274 What’s More and Whatever
Archive, and in Pichler and Levey ’s corpus of northeast English, it is also the
third most common (after and that and or something ) (2011: 453). According
to the OED (s.v. whatever , def. 4c) suggests that “some other unspecifi ed term
might be employed instead, as being more usual, preferable for any reason, or
more applicable; or something similar; or the like,” noting this use as collo-
quial. Overstreet ( 1999 : 122– 124, 147) points out that – like or something – or
whatever has an “approximating” function, marking the preceding element as
inaccurate or inexact. However, she argues that or whatever has an added layer
of meaning, namely that from the speaker’s perspective, accuracy is unimport-
ant (147). It has a “dismissive quality” with the “potentially negative impli-
cation of ‘I don’t care’ ” (123– 124, 147). She cites the example of a radio
commentator discussing presidential candidate Bob Dole’s apparently uncar-
ing attitude:
(28) Schorr: Y’know one of the interesting things about listening to Senator Dole
is that he – his use of the word whatever , an – which he trails off, and says for
example, as he said in one speech ‘I feel your pain, or whatever ,” which tended
to make him look as though he wasn’t serious about what he was saying. I don’t
think you’ll hear many more whatevers from him from now on – I think they are
trying to get him to look as though he really means everything he is saying (1996
Weekend edition , 4 May [Overstreet 1999 : 124])
We can see that the ‘I don’t care’ sense is highly compatible with the meaning
of the pragmatic marker whatever.
Or what can serve a similar function as a general extender, typically in con-
texts which explicitly express doubt (“don’t recall,” “don’t know,” 29a– b).
Sometimes it seems to mean ‘or not,’ as in (29c):^22
(29) a. I don’t recall what he needed, cows or horses or what. (2009 Meddor, The
boy who sang for others [COCA])
b. She wore a long, shapeless dress, and Sonny didn’t know if it was a house-
dress or what (2011 Rea, Following slowly [COCA])
c. I don’t know whether she’s downplaying it or what. (2004 Rolling Stone
[COCA])
The history of general extenders has also received relatively little attention
(but see Carroll 2007 , 2008 ; Tagliamonte and Denis 2010 : 339– 340; Ortega
Barrera 2012 ; Tagliamonte 2016 : 125– 126, 129– 136; Traugott 2016 : 35– 36,
43– 44). Tagliamonte ( 2016 : 132– 133) notes that or whatever has remained
relatively stable for speakers born from the 1960s onwards. Traugott , following
22 The OED (s.v. what , pron., adj.^1 and adv., int., conj., and n., def. A I 12) suggests that or what
is used as an “indefi nite fi nal alternative” only in disjunctive questions. In COCA, the use of
fi nal or what is more than fi ve times more frequent in questions than in statements.