PREFACE QUESTION: (DO YOU) KNOW WHAT?
102
The formulaic question (Do you) know what? is used as a preface to what the
speaker considers newsworthy or important information:
A: Do you know what?
B: What?
A: Roger’s mum’s bought Rachel a jumper. Isn’t that sweet?
B: Yeah.
VAGUE EXPRESSIONS AND APPROXIMATIONS
103
Vague language
103a
Being vague is an important feature of interpersonal meaning and is especially
common in everyday conversation. It involves the use of words and phrases such
as thing, stuff, or so, like, or something, or anything, and so on, or whatever, kind
of
, sort of.
Vague language softens expressions so that they do not appear too direct or
unduly authoritative and assertive. It also is a strong indication of an assumed
shared knowledge and can mark in-group membership: the referents of vague
expressions can be assumed to be known by the listener.
There are times where it is necessary to give accurate and precise information;
in many informal contexts, however, speakers prefer to convey information which
is softened in some way. Such vagueness is often wrongly taken as a sign of
careless thinking or sloppy expression. Vagueness is motivated and purposeful
and is often a mark of the sensitivity and skill of a speaker:
Between then and
like nineteen eighty four I just spent the whole time, I mean
for that whole
sort of twelve year period or whatever, erm I was just working
with just lots and lots and lots of different people.
I was down in er a place called erm, down in the Urals as well, erm
Katherineburg. It’s
kind of directly east of Moscow.
There are occasions where vague language is necessary and where its absence
would make the message too blunt. In the following example it would be pointless
to list every available drink and the vague usage simply keeps options open. Both
speakers know from their shared cultural knowledge just what is included in or
something
and what is excluded:
[speaker B has suggested taking a visitor to a local coffee shop]
A: She doesn’t like coffee.
B: Well, she can have an orange juice or something.
Purposefully vague language occurs in writing and in speech. For example,
academic writing contains vague expressions which enable writers to hedge the
claims for their theories and research findings.
202 | From utterance to discourse
Cambridge Grammar of English
The vague expressions
and things,
and stuff and
and that are particularly
flexible and can be used to refer to a wide variety of phrases and whole clauses.
These expressions are extremely frequent in informal spoken language. In the
following examples, all relevant vague expressions are in bold:
The + sign indicates an interrupted turn which continues at the next + sign
[describing a craft shop]
A: It’s more like a sort of gallery. Just sort of arty. Well no it’s sort of arty things.
It’s got jewellery and+
B: Oh right.
A: +erm loads of really nice greetings cards. Sort of hand-made greetings cards
and things.
A: And erm again I say that there isn’t anywhere for children to play and if they
do the way the cars come round sometimes+
B: Mm.
A: +they can easily be knocked over and things.
B: Mm.
A: They run from the grass over onto the back onto the pavement and it’s very
easy for children to get knocked over like that.
I really don’t know about their environment management systems
and stuff.
They’ve got a form. They give you a form. You have to fill it in
and stuff, cos if
you don’t you won’t get an interview.
All university is about is opportunity, isn’t it. You know it’s just having had the
time and the money and without the commitment or responsibilities like a
family and a house
and that.
[to have a lump in one’s throat means to feel very sad and ready to cry]
A: I had a big lump in my throat and I couldn’t understand it. I mean there
was no reason for me to cry
or anything. Nothing really horrible happening.
I guess I must be really tired though cos
like+
B: Oh yeah you’ve been working quite hard and that.
A: +I’ve been working hard and I’ve been travelling all the time and all that
sort of thing.
B: Yeah.
A: So I just couldn’t cope with it.
A–Z
74
Thing, stuff
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