Chunks

We use chunks likeyou know, you know what I mean, I know what you’re sayingto check and show understanding between speaker and listener:

[company employees talking]

A:

You ask for a report and you end up with a hundred pages.You know what I mean?

B:

Yeah.I know what you’re saying.

We useyou seeas a discourse marker when we are explaining something. It shows that what we are saying is new information for the listener:

But he’s trying to send us an email and I’m having some trouble with the computer,you see.

We use chunks of vague language such asand that kind of thing, and that sort of thing, and so on, and things like that, and stuff like thatto talk about collections of things without having to make a long list:

… when you start your final year and you come to ask for help on getting jobsand that kind of thing, you’ll be asked to fill in a form describing the work you did last summer …

We use chunks likehaving said thatandsaying thatto show that what we are going to say next is in contrast to what we have just said:

But,having said that, what her mother’s been doing is running her into school and picking her up …

We use many chunks in writing. They help us to structure what we write:

The most lethal weapon on earth is the human mind; buton the other handit is only the mind that is capable of envisioning what is humanly desirable and what is not.

Exports were slightly higher than imports, andas a result, there was a positive trade balance.

First of all, working procedures could be standardised, so that orders can be clearly performed.

… he identifies and examines the various ways in which a wide variety of ‘change agents’ – industrial workers, social workers, church ministers, politicians, protest leaders, business and professional people, housewives, youth and community institutionsand so forth –made such progress possible.

Some chunks don’t look complete (I don’t know if, in the middle of). These usually help make up or frame sentences: