Thing/Chiz/: Investigating the Pragmatic Functions of a Frequently Used Expression in Persian

The purpose of the present study was to analyze a Persian linguistic item pronounced as/chiz/(with the literal meaning thing), a pragmatic expression with various functions oriented to the interactional nature of the speech context. In order to examine the functions of/chiz/15 hours of authentic conversations among Persian speakers were tape recorded and transcribed. The frequency of the pragmatic expression/chiz/was investigated. In addition, the functions achieved by the word/chiz/were examined. The results of the investigation demonstrated that/chiz/is a multi-functional word performing differently based on the context in which it is used.