Language Research

The Status of Adjective Phrases in Persian: A Role and Reference

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Shahram Peyman 1
Vali Rezai 2
Mohammad Amouzadeh 3

1 PH.D Candidate, Department of Linguistics, University of Isfahan

2 Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Isfahan

3 Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Isfahan

https://doi.org/10.22059/jolr.2016.57499
Abstract
The present study aims to examine the analysis of Persian adjective phrases (APs) within Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) and to appraise the merits and demerits thereof. In RRG, there is no independent AP; therefore, predicative adjectives are considered as PREDICATE inside NUCLEUS of the CLAUSE and attributive adjectives are regarded as modifiers within the periphery of NUCLEUSN. Each type of adjective can, in turn, have its own modifiers as arguments or non-arguments. On the basis of this analysis, attributive APs are represented as predicative APs in a form which is very similar to relative clauses. The exclusion of AP from syntactic analysis enjoys prominent methodological and psycholinguistic advantages as such a theory demonstrates the principle of economy and offers more plausible explanations for first language acquisition as well as easier language processing. The application of RRG analysis to APs in Persian indicates that this theory can well account for such phrases in this language. This is best reflected in the effective analysis of split predicative APs, which serves another advantage for RRG. However, there are still such cases as the representation of split attributive APs which remain controversial thorough investigation.

Keywords

Role and Reference Grammar
adjective phrase
predicative adjective
attributive adjective
relative clause
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Language Research
Volume 6, Issue 2
January 2016
Pages 41-60

  • Receive Date 13 August 2015
  • Revise Date 10 January 2016
  • Accept Date 10 January 2016

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