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Is there a term for words, phrases, etc. that on their own don't add any semantic information to a sentence.

For example "Well" in "Well, I'm about to tell you" or "I mean" ind "I mean, I never met him". If you just remove those from the sentence no information is lost, but they sort of change the connotation or "feel" for what is said. I'm sure there are more examples for this and a better definition than what I've come up with.

All I want to know is if there is a name for words and phrases serving that particular role.

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Possibly phatic communication. Phatic communication isn't about conveying semantic information, but rather to maintain social bonds.

: of, relating to, or being speech used for social or emotive purposes rather than for communicating information

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  • Filler speech is a subset of phatic communication, which also includes things like "hello", "goodbye", "excuse me", "how are you", "pardon?", small talk, talk about talk, etc.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Nov 21, 2022 at 14:52

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