Discourse Particles in Sorani Kurdish

Abstract

Discourse particles constitute an important part of spoken language; they have a wide range of pragmatic functions in interactional contexts. The object of the present paper is to introduce Kurdish discourse particles, clarify their functions in different discourse contexts, and briefly sketch some aspects of their grammatical properties. I will focus on Sorani Kurdish since this dialect has a rich inventory of discourse particles that have not so far been investigated. I will show that the majority of these particles convey multiple functions and display a great degree of free syntactic distribution, a noteworthy point. In addition to expounding upon their syntactic position, I will inquire into the types of sentences in which they can occur (declarative, interrogative, and imperative). Furthermore, I will argue that individual discourse particles can appear adjacent to each other to give rise to new combinations, and in some cases the order of the components participating in the combination can be reversed and still remain as acceptable forms. Finally, I will explore the interrogative contexts in which discourse particles can occur, and also distinguish between two types of particles that can affect the interrogative utterance in different ways.