277c. “Well, go ahead, blow your nose? or whatever .” (1945 Lobaugh, She never
reached the top [COHA])
d. Listen, Buck, it’s not that I don’t think he likes us, or that he wouldn’t give
all the right answers if we asked him how he felt about us, or whatever.
(1948 Cain, Moth [COHA])
e. As long as it’s a toy, it can be as childish as anybody, and roar, or kick slip-
pers through the window, or whatever (1948 Cain, Moth [COHA])
f. Walk, or eat, or rock, or whatever. (1949 Kanin, The rat race [COHA])
g. goin’ down to Riker’s here on the corner – so talk it over or whatever (1950
Kanin, The live wire [COHA])
h. “Why lights are burning in the middle of the night or whatever .” (1952
Stafford, Catherine Wheel [COHA])
In (32a– b), the category of items referred to by or whatever is very general and
non- specifi c; moreover, in (32a), or whatever seems to act as a means of bring-
ing a topic to a close and in (32b), it ends the speaker’s discourse. In (32c– g),
or whatever refers to events, and in (32h), it denotes neither a possible set of
objects or of events but is generally backward- referring.
While it is diffi cult in the written sources to determine the tone of the com-
ment with or whatever , a pejorative or demeaning sense is quite often present,
as in the use of the patronizing “poor” to describe the professor in (30c), of the
absurd suggestion of studying the “habits o’ bugs” in (30d), of the unequivo-
cally negative descriptions “dirty dig” and “fi shy eye” in (30f), and of the list
of reprehensible characteristics of France and England – “imperialism,” “past
wars,” and “war debts” – in (32a). The suggested activities in (32c, f, and g),
“go ahead, blow your nose? or whatever,” “Walk, or eat, or rock, or whatever,”
and “so talk it over or whatever,” all clearly express an attitude of indiffer-
ence on the part of the speaker, i.e., “I don’t care (what you do); it makes no
difference.” The use of the pragmatic markers well in (32c) and so in (32g)
reinforces this attitude.
How does the disjunctive or whatever arise? Parenthetical or whatever -
clauses appear in the early sixteenth century and are common by the third
quarter of the century:^26
(33) a. Thus, Gentleman, or Plebeian, or whatever thou art, thou hast been
a mere Devil in endeavouring to sow the Seeds of Discord among thy
Fellow Subjects (1604 Grymeston, Miscelanea. Meditations. Memoratiues
[EEBO])
b. it hindereth all violent motions, the strength of sinne, the darts of Satan, the
provocations of the World, the Judgements of God, or whatever evill may
bee by the fl esh either committed or deserved. (1638 Reynolds, Meditations
on the holy sacrament of the Lords last Supper [EEBO])
26 EEBO- BYU supplies 418 examples, CLMET3.0 156 examples.
9.6 Origin and History of Pragmatic Marker Whatever