Journal of Linguistics and Khorasan Dialects
Year:2010 | Volume:1 | Issue:1|Papers Count:10

The present study provides an analysis of Empty Category principle (ECP) in LF. The ECP is shown to encounter a number of problems especially at LF. In order to solve these problems, we employ Pesetsky's (1982) path containment condition (PCC). We show that it is not so much the effect of proper government that is important in sentences involving movement; rather, it is the relation between the paths of movements. The relation of containment between the paths is shown to be a crucial syntactic factor in well-formedness. Because of the dubious status of government in minimalism, analysis according to PCC is better not only empirically but also conceptually.

The non-overt subject of the infinitive clause is represented by the element PRO, an NP which appears to be syntactically active without overt manifestation. Although PRO is a part of architecture of GB, no coherent account of this element can be found in Persian. The stipulation of PRO by Iranian grammarians both traditional and modern has been in vain due to two dilemmas: first the nature of non-finite clause in Persian, and second, finding ungoverned position for PRO. After all, syntactic, semantic and morphological behavior of Masdsar in Persian supports its constituency nature in favor of being a non-finite clause. Subsequent to introducing the non-finite clause in Persian, there will be a room to account for the existence of PRO. Of considerable importance is the justification that non-finite clauses are CPs not IPs, which makes it possible to find an ungoverned position for the distribution of PRO.

The research considers the methods of representing social actors in the publications of the early Mashroutiyat from critical discourse analysis point of view. The critical discourse analysis is a new approach in analysing discourse and text. The approach is based on the idea that discourse holds ideology and the relationship of power and dominance in the upper levels of text, but in lower levels it holds structures of discoursal features. These structures and features are in mutual relationship with covert ideology in the lower levels of text.Using particular research methods, critical discourse analyst considers these structures to discover the hidden ideology behind the text. While most of the critical discourse analysts take the most notice on linguistic aspects, Van. Leeuven (1996) believes that socio-semantic discoursal features present a more comprehensive and profound understanding of the text. Using Van. Leeuven’s method in this research, 41 issues of eight publications of the early years of Mashroute (Sour Esrafil, Hablolmatin, Mosavat, Nedaye Vatan, Majles, Rahnama, Sobhe Sadegh, Ayineye Gheybnama) were studied. All of these texts held socio-semantic features, more or less. Social agents were mainly represented through the following features: personification, activation, depersonification, deletion, passivization.In addition to qualitative analysis, the quantitative calculation of the frequencies of the features as statistical analysis of Chi-square and Relation formula has been used in doing the research.

From a certain aspect, the sentences used in daily interactions can be divided into two classes. First are sentences which convey the non-conditional realization of events. Next come sentences in which make the occurrence of the event conditional upon the realization of some condition. The present study terms the former group as free and the latter as modal. Speakers react differently in response to free and modal sentences. The present study focuses on the latter which may be expressed through modal elements such as modal auxiliaries, sentence adverbs and certain lexical verbs. It seeks an analysis of different modal elements and their roles in modern Persian as well as a distinction between formal and semantic aspects of the modal category.While Rahimiyan (1995 &1999) argues that Persian lacks modal auxiliaries used to express the strong degree of the modal element, the present paper illustrates for the first time that the verb khah is not only used in the formation of future tense, but also a proper means to express the strong degree of the modal element. This verb, by itself, can imply the occurrence of the event, what has been ignored by former studies. It is concluded that Persian has all the three degrees of modal element i.e. weak, moderate and strong. As for the types of the modal element, it can be said that based on the evidence extracted from Persian newspapers, all the three types including inference, necessity and power auxiliaries are commonly used in modern Persian.

The present paper studies numeral classifiers in Persian. A numeral classifier is a morpheme which follows numbers and makes the counted entity countable or measurable; or else, it may classify them in terms of their features such as shape, animacy, etc. Two chief groups of classifiers have been distinguished in the present study. First, there are quantitative classifiers which are used as enumeration units together with uncountable nouns. They are necessary for the semantic interpretation of the noun phrase; e.g. glass in two glasses of milk. In fact, these classifiers act as measurement terms, have no particular semantic relation with the counted entity and can be quite various. On the other hand, there are category classifiers which classify the counted entity in different groups based on their features such as humanness, shape, etc. These classifiers are limited in number, are not necessary for the semantic interpretation of the noun phrase and are often related to the shape of the counted entity; e.g. halgheh (circle) in do halgheh chah (two circles of well i.e. two wells). The analysis of modern Persian data indicates that the latter classifiers are rarely used, and the current tendency in written formal Persian is to delete such items. In spoken mode, however, the general classifier “ta” which is used for countable nouns is extensively common.

Tarbiat Modares University, Department of Linguitics In Pennycook's view critical applied linguistics (CAL) is a new approach in Applied Linguistics (AL) which focuses on the notions of social critique such as ideology, power, discourse, race, identity, gender, control, inequality and ethics. This article is an attempt to overview critical current work in CAL, indicating how it is pushing forward the theoretical and empirical domains of the Al such as language learning, language teaching, communications, text, context, culture, meaning, translation, writing, literacy, testing/ assessment. Some linguists argue that although the CAL provides a useful debate on the nature of the discipline (AL), it is seductive and we need a critical, not a hypocritical linguistics.

The word taboo, coined in the eighteenth century, originates in Polynesian languages where it meant something forbidden. Taboos, which are those items considered culturally inappropriate topics to be openly talked about, vary from community to community and from language to language. Analyzing a collection of texts translated into Persian, the present paper seeks a classification of taboos in Persian. Two types of censorship have been discussed in this paper: one performed by the translator himself, and the other dictated by the social institutes or organizations and implemented by the translator. Comparing the original text in the source language, the initial translation and the revised translation (one approved by the publishing company), we identify the type of the taboo in each example and the translator’s solution to deal with it. The results indicate that unfortunately, translators frequently opt for the deletion strategy, which is the easiest. In some cases, however, based on their knowledge and skill, translators use other solutions such as using a sperordinate or broad word, replacing the taboo word with the closest non-taboo in the target language (though they may have different meaning and usage in the two languages) and coinage of words or expressions or even innovating a whole paragraph to preserve the coherence of the text in the target language. The confusion over what is taboo in one language or the other may lead to the creation of incomprehensible or non-truthful translations which damage the meaning of the source language writer.

The present paper seeks an account of the evolution of the phonological omission process from Old Persian to New Persian within the scope of historical phonology. It is conducted in a descriptive-analytic method based on the Optimality Theory. The research data were collected from ancient Acaemenid scripts including Persepolis, Naghsh-e Rostam, Bistoon, Shush, and Ganjnameh scripts. The results indicate that in the historical evolution process, those forms are optimal which have undergone the omission process. In line with the implementation of this process, the syllabic structure of the lexicon has undergone change and reduction. These optimal forms as well as the reduction of the number of syllables in the syllabification structure verify the linguistic economy principle.