Language Research

Rhythmic characteristics of speech based on consonantal and vocalic intervals as well as syllabic intervals vary between speakers of the same language. Nonetheless, the rhythmicity ... Read More Rhythmic characteristics of speech based on consonantal and vocalic intervals as well as syllabic intervals vary between speakers of the same language. Nonetheless, the rhythmicity of a speech signal is not solely dependent on the durational variability of phonetic intervals but it is also associated with the variability of the intensity patterns as well. Acoustic parameter of intensity is largely determined by the articulatory behaviors of the speech organs such as lip movement or mouth aperture. Therefore, it is plausible that speaker idiosyncrasy in movement of speech articulators and anatomical differences in individual’s vocal tracts may influence the energy distribution across a speech signal which subsequently leads to the variability in the values of the intensity measures. Using experimental phonetics tools and from an explicitly speaker-specific perspective, the present research attempts to explore potential speaker-specific acoustic parameters of speech rhythm which are extracted from the intensity contours across Persian speakers. This research aims to discover whether intensity-based measures of speech rhythm are able to discriminate between speakers in Persian. Two types of acoustic rhythmic measures based on the mean syllable intensity (stdevM, varcoM, rPVIm, nPVIm) and peak syllable intensity (stdevP, varcoP, rPVIp, nPVIp)) were selected for this study. Speech data from 12 Persian male speakers were recorded non-contemporaneously in laboratory environment on two different occasions separated by one to two weeks. 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 of the study indicated that speech rhythm measures based on intensity fluctuations play an important role in between-speaker rhythmic variability. In addition, discriminatory power of intensity-based measures is not affected by the language-dependent characteristics of Persian. The results also showed that the peak syllable intensity measures carry more speaker-specific information compared to the mean syllable intensity measures

Electrophysiological Evidence of Neurological Representations of the Phonological and Phonetic Properties of Persian Vowels in the Auditory Cortex

Abbas Nasri; Gholamhosain Karimi doustan

Volume 11, Issue 2 , February 2021, , Pages 223-245

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2021.313724.666663

Abstract

How the brain encodes the speech acoustic signal into phonological representations is a fundamental question for the neurobiology of language. The following paper is aimed to investigate ... Read More How the brain encodes the speech acoustic signal into phonological representations is a fundamental question for the neurobiology of language. The following paper is aimed to investigate the relationship between the phonological and phonetic properties of Persian simple vowels and neurophysiological events corresponding to them. To achieve such goal, we employed electroencephalography to map the Persian vowel system onto cortical sources using the N1 auditory evoked component. We found evidence that the N1 is characterized by asymmetrical indexes in the auditory areas of the cortex, structuring vowel representations. Properties of these ERPs were analyzed and modelled on one hand by the landmarks in the spectral window of their respective stimulus (such as F1, F2 and F2-F1) and on the other hand by the phonological distinctive features categorizing them (namely, height and place). The results revealed that the responses contain at least two distinguishable modulations of N1 components: a symmetric N1a which peaked between 113 to 149 milliseconds after the onset of the stimulus and a heavily left-leaning N1b which peaked between 149 to 170 milliseconds thereafter. Both N1a and N1b subcomponents showed strong correlations with a variety of parameters of both phonological and acoustic nature of the respective stimuli. However, N1a was significantly better modelled by acoustic factors while N1b displayed a better fit to a model based on phonetic factors. Based on such results, this paper argues that firstly the perceptual procedure of vowel categorization is a gradient process starting from demarcation of the stimulus signal according to acoustic landmarks which is done almost symmetrically then the processing load shifts significantly to the left hemisphere for the categorization of the input based on its perceived distinctive features. And secondly, that such information can be exploited to draft a ‘tonochronic’ map of such perceptual processes and define a perceptual field for every vowel and distinctive feature in the tonochronic space.

Syntactico-Semantic Study of Some Kurdish (Sorani Dialect) True Prepositions Based on Nanosyntax

Ebrahim Moradi; Abbas Ali Ahangar; Gholamhosain Karimi doustan

Volume 10, Issue 1 , June 2019, , Pages 141-160

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2019.72005

Abstract

In Nanosyntax theory, terminal nodes contain syntactico-semantic features which are smaller than morphemes. Most of the morphemes are spread over several terminal nodes. Therefore, ... Read More In Nanosyntax theory, terminal nodes contain syntactico-semantic features which are smaller than morphemes. Most of the morphemes are spread over several terminal nodes. Therefore, morphemes project on subtrees rather than the terminal nodes. Each terminal node comprises one specific feature. The features are arranged in a universal hierarchy namely functional sequence and follow the principle one morphosyntactic property-one feature-one head. In this theory, following cartographic approach, the universality of underlying syntactic structures and the fixed order Determiner-Head-Complement are adopted. Also, the lexicon encompasses subtrees which contain conceptual and phonological information. In this regard, a lexical entry will be minimally of the form: . In addition, Spell-out is an operation through which the derived syntactic trees are linked with saved subtrees in the lexical entries in lexicon. This article analytically studies the syntax and semantics of some Kurdish simple prepositions based on nanosyntax. As morphological complexity mirrors the syntactic complexity and in some languages the relationship between the morphemes and the syntactic head/semantic features representing them is one to one, this relationship should be induced in the underlying syntactic structure of all languages. Studying the present research data according to Baker’s mirror principle and Chomsky’s uniformity principle shows that though simple prepositions in Kurdish are monomorphic, all of them, except for the preposition l{ (at) with one feature (Place), include more than one feature, that is, there is no one to one relation between their syntactic head/semantic features and their morphology. The preposition bO: (to) contains Place and Goal, the preposition l{ (from) contains Place, Goal and Source, the preposition b{r{w (towards) includes Place, Goal and Scale and the preposition ta (till) is made up of Place, Goal and Bound features. The preposition w{/b{ (by, to) as an instrumental preposition contains instrument, dative, genitive, accusative and nominative features and when denoting dative, it includes dative, genitive, accusative and nominative features. The present study also presents the feature arrangements of these prepositions and the reasons of syncretism in l{ and w{, as well.

The Layered Structure of Mukriyani’s Noun Phrases in Role and Reference Grammar

Farzad Azizi; Sayed Farid Khalifehloo; Gholamhosain Karimi doustan

Volume 8, Issue 2 , January 2018, , Pages 97-116

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2018.65517

Abstract

In this paper, the Mukriyani’s layered structure of NPs (one of the Surani’s Kurdish dialects) has been examined according to Van Valin’s (2005) framework. In this ... Read More

Lexical Aspect in Persian Deadjectival Complex Predicates

Hassan Barzegar; Gholamhosain Karimi doustan

Volume 8, Issue 1 , June 2017, , Pages 41-57

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2017.63134

Abstract

In this paper, we will study the lexical aspect in Persian deadjectival complex predicates. Hence, we firstly review different kinds of aspect. Then, we will succinctly review three ... Read More

The Nanosyntax of Element Movement in Circumpositions of Kurdish (Sorani Dialect)

Ebrahim Morady; Abbas Ali Ahangar; Gholamhosain Karimi doustan

Volume 7, Issue 2 , January 2017, , Pages 77-96

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2016.61526

Abstract

This paper, based on nanosyntax, studies the semantico-syntactic contribution of Kurdish circumposition [elements (l{ ...(d) a, l{ ...{w{, w{...(d) a, w{ ...{w{) and their movement ... Read More

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negin elkhanipour; gholamhossein karrimi-Doostan

Volume 5, Issue 1 , September 2014, , Pages 129-133

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2014.52664

Abstract

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Causative alternation in Persian

Ali Safari; Gholamhosain Karimi doustan

Volume 4, Issue 1 , April 2013, , Pages 75-94

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2013.35928

Abstract

In this article, the causative alternation in Persian is discussed. First, it is shown that Persian anticausative verbs involve a CAUSE component and an implicit external argument. ... Read More

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Author = karrimi-Doostan,%20gholamhossein%20

The Persian Light Verbs’ Productivity

Abstract

Electrophysiological Evidence of Neurological Representations of the Phonological and Phonetic Properties of Persian Vowels in the Auditory Cortex

Abstract

Syntactico-Semantic Study of Some Kurdish (Sorani Dialect) True Prepositions Based on Nanosyntax

Abstract

The Layered Structure of Mukriyani’s Noun Phrases in Role and Reference Grammar

Abstract

Lexical Aspect in Persian Deadjectival Complex Predicates

Abstract

The Nanosyntax of Element Movement in Circumpositions of Kurdish (Sorani Dialect)

Abstract

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Abstract

Causative alternation in Persian

Abstract