The Pragmatic Functions of wa in Jordanian Arabic: A Corpus-based Study

Abstract

Purpose. This paper examines the pragmatic functions of wa, the most frequently used discourse marker in the daily interactions of speakers of Jordanian Arabic (JA). Procedure. The principal researcher built with the help of a research assistant a small-size corpus from conversations and talks presented by Jordanian TV and Radio Jordan in JA. The recordings ran for 194 minutes and covered multiple aspects of Jordanian life and culture such as traffic and safety, water and agriculture, education, tourism and environment, health, mountaineering and social topics. The recordings were transcribed for analysis by two of the four researchers and verified by the other two. The transcripts comprised 20660 words with 1229 instances of wa. To identify the pragmatic functions of wa, the researchers worked in groups of two and screened and examined independently a different 50 percent of the transcribed data and proposed their own list of identified functions along with at least two illustrative examples for each pragmatic function. Once done, they held a number of successive meetings to review the outcome with a view to reaching consensus judgments on the identified functions and examples. They were able to agree on eight of the 12 suggested labels. For the remaining four, they invited a focus group of 10 postgraduate students of linguistics whose native language was JA to examine and discuss the disputed material. This intensive and laborious work had reduced the list of functions to 11. Results. The findings of the study show that wa has 11 pragmatic functions. It is mainly used for expressing addition, indicating resumption, swearing an oath, concluding a premise, elaborating on the antecedent sentence, restating, mocking, showing simultaneity, extending congratulations, linking alternative contrasts, and avoiding complete and explicit listing. Conclusions. The paper identified 11 pragmatic functions of wa in Jordanian Arabic. However, the paper has made no claims that these functions are conclusive as the corpus is small and is collected from officially channeled media that had to pass censorship before being released. Another thing of importance is the extent to which the proposed labels for the functions is agreed by the readers of this paper, including academic colleagues. Once again, we cannot argue that the given names of the functions are unequivocally sound and acceptable. A reader may suggest another label here and there and this temptation cannot be easily suppressed.