👉 The term "nonsubstantival" in linguistics refers to a linguistic phenomenon where words have no literal meaning. In other words, they do not carry any concrete or immediate meaning and are used instead as a placeholder or synonym for something else. This can be due to the lack of a direct equivalent or because of the way it is constructed. Examples include the use of "a" in place of "the," "you" in place of "he," and so on.