Language Research

Abstract Object indexation is a grammatical phenomenon in which a clitic pronoun, co-referential with the free nominal object, appends to the verb. Optionality of indexation in Persian leads us to consider the role of pragmatic and discoursal factors such as definiteness, specificity, and identifiability in its occurence. The present study aimed at investigating the influence of definiteness hierarchy on direct object indexation in Persian. In order to have a relatively full picture of this process, we examined 455 cases of indexation in colloquial Persian. The high frequency of definite direct object indexation confirms the role of definiteness. Interestingly, in more than 90 percent of the cases the object is definite and just about 3 percent of the cases are indefinite nonspecific ones. More accurate investigations in the framework of Role and Reference Grammar show that only cognitively identifiable objects can be indexed. Hence, the basic requirement in direct object indexation in Persian is identifiability of its referent. Consequently, there is a convincing explanation for indexation of a few nonspecific objects in this language. The last point that merits consideration is the fact that all indexed objects, regardless of being definite or indefinite, go together with "Rā". Accordingly, "Rā" cannot be considered as definite or specific marker.

Abstract The changing of round and back vowel /u/ to unround and front vowel [i] occurs in Lori dialects as well as some other Persian dialects. This vowel change includes both unrounding and fronting. This paper aimed at coming up with an inclusive ranking of constraints to explain occurrence and nonoccurrence of this vowel change in various phonological environments in Silahkori dialect within Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993). At first, it is argued that the dominance of a certain markedness constraint on a faithfulness constraint is the reason why /u/ changes to [i]. Then, it is argued that the dominance of some faithfulness constraints on the markedness constraint is the cause of nonoccurrence of this vowel change in some other environments. These faithfulness constraints indicate that the environment following /u/ determines the occurrence or nonoccurrence of this process, i.e. the environment preceding this vowel plays no role in this regard.

Abstract The relationship between verbs and their arguments is a widely debated topic in linguistics. This important area of research explores current theories of how a verb’s semantics can determine the morphosyntactic realization of its arguments. According to Levin (2005) event structure and aspectual structure are the first determining factors in argument realization. So, in this article we aimed to categorize Persian verbs based on their event and aspectual structure. To this aim, a corpus of 60 verbs was constructed. Following Croft (2012) the corpus was first categorized into 4 main groups. Accordingly, by employing a two-dimensional geometric model, including a time and a change diagram, we demonstrated that each of the four groups can be divided into a number of sub-groups. Overall, presenting 10 diagrams, the corpus was categorized into 10 verb groups.

Abstract Harmony and disharmony are generally considered in isolation in the phonological literature. This has led to a striking asymmetry in their analyses. In this article, it is argued that both phenomena call for a parallel treatment and that this can be accomplished within Correspondence Theory.Correspondence Theory provides a general framework for defining faithfulness constraints. What happens in vowel harmony or any kind of assimilation is intuitively the same as what is encoded in one of the basic faithfulness constraint families of OT: IDENTITY(f) says that segments in one representation (usually input) should agree in feature specifications with correspoding segments in another representation (usually output). Here there is surface or syntagmatic correspondence relations between two distinct elements within one representation, that is, vowels in adjacent syllables in roundness and backness in surface representation.Following Inkelas’ (1994) theory of under specification, the approach divides harmony systems into structure changing and structure filling harmony types. Features participating in vowel harmony are underspecified in lexicon and are specified based on correspondence relations with adjacent features in output. All disharmonic features are specified in lexicon and do not change based on structure filling harmony.

Abstract This article shows that Persian fragments are derived via A'-movement of the remnant plus TP deletion. Evidence like case-matching, binding effects, and scope and bound pronouns show that Persian fragments result from the application of deletion rule. But prior to this application, fragments are extracted out of the ellipsis site and moved to the left periphery of the sentence. Evidence like preposition stranding and complex predicates confirm the existence of movement in fragments. Deletion in fragments is licensed by [E]-feature which is in the focus head. Also, data related to fragments and islands in Persian show that fragments can be extracted out of different islands showing that Persian fragments are island-insensitive. To account for this property of Persian, we appeal to PF-theory of islands and propose that all island violations vanish due to TP deletion and that the sentence is rescued from a crash. Therefore, there is no need for positing an extra layer in left periphery and also a movement which lacks motivation and trigger.

Abstract Inadequacy of descriptive theories to account for the mechanism of reference led to the emergence of the direct reference theory. This theory, however, has its own problems. If the only component of the meaning of a proper name is its referent, then how is it that the substitution of two co-referent proper names in propositional attitude sentences changes the truth value of the sentence? The proponents of the theory have provided some responses, but not everyone has been convinced. Moreover, language philosophers and semanticists have tried to solve the problem. Most of these solutions involve diversion from the principles of the direct theory. Among these, though, the pragmatic solution seems the most acceptable one. However, taking a pragmatic conception of reference and utilizing de dicto - de re interpretive distinction, this study gives a clearer account of the problem. It will be shown that the substitution of co-referent proper names might cause changes in truth value of the sentence, only when the pragmatic factors yield a different referent for the proper name.

Abstract In the classification of morpho-phonological processes of different languages proposed by Jensen (1990), the least frequent process is perhaps the one related to morph-movement due to morpho-phonological reasons, which leads to changes in the canonical order of morphs in the word form. This article aimed to introduce a case of this rare process in Kalhori Kurdish. This process takes place in the suffixed verbs in which the third person singular enclitic pronoun is used. To study this phenomenon, 30 suffixed verbs were analyzed among which 14 are mentioned in this article. After investigating the behavior of the third person singular enclitic pronoun /-ɪ: / in suffixed verbs, it was revealed that, this enclitic leaves its canonical place, which is before the verbal suffix /-ow/ and follows it whenever the verb stem in the past tense ends in /I/ and the verbal ending (subject) is that of the third person singular, which is zero. The cause seems to be high vowels confrontation and the phonological lightness of the third person singular enclitic pronoun. After the introduction of this new order of morphs, other suffixed verbs which use the third person singular enclitic pronoun seem to have taken the new order analogically.

Abstract Langacker provided new schema-based descriptions of linguistic categories when he was questioning traditional theories of categorization. Langecker's model of grammar deals with the reflection of grammatical subsystems of concepts related to space and time in language. Also he explains how phenomena such as attention and point of view are encoded in language. The present research aimed to explore the differences of the three groups of sighted, semi-blind and blind students in terms of usage and distribution of linguistic categories. Method: sampling method in this research was matched sampling method. So the sighted student group matched with visually impaired group in socialfactors. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire revised after validity and reliability analysis. The new revised questionnaire was applied on three groups. Participants were 160 students being educated at a primary school.  Data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results showed a higher mean rank for sighted groups in most of the linguistic categories on the questionnaire. In Longacker's terms, the three groups' differences of mean rank were more considerable in questions asked about relational categories rather than nominal categories. Also in line with previous research, the present study shows that semi-blind students acquire abstract words at older ages compared to their sighted and blind groups. The results of this study highlight that visually impaired students have a lower mean rank in both relational and nominal categories. It can be concluded that the visual perceptual impairments can cause serious damages partly to nominal categories and more widely to relational categories.

Abstract The diminutive function is defined as any morphological device that adds the meaning "small" (in size) and some other connotative meanings such as expressing emotions, contempt, imitation, relation to a linguistic form to provide a language with new concepts, removing the need of coining new words. The study of diminutives has, therefore, been quite attractive in semantic studies and the question addressed here is how to explain the diachronic development of widely varying senses of the diminutive? Jurafsky (1996) proposes that the origins of the diminutives lie in words semantically or pragmatically linked to children/small/ and female gender and different synchronic meanings are extensions of the original meaning derived through such mechanisms as metaphor, abstraction, inference, and Lambda abstraction. Despite the importance of the diminutive function and the fairly rich application of the diminutives in Persian, they have not been the subject of any comprehensive investigation. Researchers and grammarians have confined their treatment of the subject to introducing the types and the literal meanings of the diminutive suffixes in Persian and no reference has been made to the pragmatic and morphological aspects of such linguistic forms. In this paper the morphology and semantics of the diminutive suffix "cheh" in Persian is investigated based on the insights provided by Jurafsky (1996) and Schneider (2003).

Abstract One of the basic questions in the domain of lexical access and the process of word recognition in mental lexicon is how the native speaker can access the meaning of new complex words in his/her language and what factors affect  its speed? The aim of this study was to investigate empirically effective factors on the speed of lexical access to the derived words in Persian mental lexicon. If we know these factors and consider them in term selection, this could increase the acceptance of new words in the Persian-speaking society. In this research we studied and compared the reaction time and error rate of some target and pseudo words. Our participants were a group of Persian-speaking highly educated people. The targets were classified according to the word frequency, base frequency and the family size of the root. The findings showed that word frequency significantly affects the reaction time and error rate , but not the root frequency and family size of the root. According to these findings, some solutions are suggested to improve the psychological level of acceptance in selection of terms.