Toward a granular analysis of the discourse marker ti: in Tunisian Arabic

Abstract

This study offers a granular analysis of procedural relevance by challenging the traditional view of discourse markers as performing a fixed procedural function. The analysis draws on a corpus of Tunisian Arabic supported by a speaker survey to examine the pragmatic effects of ti: across diverse communicative contexts. Focusing on the understudied yet pervasive discourse marker ti: in Tunisian Arabic, the paper relies on corpus data and speaker insights to disambiguate its complex functional load. The findings reveal that the frequency of ti: stems from its high degree of multifunctionality: it serves diverse conversational roles, influences the trajectory of interaction, and reflects the dynamics between discourse participants. The paper argues that this multifunctionality is rooted in ti:’s multicategorial status, enabling it to perform multiple communicative tasks across different discourse domains. As such, ti: exemplifies a “multiperformative” discourse marker—an element that simultaneously encodes various pragmatic functions with minimal speech effort. This efficiency points to broader implications for the typology of discourse markers, both in Arabic and crosslinguistically. Ultimately, the study underscores the need for a more nuanced, crosslinguistically grounded model of procedural meaning—one that accounts for multifunctionality, categorical flexibility, and interactional economy. Such an approach, situated within pragmatics, opens the door to productive interfaces with other linguistic fields.