Bahi-as-a -Discourse -Marker-in-Daily -Libyan-Arabic

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Khadeja 2I. Introduction:When generally looking at discourse markers, one can define them as linguistic formsused to express ideas or convey pragmatic messages at a particular situation. They are there fora purpose and without them, many pragmatic instances that help people understand what ismeant in such a particular way and interpret the different utterances in a dialogue, will bemissing. Discourse markers, referred to as “DM” are generally defined as brief and frequentlinguistic expressions by which speakers deliver or receive a pragmatic message in the dialogue.(Popescu-Belis & Zufferey, 2011).The use of discourse markers has a lot to do with use of language based on context. Onecan use the same marker in different contexts conveying different meanings. They aremonitored by various factors and are used for a reason that is already perceived by both thespeaker and the hearer in different contexts.Additionally, discourse markers can be utilized and interpreted contextually, but notnecessarily literally. Another important factor that monitors their use is the culture or theenvironment in which they are employed to serve a sociolinguistic function. Moreover, asubconscious agreement from the interlocutors about the way the discourse marker is used isanother important aspect.“Discourse markers are conjectured to give the hearer information about the discoursestructure, and so aid the hearer in understanding how the new speech or text relates to what waspreviously said and for resolving anaphoric references” (Hirschberg and Litman, 1993).However, In Libyan Arabic; a dialect of Arabic, discourse markers also play a major rolein the perception and interpretation of everyday speech. The dialect is so rich with variouslinguistic markers that function pragmatically. Speakers of Libyan get the advantage of using
Khadeja 3discourse markers based on social aspects where culture and environment play an important rolein perceiving the meaning. In this paper, the focus will be on one discourse marker known as‘bahi’ pronounced as /bɑahi/ as a marker that carries various meanings and functions accordingto the context in which it is used. In general, discourse markers are given particularcharacteristics to help identify them in a better way. Schourup (1999) lists some salient featurescharacterizing discourse markers and their functions such as connectivity, optionality, non-truthconditionality, weak clause association, initiality, orality, and multi-categorality.As for ‘bahi’, speakers can play with the word to give various meanings such asagreement, disagreement, warning, expectation more, request for continuance, showingadmiration, blaming, and ending arguments. Also, ‘bahi’ plays a significant role in combiningwhat the speaker as well as the hearer think about each other’s statements. That is, it is servingas a tool that reflects speakers’ ideas and what opinions or reactions they may have towardssomething. Miri Hussein (1997) argued that discourse markers can help manifesting theconnection between ideas and their organization in speech.The motivation behind this study is to reveal how rich and vibrant the Libyan dialect iswith many linguistic markers that can take various roles in discourse based on speakers’ notionsand society’s approval of any newly invented use for any specific word.One clear thing about the word ‘bahi’ is that when it was first used, it did not have thedifferent contextual linguistic meanings that it has today. However, the number of usesincreased as the speakers demanded more uses. The interesting thing about this is the waypeople can manipulate the language in order to deliver different messages by using one word.This paper investigates the various uses of ‘bahi’ as an important discourse marker thattakes place in the daily speech of Libyan people in different situations and social levels.
Page 1: Khadeja 1Florida International Univ
Page 5 and 6: Khadeja 5باهى .bBahi…third, t
Page 7 and 8: Khadeja 7the hearer infers that the
Page 9 and 10: Khadeja 9Analysis:‘bahi’ was fi
Page 11 and 12: Khadeja 11III.ObservationsFrom all
Page 13: Khadeja 13ReferencesBrennan, S.E.,

Bahi-as-a -Discourse -Marker-in-Daily -Libyan-Arabic

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