Grammatically unstable placeholders and morpho-syntactic remedies: evidence from East Asian languages

1 Introduction

In verbal interaction, a speaker may face a word-formulation problem when, for instance, they cannot remember an expression to refer to their intended entity. In such a situation, various types of phonological or lexico-grammatical strategies are available, including sound stretch, cut-off, interjective hesitators such as uh and um, and placeholders (PHs) (Fox 2010: 1). Of these strategies, our central concern is PHs. As has been amply described (e.g. Amiridze et al. 2010; see Section 2 for further references), PHs are well attested crosslinguistically, both in verbal and written registers. Seraku (2022a) defines PHs as in (1).

Definition (1) is illustrated in (2)–(3).

In (2), the speaker is unable to recall the noun detergent and deploys the PH whatchamacallit instead. In (3), the speaker is unwilling to utter an expression denoting ‘senile’ because the use of such an expression may be impolite to the addressee. Such politeness consideration leads her to use the PH qan-nan (derived from qan ‘thing’ and nan ‘that’).

In (2)–(3), a PH substitutes for a target expression. As pointed out in Seraku (2022b), however, a speaker/writer does not always have in mind a specific expression or concept and uses a PH to refer to an arbitrary entity. In (4), takovat (< takovam, which derived from takova ‘this kind of’ and the verbaliser -m) refers to an arbitrary action.

There are three occurrences of takovat. Here, let us focus on the first occurrence. The syntactic slot before v kampusa ‘on campus’ requires an action-denoting verb, but the speaker is not in the position to produce any concrete verb because she is currently making a general statement. She avoids producing a specific verb with takovat, and by doing so, refers to an arbitrary action that a professor usually does on campus. This arbitrary-referential use of takovat is akin to the use of English capital letters in a contract form, such as in A and B agree on the terms and conditions stated below, where the capital letters substitute for a proper name that potentially occupies the syntactic slot and refer to an arbitrary person, company, etc. (Seraku 2022b: 434).

Following Seraku (2022b), we hold that (4) exhibits an arbitrary-referential use of the PH takovat rather than an expression distinct from the PH takovat. That is, we construe PHs broadly, encompassing not only instances such as (2)–(3) but also (4). For this purpose, we complement definition (1) with the finding of Seraku (2022b):

This extended definition differentiates three types of PHs. For the sake of presentation, we call them a PH_A, a PH_P, and a PH_ARB (with their plural forms being PHs_A, PHs_P, and PHs_ARB):

In Section 2, we will compare the extended definition in (5) with several extant definitions of PHs and explicate why (5) particularly suits the present study.

In this article, we explore a variety of PH forms that derived from a wh-word in three East Asian languages: Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese. As will be argued in Sections 3–5, the wh-derived PHs in these languages are unique in that unlike whatchamacallit (2), Lao qan-nan (3), and Bulgarian takovat (4), they are grammatically unstable. As an illustration, consider (7), where the doubled (or reduplicated) form of dare ‘who’, i.e. dare∼dare, serves as a PH_A.

As is clear from sono kashu-no kao-mo wakaranai ‘I don’t even know the face of the singer’, the author does not know the singer’s name and resorts to dare∼dare. In (7), if the doubled dare∼dare is replaced with the non-doubled dare, the sentence is less acceptable. In other words, acceptability is significantly enhanced by means of doubling. We call this type of PHs ‘grammatically unstable PHs’. They contrast with ‘grammatically stable’ cases such as whatchamacallit, which may be acceptably used in its own right (as long as the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic conditions are satisfied),^[2] without any morpho-syntactic aid such as doubling.

Grammatically unstable PHs have been underdescribed in the literature. Here, we will reveal various ways in which the PH use of a wh-word is marginal (or unacceptable) but with its acceptability being improved by a morpho-syntactic operation. Before presenting the data, Section 2 reviews relevant previous studies. Sections 3–5 describe a wide range of wh-derived PHs in Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin, while Section 6 discusses some differences in usage between these three languages. By way of conclusion, Section 7 discusses implications and possible ideas for further research.

2 Previous studies

3 Wh-derived placeholders in Japanese

In Japanese, nani ‘what’ is productively used as a PH_A, a PH_P, or a PH_ARB (Seraku 2022b).^[4] The PH_P nani is exemplified in (8).

The writer used nani presumably because he hesitated to produce a sexual term ‘intercourse’. The PH_ARB nani is illustrated in (9).

The first nani in (9) refers to an arbitrary event, whilst the last refers to an arbitrary food. Also, nanishi (< nanisuru), derived from the nominal PH nani and the light verb -suru ‘do’, refers to an arbitrary action. These arbitrary references are crucial for explaining what kinds of topics the writer writes about in his diary.^[5]

Since the PH use of nani ‘what’ is described in Seraku (2022b), we concentrate here on other wh-words: dare ‘who’, itsu ‘when’, and doko ‘where’. In (10), doko refers to an arbitrary place. (This example also contains the PH_ARB nani∼nani, for which see Seraku [2022b].)

The writer is giving the questioner a tip for managing files on a PC, and for the sake of illustrating this tip, refers to an arbitrary folder by deploying doko.

Whilst (10) is fully acceptable, the PH use of dare, itsu, or doko is not fully acceptable in many other cases. In what follows, we will illustrate such cases, revealing two types of morpho-syntactic operations to enhance the acceptability of a PH form: doubling and combinations with a non-wh element.

4 Wh-derived placeholders in Korean

As argued in Section 3, the PH use of Japanese wh-words other than nani ‘what’ is limited. In Korean, wh-words are more freely used as PHs. Here, we focus on nwukwu ‘who’, mwe ‘what’, eti ‘where’, and encey ‘when’.^[9] Consider (18) for the PH_P mwe.

The speaker talks about intercourse and seems to have produced mwe to mask a sexual term. Note that mwe is marked with the topic particle -nun. In Korean, wh-words cannot be topic-marked in general (except for rhetorical questions; see Jung [2017]). It is thus clear that mwe does not act as an interrogative wh-word here.

In (19), encey ‘when’ is exploited as a PH_A or a PH_P.

It is probable that the person working in the galley mentioned a specific year (or perhaps month or date) when the ship listed, but the speaker may not have remembered the exact year or may have thought that this information is less important than the information that the ship’s listing did not result in a disaster.

The Korean wh-words nwukwu ‘who’, mwe ‘what’, eti ‘where’, and encey ‘when’ may also be used as PHs_ARB. Consider (20) for the PH_ARB encey and the PH_ARB nwukwu.

The writer explains in general terms what kinds of topics elderly people usually talk about. Since the writer does not have in mind any specific elderly people, neither encey nor nwukwu is used to refer to a specific individual.

In the literature of Korean linguistics and Korean dictionaries, it has been well-known that wh-words are used for non-interrogative purposes (see I [2017]). (21)–(22) are from The Standard Korean Language Dictionary (National Institute of Korean Language); they were translated with glosses by the authors of the present article.^[10]

The wh-words in (21)–(22) may be interpreted as a PH_P or a PH_ARB depending on context. For example, in (22), eti is seen as a PH_P if we assume that the speaker presumes that the hearer would not know the place name even if they uttered it; eti is seen as a PH_ARB if we assume that they in fact do not need to go anywhere but says (22) to decline the hearer’s invitation to lunch. In this way, the interpretation of a PH crucially requires contextual information, but such a context-sensitive analysis has not yet been provided in the dictionary or previous studies in the tradition of Korean linguistics. It is, therefore, fair to say that Korean wh-derived PHs have not been sufficiently described.

As argued in Section 3, Japanese features doubling and combinations with a non-wh item as remedial operations to stabilise the PH use of wh-words. Of these two types of operations, doubling is attested in Korean, too. Consider (23):

The point of this excerpt is that authority is overly concentrated in the chief of a police station, and this general point is illustrated with the hypothetical utterance including nwukwu∼nwukwu. Therefore, nwukwu∼nwukwu does not refer to any specific individual. When nwukwu∼nwukwu is replaced with nwukwu, (23) is less acceptable with the PH_ARB reading.^[11] Thus, doubling is an essential operation to stabilise the PH_ARB use of nwukwu here.^[12]

The same point is made with eti∼eti (cf. eti ‘where’) in (24) and mwe∼mwe (cf. mwe ‘what’) in (25). ([24] contains the PH_ARB mwe, but our concern is the doubled form eti∼eti.)

(24) is rendered unacceptable with the non-doubled form eti. As for (25), it becomes less acceptable with the non-doubled form mwe. Thus, as in the case of Japanese, doubling may serve as a remedial operation for wh-derived PHs_ARB in Korean.

Doubling is also observed for PHs_P. Consider (26) for mwe∼mwe (cf. mwe ‘what’).

It is highly likely that the writer knows the exact name of the company. But what matters in the present context is that the company’s name includes Korea, and the remaining part of the name is unimportant. This seems to be why mwe∼mwe was used as a PH_P. (26) becomes less acceptable if mwe∼mwe is replaced with mwe.^[13] As far as this example is concerned, then, doubling stabilises the PH use of mwe.

In other cases, however, doubling does not serve as a remedial operation. Consider (27).

There are two occurrences of nwukwu∼nwukwu (cf. nwukwu ‘who’); one refers to a female (i.e. ‘daughter’), and the other to her boyfriend. (27) remains acceptable even when the doubled form is replaced with its non-doubled version nwukwu. That is, nwukwu in (27) may act as a PH_P on its own without the aid of doubling.

The same point is illustrated in (28), which involves eti∼eti (cf. eti ‘where’).

In Korean, there is an old saying: ‘If you cry and then laugh soon, hair grows on your buttocks.’ This saying is mockingly uttered to those who have emotional ups and downs. As the buttocks are a socially sensitive part of the body, the writer avoids mentioning it. It makes no difference to the acceptability of (28) whether eti∼eti is replaced with eti or not. It is at present not clear what conditions affect the PH use of a wh-word (see footnote 13), but in some cases, a bare wh-word cannot act as an acceptable PH and requires doubling as a remedial operation.

In sum, the preceding discussion has argued for the following points:

1. Nwukwu ‘who’, mwe ‘what’, eti ‘where’, and encey ‘when’ may act as a PH_A, a PH_P, or a PH_ARB on their own, more freely than the Japanese counterparts (except for nani ‘what’).

2. In some cases, the PH uses of these Korean wh-words are marginal or illegitimate and need to be stabilised by the doubling operation.

3. Combinations with a non-wh item (e.g. demonstrative), which serve as a remedial operation for Japanese wh-derived PHs (except for nani ‘what’), are not attested in Korean.

5 Wh-derived placeholders in Mandarin

As illustrated in Cheung (2015), Mandarin features various wh-derived PHs, such as shenme (< ‘what’) in (29). (Chinese characters are transcribed in pinyin.)

In Mandarin, the PH use of a wh-word is generally more acceptable when it combines with the demonstrative na ‘that’ (and optionally the general classifier ge).^[14] In (29), the PH sequence na ge shenme substitutes for a word meaning ‘router’, which temporally eludes the speaker.

What has not been discussed in Cheung (2015) and other studies (Hayashi and Yoon 2006; Jin and Chen 2020; Lee et al. 2017; Yu and Wu 2015) is that Mandarin wh-derived PHs may be doubled.^[15] In this section, we show that the doubled forms are also grammatically unstable and need to combine with the demonstrative na (and optionally with the classifier ge). To this end, we carried out a questionnaire survey, asking 29 participants to judge whether shei∼shei (cf. ‘who’) and shenme∼shenme (cf. ‘what’) are acceptable on their own or need to be supplemented by na and/or ge.^[16] The types of a PH sequence concerning us here, therefore, are as follows:

1. na + ge + wh-wh : na ge shei∼shei, na ge shenme∼shenme

2. na + wh-wh : na shei∼shei, na shenme∼shenme

3. ge + wh-wh : ge shei∼shei, ge shenme∼shenme

4. wh-wh : shei∼shei, shenme∼shenme

It should be noted that the doubling operation here is not seen as a remedial operation because all of the acceptable examples to be presented below remain acceptable when the doubled PH form is replaced with its non-doubled counterpart.

6 Cross-language and intra-language considerations

We are now in the position to present cross-language and intra-language comparisons. From a crosslinguistic point of view, different languages make use of different remedial operations:

1. Japanese: Doubling; Combination with a medial-series demonstrative or toka ‘etc.’

2. Korean: Doubling

3. Mandarin: Combination with the demonstrative na

In Mandarin, doubled PH forms are attested, but doubling is not viewed as a remedial operation because non-doubled PH forms themselves are licit (as long as the demonstrative na is present). This contrasts with Korean, where non-doubled PH forms are legitimate in many but not in all examples (e.g. [24]–[26]). As far as PHs are concerned, then, the stabilising power of doubling differs from language to language in the following manner:

1. Japanese: Doubling (or a combination with a non-wh item) is generally required to stabilise the PH use of a wh-word such as dare ‘who’, itsu ‘when’, and doko ‘where’. The exception is nani ‘what,’ which may be productively used as a PH on its own.

2. Korean: The PH use of a wh-word such as nwukwu ‘who’, mwe ‘what’, eti ‘where’, and encey ‘when’ is widely observed, but in some cases, doubling is required to stabilise the PH use of these wh-words.

3. Mandarin: There are doubled PH forms based on shei ‘who’ and shenme ‘what’, but their non-doubled PH forms are also acceptable (as long as the demonstrative na is present). That is, the PH use of these wh-words is acceptable without doubling.

Another notable point about the remedial operations is that a combinatory operation is only available in Japanese and Mandarin. In Mandarin, the type of combined item is systematic compared with Japanese. In Mandarin, shei∼shei and shenme∼shenme always combine with the same element, the demonstrative na ‘that’ (and optionally with the classifier ge), while in Japanese, there is a variety of elements that can be combined with a wh-word: sore ‘that’ for dare ‘who’, soko ‘there’ for doko ‘where’, and toka ‘etc.’ for dare ‘who’ and doko ‘where’. Moreover, this combinatorial option is not available for all wh-words; as far as our consulted corpus is concerned, itsu ‘when’ does not combine with a non-wh element.

Finally, a bare wh-word may serve as a PH most robustly in Korean. As stated in Section 4, each of nwukwu ‘who’, mwe ‘what’, eti ‘where’, and encey ‘when’ may stand as a PH in its own right in many cases. In contrast, the wh-words in Japanese and Mandarin generally require a remedial operation, except for Japanese nani ‘what’, which is used productively without any morpho-syntactic support. Crosslinguistically, then, we may conclude that the grammatical stability of the PH use of a bare wh-word decreases as follows: Korean > Japanese (>) Mandarin. The symbol (>) is used here to indicate that the PH use of a bare wh-word seems to be grammatically more stable in Japanese than in Mandarin, but this requires confirmation in future research. That is, unlike Mandarin, Japanese has a wh-word (i.e. nani ‘what’) that can be productively used as a PH without any morpho-syntactic remedial operation, but it is not obvious (without a statistical analysis) whether the PH use of bare wh-words is more stable in Japanese or in Mandarin on the whole.

7 Implications and remaining issues

We have described the wh-derived PHs in Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin. Our central claims are: (i) the PH use of a bare wh-word may be grammatically unstable, and (ii) in such cases, it requires a certain morpho-syntactic support. We have also argued that cross-language and intra-language variations are observed in connection with each of these two claims.

As for claim (i), the degree of grammatical stability varies from language to language (e.g. Korean bare wh-words may act as a PH in many cases, whilst Mandarin wh-words usually need to combine with na ‘that’.), as well as within a language (e.g. Japanese nani ‘what’ may behave as a PH productively, but this is not the case with the other wh-words.).

As for claim (ii), different languages employ different morpho-syntactic means. Doubling (as a remedial operation) plays a role only in Japanese and Korean, and the combination with a demonstrative is observed only in Japanese and Mandarin. The combinatory potential may vary within a language, too. In Japanese, whilst dare ‘who’ and doko ‘where’ may combine with a demonstrative, itsu ‘when’ may not. In addition, the type of combined demonstrative is fixed for each wh-word (e.g. soko ‘there’ for doko ‘where’).

These findings have both empirical and theoretical implications. Firstly, as emphasised in Section 2, previous studies have largely overlooked grammatically unstable PH forms. In this respect, the present study provides a wide array of new data and advances empirical work on PHs. Secondly, our data pose a challenge for the semantics and pragmatics of PHs. As has been contended, with the exception of Japanese nani ‘what’, the PH use of a wh-word in Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin is not fully established. Some recalcitrant issues, then, arise relating to encoded meaning and its interaction with context and pragmatic principles. Seraku (2022a) has recently argued that the demonstrative-derived PH are in Japanese encodes ‘procedural meaning’ (Blakemore 1987); see Carston (2016) for further references. Also, Jucker et al. (2003: 1742) suggest that English PHs encode procedural meaning, and Enfield (2003: 111), who presents a rather theory-neutral account of PHs, nevertheless suggests that the encoded meaning of PHs may be procedural. But no matter what type of meaning a PH encodes, it is not immediately obvious how meaning could be associated with a grammatically unstable form and how such meaning interacts with context and pragmatic principles. It would be worthwhile to further explore the semantics and pragmatics of PHs in order to settle these issues.

We wind up by discussing some remaining issues. The types of wh-words addressed in this article are limited to ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, and ‘when’. We will need to consider other wh-words, and this is where further cross-language variations emerge. For example, in Japanese and Korean, ‘why’ never behaves as a PH. In Mandarin, Cheung (2015: 288–289) reports that though weishenme ‘why’ cannot be used as a PH, wei-le shenme ‘for what purpose (= why)’ can. As he suggests, this seems to be because unlike shenme in weishenme, shenme in wei-le shenme is identified as a separate unit (i.e. the wh-word ‘what’) and may itself serve as a PH.

It may also be profitable to revisit our data from the point of view of language change (see Enfield [2003: Sect. 3.4], Kudo [2020], and Seraku et al. [2021: Sect. 5.2] for diachronic discussions of PHs). Provided that the PHs we are interested in derived from wh-words, it is tempting to suspect that they represent a case of grammaticalisation in that a wh-word as a grammatical item has acquired another grammatical function (i.e. the place-holding function). Also, one might argue that the combination of a wh-word and a demonstrative is a case of lexicalisation. Such claims, however, must be supported by historical evidence. Since we can neither offer nor discuss such evidence here, the issues of language change must be left for future work.^[20]

Another avenue for future research is to extend our enquiry to other languages. As stated in Section 2.3, wh-words are a common source of PHs, but there are many other derivational sources (e.g. demonstratives, light nouns, indefinite pronouns). It would be a rather remarkable fact that all three East Asian languages surveyed here feature wh-derived PHs and that they display a similar set of morpho-syntactic remedial operations (e.g. doubling). As suggested by an anonymous reviewer, it would be interesting to find out whether these affinities are accidental or have some areal motivation. In this connection, we note that Cantonese, another East Asian language, exhibits doubling of a wh-word, as illustrated in (37).

As the translation shows, however, the doubled wh-word in (37) does not function as a PH but as a ‘reportative indefinite’ (cf. Koev 2016). We must wait for another occasion to investigate whether grammatically unstable PHs are observed in languages besides Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin and, if the answer is positive, what morpho-syntactic operations are available to enhance the acceptability of such unstable PH forms.