Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

Vague language

505d

Among the most frequent spoken clusters, a number of items enable speakers to

refer vaguely to things without having to be explicit. This may be because it is

often impossible to be precise, or, more typically, because speakers can assume

that their listeners will understand what they are referring to because they have

experiences and viewpoints in common, or they share cultural reference points.

These items include:

She 

kind of keeps herself hidden away, doesn’t she?

I mean we have towels and toothbrushes 

and so on.

kind of

sort of

and stuff

and things

and so on

sort of thing

this and that

(or) something like

that

(and) things like that

(and) that sort of thing

this, that and the other

(and) all that sort of

thing

(and) all the rest of it

you know

I don’t know

you know what (I) 

you know I mean

I don’t know what (it)

do you know what (I)

I know what you

mean

you know what I

mean

I mean

I think

I don’t think

do you think

Û

539 Glossary for any unfamiliar terms

Appendix: Word clusters and grammar | 835

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[tennis player talking about how some players considered winning to be the

only important thing and would do anything to win]

I thought at the time, you know, they must just be concentrating on winning at

all costs 

sort of thing, you know. And there was a lot of cheating and all that

sort of thing and so yeah I’d say they were focused on winning.

And the first time was, I think, February 

or something like that.