Just ~ Everything

Check this out sometime:

Listen to how often people say the word 'just'. I have decided to work on a theory about what people are communicating when they say that; it might be a range of things, but my suspicion is that this range is very specific and centralized in some definable way. That is to say, there are common threads of meaning being communicated each and every time someone uses is along with some subsidiary meaning. This subsidiary meaning most often seems to communicate some extraneous detail about the topic being spoken about; nonetheless I think this detail will also be telling when analyzed and brought to bear on what they are communicating with their "just" in the subtext, something between the lines you know.

Some early conjecture:

'Just' seems to be used as a tool of oversimplification, but and oversimplification that is intended to produce a favorable standpoint for the speaker; to tip their statement in their favor when it should actually cast doubt or to off set the potential benefit their statement might give someone else, present or being referred to. For example, "I just asked him what's wrong." This speaker probably knows they had a tone or that the question was quite inappropriate in its context or timing, the just is inserted to play towards a balance of neutrality. This is a basic example and one that most people, I should guess, know the use of already. I hope to tap into more uses of 'just' and why I hear it in such common occurrence in modern speech patterns.

Additional phrases of note:

I was just wondering (or) I just had a question
Couldn't you just (some action)
I just think (or) I was just thinking (each seems used in very different situations)

I will have to think, and listen, for more because it struck me as being used not just in place of the word simply. I do believe something is being communicated and that there is an intention, perhaps in the public subconscious, by the use of this word and that that intention is derivative of the general inability to think abstractly, justify one's intentions by using specific words instead of tonally or contextually, and a signifier that, perhaps, many people are aware of this, even subconsciously, and are therefore mistrustful of others' ability to understand their meaning correctly. That, or perhaps a desire to control meaning and intent at will during the course of dialog. "Just" could be seen as a very easy word to backpedal from.