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The pragmatic functions of the marker "sawa" in spoken Swahili

100%

Kibiki M. J.

Studies in African Languages and Cultures

2019

issue 53

29-56

This study examines the pragmatic functions of the marker sawa in spoken Swahili. The data have been obtained from informal conversations made by Swahili speakers in informal social settings. These settings include “vijiwe vya kahawa” (setting of informal conversations created around people drinking coffee) and "vijiwe vya mamantilie” (setting of informal conversations created around women preparing and selling food on the streets). The analysis of the data, performed within the framework of the contextualization theory (Gumperz 1982), shows that, apart from its basic connotation of agreement, the marker sawa conveys other meanings, depending on these very contexts of communication, and therefore acquires also various pragmatic functions. The pragmatic functions identified in this work include: to show that the speaker agrees with what has been said but on a condition (I agree, but…), as a receipt marker, as a tag-positioned-comprehension check, as an answer to the question showing that the speaker has understood what has been said (Yes, I understand), as a continuer, as a negative releasing marker, and as a gap filler. Interestingly, the study shows also that intonation and other paralinguistic features (like gestures) play a role in determining the pragmatic functions of this marker. The article concludes that the pragmatic markers in spoken Swahili are rich in meanings and are used to show speakers’ attitudes and emotions, therefore manifesting a deep and meaningful interconnection between the language and its contextualized experience.

Pravdepodobne si myslím, že niekedy v roku 2020. Pragmatické markery v slovenčine ako v cudzom jazyku

63%

Ivanová M.

Studie z aplikované lingvistiky - Studies in Applied Linguistics

2022

vol. 13

issue 2

35-64

The study deals with pragmatic markers (PMs) and their frequency distribution in the written texts of Slovak as a second language (L2). It focuses on the comparison of written texts produced by nonnative speakers of Slovak to describe the acquisition aspects of PMs with respect to their preferential realization in the non-native texts, frequency distribution of individual units, maintenance of polyfunctionality of PMs and types of errors occurring in the texts. Individual functional-semantic classes of PMs are delimited within four domains: textual, propositional, illocutionary and interpersonal. On the basis of data from the acquisition corpus of Slovak errkorp-pilot the central markers of those classes are described and their frequency distribution and functions in the texts are analysed. Corpus data are used to manifest i) the tendency towards underrepresentation of PMs in the texts of Slovak as L2, ii) the specificities of the frequency distribution of certain functional and semantic classes of PMs in the texts of Slovak as L2, iii) the tendency towards decreased polyfunctionality of PMs in the texts of Slovak as L2 (polyfunctional PMs are usually limited to realizing one major function in the texts of Slovak as L2). Corpus material also brings evidence for the most frequent errors concerning the usage of PMs, namely lexical ones (falling into the category of substitution with respect to the semantically, formally or pragmatically related PMs, the redundant usage of PMs in the texts, etc.) and syntactic ones (concerning incorrect word order and embedding of PMs).

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1 Studie z aplikované lingvistiky - Studies in Applied Linguistics

1 Studies in African Languages and Cultures

1 Ivanová M.

1 Kibiki M. J.

1 2022

1 2019

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The pragmatic functions of the marker "sawa" in spoken Swahili

Pravdepodobne si myslím, že niekedy v roku 2020. Pragmatické markery v slovenčine ako v cudzom jazyku