LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
Year:2008 | Volume:4 | Issue:1 (7)|Papers Count:10

Chomsky (1995), following on from Larson (1988, 1990), proposed the VP shell analysis to account for the derivation of verbal constructions with multiple complements. Based on this analysis, a verb phrase structure is composed of (a) an inner VP core headed by a lexical verb (V) and (b) an outer vP shell headed by an abstract light verb (v) with a causative/agentive interpretation. This article is an attempt to analyze the syntactic derivation of some Persian verbal constructions comprised of causative predicates, three-place predicators with phrasal complements as well as the three-place predicators taking a clausal complement. The VP shell analysis of these verb phrases shows that such syntactic constructions, satisfying the Uniform Theta Assignment Hypothesis (UTAH), are the result of syntactic operations such as select (ion), merge (r), head principle and binary principle. Moreover, they can be considered as split projections consisting of the inner VP core and the outer vP shell, and can be derived on the basis of minimalistic principles.

The present paper is an attempt to introduce the stylistic features of Likoo, in the Baluchi poetical folk art. Likoo is a one-line syllabic and rhymed poem. Its significance lies in its realistic content and choice of words, the simi lies and the dominant metaphorical features it employs and the ways in which it represents ethnic beliefs. To perform the present research, 135 lines of Likoo were gathered from sad Likoo [hundred Likoos] (Mo'meni, 2005), Baluchistan News Letter (Axenov, 1990), online sources and interviews with Mokrani Baluchi speakers. Then 50 Likoos were chosen randomly and their selected lines were corrected and translated into Persian with the assistance of Baluchi speakers. The translations were then compared with the existing translations. Finally, 22 lines of Likoo that were representative of the above mentioned features were analysed. The structural-content analysis of Likoo showed that the words, similes and the realistic style of Likoo are significant, and that Likoo resembles the Kurdish beyt in structure and content.

Infinitives ending in /-idæn/, referred to as "Artificial" or "False", comprise a vast majority of Persian simple verbs. Some grammarians argue that simple verbs, including the abovementioned ones are not made in Persian anymore. Simple verbs, especially those ending in /-idæn/, however, have always been made in the spoken Persian. This article aims at a close investigation of the said group of simple verbs, at the three levels of morphology, lexical category and semantics, emphasizing the part this group of verbs can play in rendering verbs from foreign languages into Persian.

There exists, in the Persian language, a highly productive compounding pattern, in which a verbal element combines with a non-verbal one to produce a noun or adjective. Three distinct views can be identified regarding this pattern. Some scholars, mostly traditional grammarians, call the output "truncated compound agentive adjective". Some others accept this, but offer a modern linguistic interpretation. Still, others reject the idea of a truncated compound agentive adjective and hold a different view. Based on different pieces of evidence, the present paper, totally rejects the traditional idea and argues that, in this pattern, a verbal element (present root) simply relates to a non-verbal one through compounding. The type of relation, and hence the meaning of the compound are determined by Persian speakers on the basis of pragmatic implicature.

Word order typology is one of the most interesting areas in typological studies worldwide. This paper first presents Hawkins' views on word order typology, and then tries to determine whether Hawkins's principles can be matched with the word order in Persian (Old Persian, Middle Persian and/or Modem Persian). The results show us that some of his principles can't be applied to word order in Persian (whether Old, Middle or Modem Persian).

This paper is an attempt to introduce some active phonological processes in Shirgah variety of Mazandarani dialect.The main results of the study are as follows: 1. At syllable-boundary position, through the application of (complete) assimilation, consonant clusters -nd and -st are converted to -nn and -ss, respectively.2. The first vowel of the sequence e+e at morpheme- boundary dissimilates to the [+back +high] vowel [u]; yielding non- identical u+e sequence.3. The process of ǝ-epenthesis breaks up word- final C1C2 clusters, where C1 is an obstruent and C2 a[+sonorant] consonant.4. Deletion of glottal consonant [h] in the intervocalic context activates the rule of truncation that deletes the first vowel of the sequence V+V.

Scrambling moves a constituent from its default position and changes the information structure of the sentence. In this process, information patterns of the sentence are changed to determine the information structure. The results of the information structure analysis of scrambled Persian sentences in this paper show that scrambling is hearer-old and discourse old. Moreover, the survey of intonation pattern in scrambled constituents shows that in nonspecific noun phrases, L+H* intonation may exist, while in specific noun phrases, the kind of focus depends on context.