The syntagmatic polyfunctionality of the pragmatic marker nà 那: A comprehensive corpus analysis of Mandarin spontaneous conversations

The paradigmatic polyfunctionality of the Mandarin pragmatic marker nà 那 – i.e., its ability to perform multiple functions – is well documented; however, its syntagmatic polyfunctionality has rarely been examined, leaving unclear how its functions interact across levels in discourse. This study addresses this gap by analysing a corpus of naturally occurring conversations. A total of 261 occurrences of na were collected from 13 telephone conversations between native speakers of Mandarin, randomly retrieved from the CallFriend Corpus. The data were annotated for functional dimensions and sub-dimensions using a combination of corpus-driven and corpus-based approaches and analysed by means of Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Components. Results revealed three functional profiles – inferential stancetaking, action-oriented conclusions, and inquiry-based topic development – reflecting speakers’ different responses to prior talk.