The Discourse Analysis and Pragmatics of ʔa:di in Jordanian Spoken Arabic

Abstract

The present paper aims at studying the discourse functions of the discourse marker “ʔa:di” in Jordanian Spoken Arabic. The data analyzed consisted of 20 video-taped dyadic conversations in Jordanian Arabic. These conversations were transliterated and then translated into English. Discourse analysis is employed as a theoretical framework for the current study. The study concludes that the adjective “ʔa:di” has many discoursal functions, its pragmatic meaning relies on the context of situation and its translatability is cultural specific.