On the grammar of placeholders in colloquial speech.

Investigated are lexical, grammatical and prosodic resources that allow the speaker to refer to objects and events for which the speaker fails to retrieve the exact name, or simply finds the exact name to be unnecessary or inappropriate. Structurally, these resources can be used instead of the supposed exact correlate (as a cover bleached nomination) or together with it (as a signal that the speaker doesn’t take the full responsibility for the given actual nomination it is added to). As a case study, Japanese converbs that express inexhaustive list of actions (the so-called «tari forms») are described in detail.