Language Research

Merge Position of Floating Quantifier "Hame" in Persian

Safa Sadeghi Ashrafi; Ali Darzi

Volume 12, Issue 2 , December 2022, , Pages 77-100

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2021.291976.666554

Abstract

This paper investigates the External Merge position of the floating quantifier “hame” (all) in Persian. Quantifier floating has received two major analyses: stranding adverbial. ... Read More

The Semantic Interaction of Negation with Epistemic and Deontic Ppossibility and Necessity in Persian Modal Verbs

Gholamreza Medadian

Volume 13, Issue 1 , November 2022, , Pages 109-138

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2022.348760.666807

Abstract

This descriptive-analytic study aimed at investigating the semantic interaction of negation with the epistemic and deontic possibility and necessity senses of a select group of central ... Read More This descriptive-analytic study aimed at investigating the semantic interaction of negation with the epistemic and deontic possibility and necessity senses of a select group of central Persian modal verbs (i.e., tavanestan, shodan, momken budan, emkan dashtan, bayestan and lazem budan). Among these modal verbs, the first four express the notion of possibility and the rest express necessity. Necessity and possibility constitute the core of modality domain. Modality as a semantic category mainly deals with speaker’s attitude or opinion regarding the state of affairs. Epistemic and deontic modality are the two main types of modality. The former expresses speaker’s judgment regarding the truth or falsehood of propositions while the latter deals with speaker’s influence on actualization or non-actualization of actions. Modal verbs are among the commonly used modal forms in Persian. Negation has logical and semantic interactions with modality (especially, possibility and necessity notions). Negation appears in Persian modal verbs and main verbs as ن- prefix. In this study, the views of Palmer (1995) and de Haan (1997), who both investigated the interaction of negation and modality from typological point of view, were used as the theoretical framework. The examples used as evidence in our analyses were mainly extracted from the corpus of Academy of Persian language and literature. The study showed that the interaction of negation prefix with the modal verbs of possibility domain (i.e., tavanestan, shodan, momken budan and emkan dashtan) is “regular” in the sense that there is correspondence between the form and meaning of the negative modal verbs. Thus, a negative modal form negates the modality and a negative main verb negates the proposition. In the necessity domain, the interaction of lazem budan with negation prefix is, also, “regular”. In fact, the co-occurrence of negation prefix with bayestan negates the proposition (not the modality). In addition, bayestan cannot express the epistemic “lack of necessity” of the truth of a proposition and deontic lack of necessity for actualization of an action. Other modal verbs (e.g., lazem budan and modal verbs of the possibility domain) express these notions through “modal suppletion” or “logical suppletion” strategies. Bayestan is a “uniscopal” modal form interacting only with “narrow scope” negation while other modal verbs investigated in this study are “biscopal” as they interact with both narrow and wide scope negation. Except bayestan, for which “modal suppletion” and “logical suppletion” strategies are employed to express wide scope negation, for other verbs investigated in this research “negation placement” strategy is used to distinguish between narrow and wide scope negation.

A Cognitive Study of the Construction of Euphemistic Meaning Via the Process of Negation in Persian

Sadjad Mousavi; Arsalan Golfam; Ferdows Aghagolzadeh; Aliyeh Kambuziya

Volume 11, Issue 2 , February 2021, , Pages 199-222

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2020.296445.666574

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explain the construction of euphemistic meaning via the process of negation from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. The main question of the present ... Read More The aim of this article is to explain the construction of euphemistic meaning via the process of negation from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. The main question of the present study is how the cognitive mechanism of negation acts for constructing euphemistic meaning and consequently for motivating euphemistic linguistic structures. The present research explains euphemism in Persian by a descriptive-analytical method. Data were also collected manually from mostly library resources containing several Persian-language dictionaries. In this study, it is shown that the cognitive process of negation is volitionally applied to a conceptual content by the conceptualizer and consequently a pleasant conceptual content is activated and attention is drawn toward it. Based on the negation process, the negated pleasant concept is represented phonetically and the strength of attention over the unpleasant content which has not been represented at the linguistic level will decrease. Due to the representation of the negated pleasant concept at the linguistic level and based on the type of guided attention distribution pattern encoded in the negative linguistic forms, the speaker tries to distribute a portion of the listener's attention sources over the pleasant content and he/she tries to decrease the strength of attention on the unpleasant concept. In fact, instead of directly encoding an unpleasant concept at the linguistic level, the speaker uses indirect methods and encodes "the negated pleasant concept". By this indirect reference, lesser attention is assigned to the unpleasant concept than when the concept is directly represented in the language. Therefore, linguistic negations structure the concepts in such a way that the window of attention does not open on the unpleasant aspects of the entity in question and does not put them at the center of attention, and through this way, euphemistic meaning will be constructed. It should be noted that the present study re-emphasizes on the interaction and overlap of language and other general cognitive abilities.

Subjunctive-Negation Interaction in Sorani Kurdish

Runak Moradi

Volume 3, Issue 1 , October 2013, , Pages 99-116

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2012.30297

Abstract

Except for personal clitics in past transitive forms, Sorani Kurdish has threeverbal prefixes; n?- for negation, be- for subjunctive, and (d)?- for imperfective. Thisarticle starts ... Read More

Articles in Press

Current Issue

Volume 14 (2023)

Volume 13 (2022)

Volume 12 (2021)

Volume 11 (2020)

Volume 10 (2019)

Volume 9 (2018)

Volume 8 (2017)

Volume 7 (2017)

Volume 6 (2015)

Volume 5 (2014)

Volume 4 (2013)

Volume 3 (2012)

Volume 2 (2012)

Volume 1 (2010)

Keywords = Negation

Merge Position of Floating Quantifier "Hame" in Persian

Abstract

The Semantic Interaction of Negation with Epistemic and Deontic Ppossibility and Necessity in Persian Modal Verbs

Abstract

A Cognitive Study of the Construction of Euphemistic Meaning Via the Process of Negation in Persian

Abstract

Subjunctive-Negation Interaction in Sorani Kurdish

Abstract