Comparing the Efficiency of Role and Reference Grammar and Systemic Functional Grammar in Classification of Persian Verb: Aktionsart versus Processes

The aim of the present research is to verify similarities and differences between Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFG), as two functional theories of grammar, in the classification of states of affairs in Persian. The obtained results showed that although RRG has a temporal base and SFG has a semantic base, these two classifications could have correspondence with each other. Since the distinction between situation and event in the classification of verbs is the similarity between these two models. However, no attention to verbal behavior of verbs in classification, English-based analysis, and a process containing many actions are the deficiencies of SFG model. Whereas, RRG's classification is mainly based on verbal behavior of verbs. Moreover, through its typological view, the distinction between different verbs is more precise. As a result, the findings of the research proved that RRG is an effective approach in the classification of verbs in Persian.