Language Research

Pronominal Clitics in North and South Bashāgardi; A Typological Analysis

Sepehr Seddiqi-nejad; Abbas Ali Ahangar; Behrooz Barjasteh Delforooz; ُShahla Sharifi

Volume 12, Issue 1 , July 2021, , Pages 145-168

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2020.283121.666516

Abstract

From past decades, the study of “clitic”, as a dependent and intermediate element that simultaneously represents some shared properties of the two morpheme types - “free ... Read More From past decades, the study of “clitic”, as a dependent and intermediate element that simultaneously represents some shared properties of the two morpheme types - “free word” and “affix”, has been the center of attention for different linguistic approaches as well as the investigation issue for scholars from different linguistic fields. Among them, by focusing on distinctive features as well as discovering and proposing universal parameters for clitics, language typologists have also played a crucial role in identifying, analyzing and explaining their typological behavior and, as a result, have paved very effective steps in developing the studies for this challenging linguistic unit. Considering the determinant position and the undeniable importance of analyzing under-studied linguistic variants in typological surveys, the present study tries to evaluate and analyze the North and South Bashāgardi pronominal clitics based on Aikhenvald’s (2003) typological model and universal parameters, and hence, to achieve a theoretical explanation for their typological nature, characteristics, tendencies and behavior. To this end, the research intended linguistic corpus was collected in a natural environment of language use by fieldwork method and via questionnaires, translating selected structures and sentences, and recording the free speech of eight (five men and three women) native, middle-plus aged, illiterate, and permanent resident informants, and then was transcribed and analyzed. According to the authors’ initial hypothesis, the nature, tendencies, and behavior of the investigated elements in Bashāgardi are compatible with Aikhenvald (2003)’s proposed universals for clitics. In like manner, the research findings overtly show that the clitics’ universal properties and typological behaviors and tendencies, such as freedom in host selection, non-correlation with phonological words, correlation with syntactic words, appearance after all affix types, and having phonological coherence, idiosyncratic phonotactics, segmental structure, syntactic order, syntactic domain and syntactic rules are implemented in Bashāgardi clitics along with possible theoretical explanations for those properties and tendencies. As a result, the typological parameters of the documented research model maximally approve the authors’ hypothesis and hence, the clitichood of all the studied elements.

The Cognitive Study of the Effect of Cultural Artifacts on the Metaphorical Comprehension of Time Concept in Persian

Amir Ali Khoshkhoonejad; Abbas Ali Ahangar; Pakzad Yousefian; Mehrdad Mazaheri

Volume 11, Issue 1 , October 2020, , Pages 73-94

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2019.275105.666470

Abstract

In different cultures, people use space to make linguistic representations of time. In general, there are two different approaches toward deictic time expressions: a Moving Time Metaphor ... Read More In different cultures, people use space to make linguistic representations of time. In general, there are two different approaches toward deictic time expressions: a Moving Time Metaphor and a Moving Ego Metaphor. In the Moving Time metaphor, time is conceived as moving forward, while in a Moving Ego Metaphor, a moving observer is conceptualized. The purpose of this research is to explore the effect of cultural artifacts on metaphorical comprehension of time expressions in Persian language. In this regard, following Duffy and Feist (2014), the present study was carried out based on the ambiguous question: Wednesday's Meeting suggested by McGlone and Harding (1998). The first experiment directly explores the relationship between responses to the Wednesday's Meeting question in two calendar and meta-language conditions. The second experiment examines the special cultural relations between space and time and the role of the Persian orthography direction in the time reasoning. In the third experiment, based on circular representations of time, the role of the analog clock in resolving the ambiguity is examined from the Noon's Meeting question. This was done by comparing the responses of the participants with the clockwise clock and counterclockwise clock. To this end, 40 Persian speakers were selected from the students of Sistan and Baluchestan University. Chi-square test (using SPSS software) was used for statistical analysis. The findings of this study show that the viewpoint of individuals about the motion of events in time is not only due to their experience in space movement, but also is rooted in their interactive patterns of cultural artifacts as well. In addition, the results show that in interpreting ambiguous metaphorical time expressions, individuals automatically access spatial representations of time and use them. The participants who encountered with reverse space-time mappings had an interference in their responses, reflected through their time reasoning. Consequently, they provide a more precise form of representations of time than merely symbolic speech. Hence, cultural artifacts play an important role in the cognitive process of embodiment, which not only help to recognize embodiment, but also affect it.

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.

Semantics Relations of Persian Verb "gereftan": Filmore's Frame Semantic (1997)

Mansoureh Delaramifar; pakzad yousefian; mohammad allahbakhash; Abbasali Ahangar

Volume 8, Issue 1 , June 2017, , Pages 79-98

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2017.63136

Abstract

Since the verbs are the most important grammatical category in a language and actions, activities and states are denoted with the help of them, the goal of this project is to study ... 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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Author = Ahangar, Abbas Ali

Pronominal Clitics in North and South Bashāgardi; A Typological Analysis

Abstract

The Cognitive Study of the Effect of Cultural Artifacts on the Metaphorical Comprehension of Time Concept in Persian

Abstract

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

Abstract

Semantics Relations of Persian Verb "gereftan": Filmore's Frame Semantic (1997)

Abstract

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

Abstract