Journal of Language Research
Year:2018 | Volume:9 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:7

Semantic comprehension of compound nouns is one of the subjects discussed in theoretical framework of cognitive linguistics. Compound nouns are divided into four groups based on the semantic relation of its components. According to the criterion of existence or absence of a semantic head, two main groups of endocentric and exocentric compound nouns are investigated in this study. A list of these nouns was collected as a library research from different texts and used to test this research. After examining multiple language comprehension tests, definition-word pairing test was used and in the form of an application on smart phones on Persian-learners of the middle level in Teaching Persian as a Second Language (TPSL) of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad was performed. Totally, 888 data were obtained from the test (37 subjects paired 24 definitions with compound nouns) described and analyzed by standard statistical tests. Finally, T and Pearson tests showed that due to the semantic head in endocentric compound nouns, the level of semantic comprehension of Persian-learners of endocentric compound nouns is greater than that of exocentric compounds. Besides, comprehension of Persian learners from Persian endocentric compounds is faster than exocentric compounds. Also, there is a correlation between the comprehension of Persian learners of endocentric and exocentric compound nouns. Therefore, the existence of a kind of relationship in endocentric compound nouns is understood more quickly than exocentric compound nouns. Therefore, the theory of Competition among Relations in Nominals (CARIN) is confirmed.

After studying 50 languages, Keenan and Comrie (1977) introduced the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy Theory. This theory claims that in order to form relative clauses, languages follow a universal hierarchy. Based on this, language learning researchers introduced a hypothesis using which the learning difficulty of the relative clause in the second language can be predicted. This article attempts to determine the learning order of relative clauses in Persian as a second/foreign language through a study of the interlanguage of non-Iranian Persian learners. To this end, after examining 493 written texts from the non-Iranian Persian learners' corpus of Sa'di Foundation, sentences with relative clauses were labeled. Then, the relative clauses were sorted into 6 levels of basic, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate, advanced, and upper-advanced, based on the students' levels, and all samples were classified based on the relative clause heads. An analysis of the data collected from the 361 relative clauses demonstrated that the learning of the Subject and Object relative clauses exactly follows Keenan and Comrie's Accessibility Hierarchy, while other relative clauses indicate evidence of non-compliance with this hierarchy.

Wh-coordination is a descriptive term used to refer to configurations where two wh-constituents are conjoined. Wh-coordination bears descriptive resemblances to conventional coordination and multiple wh-questions. However, closer inspection of wh-coordination reveals that it is different in both semantic and syntactic respects. In terms of its semantics, wh-coordination yields a single-pair reading, as opposed to the pair-list reading forced by multiple wh-questions. As for its syntactic properties, wh-coordination violates the Coordination of the Likes Law (Williams 1987), as opposed to conventional coordination. To explain such intrinsic characteristics of wh-coordination, we will advance a syntactic analysis of such constructions in terms of Parallel Merge and Multidominance. Crucially, on the basis of their syntactic and semantic peculiarities, it is argued that clauses containing wh-coordination have a bi-clausal structure, with VPs and TPs parallel-merged, where each wh-constituent is merged within its respective dominating clause and consequently, the two clauses are conjoined in the CP level. Under this analysis, coordination of the wh-constituents is only apparent; the real coordination occurs at the CP level of clauses containing the wh-constituents. The superficial coordination of the wh-constituents is an epiphenomenon ensuing from the linearization of bi-clausal conjunction.

The Grammar of Reading Imagesis a new look into pictures, located in social semiotics. It is implemented in decoding the pictorial signs. Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006), inspired by Halliday’ s metafunctions have devised a similar structure for reading pictorial signs named Representational, Interpersonal, and Compositional meanings. The aim of this study is to investigate appropriate answers to the following questions. Can this approach be successful in decoding the Representational, Interpersonal, and Compositional meanings? How much can this approach find the grammatical and semiotic patterns in pictures? Can this approach find the patterns responsible for shaping the special styles of pictures? This study has been conducted on two pictures selected among 23. They have been painted by Soltan­ mohammad based on the Siavash and Zahak’ s narratives of Shahtahmasb Shahnameh. This study has been divided into three sections. First, the theoretical basis of Reading Images approach was explored. Next, the cases in the pictures which are in accordance with the components of this approach were discovered. Finally, the cases which were in conflict with this approach were discussed. The results of this study reveal that there is a kind of sexism in the pictures which do not exist in these two stories of Shahnameh. In addition, the painter has no tendency towards using perspective, and modality in analyzing his paintings. Furthermore, the echelon structure of the “ emergence of snakes on the shoulders of Zohaks’ picture shows the echelon structure of the society it belongs to.

ArcGIS is a software program to depict geographical features as well as abstract concepts. Given the significant changes in scientific disciplines, the present study employs ArcGIS to represent inter-filed and interdisciplinary studies across Iranian linguistics. First, 1859 peer-review articles published in 47 Persian language (non)linguistics journals have been collected as the research data. Next, the articles have been classified in 15 fields and 7 interdisciplinaries. Then, maps were provided for fields, interdisciplinaries, geographical diversity and inter-fields as well as interdisciplinarity. The maps represent the frequency of articles in each field, interdisciplinary. The map designed for geographical diversity shows that the research on linguistics is centered in Tehran. The final map depicts the inter-field and interdisciplinarity of Iranian linguistics. It is believed that interpretation of such maps illustrates more popular areas of study and also research gaps. Such maps give a clear picture of the present time research and also a hypothetical image of research in future.

Word sense disambiguation is one of the important challenges in natural language processing (NLP) and computational linguistics. However, preposition sense disambiguation especially, in Persian has been neglected. Therefore, the present study seeks to define an algorithm based on semantic frames to disambiguate the prepositions; «az», «dar», «ba» and «ta» in Persian. The algorithm and its implementation are new in this project. The data includes 1000 sentences as a training corpus, 100 sentences as a developing data and 500 sentences as a test data collected from internet sources and social networks such as YouTube. The mentioned prepositions were sense annotated. Semantic frames based on frame-based language (Minsky, 1975) were constructed for the mentioned prepositions in the training corpus and for the words before and after the prepositions included in the entries as a data file. The algorithm in three paths based on the information in the frames assigns a meaning to the prepositions in the sentences. The results indicated the high precision (99. 16%) of the system in disambiguating the prepositions in Persian.

This paper is a criticism of Dabirmoghaddam and Naseri (1396 [2017]). Although the evaluated work introduces a new approach and deals with the less studied category, namely preposition, ( in some Iranian languages: Persian, Kermanshahi Kurdish and Luri) it suffers from so many shortcomings: structurally, it lacks the framework of a scientific paper; most of the proposed equivalents are vague and inexpressive and the language of the paper and the translated excerpts is obscure, the passage lacks semantic cohesion; nearly all the materials have been taken from the original resources and even have been translated incompletely and wrongly. As a result, the authors have not utilized their own pens to present the discussions and introduce the framework; most of the subjects presented in the criticized paper are redundant and incoherence avails a lot. In many cases referring to the resources is not correct and one even can think of a kind of suspicious plagiarism. Ultimately, not only have Dabirmoghaddam and Naseri not (1396 [2017]) well introduced nanosyntax theoretically but they have not presented a clear picture of it.