Research in Western Iranian Languages and Dialects
Year:2020 | Volume:8 | Issue:1|Papers Count:6

This study aims to investigate the focus construction and its markers in Kalhori Kurdish. It should be noted that focus is shown with phonetic, morphologic or syntactic markers in different languages. The data were collected through observation and interview with Kalhori Kurdish speakers in Kermanshah. The findings showed that the focus markers in Kalhori Kurdish include /ke/ and /xo/ used in the same sense. Moreover, it was found that although these two focus markers have the same meaning, their usage varies in different declarative, imperative, interrogative (yes/no questions & wh-questions) and exclamatory sentences. However, in exclamatory sentences the speakers use none of these two markers to show emphasis. The results indicated that although the speakers use both focus markers in declaratives and yes/no questions, /ke/ is simply used in imperatives and wh-questions. Also, the research findings showed that /ke/, as a focus marker, is used less than /xo/.

Metaphor is a systematic mapping between two conceptual domains. In metaphor; an experimental domain called as source domain is mapped into another domain as target domain. This research is about conceptual metaphors of time in a sample of corpus in Persian database. This corpus included contemporary Persian written texts similar to Everyday language of Persian speakers. The sample was administered, then conceptual metaphors of time and its synonyms were extracted. The sample of this corpus was 15 texts from contemporary writers including: (Hedaiat, 1315), (Golestan; 1327& 1353), (Ebrahimi, 1382 & 1345), (Jamalzadeh, 1340), (Daneshvar, 1348), (Golshiri, 1348), (Ale Ahmad, 13337), (Hedaiat, 1332), (Saiedi, 1353), (Dolat Abadi, 1379 & 1367), (Pezeshzad, 1349) & (Parsi Pour, 1369). After corpus analysis, 405 metaphoric statements with 18 mappings were extracted. Results showed primary domains, ” object” , “ matter” , “ direction” and “ place” are most frequently used as corpus primary domains for time metaphorical statements. In other words, primary domains as moving object, direction, place, fixed place and moving human are primary domains for time all of which refer to a particular aspect of the concept of place.

This research is an attempt to study the conceptualization of mental forces of human in Marzban-name. The present research is descriptive-analytic and is conducted via bibliographical methodology. Based upon the findings, the conceptualization of the mental forces fundamentally centers on the source domains of “ human” , “ substance” , “ natural phenomenon” , “ container” and “ animal” in this text. In addition, out of 58 metaphors found, human-based metaphors had the highest frequency. It seems that the recognition of human validity and significance has led to a special emphasis on the role of these factors as important elements through the transfer of human characteristics to the mental forces. The mapping takes place from objective structure to the mental one. In this regard, the features of the objective conceptual domains are considered as the source domain and the mental and abstract conceptual domains are recognized as the result.

Polysemy is one of the most important issues considered in different schools of linguistics and meaning studies. In this descriptive-documentary study, polysemy in simple adjectives of Azerbaijani Turkish was discussed within the cognitive approach. The data was selected from local journals in Turkish, the Turkish-Persian dictionary of Shahmaresi and the Persian-Azerbaijani dictionary written by Behzadi. Prototypical meanings were based on the results of a researcher-made questionnaire, interview, and the linguistic intuition of the authors. A total of 70 polysemous simple adjectives were identified from the corpuses and a radial network was drawn for each one. Among the cognitive mechanisms of polysemy creation, it was proved that conceptual metaphors would play the greatest role in polysemy creation of all. And, contrary to the traditional view, the connection between the meanings of polysemous adjectives is not accidental, but a systematic relationship exists and can be described by radial categorization. The results, along with complementary studies, can be applied in the field of language teaching, lexicography, more efficient translation machines, increasing the relevance in information retrieval and will be helpful for all experts in the field.

The lexical aspect of contemporary Persian was studied in this article. The data which were extracted from Farhang-i-buzurg-i-soxan (Anvari, 2007) were investigated based on scalar approach. The traditional theories cannot differentiate and explain various aspectual events because of inadequate binary aspectual features. The investigation of data showed that scalar theory along with traditional features like [± duration], [± dynamicity], and [± telicity] provides a more comprehensive aspectual classification and clearer explanation of Persian verbs and events. The traditional theories cannot account for verbs of degree achievements which have the dual [+ telic] and [-telic] aspectual behavior. By following the scalar approach, Persian verbs are classified into scalar (open and closed) and non-scalar (semelfactive and activity) categories. The non-scalar activity and semelfactive verbs are respectively durative and punctual events. The open scalar verbs show the dual telicity whereas the closed ones have [+ telic] feature. The closed scalar verbs are classified into two-point scalar and multi-point scalar events. These two categories differ from each other based on the [± durative] feature. The two-point scalar verbs show punctual changes while the multi-point scalar ones undergo durative changes to achieve the endpoint.

This paper considers role of grammaticalization and intersubjectification in determining the origin of some modal auxiliaries in Iranian languages. These auxiliaries, based on Nuyts (2005 and further) express deontic necessity, epistemic possibility, participant-inherent necessity, participant-imposed necessity, and situational necessity, which for the ease of access are considered as equivalences to ‘         ’ (must). Based on the traditional definition of grammaticalization, one might expect these auxiliaries, the same as other auxiliaries to be developed from lexical verbs. However, following this path might violate what Traugott and Dasher (2002), Traugott (1989, 1995 and 2010) and also Byloo and Nuyts (2014) have in mind by (inter) subjectification, where volitional verbs are evolved from modal notions and the related concepts. Both traditional definition of grammaticalization and this reading of intersubjectification are unidirectional and predominantly verify the diachronic path of evolving such modal from volitional verbs. Even though, data from four languages, including Kahangi, Vafsi, Tati, and Semnani, where the modals meaning ‘ must’ have the same roots with the volitional verbs meaning ‘ want’ , being limited to grammaticalization might violate intersubjectification and vice versa, following intersubjectification might exclude grammaticalization. Therefore, here we suggest that these auxiliaries are not developed from the volitional verbs in these; yet, both groups have been simultaneously evolved from a third element in Old Iranian.