JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES
Year:2008 | Volume:40 | Issue:4 (159)|Papers Count:11

Persian language has influenced Arabic language in many different ways; especially in the lexical area of language. Since many Persian words have entered Arabic language, this language has been affected by Persian language and culture. Many of these Persian words can be found in an Arabic lexicon called Lesan-al-Arab. The writers of this article have analyzed the Arabic form of the word Sepanjgani (Sifanjaghanryeh, as it has been recorded in Lesan-al-Arab) from lexical, semantic and historical point of view.

The writers of the present article have tried to explain the origin and the meanings of the word A'jam. To achieve this purpose, the authors have consulted different Persian and Arabic dictionaries as well as different works of prose and poetry. The writers also tried to prove the suggestion that says this word is originally Persian and is derived from the name of Jams hid (the mythical king of Iran). But the results of the study show that the word A'jam is originally Arabic which meant non-eloquent and because of the high frequency of this word in later periods, it referred to Iranians and meant Iranian or non-Arab.

Kurdish language is one of the Iranian languages and the historical study of the phonetic system of Khorasan Kormanji dialect, can clearly show that this language has been under the influence of Iranian languages, especially Persian language. The author of the article has used Prof. Tsablof's (the most famous Russian Orientalist) publications, to show the Persian language influence on Khorasan Kormanji dialect.

Tati dialect of Northern Khorasan is one of the oldest dialects of ancient Iran which has structural differences with its other variations. Sharing common words with the other Tati dialects, especially those of Azerbaijan and Ghazvin, shows that Tati dialect of Northern Khorasan, like others, is one of the dialects existing in pre- Islamic era. This dialect is also one of those dialects in which have common words with the old Persian literature and the correction of these texts needs a better understanding of this dialect. The writer of this article studies the common points between the dialect and the Old Persian texts and presents some samples of that.

This article studies the Generative grammar approach and some other theories driven from it to lexicon and lexical entries. Generative grammar is known as a syntax-based theory, so some aspects of language which have been studied in this theory may have been ignored in other theories. This article shows that more attention has been given to lexicon and lexical entries since 50s. we may claim that the information which are considered in the lexical entries at the latest version of generative grammar and some other theories driven from it, are the most complete information which have been ever considered in the lexical entries. In the next sections of the article, one lexical entry in three English-Persian dictionaries has been studied to see which kinds of information have been presented in that lexical entry in the dictionaries. It has been finally shown that considering the quality and quantity of entries in these dictionaries, the information are not the same, but even in the most complete ones, the amount of information is less than what have been presented in the latest version of Generative grammar and some other theories driven from it.

Social interaction requires the ability to understand people's mental states (their intentions, desires and believes). The ability for attributing mental states is called "theory of mind." Theory of mind leads the person to explain and predict behavior. Researchers showed a great interest in the relation of language and mind/language and thought. Some researchers focused on methodological concerns and explain how language influences children's performance in the area of theory of mind. Others argue that language plays a causal role on developing mental theory reasoning. The writer of this article has discussed the theories and researches done in the area of language abilities and mental theory reasoning. "

The purpose of the present study is the comparison of the pattern of language perception in Down Syndrome (DS) children and typical children. To achieve the objective, nine subjects with DS (whose mental ages were 72- 78 months and were drawn from five center of special education in the city of Mashhad) and five. typical children with the same mental ages were selected through random sampling; and after the controlling of the associated variables. In this study after the selecting right-handed children by using the Annet Handedness Questionnaire, Electroencephalogram (EEG) technique was employed for investigating the laterality pattern of language perception through recording of the voltage of brain waves in brain cortex (temporal regions) in two states: resting and listening to a story. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicated that the mean voltage of brain waves in cerebral hemispheres is different between two groups in each of the two states.

The major aim of this study was to investigate the effect of literary discussion on critical thinking. To this end, two classes (experimental and control groups) were selected from College of Ferdowsi University. In both groups literature was used as supplementary homework. Students were supposed to read short stories and poems at home and present them in class. The students in the experimental group were discussing the materials in class and the students in the control group only memorized the texts and retold them. At the end of the term, the students were asked to take a questionnaire on critical thinking. The results demonstrated that there was a significant difference between means of two groups, implying that literary discussion can enhance critical thinking. Finally, results were discussed in the context of education in Iran and some suggestions were made.

The writers of this article present a thematical study of children's poetry in the Seventies(1990s). To do this, they have first studied a collection of children's poetry in the Seventies and then they have classified the themes of this kind of poetry into six different categories including: Naturalistic, entertaining and joyful, socio-political, religious, didactic and ethical themes. The writers have also examined the percentage of each of these themes in the children's poetry of the decade; and have shown the weak and strong points of children's poetry. The article finally shows the most dominant themes in the children's poetry of the decade.

Literature as an art or science is of different kinds; and these kinds can constitute new systems. Novel is one of these different kinds of literature that is also divided to many different kinds. Autobiography is also a branch of literature that has its own features and characteristics. There are also many capabilities in these variations and in their combination with the other kinds. "Autobiography-Novel" is one of these compositions in literature that benefits from both novel and autobiography. The writers of this article have chosen a novel by Ali Ashraf Darvishiyan for their analysis. This literary text is a novel that also contains some features of autobiography, and the writes of the paper have analyzed it from the point of view of "Autobiography- Novel.