The definition of WHAT-dyou-call-it: semantics and pragmatics of recognitional deixis

Words such as WHAT-dʹyou-call-it raise issues at the heart of the semantics/pragmatics interface. Expressions of this kind are conventionalised and have meanings which, while very general, are explicitly oriented to the interactional nature of the speech context, drawing attention to a speakerʹs assumption that the listener can figure out what the speaker is referring to. The details of such meanings can account for functional contrast among similar expressions, in a single language as well as cross-linguistically. The English expressions WHAT-dʹyou-call-it and you-know-WHAT are compared, along with a comparable Lao expression meaning, roughly, `that thingʹ. Proposed definitions of the meanings of these expressions account for their different patterns of use. These definitions include reference to the speech act participants, a point which supports the view that WHAT-dʹyou-call-it words can be considered deictic. Issues arising from the descriptive section of this paper include the question of how such terms are derived, as well as their degree of conventionality.