Discourse-Pragmatic Functions of Ya3ni in Najdi Arabic Interaction

The Arabic discourse-pragmatic feature ya3ni occurs frequently in natural interactional settings. Several studies have reported that (lit. ‘I mean/it means’) has developed a wide range of functions many spoken varieties such as Egyptian (Elshimi, 1992; 1993; Marmorstein, 2016, 2021a), Gulf (Owens & Rockwood, 2008), Libyan (Gaddafi, 1990), and Syrian (Alkhalil, 2005; Habib, 2021). Although the formal functional variability been documented literature, not studied context Najdi Arabic. This paper examines uses (NA) situation how variation is constrained by its turn position. A total 376 tokens were extracted from corpus five hours audio-recorded dyadic conversations with twelve native speakers NA. Drawing on conversation analytic approach within variationist framework, multiple are attested. For interpersonal meaning, recruit to introduce assessment minimise effect disagreement, whereas recipients use it check their understanding. textual can be used expansion elaboration, explain intention, change topic, sum up, hold floor.