<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">Dear Raffaele,<div>In Tagalog there is a word <i>kuan</i> that is used when you can’t think of the name of someone or something. </div><div>There is also the use of <i>ano</i> ‘what’ in some cases when you can’t think of something. </div><div>Sometimes they are used together (<i>Ano, kuan, . . .</i>), used when you are trying to get someone’s attention but can't remember their name, but there <i>ano</i> seems to be mainly getting the person’s attention.</div><div>I don’t know of any work on <i>kuan</i>, even though it is quite common in discourse, but there is a paper on <i>ano</i> in the <i>Journal of Pragmatics</i> called "<font color="#333666">Beyond questions: Non-interrogative uses of ano ‘what’ in Tagalog<span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 54, 102);">” (</span></font>https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378216622000078)<span style="color: rgb(51, 54, 102);">.</span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 54, 102);"><br></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 54, 102);">Hope this helps.</span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 54, 102);"><br></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 54, 102);">All the best,</span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 54, 102);">Randy</span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 54, 102);"><br></span></div><div><div>
<meta charset="UTF-8"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;">——</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;">Professor Randy J. LaPolla</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">（罗仁地)</span><span style="font-size: 14px;">, PhD FAHA </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;">Center for Language Sciences</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;">Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;">Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;">A302, Muduo Building, #18 Jinfeng Road, Zhuhai City</span><span style="font-size: 14px;">, Guangdong</span><span style="font-size: 14px;">, China</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://randylapolla.info">https://randylapolla.info</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">ORCID ID:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="color: rgb(73, 74, 76); background-color: white;"><a href="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6100-6196">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6100-6196</a> </span></span> </div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 15px;">邮编：519087</span><br style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">广东省珠海市唐家湾镇金凤路18号木铎楼A302</span><br style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">北京师范大学珠海校区</span><br style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">人文和社会科学高等研究院</span><br style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">语言科学研究中心 </span></div></div><div><br></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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<div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On 9 Mar 2023, at 2:08 AM, Raffaele Simone <raffaele.simone@uniroma3.it> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div><meta charset="UTF-8"><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt;">Dear friends and colleagues,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt;">I am preparing a paper on that group of general-generic words that are used to designate entities whose name you do not know or do not remember, or whose name you do not want to remember or that, simply, have no name in a language.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt;">I’m referring to “nouns” like French "truc" and "machin", Italian "coso", "arnese", "aggeggio", or, for people, Italian "tizio", "tipo", Spanish "tío", “fulano”, English "dude" etc. They form apparently a special word class and implement a particular way of designating.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt;">The situation in the European languages I am familiar with seems very fragmented and discontinuous: some languages do have sets of dedicated or semidedicated words for that function, but most don’t, as far as I see.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt;">Does any of you have examples from other languages and, if any, bibliographic references?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt;">Thanks,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt;">Raffaele<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Courier New", serif;">==============<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Courier New", serif;">Emeritus Professor, Università Roma Tre<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Courier New", serif;">Hon C Lund University<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="FR" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Courier New", serif;">Membre de l'Académie Royale de Belgique<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="FR" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Courier New", serif;">Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="FR" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Courier New", serif;">Accademico (corrispondente) della Crusca<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span lang="FR" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Courier New", serif;">Prix de l'Institut de France-Fondation Bonnefous 2022<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Courier New", serif;">===============<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Courier New", serif;">Attività e pubblicazioni // Activity and publications<a href="http://uniroma3.academia.edu/RaffaeleSimone"><span style="color: blue;">http://uniroma3.academia.edu/RaffaeleSimone</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></div></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;">_______________________________________________</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; 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