فاطمه یوسفی راد

The interaction between body and culture is one of the significant topics in cognitive semantics. The present interdisciplinary research, focusing on the embodiment factor, tries to examine the existing conceptualizations in both Persian and English through a cognitive approach and based on the physiological characteristics of the respiratory system and skin in holistic medicine. Therefore, referring to the special position of the lungs in Greek/Iranian holistic medicine as the receiver of respiratory pneuma, in traditional Chinese medicine as the place of the corporal soul, and in Indian medicine (Ayurveda) as an organ adjacent to the heart chakra, the authors try to investigate the biological motivation of the metonymy-based metaphors related to the respiratory system. Despite the slight differences in the metaphorical expressions, the findings of this research show an extraordinary convergence in the conceptualizations and the metaphorical narration of the function of the lung and the organ related to it, i.e. the skin, in which speech is a precious soul/object, inspiration is a blowing soul, and love is breathing in the air of a lover. Also, the skin is a protective armor, and a vessel for the soul. In short, the data analysis shows that knowing the various biological characteristics of organs and their functions based on holistic philosophy and medicine is a suitable platform for identifying the biological origin of biological metonymies, which can be a justification for making relatively identical metaphors.

With the spread of the corona virus, teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers, like other disciplines, turned to virtual and online education, and teachers faced new challenges in teaching Persian different aspects. One of these aspects was the prepositions teaching as polysemous categories. In language books, meanings of prepositions are usually presented in a list, and this problem makes learning them difficult. On the other hand, the cognitive grammar confirms the semantic network of prepositions around the prototype meaning. In this research, at first, using the semantic network of simple prepositions "از، با، به، تا، در", curriculum content was designed. Then, based on the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, a combined verbal-visual multimedia tool (animation) was used and the content was tested with 52 samples. The results of statistical analysis showed that the progress of language learners was significant. It can be concluded that the teaching of prepositions with research tools has been effective. In addition to the language level variable, social intervening variables of age, gender, nationality, field of study and status were also measured. The findings indicate that gender, nationality, field of study and age has had a significant effect. But other variables didn’t have a significant effect.

All over the world, translated books make up a significant part of children’s literature. Therefore, studying the linguistic structure and features of these books, and also the factors based on which children, their parents, and Children’s Books Council approve of a book, is essential. One of the most crucial linguistic aspects of children’s books translation is choosing the appropriate set of vocabulary since the translator is supposed to select proper equivalents from kids’ limited vocabulary to facilitate conveying the content and hence, their comprehension of the book. The current research is mainly concerned with how different these word choice methods are through the framework of natural morphology theory as well as how successfully translators have managed to select the proper set of vocabulary using this theory. concerning the aim, this is applied research involving mixed methods. The data were extracted from PLDB. The inferential statistics findings indicated that the principles of natural morphology (iconicity, transparency, binarity, and word length), no significant difference was observed between the words in authored versus translated books, Although, based on descriptive statistics, authored books have a more natural rate in the parameters of iconicity and word length. Thus the results indicate that overall, the translators & authors of children’s books have successfully managed to select the right set of vocabulary.

The present research provides a cross-cultural study about hand and foot metonomy-based metaphors in Persian and English by means of a semantic analysis. The research method is exploratory and its data includes 32 conventional metaphorical expressions containing hand and foot body terms which are taken from the idioms of The Free Dictionary, and their Persian equivalents are extracted based on Farhang Moaser One-Volume Millennium English-Persian Dictionary (Haghshenas et al., 2002). The research objective is to explain the biological motivation of the metaphors on the basis of holistic medicine. The research findings show that a number of the metaphorical expressions related to hands and feet can be investigated based on their biological origin in the holistic medicine, and the others are schematic and symbolic and formed according to externally visible events and bodily functions. The results indicate that, regarding the same biological origin, we can see relatively similar metonymies, while cultural patterns have created different metaphors in both Persian and English.

In this descriptive-analytic study, firstly, compound adjectives of Hawrami Kurdish of Paveh gathered from Persian-Kurdish Dictionary (Mardukh Ruhani et al., (3 Vols.), 2006), along with 25 others added by one of the authors who is the speaker of Hawrami Kurdish of Paveh. Then, the data were examined based on cognitive linguistics and Hamawand’s (2011) model of cognitive morphology. The semantic relationship between the head and the modifier of these adjectives were analyzed based on three cognitive operations; categorization, configuration and conceptualization. The results indicated that nine out of twelve categories proposed by Hamawand can be seen in Hawrami Kurdish of Paveh (including adjectives in which modifier shows the goal, or place of the head, or doesn't have the feature mentioned by the head, or adjectives whose head shows type, feature, size, activity, tendency, or moving toward the modifier). There are, also, four more categories which are not mentioned in Hamawand’s model but exist in Hawrami Kurdish of Paveh (including adjectives whose modifiers show the quantity, range, feature or resemblance of the head). There are also three inter-word-class- and three intra-word-class-domains and six construals in compound adjectives of Hawrami Kurdish of Paveh.

Reading is one of the most important language skills that students begin to learn it in primary school by means of Farsi textbooks. Reading fluency and reading comprehension are necessary for acquiring reading skill. Orthography systems of every language effects on reading. Researchers believe that reading of deep orthography is harder than shallow one. Farsi is one the languages with deep orthography system, because there isn’t one by one correspondence between orthography and speech. The aim of this research is replying to these questions: how much is the orthography depth in Farsi textbooks of primary schools and its relationship with reading fluently. For this purpose, the orthography depth was evaluated in Farsi textbooks from first grade to sixth in primary school. After that reading fluency tests were taken from students of grade one to six in primary school based on chosen texts. Fluency test scales were correctness, speed and intonation of reading. The Samples were students in primary school in Semnan in 1397-1398 school year. 402 students from different primary school, grade one to six took part in reading fluency tests. Results show that the distance between writing and reading is 1,42 phonemes in Farsi textbooks, and there is no significant relationship between orthography depth and ability to read fluently in primary schools. Reading is one of the most important language skills that students start learning in elementary school by using Farsi textbooks. Acquiring reading skills requires the ability to read and comprehend. Orthographic systems play an important role in the reading skills of any language. Researchers find it more difficult to read deep orthography systems than shallow ones. Persian is a language with a deep orthography, because there is little correspondence between its writing and speech system. One of the most important issues in education in primary school, which faces serious and fundamental challenges, is reading skills. The results of the performance of Iranian students in the PIRLS test are a documented example that has attracted the attention of many experts in related sciences. PIRLS is an international study of reading literacy development that examines beginner literacy in reading skills around the world. Iranian fourth grade students have participated in 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016 exams. The results of these tests show that the score of Iranian students is significantly lower than the global average score, so that in 2016, Iranian students with a score of 428 were ranked 45th among the 50 participating countries. Numerous factors such as educational, social, linguistic, cultural, etc. are involved in the emergence of this challenge. Spoken and written language, as one of the most important tools of communication and education, plays an important role in the growth and development of learning. Reading is a skill that is based on the written system and requires the adaptation of the written form to the spoken language. Regarding the issues related to reading in schools, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of orthography depth on reading skills in primary schools. The research method of this study is descriptive-analytical. The population and the statistical sample of the research for calculating the orthography depth are Farsi textbooks grade one to six in primary schools. The statistical population to determine the level of fluent reading, are all elementary students in primary school in Semnan in the academic year 1397-1398 . 402 students in the first to sixth grades of elementary school are the statistical sample of the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient). The results of this research can be instructive and effective for compiling the course content and teaching it, especially for teaching reading skills. This study seeks to answer the following questions by examining the role of Persian orthography system on reading skills in elementary schools: 1. What is the orthography depth of language in primary Farsi textbooks? 2.What effect does orthography depth have on the reading skills of primary school students? The following hypotheses are proposed for the research questions: 1. The distance between writing and speech (orthography) in Persian books is large. 2. High orthography depth in Persian books has a negative effect on students' reading skills. The results obtained according to the research questions are as follows: The first research question A review of Farsi textbooks for the six elementary grades shows that the average distance between writing and speaking is 1.41 phonemes. Orthography depth from the first grade to the sixth grade shows an increase, which is educationally desirable, because according to the educational principle, the presentation of content is from simple to complex. Research question 2 According to the orthography depth in different grades: 1.28 in the first grade, 1.30 in the second grade, 1.30 in the third grade, 1.46 in the fourth grade, 1.49 in the fifth grade and 1.50 in the sixth grade and the average scores obtained in the fluent reading test indicates that the orthography depth does not have a significant effect on students' fluent reading performance. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine the relationship between orthography depth and fluent reading. The processing of the fluent reading score and the average orthography depth in SPSS software showed that there is no significant relationship between them. Comparison of the average score of orthography depth and fluent reading in each educational level also confirms that although the orthography depth is lower in the first to third grades, but their fluent reading score is lower than the fourth to sixth grades which have more orthography depths. The result obtained in this study shows that in Persian there is no significant relationship between the orthography depth system and fluent reading skills. Although, according to this study, the depth of Persian orthography has no significant relationship with students' fluent reading skills in primary school, but it is necessary for authors and teachers in developing and teaching educational materials to enhance reading skills, especially in Farsi textbooks so that students learn to read as a key skill in acquiring knowledge.

In its early days, Onomastics only addressed the etymology (history and origin) of names diachronically. Social linguistics adopted a synchronic framework and turned onomastics from an archaist science to a modern one dealing with contemporary society. It is impossible to ignore the role names play in shaping individuals’ cognitive structures in different communities. Thus, cognitive linguistics also showed an interest in this subject. Names are multifaceted linguistic elements. Similar to traditional and philosophical studies, social onomastics mostly deal with proper names, but cognitive linguistics, especially studies of Geeraerts et al., address common names. Labov (1972) sees urban social linguistics as the science of field studies; this view can be safely applied to onomastic studies, especially to the approach that addresses onomastics from a socio-cognitive perspective with an emphasis on use and context. After a quick philosophical and diachronic review of literature, the current paper examined contemporary onomastics studies from a sociocognitive perspective. A close observation of the historical evolution of onomastics shows that the scope of onomastic research has expanded, word-formation (lexical generation) processes draw less attention. Instead, lexical structure and different quantitative approaches, which study the strength of onomastic processes, are receiving more attention by the day.

Onomastics is a branch of linguistics, or according to Crystal (2008), a branch of semantics; onomastics has been studied from different perspectives. This paper addressed onomastics from the perspective of the social-cognitive (sociocognitive) linguistic approach, which is the corollary of cognitive linguistics and social linguistics. Social-cognitive onomastics, which can be subsumed under social-cognitive linguistics, covers the core concepts of a usage-based understanding of language, intralanguage and inter-language diversities, categorization and prototypes, cultural patterns, social senses, and the counter-effect of language, culture, and ideology. It merits mention that most studies in the area of cognitive linguistics and the newer, less studied social-cognitive linguistics focus on concepts and semantics. Scholars believe it is necessary and inevitable to shift from concepts to (proper) names, i.e. onomastics, in cognitive and social linguistics. The aim of this paper, applying documentary research method, is in line with and a continuation of a research plan launched by Zandi and Ahmadi in 2016; the only difference is that the current paper paid special attention to common nouns that represent a category. This paper also gave another outlook: an emphasis on a usage-based approach in onomastics. Pragmatically speaking, onomastics touches upon actual lexical selections from among expressions and examines the factors affecting the selection of a particular expression. The results showed that numerous factors affect the selection of a proper word for a signified concept, with context having the greatest effect.

The present paper aimed at investigating the polysemy of the Persian word Topol from the perspective of cognitive sociolinguistics. The study begins with introducing the tenets of cognitive sociolinguistics, and then goes on to investigate the polysemy of the Persian adjective topol within this framework. In cognitive sociolinguistics, it is believed that polysemy cannot be reduced to a static state, one and the same for all speakers of a language. Rather, social variables like age and gender of speakers affect the way they perceive different senses of the polysemous words. This paper, in line with cognitive sociolinguistic studies on polysemy employed advanced statistical methods of Logistic Regression and Cross Tab to study the polysemy of Persian adjective Topol. The data were gathered through library research (including Persian dictionaries), interviews, and questionnaires. The research method employed is mixed, that is, qualitative and quantitative. The data were gathered from 200 participants, 100 male and 100 females, in four different age groups. The main hypothesis was that the “mere” cognitive approach is not adequate enough to explain lexical polysemy. The results indicate that cognitive sociolinguistics is indeed more adequate in giving more exact explanations concerning meaning variation in polysemous words and the effect of social variables of age and gender on the number and salience of each sense. In other words, the results show that different senses of the polysemous words do not suggest the same distribution among different speakers, both male and female, belonging to different age groups, and is not accidental but explainable in terms of age and gender of the speakers.

Reading is a skill that Iranian students learn it in the first to sixth grades in primary schools by Farsi textbooks. Readability is one of the qualities should be considered in textbooks, because it helps learners to read and understand effectively. Different researches have been done about textbooks readability, but in this paper all texts in sixth grades of primary school have been investigated. The results of evaluating of texts based on Fog, Fry and Flesh Standard were two folds: 1. according to Flesh Standard, the texts were easy but based on Fry and Fog they were suitable for one or two upper level; 2. there was no standard for texts ordering, because in some grades more difficult texts have been placed prior to easier ones.

This study aims to investigate the polysemy of the Persian word /jigar/ from the perspective of cognitive sociolinguistics. The main objective is to show that cognitive sociolinguistic approach is more adequate to explain lexical polysemy in comparison to cognitive linguistics. In cognitive sociolinguistics, it is believed that polysemy cannot be reduced to a static state, one and the same for all speakers of a language. Rather, social variables like age and gender of speakers affect the way they perceive different meanings of the polysemous words. This paper, in line with Robinson (2010, 2012a, 2012b, 2014), investigates the effects of two social variables of age and gender on the number and salience of each meaning of the polysemous word /jigar/. The data are gathered through library research (e.g., using Persian dictionaries), interviews, and questionnaires. The research method employed is hybrid, i.e. qualitative and quantitative. The data are gathered from 200 subjects, 100 male and 100 females, in four different age groups in Tehran. The results indicated that cognitive sociolinguistics is indeed more adequate in giving more exact explanations concerning meaning variation in polysemous words and the effect of social variables of age and gender on the number and salience of each sense. In other words, the results show that different senses of the polysemous words do not suggest the same distribution among different speakers, both male and female, belonging to different age groups, and are not accidental but explainable in terms of age and gender of the speakers.

The present descriptive-analytic research uses the semantic model (Antonano, 1999 and 2002) and the semantic network of perception verbs (Afrashi & Asgari, 1396) to describe and analyze the polysemy of the perception verb “see”. For this purpose, the meanings of the verb “see” in Persian were compiled using Dehkhoda dictionary, Moein dictionary, and Persian language databases. At this stage, 4500 sentences were used from the Persian language database, classified on the basis of extended meanings. Analyzes of this paper, which take more into account the capabilities of the human senses and the way we perceive the world around us, show that 'embodiment' is the source of the metaphorical conceptualization and semantic extension of 'see'. The polysemy of “see” is the result of the interaction of the semantic content of the verb with other elements of the sentence level. The findings of this study are in line with Antonano (1999) and Afrashi and Asgari (1396). There were also cases that Antonano (1999 and 2002) did not mention. On the other hand, the findings of this study are in line with the ideas of Antonano (2002), Evans & Wilkins (2000), and Koveceses, (2005) that have challenged Sweetser's (1990) idea of the “universality of the semantic extension of perception verbs”.

The present paper aims to investigate the polysemy of the Persian word /šax/ from the perspective of cognitive sociolinguistics. The study begins with introducing the tenets of cognitive sociolinguistics, and then goes on to investigate the polysemy of the Persian adjective /šax/ within this framework. In cognitive sociolinguistics, it is believed that polysemy cannot be reduced to a static state, one and the same for all speakers of a language. Rather, social variables like age and gender of speakers affect the way they perceive different senses of the polysemous words. This paper, in line with cognitive sociolinguistic, studies on polysemy, specifically those of Robinson (2010, 2012a, 2012b, and 2014), employed advanced statistical methods of Logistic Regression and Cross Tab to study the polysemy of Persian adjective /šax/ among 200 Persian speakers, both male and female, of different ages, selected from the Narmak neighborhood, Tehran, Iran, within the time span of spring and summer 2018. The results show that the cognitive sociolinguistic approach works desirably in lexical polysemy studies. In addition, the use of advanced statistical methods revealed a number of important facts about different senses of /šax/ in terms of age and gender, which provide a better description of polysemy in Persian language.

Abstract:The present research explores the analysis of semantic network of two prepositions in Sorani Kurdish:"bæ,læ"within the framework of cognitive semantics. Cognitive semantics has a special view toward preposition. One of the recent models is the Principled Polysemy Model (Tyler & Evans 2003). The prepositions "bæ, læ" have a two final "æwæ, dɑ" in the end of their noun phrase that distinguishes this research from other. the primary sense of"læ" is "beginning, source" and its semantic network contains 15 senses. The circumposition "læ… dɑ" determined for primary sense and its metaphor cluster of sense. The circumposition "læ…dɑ" for containment's cluster and the preposition "læ" for other distinct senses. The preposition"bæ" has 12 distinct senses and the"adherence" is specified as its primary sense. The circumposition "bæ…æwæ" determined for primary sense and its metaphor cluster. The circumposition "bæ…dɑ" for containment's cluster and the single preposition:"bæ" for other distinct senses.

This paper introduces the main tenets of the new approach to cognitive sociolinguistics and suggests that by incorporating the insights of sociolinguistics with those of cognitive linguistics, this new approach can provide a new and fruitful perspective to the study of language. The two properties of this new approach, i.e., its usage-based character and its emphasis on social variations of language, make it heart throbbing and most optimal for the study of language. After introducing the main tenets of cognitive sociolinguistics, this paper shows that these two underlying properties, the usage-based character and the emphasis on social variations, are the communication loop between the cognitive linguistics and sociolinguistics approaches. Such an approach should accept that the only acceptable way to study the systematic variation of language that encompasses the social dimension of the phenomenon is necessarily empirical. In other words, adopting social approach entails taking an empirical method.

In this research, the goal is using principles of functional linguistics to investigate evaluative language in Persian and English according to Halliday’s functional theory. Comparison is one of the factors which is causing cohesion in sentences of texts. In this article art reviews are studied to identify grammatical and lexical pattern used in comparative reference and usage of evaluative language in all kind of linguistic structure in Persian and English. Also evaluative language in two languages is compared. The discursive function of evaluative language help readers recognize concept of evaluation in text and form a frame work of comparison evaluation in their mind. The research is analytical – descriptive. The related data were collected from literary and art magazines and theoretical framework of this article is according to Halliday’s functional theory. In this research we conclude that both languages in use of structural pattern comparative/ superlative attribute, similarity, degree adverb clause, correct clause and Lexical and adjectival accumulation for evaluation are the same.

The aim of present study is to investigate the roleof metaphor in the polysemy of visual verb /görmǝk/ (seeing) in Azerbaijani Turkish within the framework of cognitive semantics. This study is a descriptive - documentary and has been tried to present the various meanings based on cognitive semantics approach. To achieve this goal, the linguistic corpus used in this study is comprised of Azerbaijani Turkish language databases, including dictionaries, books, magazines, newspapers, and author's linguistic intuition. The findings indicate that for visual verb /görmǝk/ (seeing) 24 senses was extracted after the classification and abstracting away of contextual variations. They also show that the polysemy is a systematic phenomenon and factors such as metaphor and metonymy are crucially involved in the formation and description of polysemy. In this way, semantic extensive network of verb is formed and on the other hand, it is claimed that metaphor has stronger role than metonymy in the formation of polysemy and usage of verb in the different context.

This article aims at studying the typological criteria of phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics of Ilami Kurdish dialect. The data has been collected through the field study conducted in May 2014 in Ilam city and the suburbs. To do so, the researchers, using a preplanned questionnaire, interviewed 20 speakers who were preferably old male informants. The analysis of the data indicated that among the significant phonological features of the dialect studied are the occurrence of consonants like [ř], [ł], [w], [Ч]and [ŋ] and vowels such as [ĕ], [ə], [ü], and [ε]. Moreover, the syllable structure of the dialect is different from that of Modern Persian in such a way that it has six syllable patterns among which three patterns contain initial consonantal clusters having one of the semivowels [w], [y], or [ч] as the second consonant. Among the other worth-mentioning findings of the study one can refer to the order of modifiers and heads in genitive case and adjective phrases and also the occurrence of prepositions and circumlocutions. Also, the data shows that there is no agreement between number and the noun following it. Meanwhile, no grammatical gender differentiation was observed. Finally, the index of numbers from one to ten shows no considerable discrepancy between Ilami Kurdish and other Iranian dialects.

In this paper we have investigated three frequent morphemes in Hawrami of Paveh, namely, “-ænæ”, “-æwæ” and “-æɾæ”. The nature of these morphemes is unknown. They are attached to nouns with a meaning like that of adpositions. We aim to explore what these morphemes are. We first elicited and classified 52 Hawrami prepositions, determined the structure of Hawrami Prepositional Phrase, introduced Oblique case and its markers in Hawrami, and then we put forward three hypotheses regarding the nature of the three morphemes. Based on our hypotheses, the morphemes are either postpositions, part of complex adpositions, or case markers. Analyzing the data we could not decide on the acceptability of either hypotheses. After all, we tried hypotheses with language universals, but this effort did not help, too. It seems that these three morphemes are disappearing or changing remnants of an old system in Hawrami postpositional or case system. We could not make any remark more precise than that.

The current research has explored the schematic basis of the metaphors in the proverbs of Eastern Guilan within the framework of cognitive semantics، based on Evans and Green’s schematic model (2006). Cultures along with social identities are well reflected in the proverbs and therefore studying proverbs are of focal importance in linguistics. Studying the discursive use of proverbs in a given culture diachronically will reveal their cognitive -and sociological- function. Moreover، image schemas are dynamic patterns in cognitive semantics which are not studied thoroughly in Iranian dialects; in fact there are only few studies on the subject. The present study was designed in a descriptive- analytic manner to study mentioned concepts. Upon the analysis of data، it became apparent that the general types of image schemas provided by Evans and Green such asspace schema، containment schema، locomotion schema، force schema، unity schema، balance schema، identity schema and existence schema could be traced in the proverbs of Eastern Guilan.

There is a common practice of presenting a long list of meanings with no mention of the relationship among different meanings of a preposition, as an entry, in traditional Persian grammar books. The present paper argues that such a practice is far from adequate in the case of the preposition /az/, and that the more adequate way is to present a family resemblance semantic network, based on a prototype. The method presented here makes it possible to show the conceptual relations among the senses, and therefore refutes the common assumption that the meanings of prepositions are quite arbitrary.

We will argue that the common practice in the literature of giving a long list of senses for spatial prepositions, implying that they are unrelated to one another is not adequate. The more adequate way is presenting a network of related senses based on a prototype. Also, speaking specifically about Persian preposition /d?r/, we will argue that the meanings of spatial prepositions arise as a consequence of our daily bodily experiences in the world and our conceptualization thereof. It is also shown that the cognitive semantic approach taken in this paper sheds more light on the semantic structure of spatial prepositions in general and /d?r/ in particular, a light which can be very useful in teaching prepositions.