Functional Significance of Contextual Distribution: Discourse Particle ar in Bangla

This paper deals with Bangla indeclinable ar to explore its role in conversational discourse. In doing so, the paper provides a detail study about ar in the Bangla language. This, in turn, helps to conceptualize how the occurrences of ar motivate a conversation in a pragmatic domain, in particular. More specifically, multiple interpretations of ar pose a particular challenge to semantics and pragmatics, which can be taken care of through the incorporation of phonological context. Phonological context contains information about speaker’s intention and speaker’s approach to their utterance. The paper discusses several criteria, namely the traditional and polysemous nature, intonational pattern, evidentiality etc., which are crucial in determining its role in structuring a conversation.