Publication Date: 2025
Language Related Research (23223081)16(6)pp. 115-143
Sound substitution is a process whereby a phoneme in a loanword is replaced by its closest phone in the borrowing language. Many English loanwords with consonants /T/, /w/, /k/ and /g/ have been adapted by Persian. None of these consonants exist as a phoneme in Persian. The pronunciation or substitution of these consonants by their closest phone in Persian depends on the phonological environment; the dental /T/ is replaced by [t] and [s] respectively in the onset and coda. The bilabial /w/ is replaced by [v] in the onset. However, since [w] is only used as an intervocalic consonant in Persian, it acts like an intervocalic consonant upon the declusterization of word initial /sw/. Therefore, it is not usually replaced by any consonant in this environment. Finally, the velar consonants /k/ and /g/ either change to palatal [c] and [Š] respectively or do not change at all, due to the phonological environment. This research aimed to explain each of these sound substitution processes within the framework of optimality theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993/2004). It presents arguments in favor of constraint rankings which cause the occurances of these processes. © 2026, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2016
Language Related Research (23223081)6(7)pp. 219-236
This paper set up to investigate the word “didan” (see) based on frame semantics to explore how the sense of words can be traced back through human’s experiences and background knowledge. In other words, the purpose of this paper is to clarify such delicate meaning distinctions, which are mainly overlooked in dictionaries. To solve this problem, we started this study by searching different texts and corpus so that we could find semantic frames for “didan” from one hand, and extract differences between the verb “didan” and other partially synonymous verbs such as “moshahede kardan” (observe), “tamasha kardan” (watch), etc, on the other hand. Then, we try to determine how polysemous verb of “didan” is analyzed in terms of semantic frames. By analyzing data, we have found out that the relationship between different frames with that of “base sensory-eye” frame is the cause of polysemy. Furthermore, the partially synonymous verbs are differentiated from the verb “didan” based on ‘aim, target, etc. variables’; last but not least we have put forward a model that shows how “didan” and its different frames are related and how partially synonymous words are differentiated from it. © 2016, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2023
Onomazein (07171285)(61)pp. 191-211
In this article, we are going to introduce an automatic mechanism to intelligently extend the training set to improve the n-gram language model of Persian. Given the free word-order property in Persian, our enrichment algorithm diversifies n-gram combinations in baseline training data through dependency reordering, adding permissible sentences and filtering ungrammatical sentences using a hybrid empirical (heuristic) and linguistic approach. Experiments performed on baseline training set (taken from a standard Persian corpus) and the resulting enriched training set indicate a declining trend in average relative perplexity (between 34% to 73%) for informal/spoken vs. formal/written Persian test data. © 2023 Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. All rights reserved.
Databases for studying speech rhythm and tempo exist for numerous languages. The present corpus was built to allow comparisons between Arabic speech rhythm and other languages. 10 Egyptian speakers (gender-balanced) produced speech in two different speaking styles (read and spontaneous). The design of the reading task replicates the methodology used in the creation of BonnTempo corpus (BTC). During the spontaneous task, speakers talked freely for more than one minute about their daily life and/or their studies, then they described the directions to come to the university from a famous near location using a map as a visual stimulus. For corpus annotation, the database has been manually and automatically time-labeled, which makes it feasible to perform a quantitative analysis of the rhythm of Arabic in both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Egyptian dialect variety. The database serves as a phonetic resource, which allows researchers to examine various aspects of Arabic supra-segmental features and it can be used for forensic phonetic research, for comparison of different speakers, analyzing variability in different speaking styles, and automatic speech and speaker recognition. © European Language Resources Association (ELRA), licensed under CC-BY-NC
Publication Date: 2021
Studia Linguistica (00393193)75(3)pp. 623-658
This paper examines the different functions of bale (‘yes’) in Persian by identifying its positions in the syntagmatic chain. As such, it reveals a significant correlation exists between the function types, various positions, and the frequency of bale, which appears on the left periphery (LP), on the right periphery (RP), and in the medial, detached or free-standing mode at a rate of 20.5%, 9.5, 2.1%, and 67.9%, respectively. On LP, it can function for all the three types (e.g. propositional, textual, and interpersonal) involved in it. Besides, on LP it is generally associated with textual and subjective usages, but its position on RP can be explained in terms of intersubjectivity. The function of bale as a detached thetical is argued to be predominant in an intersubjective phenomenon motivated by paying attention to/from the addressee. Furthermore, a diachronic survey of the bale development suggests that it has started as a connective, a confirmative, or an emphatic response markers on LP; then, it has moved to RP to fulfill more intersubjective usages. © 2021 The Editorial Board of Studia Linguistica
Publication Date: 2022
Pragmatics (10182101)32(4)pp. 588-619
This study investigates the functions of væ ('and') as a discourse marker in Persian. More specifically, this study accounts for certain aspects of væ co-occurrences and their linearization order. Fraser's model (forthcoming) was mainly employed to classify the multiple functions conveyed by væ. A corpus-based approach was taken to provide an overview of væ co-occurrences with other discourse markers. The data were collected from both written and spoken corpora. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to examine the frequency and the functional differences in the use of væ in the data - namely, elaboration, inferential, contrast, and alternation. The results of the study indicate the mobile nature of væ in its co-occurrences with other DMs. The findings also show that some modifications to Fraser's (forthcoming) DM co-occurrence principles are required to handle certain cases of language-specific behavior of væ in Persian. The configuration suggested for væ uses and its multi-functionality will also shed some lights on cross-linguistic studies of its counterparts in other languages. © International Pragmatics Association.
Publication Date: 2025
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (15208524)158(6)pp. 4294-4307
Fricatives vary acoustically across languages and individuals, with speaker variability shaped by both phonetic and non-phonetic factors. This study examined between- and within-speaker variability in Persian voiceless fricatives (/f/, /s/, /ʃ/, /x/) and how linguistic environments, such as syllable position and lexical stress, affect this variability. A gender-balanced sample of 24 Persian speakers was recorded in two sessions, 1-2 two weeks apart. Acoustic analysis targeted the first four spectral moments and duration. Results showed that center of gravity captured the greatest between-speaker variability, followed by standard deviation, skewness, duration, and kurtosis. Across segments, the alveolar /s/ exhibited the highest speaker-specificity, followed by /ʃ/, /f/, and /x/. Gender-based patterns emerged: for males, the center of gravity and skewness of /s/ were most discriminative, whereas for females, the center of gravity and standard deviation of /ʃ/ were most effective. The labiodental /f/ showed some speaker-specific characteristics only in the male group. Voiceless fricatives in syllable-initial positions demonstrated more speaker-specificity, while lexical stress did not impact between-speaker variability. Results also highlight cross-linguistic differences in the acoustic cues most effective for speaker differentiation and demonstrate that optimal features can vary across speaker populations. Adaptive algorithms are therefore crucial for improving forensic speaker comparison. © 2025 Acoustical Society of America.
Publication Date: 2019
Language Related Research (23223081)10(1)pp. 129-147
Introduction: Fricatives not only differ in their acoustic structures from one language to another, but also they vary considerably from individual to individual. Acoustic correlates of fricatives are sensitive to the shape and size of the resonance cavity in front of the oral constriction. It is therefore conceivable that any physical change in the length and place of constriction during production of fricatives may alter the resultant acoustic signals. This research attempts to explore potential speaker-specific acoustic parameters of voiceless fricatives in Persian based on experimental phonetics. Therefore, acoustic parameters of center of gravity and fricative duration are investigated for each voiceless fricative in Persian. This research aims to discover whether voiceless fricatives and selected acoustic parameters are able to discriminate between speakers in Persian and whether these fricatives and acoustic parameters are of assistance in segregating speakers in Persian. According to the aforementioned considerations, the following questions are presented in this paper: Do the selected acoustic parameters (center of gravity and duration) of voiceless fricatives have capacity to differentiate speakers in Persian? Which acoustic parameters and which voiceless fricatives discriminate Persian speakers the best? Furthermore, we will compare the results of the present study to the findings of previous studies to see in what way Persian has been similar or different from other investigated languages. Methodology: In order to analyze between- and within speaker variability of voiceless fricatives, 24 Persian speakers (12 male, 12 female) on two separate occasions were recorded in the sound proof booth at phonetics laboratory of Alzahra University. Non-contemporaneous recording of speech material allows us to measure the degree of within-speaker variability across each speaker. The speech material consists of a read passage which contains 54 Persian sentences including relevant voiceless fricatives Speech tokens were acoustically measured with PRAAT version 5.2.34 and statistical analyses were carried out with SPSS version 21 and R version 3.3.3. Results and conclusions: Results of this study indicated that for female speakers, center of gravity ofSands have the best performance in showing between-speaker variability. For male speakers, center of gravity of s is the most highly discriminant acoustic parameters across speakers. Moreover, fricative duration was not reported as a promising acoustic parameter. Center of gravity is directly linked to the size and length of the vocal tract. The longer is the length of the vocal tract, the higher is the center of gravity and vice versa. This indicates that anatomical differences between speaker’s vocal tract influence the acoustic properties of fricatives and ultimately make them distinctive. In the future studies, additional parametric potential speaker-specific features will be examined in order to determine a set of well-established discriminant parameters for voiceless fricatives in Persian. © 2019, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2025
Journal of Pragmatics (03782166)236pp. 40-59
This paper examines Persian directives through the lens of interactive grammar, aiming to categorize and explore their various types. While the existing model provides valuable analytical tools, it falls short in explaining the plethora of directive data examined in this study. As an initial stride towards broadening the cross-linguistic applicability of interactive grammar, particularly in the realm of directive categorization, this study proposes a more elaborate classification. The Persian directives are categorized into two main groups: primary and secondary, with the latter further subdivided into imperative-derived, adverb-derived, vocative-derived, and nominal directives. Additionally, a fresh perspective is cast on the Persian double-verb imperative, transcending the traditional view of serial verb constructions and elucidating its unique features and functions. The taxonomy of Persian directives posited in this study not only enhances the granularity of the overarching model but also paves the way for its expanded cross-linguistic utility. This detailed classification opens avenues for corpus-based studies to glean deeper insights and aids in the development of more explicit annotation schemes, empowering researchers with some clear-cut categories of directives. © 2024 Elsevier B.V.
Publication Date: 2023
Voprosy Jazykoznanija (0373658X)2023(5)pp. 133-147
In this article, we intend to examine the transferability of parts of English FrameNet to other lan-guages, specifically Persian. To accomplish this task, we consider the concept of motion due to its sig-nificance in cross-linguistic studies and its different lexicalization patterns in typologically diverse lan-guages. In this regard, we investigate the challenges that different features of the Persian language and particularly the difference in the way of expressing motion events in this language make for the compat-ibility of English FrameNet with Persian FrameNet. Focusing on Persian motion verbs, we try to deter-mine the extent to which it is possible to transfer different components of English FrameNet — including semantic frames, coreness and peripherality status of frame elements, syntactic and semantic structures and frame-to-frame relations — to other languages. The results suggest that English FrameNet is prone to incompatibility due to the lack of systematicity in the specification of frames and frame-to-frame re-lations. Moreover, different polysemy patterns, the presence of the same word as different lexical units, various syntactic alternations of lexical units, different levels of importance of frame elements in lexi-calization in various languages, the tendency of some languages like Persian to form compounds as well as the impact of culture make challenges for the transferability of English FrameNet to other languages. © 2023, Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2018
Language Related Research (23223081)8(7)pp. 183-208
Coercion is a long-discussed issue in linguistics and its mechanisms have been imaged differently. This article tries to introduce the theoreticians' views about the nature of coercion and analyzes this phenomenon in some morphological and syntactic Persian colloquial data. It is supposed that this analysis will elucidate some points in Persian morphology and syntax. This study relies on the framework proposed by Audring and Booij (2016). According to this approach we will expound three coercion mechanisms or effects: selection, enrichment and override. In coercion by selection, the resulting meaning is a part of the semantic repertoire of the coerced word to begin with. From this perspective, coercion works largely ‘bottom-up’, with only a light role for the context selecting one interpretation from the range of alternative readings. In coercion by enrichment, lexical semantics is preserved, but augmented in context. It represents a stronger ‘top-down’ influence, adding meaning to the utterance. In coercion by override, in turn, contextual ‘top-down’ force is strongest; it modifies, replaces, or removes properties of the coerced item. The current research is presented within the framework of Construntion Grammar. The data is based on the the analysis of modern Persian colloquial data drawn from the oral data, including radio and television programs and the researcher's interactions with others and also Google Persian sites sentences. The data analyzed showed that we can put all three above mentioned mechanisms along a single axis, considering the degree of top-down influence of complex morphological and syntactic constructions on the lexical semantics or category of the unified element. Idiomatic constructions are the most radical coercion of the override type. The present study shows the applicability of the approach in Persian data analysis. Moreover, it shows that coercion can support the notion of 'construction' and subsequently the Construction Grammar. Using coercion besides construction, this study presents a new analysis for making not only words basad on possible words but also the so-called fake infinitives. © 2018, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2022
Cognitive Linguistic Studies (22138722)9(2)pp. 297-322
The current paper offers an analysis of a set of 27 entrenched endocentric, exocentric, and copulative ab (water)-noun nominal compounds in Persian with both right- and left-headed compounds, based on the network model of conceptual blending theory. Given that an emergent meaning is involved in endocentric and copulative compounds, the same as in exocentric compounds, the paper argues that all types of compounds can be insightfully defined as conceptual blends. However, the conceptual blending network model fails to show the distinct role of head and modifier in the overall meaning of compounds, on the one hand, and the qualifying difference in the extent of emergent meaning among various types of compound words, on the other hand. Our study also lends support to a correspondence between the continuum of integration networks and the continuum of figurativity in compounds. © 2022 John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Publication Date: 2017
Language Related Research (23223081)8(8Tome38)pp. 43-66
In the present paper, we aim to apply the Conceptual Blending Theory proposed by Fauconnier and Turner (2002) to the analysis of one poem by Garous Abdolmalekian. Our hypothesis rests upon the fact that the same cognitive operations which occur in everyday construction and understanding of language as put forth by Blending theorists, occur also at the construction and interpretation of a literary work by authors and readers alike, operations like setting of input mental spaces, cross-space matching, blending clashing material and creating emergent structure. The poem examined in the paper, "lahzeye sheni" ("the sandy moment") is quite a long poem divided into five stanzas. The method used in the examination is a descriptive-analytic one. To use conceptual means of Blending, each stanza is a blend behind which stands an integration network composed of two input spaces which have projected selective structure onto the blend leading to emergent structure in it. For example, in one stanza, what is presented is an image in which black pieces of paper thrown out of the window turn into crows and fetch on the tree branches. This is a blend created out of two inputs of crows and black pieces of paper which are integrated together through the compression of the vital relation of Change. In general, it can be assumed that the poet, while creating the work, has passed through theses mental stages before he comes up with the present form of the poem; that is, he has formed two mental input spaces, and then merged them together only to bring about a novel concept, some emerge structure, which is the poem itself. The assumption can be extended so as to include the reader on the other side of this act of communication: the reader also, on their encounter with the poem, in order to make sense of it, has to unpack the blend which is presented to him in the poem. The reader, through the mechanisms of disintegration and decompression, try to reconstruct the mental phases the author has gone through while creating the work, and thus to gain an interpretation of it. In conclusion, what this paper reveals is the fact that literary works depend upon the same basic mental operations, here the operation of blending, which are at work in like non-literary works. Moreover, a good reader is who is able to follow the author, in a reverse manner, in his act of creation, and to achieve an active participation in his act of reading. The Blending Theory, by analyzing the cognitive processes a work of art passes through, helps readers reach higher levels of the participation of the sort mentioned. © 2017, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2017
Language Related Research (23223081)8(4)pp. 239-262
This paper sets out to investigate the feasibility of replacement of restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses at discourse level in Persian. Givon (2001) believes that proper names, pronouns and unique definite nouns cannot be modified by restrictive relatives. On the other hand, it is usually stated that the modification of indefinite nouns by non-restrictive relatives would result in ungrammatical sentences. This study, however, provides examples from the Persian language arguing against such propositions. Furthermore, there are also evidences in Persian showing that the emotive and expositive information, which are usually expressed by non-restrictive relatives, may also be expressed by restrictive relative clauses. The main inquiry will, then, be how such discourse possibilities would be accounted. To this end, the current paper aims to study and analyze the above-mentioned discourse situations within Discourse Grammar (DG) framework, as introduced by Heine and et al (2013). For the analysis, the empirical data are gathered from the different spoken and written sources in Persian as well as some other instances based on the authors’ own observations and their intuitions. In short, on the basis of Discourse Grammar, this paper argues that the discourse situations allowing such possibilities can be explained in terms of Cooptation mechanism, an important notion in Discourse Grammar which explain the interaction between sentence grammar and thetical grammar. Furthermore, unlike Heine and et al (2013), it is shown that Cooptation may be a bidirectional operation. In a sense, the paper provides some examples and explanation for the non-unidirectionality of cooptation mechanism such as appositive phrases and Ezafe constructions in Persian. © 2017, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2021
Language Related Research (23223081)12(4)pp. 165-198
This article provides and examines empirical data from different languages showing that long A-movement of the subject of the embedded finite clause to the subject position of the main clause is indeed possible in many languages of the world. However all kinds of raising out of finte clause are not the same and have obvious differences from each other.In present article we introduce and acoount four kinds of finite raising including hyper raising, super raising further raising and copy raising in different languages. Finally we try to determine the position of Persian in cross-linguistic analysis of raising. © 2021, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2004
International Journal of Cultural Studies (13678779)7(2)pp. 147-174
This article focuses primarily on pictorial metaphors used by advertising firms in pre-and post-revolutionary Iran. By comparing the two sets of data, it argues that one of the main functions of pictorial metaphor in the post-revolutionary period is to reconcile two types of competing and conflicting ideologies: one based on advertising and the other inspired by Islamic values. Advertisers are not allowed, in post-revolutionary times, to manipulate the picture of women for their intended publicity of commercial products. However, they do employ some pictorial metaphors to redress the balance. The article also addresses other issues related to cultural and social aspects of contemporary Iran as reflected in Persian commercial advertisements. © 2004, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2006
Studia Linguistica (14679582)60(1)pp. 97-120
The aim of this paper is to investigate the ways in which the Persian past tense form is projected into the future to designate events, states, and processes. While it must be admitted that the phenomenon under consideration is by no means confined to Persian, its examination in this language will reveal certain characteristics which are likely to contribute to a better understanding of how temporal deixis, together with aspectual and modal meanings, interact with contextual factors to yield socio-culturally relevant utterances. Of special theoretical interest in this respect are the semantic-pragmatic constraints levied, in varying degrees, on the projected tense in terms of negation, pronominal choice, speech act assignment, aspectual character, modal status, and pitch contour. Fundamental to the present study are three assumptions. First, the deictic projection at issue has pragmatic motivations, and, in addition, stems largely from the ontological asymmetry between pastness and futurity. Second, it has an indisputable edge over the other future-indicating devices available to Persian speakers in that it denotes factivity with respect to the occurrence of a situation. And third, it is stylistically marked as it digresses from the normal function of the past tense. © The Editorial Board of Studia Linguistica 2006.
Publication Date: 2024
Pragmatics and Society (18789714)16pp. 748-771
This study investigates the challenges of translating English demonstratives into Persian, with a focus on deictic shifts and their discourse-pragmatic implications. It aims to outline the recontextualization that deictic terms undergo during translation and the role of discourse-pragmatic factors in this process. Utilizing a parallel database of literary and academic texts in English and Persian, all instances of English demonstratives and their Persian counterparts have been identified and compared based on type, form, and quantity. An analysis of 1,849 instances of demonstrative discrepancies reveals two primary types of deictic shifts: (1) genuine shifts, which involve a change in the deictic center due to the translator’s (inter)subjectivity, leading to the re-contextualization of discourse, and (2) non-genuine shifts, where there is no change in the origo. The findings indicate a tendency for genuine shifts to alternate between distal-to-proximal and proximal-to-distal, with a marked preference for distal-to-proximal shifts, attributed to the unmarked nature of proximal deixis in Persian. Furthermore, translators frequently replace pure deictics with impure forms or add deictic terms for clarity, reflecting broader translation strategies aimed at ensuring the definiteness and explicitness of referents. © John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Publication Date: 2015
Language Related Research (23223081)6(1)pp. 253-280
Deriving the distribution of PRO and Obligatory Control (OC) in finite contexts has been a topic of considerable debate. Evidence coming from different languages shows that there is OC in finite contexts, then the theories of “Government and Binding “(GB) and “Minimalist Program”, which analyze control structures based on nonfiniteness of the complement, need to be refined. Landau (1999, 2000, 2004, 2006) proposes an alternative approach in which the distribution of PRO is more directly linked to tense/agreement properties of infl. He claims to get a generalization to account for the distribution of PRO in finite and nonfinite contexts in all languages. However, this article shows that while Landau’s model is effective for justifying exhaustive and non-obligatory or non control constructions in Persian, it has some deficiencies in accounting for non-exhaustive control in Persian. Then it is proposed that building upon Jackendoff and Culicover’s (2003) semantic analysis of control, we can solve inadequacies of purely syntactic analysis in justifying the distribution of PRO and overt DPs in the subject position of the embedded clause in Persian control structures. Therefore, in this article, the importance of semantic factors to solve this problem is proved. © 2015, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2021
Iranian Studies (210862)54(6-May)pp. 807-842
Farvi, also known as Farrokhi, is an Iranian language spoken in the village of Farvi in Khur district of Kavir desert in central Iran. It shares features with other languages in Kavir region such as Khuri, Irāji and Garmayi. This paper describes synchronic and historical phonology and the grammar of Farvi based on data collected in Farvi village during April 2019. The study of historical phonology and morphological evidence show that though basically Northwestern, Farvi shares some features with Southwestern Iranian languages so that, like Kurdish and Balochi, it is separated from the other Northwestern Iranian languages. In later changes, Farvi shows some areal features that put it alongside Southeastern languages such as Northern Bashgardi and Balochi. © 2021 Association For Iranian Studies, Inc.
Publication Date: 2012
English Language Teaching (discontinued) (19164742)5(8)pp. 130-145
The studies regarding information structure and its distribution in sentences are traced back to works of Prague School linguists such as Mathesius in 1920s. Recently, the issue of information structure has been dealt with by functionalists. In Role and Reference Grammar (RRG), information structure constitutes one of the main components of syntax. In this theory, information structure is mainly based on the Lambrechtiyan information structure which regards the formal structure of sentences as highly related to the discourse-pragmatic functions. Information structure investigates the way information is structured in clauses and sentences. This paper aims at dealing with information structure in interrogative sentences according to RRG. At first a brief introduction to works on information structure and RRG is presented. Then the theory is applied briefly to Persian language declaratives and dominantly to interrogatives.
Publication Date: 2015
Language Related Research (23223081)6(1)pp. 87-110
This paper aims at investigating the communicative functions of eloquent silence in Persian. It also investigates how contextual and pragmatic factors pave the way for silence to have such functions. In this regard, “A Separation” (2011), a widely known Oscar-winner Iranian movie by Asghar Farhadi was selected, and analyzed. This movie has been met with universal acclaim from film critics, and seemingly has utilized silence successfully in order to carry and convey some hidden messages. Instances of eloquent silence were collected and then analyzed based on Ephratt (2008) in an attempt to determine the communicative functions of each case. Our main argument has been that eloquent silence can convey different communicative hints in the course of linguistic exchanges in Persian. The results showed that eloquent silence usages do play a key role in communication in this movie and accordingly in Persian. These usages also have different types of function for the realization of which different contexts of situation seem to be at work. We also tried to analyze and explain the way contextual and pragmatic factors impact upon determining these communicative functions. In this regard, the study depicts that aim of communication, context of situations, target of communication, and power relations between interlocutors, as well as cultural and social norms are among the most important contextual and pragmatic factors, active in preferring silence over speech. © 2015, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2015
Language Related Research (23223081)5(4)pp. 149-170
This paper aims to investigate the ways in which socio-linguistic parameters such as gender contribute into the turn organization of defense sessions. Interruption plays an important role in the organization of turn taking in the interactions of defense sessions. The current paper is then primarily focused on the description and analysis of interruptions in the interactions of dissertation defense sessions of Persian speakers using the “community of practice” approach. A number of discourse and pragmatic functions (e.g. defense, directiveness, cooperation, competition, etc.) have been identified for interruptions in relation to the power relations of interlocutors in the interactions. Apart from qualitative analysis, some quantitative findings have been provided for further clarification. The analysis of data shows that it is mainly the social status of a speaker that influences the types and frequency of interruption rather than his/her gender. In other words, the social variable does not play an important role in the interruption for turn organization in the defense sessions of Persian speakers. © 2015, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2020
Review of Cognitive Linguistics (18779751)18(2)pp. 397-427
This paper investigates the synaesthetic constructions in Persian with the aim of finding out what motivates them despite their incongruous syntactic-semantic assignments. It is argued that these paradoxical elements require a metaphoric/metonymic frame to assign appropriate lexical units (LUs) to their corresponding syntactic categories (NP+ra+VPand NP+AP). The discrepancy derives from the semantic aspects for which frame semantics provides two types of explanations: internal and external frame factors. Internal factors deal with the metaphoric/metonymic compatibility or similarity between frames, while external factors underline the use of lexical items from one subframe to fill the vocabulary gap of a different subframe. The argument is that this gap owes much to the indirect contact between the Phenomenon (e.g., an odorous substance) and the Body-part (e.g., nose) that perceives it. In short, the analysis of our data reveals that synaesthesia is not only an economical strategy for modifying the senses, but also a natural mental strategy for interpreting vague experiences. A configuration of the incongruent construction of 'smell' and 'hearing' will be proposed to generalize such an analysis. © 2020 John Benjamins Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2015
Language Related Research (23223081)6(3)pp. 293-313
Noun incorporation is considered as a word formation process which is not treated similarly in different languages and has various representations. The incorporated noun is unmarked for features of definiteness and specificity; it does not take definite article, demonstratives or case marking. This study aims at finding an explanatory account for this phenomenon in Persian in order to decide whether a particular structure involves incorporation or not. To do this, incorporation is examined with respect to its relation to transitivity as a prototypical phenomenon. In this regard, it may be analyzed according to the notion of the degree of transitivity and the presence or absence of different transitivity parameters. The results show that the two parameters of individuation of object as well as affectedness of object specifically have role in the occurrence of incorporation. Aspect, also, has some effect through its relation to affectedness. Therefore, incorporation is better to be considered as an instance of transitivity decrease which occurs due to the lack of object individuation and object affectedness in a transitive clause. The deviation from the prototypical transitive clause due to the absence of these features is responsible for the structural differences of the incorporated clauses with that prototype. © 2015, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2014
Theory and Practice in Language Studies (20530692)4(3)pp. 551-561
Object indexation is a grammatical phenomenon in which a clitic pronoun, co-referential with the free nominal object, appends to the verb. Optionality of indexation in Persian leads us to consider the role of pragmatic factors in its occurring. The present study aims at investigating the influence of information structure on direct object indexation in Persian. To do this, the data of standard spoken Persian including 540 cases were extracted from various resources and then analyzed within the framework of Role and Reference Grammar. The high frequency of topical direct object indexation confirms the role of information structure in direct object indexation. Analyzing the few cases of focal direct object indexation indicated that all cases of both topical and focal object indexation necessarily involve identifiable referents. Hence, the basic requirement in direct object indexation in Persian is identifiability of its referent. Considering the syntactic position of direct object in Persian clauses shows strong overlap of topical and focal objects. The post-core slot only belongs to the topical direct object and focal object cannot be placed there. Therefore, in order to identify the pragmatic relations of direct object in a clause, considering the context of the discourse is highly important. © 2014 Academy Publisher Manufactured In Finland.
