Abstract

Languages often use specific tools to indicate that the speaker cannot recall a particular word, is experiencing a lexical gap, or wants to avoid using the correct term. In those instances, a speaker may use a placeholder (PH), which is a dummy element that replaces part of the syntactic structure used when a speaker is unable or unwilling to produce the target word or expression. The word heri is primarily used as a PH in Assamese. This study presents an analysis of heri in Assamese under the relevance-theoretical framework, focusing on its two pragmatic functions as a “summarizer” and as a “list extender”: beyond its role as a PH. The research is based on three hours of spontaneous conversational speech data, which were analyzed to identify all instances of heri. The findings indicate that the two pragmatic functions convey procedural meaning and involve loose language interpretations.