It was confirmed that some of the Separable words were not separated from each other, even though the form of a prepositional phrase was not taken when the object 什么 was present. Such a separable word has several characteristics as follows.
As for Syntax Features, first, ‘X什么Y’ and ‘XY什么’ are used both in questionnaires and in plaintext, especially in questionnaires. Second, it was often used with adverbs. Third, ‘X什么Y’ and ‘XY什么’ are mostly used at the end of the sentence, so various fishing articles appeared later. These articles appeared more after ‘X什么Y’ than after ‘XY什么’. Fourth, the forms ‘X什么Y’ and ‘XY什么’ serve as predicates for the entire sentence, some of which serve as objects, and also as predicates within the object.
As for Discourse Features, first, ‘X什么Y’ and ‘XY什么’ are both related to the context before and after. Second, ‘X什么Y’ and ‘XY什么’ must have four conditions to show negative meaning, and in discourse, all four conditions must be met to show negative meaning. Third, ‘什么’ in ‘X什么Y’ is mainly a focal component, and acts as an interpersonal meta-talk in which the speaker shows an attitude toward the listener. However, although ‘XY什么’ is also used in a negative sense, the degree of negation is not as strong as ‘X什么Y’.
As for Pragmatic Features, First, both the ‘X什么Y’ and ‘XY什么’ formats could strengthen the subjectivity of the speaker. Among them, ‘X什么Y’ can reveal stronger subjectivity than ‘XY什么’. Second, When ‘X什么Y’ and ‘XY什么’ are written in plaintext, ‘X什么Y’ can reveal richer emotions than ‘XY什么’. Third, ‘X什么Y’ and ‘XY什么’ differ in strength when speaking according to utility such as questions, statements, and negative meanings. When expressing doubt, the strength lies in the ‘什么’ of ‘X什么Y’ and ‘XY什么’, when expressing dissatisfaction or negative meaning, in the case of ‘X什么Y’, the strength is in ‘X’, and in the case of ‘XY什么’, the strength is in ‘XY’. And when representing statements, neither ‘X什么Y’ nor ‘XY什么’ was noticeable.