The pragmatic functions of the marker sawa in spoken Swahili

Abstract

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.

Language, Culture, Literature Intertwined. The Swahili Perspective

“…It serves, among others, to imply an amount, inevitability, simplicity, reassurance, nearness, a warning, immediacy/temporariness, a lack of reason, commonness, "Don't quote me" and disappointment. These implied meanings are unique to the PM tu, as they have not been noted in other research on the PMs in Kiswahili, like sawa (Kibiki 2019), sasa (Goodness 2020), yaani (Marjie and Sosoo 2021) and hivi (Kibiki 2022). Therefore, each PM is unique in the way it conveys meaning in Kiswahili.…”

“…"PMs have one core meaning, which is procedural rather than conceptual, although their specific meaning can vary depending on the context (thus, pragmatic meaning)" (Nasir 2017: 15). Since the concept was first proposed by Schifrin (1987), who worked on discourse markers in English, research efforts have expanded and PMs have been studied in various languages, such as English (Beach 1995;Guthrie 1997), German (Barske 2009), Dutch (Hoek 2013), Modern Greek (Archakis 2001), Chinese (Chen and He 2001), Italian (Bazzanella 1990), Spanish (Durán and Unamuno 2001), Turkish (Yilmaz 2004), Indonesian (Nasir 2017) and Kiswahili (Kibiki 2019;Goodness 2020;Marjie and Sosoo 2021), to name a few. PMs have been studied using a number of frameworks reflecting diverse research interests such as second-language learning (cf.…”

Swahili proverbs from a cultural and cognitive perspective

“…It serves, among others, to imply an amount, inevitability, simplicity, reassurance, nearness, a warning, immediacy/temporariness, a lack of reason, commonness, "Don't quote me" and disappointment. These implied meanings are unique to the PM tu, as they have not been noted in other research on the PMs in Kiswahili, like sawa (Kibiki 2019), sasa (Goodness 2020), yaani (Marjie and Sosoo 2021) and hivi (Kibiki 2022). Therefore, each PM is unique in the way it conveys meaning in Kiswahili.…”

“…"PMs have one core meaning, which is procedural rather than conceptual, although their specific meaning can vary depending on the context (thus, pragmatic meaning)" (Nasir 2017: 15). Since the concept was first proposed by Schifrin (1987), who worked on discourse markers in English, research efforts have expanded and PMs have been studied in various languages, such as English (Beach 1995;Guthrie 1997), German (Barske 2009), Dutch (Hoek 2013), Modern Greek (Archakis 2001), Chinese (Chen and He 2001), Italian (Bazzanella 1990), Spanish (Durán and Unamuno 2001), Turkish (Yilmaz 2004), Indonesian (Nasir 2017) and Kiswahili (Kibiki 2019;Goodness 2020;Marjie and Sosoo 2021), to name a few. PMs have been studied using a number of frameworks reflecting diverse research interests such as second-language learning (cf.…”

Capturing the lexical richness of Swahili poetry

“…"PMs have one core meaning, which is procedural rather than conceptual, although their specific meaning can vary depending on the context (thus, pragmatic meaning)" (Nasir 2017: 15). Since the concept was first proposed by Schifrin (1987), who worked on discourse markers in English, research efforts have expanded and PMs have been studied in various languages, such as English (Beach 1995;Guthrie 1997), German (Barske 2009), Dutch (Hoek 2013), Modern Greek (Archakis 2001), Chinese (Chen and He 2001), Italian (Bazzanella 1990), Spanish (Durán and Unamuno 2001), Turkish (Yilmaz 2004), Indonesian (Nasir 2017) and Kiswahili (Kibiki 2019;Goodness 2020;Marjie and Sosoo 2021), to name a few. PMs have been studied using a number of frameworks reflecting diverse research interests such as second-language learning (cf.…”