from a class at the Collège de France. It can also be heard in this face-off with the angry people of Bucharest on December 21, 1989. Sometimes the event in question is pathological and makes silence the very substance of a dialogue between a daughter and her mother, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. On the other hand, spacing can be a means of reestablishing speech, as in this statement recorded by an aphasic speaker. It can even be a resource in the process of learning how to read.

These two notions of pause and stretching are not, of course, mutually exclusive. One can establish a certain aesthetic framework for enunciation while being clearly constrained from the outside, as heard in the excerpt of Roland Barthes at the Collège de France, or with this witness to the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, who comments on the seriousness of the event during a press review.

Far from being a simple normed mark limited to regulating the flow of speech, spacing is thus involved in speech as an action, whether to reap the benefits of this regulation, or for purposes that are less psychological and more social or dramatic.

Index

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    100 drops

    Klaus Groh, excerpt of the sound poem Voooxing Poooêtre, 1982.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    A Gesù Cristo direttamente

    Stefano Siviero, excerpt from a video posted on YouTube, 2014.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    À une minute de silence

    Cécile Duflot and Claude Bartolone, excerpt from a government question session, 2014.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Ah, un paysan!

    Robert Cabé, excerpt of the film Cultures et Biodiversité dans le Massif Pyrénéen by Ralph Mahfoud and Thierry Boutonnier, 2013.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    All systems are ready

    Countdown to the launch of an H-2A rocket, Japan, 2014.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Alo !

    Excerpt of Nicolaz Ceauşescu’s final speech, Televiziunea Românã, 1989.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Are you guys in trouble ?

    Scene from a family, excerpt of a YouTube video, 2014.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Au moment de commencer

    Roland Barthes, excerpt of the lecture Comment vivre ensemble, Collège de France, 1976-1977.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Azione!

    Director's instructions on the shooting of a porn movie, 2000s.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Barbaric !

    Senator Robert Byrd, excerpt of a speech to the United States Senate, 2007.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Becoming receptive

    Excerpt of a hypnosis recording, unknown source.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Bonne nouvelle

    Excerpt of a Catholic sermon, excerpt of the show La Messe, France Culture, 2009.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Bouilloire

    Geoffrey Carey, Frédéric Danos, excerpt of the recording of predictions, 2019.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    C'est quelqu'un qui euhm

    Ariane Dubillard on her father, France Culture, 2013.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Ça c'est un sourire

    Conversation in an hospital, excerpt of a recording by Esther Salmona, 2008.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Ça smoke Heaven ?

    Excerpt from a game of Counter strike global offensive, personal recording, 2018.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Che belle patate

    Market scene, 2019

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Chicken or beef

    Mic soundcheck before a Five Finger Death Punch Concert, Casper, WY, 2012.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Commence the fuel dump

    Air traffic controller and pilot having a conversation, 1998.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Consonne, voyelle

    Excerpt of the television game show Des chiffres et des lettres, Antenne 2, 1972.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    C’est de l’Éluard

    Jean-Michel Royer and Georges Pompidou, excerpt from a press conference, ORTF, 1969.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Dad it's going under

    Dialog between a girl and her dad on a boat, YouTube video, 2012.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Des silences médiatiques

    Excerpt of the show Les Pieds sur terre, France Culture, 2010.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Deux euros de plus

    Commentator of the running of the bulls in Camargue, personal recording, 2019.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Enfin quand même

    Voicemail message, 2015.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Est-ce que vous avez rêvé ?

    Nicolas Bouvier, Pierre Stucki, excerpt from the scientific show Dimensions, RTS, 1975.

     

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Et il y en a partout

    Excerpt from the TV program Faites entrer l’accusé, 2008

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Faut pas me troubler

    Gilles Deleuze, excerpt of a lecture at the University of Paris VIII-Vincennes, 1981.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Hooo !

    Shepherd’s call, excerpt of Le berger, la stagiaire et les moutons by Robin Hunzinger, Arte Radio, 2005.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    I got you bro

    Teenager playing Fortnite, personal recording, 2018.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    I wanted you

    Laurie Anderson, excerpt of the album Big Science, 1982.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    I was a young boy

    Mike Tyson, excerpt of the film Tyson by James Toback, 2008.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Il va y avoir un grand silence

    Message sent to a Whatsapp group during the strike against pension reform, 2020.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    J'allais te tuer

    Teenager playing Fortnite, personal recording, 2018.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    J'espère vraiment qu'ça va s'arrêter

    Jérôme, excerpt from the show Radio Tisto, l’émission des jeunes de l’hôpital de jour d’Antony, Radio Libertaire, 2020.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Je fais un temps

    Grégoire Monsaingeon, excerpt of a recording by Joris Lacoste and Jeanne Revel, 2005.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Kombirkorm atsivest ?

    Prank call to a prostitute by a radio host, luthianian radio, 2014

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    L'arrivée du crabe mystique

    Nicolas Couturier, excerpt of a hypnosis account, recording by Joris Lacoste, 2005.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    L'éblouissement

    Les Pieds sur Terre, France Culture, 2010.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    L'otage d'aucun clan

    Ségolène Royal, excerpt of a statement made after the first round of the French presidential elections, 2007.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    La balle ou la tasse

    Dialogue between a neuro-psychologist and her patient, excerpt from the documentary Journey to the center of the brain, France Culture, 2018.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    La duperie de soi-même

    Jon Elster, excerpt of a lecture at the Collège de France, 2009.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    La fonction du père

    Maud Mannoni, excerpt from the film Quartier Lacan by Emil Weiss, 2001

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    La mort

    Jacques Lacan, excerpt of a conference held at the University of Louvain, 1972.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    La musique

    Anne Fagot-Largeault, excerpt of a lecture at the Collège de France, 2009.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    La question est tellement bonne

    Raphaël Enthoven and Michael Edwards, excerpt of the show Les Nouveaux chemins de la connaissance, 2009.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Le carrefour Mabillon

    Georges Perec, excerpt of the radio essay Tentative de description de choses vues au carrefour Mabillon le 19 mai 1978, France Culture, 1978.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Le personnage de Anna

    Juliette Binoche and Michel Boujout, excerpt of the show Cinéma cinémas, Antenne 2, 1986.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Le petit bidon

    Christophe Tarkos, Le petit bidon, Centre Pompidou, 1999.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Les outils

    Claude Royet-Journoud, excerpt of a reading of Théorie des prépositions at the cipM (Marseille), 2008.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Les silences sont parlants, hein

    Patricia Martin, Jean-Marc Four, Pierrick Bolnau, Cyril Grasiani, excerpt of the 7-9am weekend news hour, France Inter, 2014.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Ma3ame3 A3maki

    Poetry reading on Egyptian television, 2012.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Mme Von Almen ?

    Zouc, excerpt of the comedy sketch Le Téléphone, 1977.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    My dear friend Ted

    Senator Robert Byrd, excerpt of a statement to the United States Senate, 2008.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    On a fait une belle run

    Excerpt from a stream of Dead Cells par At0miumVOD, vidéo Youtube, 2018.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Paris presse Le Monde

    Scene from a train station, personal recording, 2013.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Que lo siento mucho

    Interview with a repentant ETA terrorist, 2015. 

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Réactionnaire

    Jean-Pierre Léaud and Elsa Leroy, excerpt of the film Masculin, féminin by Jean-Luc Godard, 1966.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Reverse reverb

    Excerpt of a tutorial for Ableton Live, YouTube, 2009.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    S dnom tebya rozhdeniya

    Reprimands to a dog, video posted on YouTube, 2018

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Saboter l'État

    Michel Foucault, excerpt of the show Autoportrait, Radio Canada, 1971.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Sarà un fantasma!

    Raffaella Gardon and Antonio, recording by Nicolas Rollet, 2014.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Soyons ensemble les derniers

    Hubert Wulfranc, reaction to the terrorist attack in the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, 2016. 

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Tchaïky y ya

    Extract from a video letter sent during lockdown, 2020.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Tiens bon ma puce

    Message posted on YouTube, 2014.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Tous les matins

    Michel Prades, excerpt of the sound art piece Mmmmmmmm by Boris Achour, 2000.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Tu es mon autre

    Excerpt of a YouTube video, year unknown.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Un croc de boucher

    Dominique de Villepin, excerpt of a statement to press just outside of the Clearstream trial, 2009.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Un problema

    Chiara Gallerani, excerpt of a phone conversation, recording by Joris Lacoste, 2012.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Vips drömmar

    Child learning to read, personal recording, Sweden, 2017. 

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    X’emozzjoni

    Joseph Muscat, excerpt from a campaign speech, Malta, 2017.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Yannick y’a des plaques

    Extract from an online game of Call of Duty, 2020.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    You're trying to eat me, hey?

    Negociation between a man and a coyote, excerpt of a YouTube video, 2008.

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Zhiva ona ili net ?

    Phone call, personal recording, 2018

  • To bookmark sounds and make your own playlists, you must log in. Click the studio icon on the low-right corner of the page.

    Create new account

    Zum Beispiel Bündnerfleisch

    Hans Rudolf Merz, excerpt from a speech to the Swiss Federal Council, 2010.

Bouilloire

Geoffrey Carey, Frédéric Danos, excerpt of the recording of predictions, 2019.

Deux euros de plus

Commentator of the running of the bulls in Camargue, personal recording, 2019.

Vips drömmar

Child learning to read, personal recording, Sweden, 2017. 

Subscribe to Spacing