The Discourse-Pragmatic Functions of ‘Samm’ in Najdi Arabic

Abstract

This study presents the first empirical analysis of the multifunctional discourse-pragmatic marker Samm in the understudied context of Najdi Arabic. Despite its high frequency and cultural salience, Samm has not been systematically described. Based on 220 naturalistic interactions, this study identifies eight core functions of Samm, showing its primary role in interpersonal management (over 70% of uses). The analysis reveals that Samm is a grammaticalized resource whose specific meaning is dynamically co-constructed through prosody, sequential context, and shared cultural knowledge, functioning as a face-threat minimizer, a turn-manager, and a key contextualization cue in ritual and sarcastic speech. The paper argues that the complex multifunctionality of Samm, rooted in its grammaticalization pathway, necessitates an integrated analytical approach and provides a significant case study for theories of grammaticalization and semantic-pragmatic change, filling a critical gap in Arabic pragmatics and dialectology. The findings thus provide a significant case study for theories of grammaticalization and semantic-pragmatic change, with clear implications for advancing research in Arabic pragmatics, dialectology, and the cross-linguistic study of discourse markers.

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