LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
Year:2008 | Volume:3 | Issue:2 (6)|Papers Count:11

The paper introduces information structure and its different parts in the Persian language. The data, collected from "Buf - e - kur" (The Blind owl) written by Sadegh Hedayat, comprise of sentences of the book, which are analyzed in terms of old and new information. Presenting a good number of evidences, it is argued that the information focus in Persian is determined by prosodic, morphological and syntactic features. The study shows that not only the information structure of the sentences in could be described and analyzed, but also native speakers are unconsciously aware of the information structure of their own language.

Non - verbal behaviors seem to play a more important role in communication than verbal behaviors. This paper explores non - verbal behaviors and their communication functions in the Persian language and culture. It interprets the moment of body organs such as head. This article deals with the description of non-verbal behaviors and their communication functions in the Persian language and culture. These behaviors play an important role in communication and their roles are even more important than verbal behavior (speech). That non-verbal behaviors function as: 1- the substitution of speech 2- the reinforcement of verbal behavior 3- the rejection of verbal behavior. In this research the meaning of some body organs like, head, face, eye, mouth, lip, hand and leg in Persian is described.

Language as an innate phenomenon has been studied in different cultures. The value and importance of these kinds of studies is obvious. As western linguists do not value the studies and researches of ancient Muslim scholars, so in the writer's opinion by studying their works, it should be possible to rewrite the history of linguistics. In this paper by studying one of Avicenna's works, Makhaarej-Al-Horooj, and comparing it with some aspects of modern structural linguistics, it is tried to take a step forward in the investigation of old Persian linguistics. Historically, therefore, it is for us to protect and develop such invaluable legacies. The works of Muslim scholars in the field of language studies seen to have been ignored in the west, whereas examining them may load to a rewriting of the history of linguistics. This paper examines Makhaarej - Al Horoof, one of Avicenna's major works, and compares it with some aspects of modern structural linguistics in the hope of providing great, insight into old Persian linguistic studies.

This paper is an investigation into the intonational patterns of three different call types in Persian: default calls (those made in a linguistically unmarked context), anger, and surprise calls (expressing the emotions of anger and surprise respectively).The analysis of calls on the basis' of recordings with 4 Persian native speakers (performed in the auto segmental-metrical frame work and the To BI annotation system) reveals that all three types share the L*+H pitch accent; however, the Accentual Phrase boundary tone for default and anger calls is high and that for surprise call is low. As for phonetic differences, the pitch range of default calls is significantly lower than that of anger and surprise calls. The difference lies in the pitch amount of the peak, but the lows of the three types are the same. With regard to duration, surprise calls are significantly longer than the other two types. The intensity of the calls does not exhibit significant difference in the three types.

There are two competing views concerning the phonological interpretation of voiceless stops following voiceless fricatives (SCV where S: a voiceless fricative; C: a voiceless stop, and V: a vowel).One view suggests that voiceless stops become voiced in SCV as their noise offset time decreases. The second view maintains that the voicing/aspiration contrast in stops is neutralized following voiceless fricatives where the relevant NOT (noise offset time) values characterizing voiced and voiceless stops cannot be maintained or carried out.

Iraj Mirza's poetry occupies a special place in Persian literature as compared to the works of other poets of his time, due to his almost unrivalled use of language and rhetorics. Deviating from syntactic, semantic and pragmatic norms, he creates a new atmosphere with the simple language he uses, which draws his poetry close to the language of nature. The present paper examines Iraj Mirza's poetry in terms of language function and his expert play with language. He deviates from the accepted linguistic norms of syntax, semantics and pragmatics, with an artistic courage, creating a new atmosphere in literary language: It is worth mentioning that he does so with such a simple language that one can claim, without unnecessary exaggeration that his poems are closer to the language of the nature than those of his contemporary poets. This article studies some of the language functions of Iraj's poems, revealing a small part of his skill in playing with the language.

The present paper deals with description of verb structure in Jarquye dialect, based on typological criteria. As it is defined in typology, synthetic languages insert several morphemes in a word and make great use of affixation. First the verb affixes, roots and stems in this dialect are introduced then the rules governing the kinds of verb are found out. Finally, this dialect will be identified in terms of verb area on the basic of syntactic and word formation parameters, such as basic word order.

Noun Incorporation (NI) is argued to result from head movement in which the head of an object Noun Phrase moves into the verb creating a Complex Verb (CV) or from word formation rules applying in the lexicon. This paper, argues that NT and CV are not unrelated processes, but points on the same continuum. The paper also argues that neither Baker's (1988) syntactic approach nor Rosen's (1989) lexical approach which does not pay enough attention to semantic and pragmatic aspects of the process can account for NI in Persian. The study indicates that incorporation in Persian is of various types, such as N+V , V + Compound V, N+PP+V, N+PP+ CV and PP+ V.

Most researchers who have studied differences between the genders in language usage believe that women use language more correctly than men. For this reason, it has been argued that the use of taboo words cannot be considered as a quality of female speech. A considerable amount of research is carried out to see whether sociolinguistic factors, such as education and age, affect the use of taboo words.The main objective of the present study is to investigate different linguistic behaviors in Tehrani Persian-speakers, with a focus on the differences in the applications of types of taboo words, the frequency of their usage, the effects of social context on the choice of such words, the addressee, and the incentives for or inhibitions on the use of taboo words. Three main variables were in focus: gender, two age groups (19-29 & 30-40), and education. The methodology consisted of the collection of taboo words which were later used in three different contexts (exclusively female, exclusively male, and combined context). Fifteen taboo words were selected from recorded cassettes and included in the questionnaires. The findings demonstrated that: men use more taboo words than women; there exists a specific taboo word for men, and that both men and women at higher age use male specific taboos less frequently. The findings also showed that women with higher education attempt to be more polite, and that selection of typical addressees for using male-specific taboos is done discriminately in both age groups in males, who use them when addressing males.