In this research Persian affixes have been studied based on lexical morphology. In this model, the bases of new words are almost the words used in language. Persian affixes are grouped in two classes based on their phonological behavior to the base. One type is neutral and the other one is non-neutral. Neutral affixes which belong to stratum one, have no phonological effect on the bases they are attached to, but non-neutral ones affect it in some ways; these affixes belong to stratum 2. Most of the Persian affixes are auto-stressed; they take the stress from the base on to itself. Changing the place of the stress affects the meaning of their bases.

In Persian, two processes of derivation and compounding are used in a generative way to form new words. Thus, in this paper, in addition to analyzing complex words in Persian in construction morphology and lexical morphology /phonology, it is also tried to answer this question that which model is more effective in the analysis of complex Persian words? According to this question, the following hypothesis is proposed: ‘since construction morphology takes advantage of abstract morphological schemas, it would be more effective to construct hierarchical complex words and to present a semantic analysis of this model in the analysis of complex Persian words.’ Two main processes of compounding and derivation in construction morphology and lexical morphology /phonology were examined with regard to Persian data, comparing them with each other and studying irregular cases in lexical morphology/phonology. The results showed that the abovementioned models both have a word-based approach to morphology. However, construction morphology, taking advantage of construction concept as the pairing of form and meaning in the analysis of morphological phenomena, proposing abstract schema for word formation patterns, hierarchical formation of complex words and the possibility of justifying their meanings especially endocentric compounds, is more effective than lexical morphology in the analysis of complex words based on Persian data and therefore the hypothesis of the study is accepted.

This research examines derivational and inflectional processes in Pashto within the framework of “Lexical Morphology and Phonology” (Kiparsky, 1982). In this article, 131 Pashto affixes, comprising 40 inflectional and 91 derivational affixes, were categorized into two neutral and non-neutral categories based on their interaction with the base they are attached to. The findings of this study reveal that a majority of Pashto affixes, whether auto-stressed or connected to the base, result in alterations to the base. Furthermore, the research demonstrates the efficacy of Kiparsky's (1982) approach, originally devised to analyze the structure of English affixes, in analyzing neutral and non-neutral affixes in the Pashto language. According to the study, most of the Pashto affixes are non-neutrals, which are located in the first layer. It is worth mentioning that the number of neutral affixes is less than the non-neutral ones, although they are widely used in the language. Moreover, as the Lexical Morphology Hypotheses assumes, neutral and non-neutral affixes are organized based on the Level Ordering Hypothesis.

1-Introduction There are semantically different words and structures in Persian that are identical in pronunciation except for the place of stress. These pairs which are called stress oppositions are of two types; the first type includes a lexical stress opposition between two lexical entries called a stress minimal pair. The second type is either the result of some phonological processes or the interaction among morphological, syntactic and phonetic factors at post-lexical level. One or both sides of these stress oppositions are syntactic phrases. There are many stress oppositions in Persian; however only five of which are stress minimal pairs. Being a minimal pair is not the sole analyzable feature in these stress oppositions. There are other features which merit further consideration. The objectives of this research were to introduce and discuss features of stress minimal pairs, to introduce and classify the whole possible stress oppositions in Persian according to their lexical/ syntactic categories, and to figure out whether stress shift caused semantic changes or it was the effect or consequence of different elements in stress oppositions. 2-Theoretical framework Phrase Structure Grammar (Chomsky, 1957) is the theoretical framework which was used in this research to classif post-lexical structures. In this theoretical framework the structure of constituents is specified using phrase structure rules: S → VP NP NP → {Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN} VP → V NP (PP) (Adv) 3-Methodology This research aimed at introducing different lexical and post-lexical stress oppositions in Persian. To this end, structures other than lexical entries were classified into noun/verb phrases using Phrase Structure Grammar. Accordingly, various stress oppositions might include two lexical entries, a lexical entry and a noun/verb phrase, two noun phrases, two verb phrases, a noun phrase and a verb phrase, as well as emphatic stress. It is noteworthy that the phonetic representation (PR) rather than the underlying representation (UR) was used to specify stress oppositions. Finally, the morphemes of stress oppositions where compared in order to specify the main reason of their semantic (or grammatical) difference. 4-Results & discussion Although Persian is so rich in terms of having stress oppositions, it only has five stress minimal pairs. The necessary condition that must be there for a stress opposition to be considered a stress minimal pair is that both its members must be lexical entries. Hence, a post-lexical stress opposition of which one member is the result of a phonological change, or one member or both members are a syntactic phrase is not considered a stress minimal pair. Lexical stress or being a stress minimal pair is not the only criterion to evaluate stress oppositions. Stress shift is regarded the main reason for meaning change if there is no other distinctive factor at work, that is, we can say stress shift has caused meaning change when both members of a stress opposition consist of identical morphemes, or one of the members is not the result of a phonological process. Otherwise, stress itself is the consequence of different morphemes or application of a phonological process. Accordingly, the findings of this research are in contrast with the studies in the literature which regarded the stress opposition between a word and a phrase as a minimal pair, or posited that the meaning difference between two unlelated words of a stress minimal pair is due to stress shift. 5-Conclusions & suggestions The significance of this paper is that it is the first research to address lexical and post-lexical stress oppositions in Persian and to discuss how they were created. Moreover, this paper was an attempt to reduce the uncertainty in regard to the nature and identity of stress oppositions through introducing and classifying them and using the titles “ lexical and post-lexical stress oppositions” to designate them. A future research suggestion could be investigating lexical and post-lexical stress oppositions in other languages.

Lexical representation of Persian simple, complex, and compound words is discussed based on the view that the lexical representation of a word (in the mental lexicon) is a representation termed the Basic Orthographic Syllabic Structure (BOSS). BOSS, as theorized by Taft (1975), Taft and Forster (1975, 1976), and Taft (1979), is identified based on both orthographic and morphological factors. It is argued that the BOSS, with some major modifications, may account for lexical representation and lexical access of Persian simple and compound words, but not for morphologically related words of Arabic origin in Persian. An altematively compatible account is then presented.

In speech recognition process, while listening to a word, a number of word representations are assumed to be activated simultaneously as candidates for an incoming word, and later the appropriate one is selected (McQeen et al. 1994). An important issue in speech processing is the kind of information that constrains lexical activation. Suprasegmental features are amongst factors which can play an important role in mental lexicon activation. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of lexical stress on mental lexicon activation in Persian. For this purpose, 10 Persian words with two possible stress patterns and two different meanings, and from different syntactic categories were selected. The target words were offered to the experiment participants in the form of three questionnaires. The results of the present study showed that: 1) stress pattern used while reading the target words is affected by the context in which the words are placed. 2) There is no relation between stress pattern used while reading the target words and the written word in front of them. In other words, when people want to write a word in front of the target words, they do not pay attention to the stress pattern they have used while reading the word. The reason of the second result could be that in Persian almost all verbs have just one stress pattern. Therefore, the participants consider the target words of this study as exceptions and do not pay attention to the stress pattern.

Technological developments and their utilities in various areas including education have offered great advantages for man. One of the greatest achievements in this trend has been the innovation in computer software like Lexical Frequency Profiles (LFP) and its pedagogical implications either in teaching or measurement. To take the maximum advantages, this study seeks to validate the LFP as a measure of lexical richness in written discourse of Iranian EFL Learners. 50 students majoring in English Translation participated in this study; each of them was encouraged to develop two compositions on general topics in order to establish VocabProfile indexes. To estimate the reliability of the LFP, the VocabProfile indexes of two writings were correlated, but for the validity purpose, first, a productive version of Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) was administered and second, the students’ compositions were fed into P_Lex software to elicit P_Lex index. After that, VocabProfile indexes were correlated with VLT scores and P_Lex index separately. The findings of the study revealed that students’ VocabProfile indexes written on two different topics correlated significantly with each other. Because of such a significant correlation coefficients, and the LFP indexes are related to VLT active test and P_Lex index, it is conservatively safe to claim that VocabProfile indexes are to some extent reliable and valid measurement instruments but not strong enough to be used as a standalone measure for the assessment of lexical richness. Pedagogically speaking, the LPF is suggested as a relatively reliable and valid measure to be used along with other dependable devices in measuring lexical richness in discourses of various types.

Iranian language varieties, dialects, and accents provide areas of investigation into recognizing Iranian languages, and cultures. Yazdian variety, which belongs to southeast Iranian languages group, includes some features of ancient Iranian languages and would be a good source for studying. The present research is an attempt to study the Lexical oppositeness as one of the most significant lexical relations in Yazdian lexicon. The findings of the research reveal that two opposite words include simultaneous distance as well as simultaneous closeness, and there is, at least, one main lexical similarity between the words.