ZABANPAZHUHI (Iranian Journal of Language Research)
Year:2021 | Volume:12 | Issue:37|Papers Count:15

Among the most challenging problems encountered by translators, especially those dealing with literary texts, seems to be the problem of finding adequate and acceptable equivalents for the original text’ s culture-specific terms in the TL. Therefore, assessing translation of literary texts, specifically that of culture-specific references, is a crucial issue in translation studies. Componential analysis is one method of translation assessment which focuses on semantic relations of ST and TT lexical items. It should also be noticed that any lexical item can have positive, neutral, or negative connotations. Interestingly, the situational context can play a pivotal role in specifying the particular semantic load of the lexical items. The present study aimed at criticizing equivalents selected by a native and a non-native translator of a contemporary Persian novel based on componential analysis and semantic load of the words...

Teaching Persian language to non-Persian speakers’ books have many different features and aspects. In the same vein, they must be studied for comprehensive review, evaluation and critique provision. In order to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching Persian language to non-Persian speakers, it is needed to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of textbooks to overcome their shortcomings. One of the aspects of language teaching is teaching grammar. Pedagogical grammar is an important part of teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers; hence, with all its complexities and principles, it always requires special criticism and scrutiny. In this regard, the present study evaluates and criticizes the grammatical content of Modern Teaching of Persian Language books from the perspective of pedagogical grammar approach. Pedagogical grammar is different from other approaches of grammar in method, content and audience and is a process in which the procedure of teaching and learning takes place together, therefore it is non-linear and at the same time it is based on the teacher, learner and educational content...

The present study, using the "descriptive-analytical" method, aims at identifying the methods of communicating the sense of proverbs through linguistic comparisons in order to provide more practical methods in translation of proverbs. Utilizing the Arabic and Persian translations of two Shakespeare’ s plays "Hamlet" and "The Taming of the Shrew", the authors of this study seek to know how and in what ways and to what extent, the translators have been able to communicate the sense of English proverbs and when and in what ways they have employed literal, free or other types of translation. The study of Shakespeare's use of proverbs showed that this author used many proverbial similes to illustrate the characters in the play and to have a greater influence on the audience. In case of anti-proverbs, it was found that Shakespeare's conversion of a proverb into an anti-proverb presents a major challenge to translators. Translation of anti-proverb, however, is far more challenging than the proverbial one because of the addition of the humorous dimension to the proverbial features...

Taboo terms are one of problematic areas in the process of translation. Dictionaries are one of tools translators use to solve this problem. There are some differences between dictionaries in the number of taboo terms and the strategies applied in their translation. Knowing the characteristic of dictionaries in this respect can help translators choosing a suitable dictionary to solve their problem. The present study was an attempt to find the frequency of taboos, the strategies applied in their translation in Hezareh and Arianpur dictionaries and the relation between the frequency of taboo terms and the applied strategy to understand the characteristics and successfulness of these two dictionaries in this respect. Many studies have been done on the topic of taboo terms and their translations in Persian and English language but in case of dictionaries nothing has been done. Different scholars have provided different definitions, categorizations and translation strategies for taboo terms. In the following the categorization of taboo terms and the strategies of translating them are presented...

The distinction between language and dialect is one of the most challenging issues in sociolinguistics and it has been the subject of numerous studies in the sociolinguistic literature of the past several decades. Most communities around the world are either bilingual or multiannual. As such, determining their states has received considerable critical attention. In spite of the fact that there is only a single standard language (Persian) in Iran, a number of varieties, such as Gilaki, Mazandarani, Tati, Taleshi, Semnani, Lori, Kurdish, etc. are spoken among smaller communities as their means of communication. Whether these varieties are independent languages or dialects of standard Persian (hereafter SP) is a major area of interest within the field of Persian linguistics...

Nowadays, pictures and writing in English books are used in order to transfer educational concepts. As it is claimed that the pictures not only help the students learning but also they increase the interactional relationship between them and their around society (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 2006). There is always one problem that an argument on how we can use multimodal-texts in school books especially English books to facilitate transfer concepts and also trigger motivation in educational processes so that English learning and training procedures will be improved. According to Sojoudi(2003), semiotic perspective rooted in the works of Saussure and Pierce, shows two points of view but with special and similar philosophical implications. Saussure framework is called structural semiotics but Pierce framework is analytical semiotics. Pierce believes semantic-semiotic means theory and study of signs and it is the world science that includes all other sciences. Saussure considers signs as mechanical but Paris School claim that signs perform the role of signifier only in discoursal context. Greimas, as a founder of Paris School, believes that we should pass the surface and enter to the deep layers of context as the deep and inner structures have semantic implications...

With the replacement of the conceptual blended network model instead of the two-headed model of conceptual metaphor, Fauconnier and Turner (1994) argue that, in addition to explaining the metaphorical aspects of immediate understanding, this model is capable of explaining non-metaphorical aspects. The network pattern, besides the two domains of the input and mapping, also includes the public space and fusing space. The mixed space emanates from the mental mixing of two or more input spaces. Given that the blended space is fantastic, the choice of the theory of fusion approach is appropriate for imaginary characters in fantasy subject. On the other hand, according to Pierce's (1931, 1958) classification, the sign is of three kinds: symbolic, iconic, and index. Based on this division, the research is ahead in the categorization of fancy story subjects. In this regard, this research aims to answer four questions about the fantasy stories of the children: what is the difference between the subject of intermingling and coincidence? What is the difference between the definitions in the inter-semiotic and in-semiotic? According to Pierce's semiotic categories, what classes do in-semiotic intercourse subjects ranked? What are the mechanisms of the inputs of mixed space for subject creation, while meaning creation?...

In Persian and most of New Western Iranian languages also known as Iranian dialects, plurality is marked by – ā n inherited from Western Middle Iranian plural marker. This marker derives from the genitive plural ending-ā nā m, or by – ā from Middle Persian-ī hā , originally an abstract marker, developed as a plural marker in inanimate words. In some other languages like Talyshi, Semnani, Balochi, and Zazaki which have preserved at least a two-case system, the plural is marked by case ending which is used to distinguish not only cases but also number. There are six groups of Iranian languages that show an innovative form of the plural suffix-gal taken from a collective suffix. The suffix has been formed as a result of grammaticalization of a collective noun gal “ group, bound” . The purpose of the present paper is to demonstrate how the – gal or its allomorphs has been formed by grammaticalization of gal “ group, band” . Traditionally grammaticalization refers to the increase of the range of a morpheme advancing from a lexical to a grammatical or from a less grammatical to a more grammatical status, for example, from a derivative formant to an inflectional one. But in its broadest sense, it refers to the process by which grammar is created. In other words, it offers an explanatory account of how and why grammatical categories arise and develop...

The present study employed a qualitative approach to investigate L2 graduate students’ reasons for not incorporating supervisor feedback into their theses/dissertations. Think-aloud protocols were employed to examine 54 L2 master’ s degree and doctoral students’ reasons for ignoring their supervisors’ comments on their theses/dissertations. Employing an inductive categorization approach, we categorized students’ reasons thematically into four main classes of specificity of comments, clarity of comments, the compatibility of comments with students’ perceived abilities, and students’ retention of their autonomy. A significant issue in the feedback literature is students’ engagement with comments. Engagement is reported to determine the success of a feedback practice and explain the differential success of students receiving comments in second language writing programs (Ferris, Liu, Sinha, & Senna, 2013; Han, 2017; Han & Hyland, 2015). Han and Hyland (2015), highlighting the significance of students’ engagement with feedback, assert that “ learner engagement is a critical link that connects the provision of WCF with learning outcomes” (p. 31). One of the consequences of students’ poor engagement with supervisor feedback is their failure to apply comments (Sinclair & Cleland, 2007)...

Keenan and Dyer (2007: 329) introduce the two types of passive constructions; basic passives and non-basic passives. In basic passives, no agent phrase is present and the main verb in its non-passive form is transitive. In these types of passives, the main verb expresses an action, having agent subjects and patient objects in its non-passive form (transitive form). Any deviation from the basic passive constructions leads to non-basic passives. Although in the basic passives, the main verb in its non-passive form is transitive, typological studies of passive construction show that some languages permit passives on intransitives. Keenan and Dryer (2007) introduce the term “ impersonal passive” with 6 subtitles. They call the intransitive passive constructions as a kind of impersonal passive and classify the passivization of intransitives into two groups. The first one uses the syntactic and morphological pattern of basic passives to derive non-basic passives from intransitive verbs. The second one utilizes the same passive morphology on intransitives and the agent phrases in the same way as in the basic passives...

Implied meaning (hereafter, non-literal or indirect implicature) is studied in the field of pragmatics which considers the intended meaning in the context of the situation (Yule, 1996). The implied meaning is not denotatively expressed, but it is only understood through the shared knowledge of the interlocutors. This study explores the MA Persian speakers' lack of mastery on the listening module of TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) since they cannot comprehend the implied (i. e., non-literal) and consequently, they achieve unsatisfactory results in listening section. Sixty-two MA graduate students took the TOEFL listening module and they were divided into two groups of high and low achievers based on their test scores. Data were analyzed through the theoretical framework of Gricean Maxims (1975). K-S test and independent samples t-test showed that the sub-groups of high and low achievers are significantly different in understanding the implied meanings of relevance and quantity maxims. However, both high and low achievers were not significantly different in quality and manner maxims; however, the scores of high achievers were greater than the low achievers. The difference did not meet the significant level (. 05). The findings of the study suggest that teachers should focus on relevance and quantity maxims as the problematic maxims in recognizing the implied meaning of the items. The nature of relevance and quantity maxims should be clarified to the MA learners who need to infer the implied meanings of the TOEFL listening module...

The primary purpose of this research is to study cultural cognition and conceptualizations in Persian stories published for children. The problem of research is to determine which cultural conceptualizations are embedded in the texts of Persian children’ s stories. The methodological approach taken in this study is based on cultural linguistics. According to Sharifian (2017) cultural linguistics is based on the premise that many aspects of human languages encode cultural conceptualizations. In other words, cultural conceptualizations are embedded in many features of human languages. Cultural linguistics offers both a theoretical and an analytical framework to investigate the cultural conceptualizations underling the human languages in practice. The theoretical framework of cultural linguistics contains the notion of “ cultural cognition” , which affords an integrated understanding of the notions of “ cognition” and “ culture” and the way these two concepts are related to language. This analytical framework provides some useful tools that allow us to examine features of human languages which encode conceptualizations and to analyze the relationship between language and cultural conceptualizations. They contain the three major notions of “ cultural schema” , “ cultural category” , and “ cultural metaphor” . By cultural schemas we mean a culturally constructed subclass of “ cognitive schemas” that are an invention of the cognitive sciences...

Moving toward more scientific lexicography in Iran requires lexicographers and researchers to pay closer attention to and develop deeper understandings of the interaction between theory and practice in lexicography. If lexicographers ignore theories in their analysis while creating an entry's microstructure, the result will be inconsistency in the microstructures as well as a negligence of some aspects of the words' behaviors (Atkins, 2001, pp. 1-2). In addition, since the microstructure of bilingual dictionaries has directly to do with the quality of translators' finding the right equivalents, such inconsistency and weakness may be problematic for translators. The analysis of bilingual dictionaries is one of the areas of lexicography that seems to require more scholarly work. One way to do so is by evaluating the microstructures of dictionaries...

Discourse puts emphasis on linguistic knowledge above the level of words, phrases, clauses and sentences that is essential for establishing a successful relation. This approach studies linguistic patterns of text and the connection between language and social and cultural contexts that the text is based on. In addition to this, discourse analysis deals with this issue that how the usage of language is affected by the way the participants in the conversation have relation with each other and it also focuses on the impact that language has on social identities and relations. In its third stage of development, discourse analysis reaches the phase of Critical Discourse Analysis. Critical discourse analysis is a new viewpoint towards linguistics and is applied to clarify and explain the social situation. In fact, in critical discourse analysis, it is presumed that language, grammar and context can perfectly show the social and cultural conditions of society. The belief of the analyst is that “ no truth is found out of the context” (Jorgensen &Philips, 2002, p48), so what counts is “ discourse” which is analyzed. Discourse indicates that context is a social matter that forms amid social relations (Paltridge, 1947, p14). From the point of Harris (1952), discourse is a relationship that is created inside a specific situation...

Linguistic, historical, and geographical conditions suggest that homogeneous communities settled in Eurasian and spoke Proto-Indo-European languages that began to expand around 4000 BCE. Mallory and some scholars believe that the Indo-European’ s homeland was in the arid steppe of the Pont-Caspian region. Having migrated the Indo-Iranian groups, they probably occupied somewhere in central Asia (a geographical parallel to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) from where some Iranians migrated to the Iran’ s plateau, while the Indo-Aryans migrated to the subcontinent (Mallory 1989: 262). Grandson is one of the most controversial words in the Indo-European languages. This word is attested in most of Indo-European languages such as Celtic, Germanic, Italic, Baltic, Slavic, Albanian, Greek, and Indo-Iranian. In the Proto-Indo-European languages *h2nep-ō t is used for ‘ male descendant’ and h2nep-t-ih1/2 for ‘ female descendant’ . Buck believes that PIE *nepot probably consists of a compound of negative ‘ ne’ , and a form of stem, which is seen in Sanskrit pati-, Latin potis ‘ able’ , etc., and literally means ‘ powerless’ (Buck. 1944: 644). Paul Horn quotes from Leumann about PIE nē pō t which means ‘ orphan’ (Horn. 1883: 234), and Nourai regards nebh= ‘ damp, humidity’ as a root (Nourai. 2012: 322), but Helmut Rix does not think of nebh as the root of ‘ nava’ (Rix. 2001: 448)...