Placeholder word

Key takeaways

Placeholder word belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Placeholder word to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Placeholder word from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In linguistics, a placeholder word or a placeholder is a word that is used in place of an exact word. In some cases they are used in speech to replace a forgotten word or a word about which the speaker is unsure. For example the writer may be unsure whether the technical word would be familiar to the readers or the speaker themselves is unsure which word to use. These words, such as "thingummyjig" are not part of standard written language and are not captured well by text corpora. These may replace both names of objects ("thingummabob") and the personal names (placeholder names, e.g., "Mr. Whatshisname"). Placeholder words are often used to convey vagueness. Other means to introduce vagueness are the use of taxonomic nouns with adaptors ("kind of tree"), generic words ("thing", "stuff"), etc. Some authors, e.g., Neil Grave, include generic words ("thing", "stuff") in the category of placeholder words as well. At the same time, Neil Grave notes that the generic words may perform a large number of other functions, e.g., to be a vague category marker (as in "shorts and T-shirts, and stuff"). A thorough treatment of vague language, including placeholder words was provided by Joanna Channell. In particular, she demonstrates that dictionaries often provide inadequate definitions and explanations of vague lexical items. Some earlier studies that did not yet adopt the term "placeholder" use the terms "filler", "dummy". The terms "lexical filler", "oblitive noun/verb" are used to denote what Vera Podlesskaya calls "hesitation markers", used when a speaker is temporarily unable to recall the exact name of the object.

Classification Some functions of vague language include:

Filling lexical (unknown words or terminology missing in the language of the speaker) gaps Filling knowledge (forgotten words) gaps, often forgotten temporarily, at the moment of speech Conveying tentativeness Maintaining informal style of conversation Replacing social taboo words ("Ken, your you-know-what [ fly ] is open.") J. Channell grouped placeholder nouns into three categories: those which replace names, these which replace object names, those which can replace both. Another grouping is usage motivated by speaker's abilities and usage motivated by speaker's intentions. Some researchers distinguish "placeholder use" and "avoidance use", e.g., for demonstrative words (such as "this"), i.e., use a narrower definition of the concept of placeholder. While in most cases the placeholders are nominal elements, verbal, adjectival, or adverbial placeholders exist, e.g., in Mandarin. Vera Podlesskaya states that across many languages the placeholder words may be placed into the following lexical categories:

Demonstrative, indefinite, or interrogative pronouns Nouns stripped of their actual semantics In some languages the above two may be blended ad-hoc constructions usually starting with an interrogative word, e.g., whatsitsname In some languages a separate type of lexical items have been developed to serve as placeholders, variously called as "noun substitutes" or "indefinite substitution words".

Use cases In Evenki language a placeholder word may replace both nouns and verbs and may be modified (e.g., with suffixes to match its function in the structure of a sentence to some degree (although the researcher suggests that missing functionality may simply be due to the limited speech corpus). Spanish language placeholders: cosa, cacharro, chintófono, chisme, menda, mengano. Galician language: chintófano (unspecified object), chilindrada (small thing), chisma (unspecified or unknown object), chisme, conto (replacina an unknown or forgotten name), traste (useless thing), trasto. In Russian linguistics the concept of "deconcretization pronouns" or "representatives" is considered. Usually they are formed from demonstratives with the addition of postfix "-to": такой-то, так-то, столько-то (takoy-to, tak-to, stolko-to) Most often these are used to simplify quotations of someone's direct speech: "Сказал, что поступит так-то и так-то" ("He said that he will do it in this and that way"), but also may be used to represent indefinite or unimportant things or numbers: "Потратил столько-то денег" ("<Someone> spent that much [irrelevant how much] money")

See also Metasyntactic variable Dummy pronoun Nonce word Expletive attributive Placeholder name List of placeholder names List of English-language placeholder names for people Placeholder names in cryptography List of terms referring to an average person Lorem ipsum Fictional company Fictional brand Evil corporation Independent Studio Services § Fictional brands

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Placeholder word

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Placeholder word claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Placeholder word before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Placeholder word ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Placeholder word

In research: Placeholder word appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Placeholder word in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Placeholder word is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Linguistics terminology, Placeholder words, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Placeholder word outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Placeholder word in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Placeholder word means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Placeholder word out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Placeholder word in simple terms?

In linguistics, a placeholder word or a placeholder is a word that is used in place of an exact word. In some cases they are used in speech to replace a forgotten word or a word about which the speaker is unsure.

Why does Placeholder word matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Placeholder word?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Placeholder word.