Language Research

Abstract This research investigates and analyzes the speech samples of three Persian speaking children, 4-5-years-old girls, who are suffering from Developmental Language Disorder (Specific Language Impairment). The theoretical framework of the research is the expanded model of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Based on this model that proposed by Kovecses (2020), metaphor processing takes place in four levels that have a schematic hierarchy. These schematic levels from depth to surface include image schema, domain, frame and mental space. In metaphor processing, the mapping between the source and destination domains is done simultaneously in all four mentioned levels. Among these levels, the outer level is mental space and its processing is done online in the working memory. The other three levels (image schema, domain and frame) are located in long-term memory and are processed offline. The method of conducting this research is descriptive, and analytical. The data of this research was collected by the Speech Therapist through the Told-P3 Language Development Test from three children who have referred to the speech therapy center. The collected data is at the single word level.  During the execution of the test, the examiner has checked both comprehension and expression of single words and has classified the data based on the answers of the subjects. The collected data are only descriptive and analytical, and no comparison has been made between the subjects. The results of this research show that this model can be used in examining and analyzing the speech of people with language disorders. Also, these children did not have comprehension and conceptual problems to produce words and had more problems in oral language. Therefore, the analysis of the speech of these children based on this model shows that in order to teach these children the vocabulary of expressive language, instead of going directly to the teaching of the phonetic label of the words, we should have a level of education that is related to strengthening the metaphorical understanding of the words. Especially, it seems that first of all, if domain and frame levels, which are intermediate levels in the metaphorical processing of words, are strengthened by means of teaching methods, the results can be more impressive and the child's access to phonetic label could be Facilitated

Abstract The aim of this research was to investigate the challenges facing Arabic language education among students in the Corona era and to provide solutions to the upcoming issues، with the help of the lived experience of Arabic language teachers and experts. In this research، a qualitative and phenomenological method was used. The interviewees included all teachers and specialists in Ardabil city in the academic year of 2023. To select the participants، targeted and saturation sampling was used and 20 teachers and 18 specialists were selected. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews. The findings showed that students in the virtual education of Arabic lessons face challenges such as lack of motivation، lack of familiarity with virtual education، low financial ability of parents to provide smart education facilities، lack of suitable technology platform in teaching، problem in the antenna. Incorrect assessment and evaluation of students are faced due to the high possibility of cheating، etc، and in general، the virtual class is boring for students and reduces students' motivation and reduces students' adherence to classroom rules and discipline. In the interview with experts in the field of virtual education، they also pointed out the existence of challenges such as technical problems، structural problems، educational problems (content)، problems of activism and interaction (mutual) and social problems (government) and to overcome On the challenges، suggestions for students، for teachers، for parents، for the officials of the educational field and suggestions for the government were presented

Abstract The aim of this study is to examine the clauses related to reading skills in secondary English books based on a functional grammar approach. Functional grammar approach has a wide impact on different parts of language learning, because instead of focusing only on linguistic structures, it pays attention to the communicative and contextual roles of language. This approach is effective in different language skills, and in this research we only examine reading skills. Reading skills not only help in learning new vocabulary and improving grammar, but also increase critical thinking and general language skills, so they are very important. For this purpose, 808 clauses were examined using a descriptive-analytical method, and the data collection method was documentary-library. The results indicate that from the experiential meta-role perspective, all processes were used in the Vision books in a proportionate manner, and it is only in the mental process that there is no meaningful relationship between the three books. From a textual meta-role perspective, the frequency of simple themes has not changed in all three books, and there is still no significant relationship with non-simple themes in terms of content presentation. However, marked themes are more coherently related to each other in all three books, and with the increase of the base, the amount of their use also increases. Given that the authors have claimed that the content of the textbooks is presented based on the CEFR levels and that students will reach level B1 by the end of upper secondary school, the present study proves the opposite of this claim and we witness many violations of level B1. Considering the above, the reading skills in Vision books need to be revised to be more in line with the needs of students.  The analysis proposed in this research helps textbook designers to use more appropriate language structures in educational texts and encourage language learners to use language more effectively in real situations.

Abstract Hiatus is a situation in which there is no consonant between the nuclei of two adjacent syllables. It occurs when the left syllable lacks a coda and the right one lacks an onset. The present research aimed at analyzing how hiatus occurs in Old Persian and the strategies used to resolve it. The old Persian cuneiform is a syllabary consisting of 36 graphemes, of which 22 represent a sequence of a consonant and the vowel /a/. According to the findings of this research, if this vowel is followed by one of the three vowels /i/ (I), /u/ (u), and /A/ (A) in a word, then there occurs hiatus in the underlying representation. In this research which is conducted within the framework of Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993/2004) it is discussed that hiatus in Old Persian is resolved using intervocalic consonant insertion, the deletion of vowel /a/ as well as a combination of them both. In so doing, the constraints and their rankings that cause all these hiatus resolving strategies in Old Persian are introduced. It is worth mentioning that based on an Old Persian pronunciation rule, in case the vowel letter A is the first letter of a word, it represents the vowel /a/ in some words and the vowel /A/ in some other words. However, if it is not the first letter of a word, then it only represents the vowel /A/. As converting this rule to an OT constraint required accesses to the graphematical information of Old Persian cuneiform and that it could not be explained using an analysis that was solely phonological, an orthographic constraint with access to the graphematical information was formalized. The results of the present paper explain some important and new facts regarding Old Persian syllabary, hiatus and its resolution strategies in this ancient language. 

Abstract In the digital age, accurate speaker identification plays a crucial role in forensic and security investigations. However, the widespread use of internet-based communication platforms, such as WhatsApp, has introduced new challenges in this field. Factors such as variable microphone quality, background noise, network distortions, and audio compression can significantly affect a speaker’s acoustic features and reduce the accuracy of speaker identification systems. Despite these limitations, evaluating the performance of acoustic features under such conditions is essential for advancing forensic phonetics and improving its practical applications in real-world settings. This study examines the role of voiceless fricatives in capturing between-speaker variability in audio recordings obtained through WhatsApp. The novelty of this research lies in investigating the ability of Persian voiceless fricatives to distinguish speakers under non-ideal recording conditions. To achieve this goal, speech data from 100 male Persian speakers were collected, and Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) were extracted from the voiceless fricative segments. These features were then used as input to a support vector machine (SVM) model for speaker classification. The results showed that when all voiceless fricatives were considered together, the model achieved an overall speaker identification accuracy of 69%. However, analyzing each fricative separately led to an increase in model accuracy. Among the individual fricatives, the /s/ fricative had the highest accuracy at 77%, followed by /ʃ/, /f/, and /x/ with accuracies of 75%, 74%, and 73%, respectively. These findings suggest that even in non-ideal recording conditions, such as WhatsApp recordings, voiceless fricatives can provide valuable information for speaker differentiation. However, this study only focuses on one type of non-ideal recording condition, and further research is needed to explore other potential sources of degradation. The results highlight the potential of voiceless fricatives in speaker identification applications, particularly in informal, uncontrolled, and real-world scenarios where high-quality recording equipment is unavailable.

Abstract In many languages of the world, there are a sequence of verbs that are called serial verb construction (SVC). They are divided into two types, symmetric and asymmetric, based on their composition. In symmetric construction, both verbs are chosen from the grammatical and semantic open class and in the construction of an asymmetric serial verb, a verb from grammatical and semantic open class, and another verb is selected from the limited and closed class. Aspectual or phasal serial verb is one of the types of asymmetric SVC which represents the perfective and imperfective grammatical aspect and the lexical aspect of inchoative, continuous and completive. The purpose of the research is to investigate the inchoative aspect of the SVC in Persian and to determine the juncture-nexus relation type in the framework of the Role & Reference Grammar (RRG). In Persian, auxiliary verb is placed in next to the main verb, it expresses tense, mood, and aspect, and there is a close and strong relationship between the auxiliary and the main verb, to the extent that they are considered a unit verb and behave similar to the construction of asymmetric SVC. Therefore, in line with the goal of the research, complex predicates consisting of auxiliary verbs and the main verb were the basis of data selection. These verbs include ‘gereftan (to take), bardɑštan (to remove), bargaštan (to return), raftan (to go), ɑmadan (to come), darɑmadan (to enter), and zadan (to hit)’, which express the inchoative aspect. The data of the research was collected from Najafi Persian Dictionary, Persian language database, storybooks, websites and other research work. Due to the avoidance of repetition, only one case was presented for each of the mentioned verbs, which were first examined based on criteria for distinguishing SVC in Aikhenvald. Finally, the type of juncture-nexus relationship was explained based on the RRG. The findings illustrate that these constructions are SVC and their juncture-nexus relation is of the type of ad-nuclear subordination.

Abstract AI-based models of analyzing linguistic data have attracted researchers due to the theoretical and practical spread of these models in recent years. Among them, machine translation and AI-based translation have been a focal point in this development However, many questions regarding their efficiency and accuracy are raised at the same time. The current research is an attempt to employ an evaluative framework from systemic functional linguistics and investigate the accuracy of the transfer of ideational meta-function in the English translation of Quranic verses by GPT-4o. To this aim, 200 verses of the holy Quran were selected purposively and the transfer of six categories of the aforesaid meta-functions including material, verbal, existential, mental, behavioral, and existential were explored based on verb category, participants, and conditions of each process. Results revealed that GPT has been able to transfer material, behavioral, and existential processes while failing to transfer mental and relational processes. It seems that GPT’s success in the first section cannot be attributed to AI’s ability to distinguish the qualities and conditions of the processes but to the limitedness of verbal category and objectivity of their semantic components, participant types, and conditions. Since the characteristics of each part of speech for each process are determined and defined in systemic functional linguistics, they can be attached to the machine translation models in the form of syntactic-semantic tags added to each lexical-grammatical unit to increase the accuracy of translation.

Abstract The present corpus study is intended to investigate the linguistic and pragmatic properties of primary and secondary topics in southern Kurdish. The correlation between the primary and secondary topics with factors including grammatical roles, animacy, definiteness, referentiality and specificity and grammatical agreement was calculated. In its canonical use, primary topic is matched with animate agentive subject and secondary topic is matched with inanimate patient object. Dalrimple and Nicholavae (2010) and Lambrecht (1994) as the main theoretical framework have been frequently cited. Topichood is defined based on the aboutness relationship. In other words, topic is that element in the sentence which is the main concern of the stated proposition. Pragmatic considerations play an important role in determining the possible topic(s) of a sentence. The natural conversations among the native speakers of southern Kurdish were recorded, transcribed and analyzed. The investigated corpus included 450 sentences in which 208 topics were chosen, codified and analyzed using SPSS software. The results indicated that primary topics were found to be mainly definite, animate, specific, referential, agentive and basis of (obligatory) grammatical agreement. The secondary topics were, also, found to have s high correlation with their expected properties including being object, specific, referential, patient and being the basis of (optional) object agreement. In terms of morphological coding, both primary and secondary topics were found to be represented employing definite noun phrases. In terms of prosodic coding, primary topics were found to be unaccented while secondary topics were reported to have (activating) accent. Due to their salient status in the discourse, the investigated topics (primary and secondary) could be both deleted or moved within their sentences. However, in their marked cases, both primary and secondary topics are not matched with their inherent and expected properties. However, this mismatch is not correlated with a linguistic coding of topics in southern Kurdish. The careful study of probable repercussions of this mismatch of topics and their expected properties in Kurdish and other Iranian languages is a possible hint for future studies.

Abstract Given that adherence to the orthographic principles and conventions of the target language constitutes a significant dimension of translation quality, this study investigated the compliance of English-to-Persian journalistic translations generated by five online machine translation (MT) systems with guidelines of the approved orthography of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature (APLL) and standard usage rules for punctuation marks. To this end, several texts were extracted from English newspapers and were translated into Persian by five systems (ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, and Reverso). Through meticulous, word-by-word reading and analysis of the translations in the light of the guidelines of the Approved orthography and usage rules for punctuation marks, a total of 16 distinct categories of orthographic and punctuation errors were identified in the machine-generated translations. These were later classified into three main types: (1) errors in the use of non-breaking or half-space (Nim-Faslé) within word elements and elements of compound words, (2) errors in the orthography of secondary Persian characters, and (3) errors in the correct spacing of punctuation marks. Google, Microsoft, and Reverso produced instances of all error types. DeepSeek and ChatGPT exhibited 4 and 12 types of these errors in their outputs, respectively. Furthermore, the results indicated that none of the systems demonstrated complete consistency in performance so that a given compound or character was at times rendered correctly and other times incorrectly. It was, also, discerned that the identified errors bear a significant resemblance to orthographic errors prevalent in human-generated texts. This phenomenon is attributable to the predominantly open-source monolingual and bilingual corpora used for training these online systems, which comprise texts authored and translated by diverse individuals across varied contexts and registers. Considering the increasing reliance on online MT systems, such orthographic and punctuation errors possess the potential to gradually permeate into the texts generated by Persian-speaking communities, potentially undermining the APLL's ongoing orthographic standardization efforts. One proposed solution for this problem entails the development, either by the MT providers themselves or independent developers, of dedicated or integrated auxiliary systems designed to scrutinize and post-edit translations prior to final user delivery, specifically evaluating their conformity with the approved orthographic guidelines and standard punctuation conventions

Abstract Knowledge of the concept of symbols, which has its roots in the cultural aspect of the language, is especially important when studying the language. In the process of teaching a foreign language, it is necessary that those working in this field consider themselves obliged, in addition to strengthening the grammatical aspects of the language, to value knowledge of the culture of the language being studied and to include it in the educational content. Thus, symbols are included in the content of education as part of culture and ultimately lead to a correct understanding of national-cultural texts. Given the importance of cultural aspects in teaching foreign languages and considering literature, we find that symbols and symbolism are of particular importance in the educational process, since when studying a foreign language and the literature of that country, it is necessary for the reader to be aware of the meanings hidden in the heart of the symbols. Ornithonyms are one of the areas of symbols and symbolism in popular culture and literature of each nation, and until now, no comparative studies have been conducted in this area in Russian and Persian. The authors of this study, using the library collection method, as well as the method of analyzing questionnaire data, and with the aim of obtaining the differences and similarities of the symbol of birds in the specified languages, when developing a questionnaire to measure the level of knowledge of Russian bachelor students about the symbol of ornithomyms, investigated the issue and after a comparative review and analysis of the questionnaire data, by clarifying the similarities and differences of the symbolism of birds in Russian and Persian, help Russian students and translators to correctly convey to the audience the concept of bird symbolism when translating cultural and literary texts. Therefore, at the bachelor's level in Russian, it is necessary to include the concept of bird symbolism in educational contentof such course unitas "Russian idioms and proverbs", "Cultural and literary influences of Iran on Russia", "Translation of texts" and "Regional studies"

Abstract Against the backdrop of rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), this qualitative study investigates how professional translators perceive the benefits, challenges, and likely future trajectories of AI-assisted translation. We conducted semi-structured Zoom interviews with 20 translators (≥3 years’ experience) from diverse specializations and professional contexts. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically following Braun and Clarke’s procedures, with code-checking by an experienced colleague to enhance credibility. Participants reported four prominent benefits of AI-enabled workflows: (1) efficiency gains through pre-drafting and automation of repetitive segments; (2) cost-effectiveness for large or time-sensitive projects; (3) improved consistency and terminological control, particularly in technical domains; and (4) smoother collaboration via shared memories and glossaries. Equally salient, however, were perceived risks and frictions: AI’s persistent difficulty with cultural-pragmatic nuance and rhetorical effect; over-reliance that can deskill practitioners and inflate client expectations; post-editing fatigue stemming from unnatural or ambiguous output; ethical concerns regarding data privacy, confidentiality, authorship, and job security; and technical limitations in low-resource languages or complex genres. Synthesizing convergent and dissonant evidence, we propose a human-in-the-loop “personalization and productivity” model in which AI serves as a co-pilot embedded within a human-led pedagogical and professional envelope. Within this model, human expertise remains decisive for problem framing, audience adaptation, quality assurance, and value-laden decisions. Implications include (a) targeted professional development in AI literacy, post-editing strategies, and bias awareness; (b) curricular redesign in translator education to foreground hybrid competencies and critical evaluation of AI outputs; and (c) organizational and sector-level policies for data governance, transparency, and fair remuneration. Limitations concern the modest, predominantly Iranian sample and reliance on self-report interviews; future research should incorporate longitudinal designs, task-based performance data, and comparative studies across languages and domains. Overall, our findings caution against both technological pessimism and automation hype, arguing instead for calibrated human–AI collaboration that leverages automation where it adds value while safeguarding cultural depth, ethical integrity, and the creative agency that defines professional translation.