abdolhossein heydari

This study aimed at studying morpheme "ta" as conjunction and preposition in speech of Azerbaijani speakers. The study was descriptive-analytical and corpus was collected from languages spoken in different regions of East Azarbajan and Ardabil provinces. First, using morpheme "ta" as conjunctions and prepositions were collected. Then, data was analyzed following dominant paradigm related to language contact . The analysis of data indicated that morpheme "ta" as conjunction was much more frequently used than the same morpheme as preposition. Furthermore, morpheme "ta" as conjunction was abundant in speech of all speakers, even monolingual Azerbaijani speakers. Therefore, two criteria of frequency of use and finding the way of linguistic element in speech and language of monolinguals are indicators of borrowing of morpheme "ta" as a conjunction in Azerbaijani T language. However, the use of the morpheme "ta" as a preposition and conjunction in certain meanings was less frequent in the speech of Azerbaijani speakers. These types of morphemes seem to appear only in the speech of Azerbaijani-Persian bilinguals. Consequently, the morpheme "ta" as preposition and conjunction in certain meanings and as codeswitching element is still phonetically rendered in the speech of bilinguals,. The studies on language contact have mostly focused on the results of borrowing, while codeswitching -borrowing continuum has highlighted the path for entering and establishing nonnative elements in host language. Entering Persian morpheme "ta" in speech of Azerbaijani speakers is also an indication of gradual process of transferring functional elements has been analyzed under the framework of codeswitching- borrowing.

 This paper attempted to study the writing tasks of Persian writing textbooks used at primary schools (fourth and fifth).

 At first, the writing tasks of Persian writing textbooks were classified according to 2 significant kinds of writing activities (receptive and productive) with 15 subdivisions. Then, the frequency and percentage of the tasks in the books were determined to be analyzed. So, the research method used in this paper is descriptive-analytic. 

 The data analysis showed that 69/43 percent of writing tasks in the writing textbooks have been allocated to receptive tasks. Meanwhile, these books have been designed to teach a writing skill called productive writing. Although the designing of receptive tasks is prior to designing productive ones in language teaching, the authors should consider the balance in designing two different writing tasks. 

 The results of analytical statistics indicate a significant difference between the writing tasks in the two textbooks. The frequency of the productive writing tasks in the textbook has increased as the students are promoted to a higher level and their language knowledge is strengthened. Tasks such as reading comprehension and summary writing should be paid attention to in the writing textbooks because it is necessary to read before writing. The findings of this study can be helpful to both the textbook authors and teachers.

The aim of this paper is to study the words ending to Persian suffix -i in speech of Azerbaijani speakers based on MLFM. The data have been collected from Azerbaijani speakers’ speech in different contexts. The research method is descriptive-analytic. At first, the different forms of Persian homonymous bound morpheme -i were classified into: early system morphemes and late outside system morphemes according to differential access hypothesis. Then the data were analyzed based on the principles and hypothesis of MLFM. Azarbaijani is matrix language in all data due to uniform structure principle of MLFM. According to differential access hypothesis, late outside system morphemes are structure maker and they determine the syntactic order of constituents in the sentences, meanwhile early system morphemes play role in transferring of meaning. Azerbaijani as a matrix language causes its late outside system morphemes activates at formulation level to assign Azerbaijani morpho-syntactic frame on the sentences. So Persian late outside system morphemes do not appear in speech of Azerbaijani speakers. Persian early system morphemes (-i as a derivational morpheme and –i as an indefinite morpheme) do not have any role in determining syntactic structure of sentences, therefore they can be transferred to Azerbaijani speakers’ speech by being added to Persian content morphemes. It seems there is a relation between different morpheme nature (their selection at different abstract level) and their transferring to other languages. So MLFM is more efficient in explaining language contact phenomenon.

This paper attempted to study the vocabulary tasks of Persian writing textbooks used at primary schools (4th, 5th and 6th grades) based on lexical knowledge taxonomy. The research method of this paper is descriptive-analytic. At first, the vocabulary tasks of Persian writing textbooks were accounted and they were classified according to the taxonomy. The data has been analyzed by using SPSS. Results from the codification of explicit vocabulary tasks showed that the majority of vocabulary tasks in the writing textbooks have been allocated to the writing form aspect but the frequency of other aspects of vocabulary knowledge such as collocation is very low. In addition, allocating 80 percent of explicit vocabulary tasks to receptive tasks in comparison to only 20 percent of productive tasks shows that vocabulary task designing is unbalanced in the textbooks. However, these books have been designed to teach the writing skill which is a productive skill. The results of analytical statistics indicate that there is not a significant difference between different aspects of vocabulary knowledge in the textbooks, but the difference between the two kinds of vocabulary tasks in these books is significant. It is proposed that the vocabulary tasks of the textbooks should be corpus-based. In addition, different aspects of vocabulary knowledge should be realized in different kinds of textbooks’ vocabulary tasks to be exposed repeatedly by the students. Because repetition is an important factor in learning vocabulary. The findings of this study can be useful both to textbook designers and teachers.

The aim of this paper is to study the verb borrowing of Persian based on matrix language frame model. Myers-scotton (1993-2006) proposed matrix language frame model due to eminent role of one language in the bilinguals’ speech. Only one language as matrix language determine morpho-syntactic patterns of sentences containing the elements of two languages according to uniform structure principle of matrix language frame model. The data is corpus-based and they have been collected from Persian speakers’ speech in different contexts. The research method is descriptive-analytic. At first, Persian verb and its inflectional morphemes were classified into: content morphemes (non-verbal elements in compound verbs and bare form of the verb in simple verbs) and late outside system morpheme (inflectional morphemes of the verb and light verbs) according to differential access hypothesis or 4-M model. Then the data were analyzed based on the principles and hypothesis of matrix language frame model. Persian is matrix language in all data due to uniform structure principle of matrix language frame model. Persian acting as matrix language has caused the inflectional morphemes of its verb have been added to non-Persian verbs entered Persian verb construction through light verb construction and indirect insertion process. Matrix language has caused inflectional morphemes of Persian verb activated and selected at formulation level to assign Persian morpho-syntactic frame on the sentences. So non-Persian verbs have been activated and selected at conceptual level as content morphemes. These content morphemes are realized as infinite verbs in Persian speakers’ speech to carry meaning. It seems there is a relation between different morpheme nature (their selection at different abstract level) and their transferring to other languages. Myers-scotton (1993-2006) emphasizes this relationship. As he has predicted matrix language frame model is efficient in explaining language contact phenomenon so more expansive studies can be based on it.

The present paper was an attempt to study the effect of the Persian lexicon on the students’ English NP production in speech production levels. The data were collected from the senior high school students' English speech. The research method is descriptive-analytic. At first 210 errors were classified into 6 groups and then they were analyzed according to principles and hypotheses offered in speech production stages. Persian grammatical features in the students’ utterances show that Persian lexemes have been selected in speech production stages because grammatical processing is the direct consequence of lexical selection. It was found that the activation coming from the conceptual level has been spread to the phonological segments of Persian lexemes according to phonological activation models. So Persian lexicon has been active in forming the surface structure of the students’ utterances. English lexemes associated with corresponding Persian ones in surface structure have been selected from the English lexicon before utterance articulation. The study results are in line with the word association model which assumes L2 words are associated with L1 words and through L1 mediation can L2 words gain access to concepts at early L2 learning.

The aim of this research is to study causative changes in Azerbaijani due to contact with Persian. The data were collected from Azerbaijani speakers in Ardabil province. The research method is descriptive-analytic. First, the data were classified according to the formal parameters used in studying causative structures. Then, they were analyzed in the framework of two common approaches in language contact phenomenon (Myers-Scotton, 2006; Heine, 2006). Data analysis based on the criteria of code-switching/borrowing differentiation shows that some of Persian causative non-verbal elements have been borrowed by Azerbaijani and some of them appear as code-switched elements in Azerbaijani-Persian bilinguals’ speech. The findings were in line with Myers-Scotton’s view confirming code-switching/borrowing continuum as a mechanism for accomplishment of borrowing process. The compound sentences with two native compound causative verbs between collected data show that compound causative structure exists in Azerbaijani. Azerbaijani speakers use strategy such as the extending strategy to increase the frequency of compound causative structure matching that of Persian by borrowing and code-switching Persian non-verbal causative elements. Azerbaijani speakers choose among some alternative causative structures, the one corresponding to Persian structure.

Affix ordering is a theoretical discussion in morphology. There has been some debate over the existence of general principles or mechanisms governing affix ordering. In this regard, we can point to three principal approaches. The first approach named the stratum-oriented model (Siegel, 1974; Allen, 1978; Kiparsky, 1982; Mohanan, 1986), believes that lexicon has a layered structure and can determine the affixes' combinations. The second approach relies on Selectional Restrictions' affix oriented (Fabb, 1988; Plag, 1999). These restrictions include restrictions of the group of affixes and phonological, morphological, semantic, and syntax restrictions. This approach claims that the description of possible and impossible combinations of affixes is related to describing the functions of restrictions. The third approach formed the theoretical framework of the present study by providing a psycho-linguistic model based on this idea that the affix ordering is a function of the degree of parsability of affixes from their bases (Hay 2000; 2002). According to this approach, affixes parsed easily in language processing cannot stay near the base relative to the affixes with a lower degree of parsability. Plag (2003) called the approach as Complexity-Based Ordering (CBO). The question is that how can we describe the Persian derivational prefixes ordering based on the CBO framework. For this reason, by selecting 17 prefixes 2200 derivational words extracted from database. By considering prefixes co-occurrences the rank of each prefix was obtained by using directed-graph and upper triangle square matrixes. According to this theoretical framework, by using frequency of derivational words and bases we could draw the scatter plot and determined the rank of type and token frequency ratio. Finally, according to data and by using the rank of parsability, type and token frequency ratio, we assessed the continuum of Persian prefixes ordering. Similar to Hay and Plag (2004) findings, this approach can describe Persian prefixes ordering as well as English affixes ordering

WH-multiple questions in Persian is divided into two main categories:sequential and split.Sequential group is itself divided into two kinds including simple WH-multiple questions and coordinated.In split group,coordinated WH-questions are separate.In this research,we examine biclausal reasons of WH-multiple questions in Persian.For this,first introduce sequential WH-questions and their types,then split ones and show biclausal reasons of each one.Theoretical framework is Grachanin-Yuksek(2017)which adheres to fundamental principles governing Chomsky's Minimalism(1995)and using constituency and stand-alone test determine that in sequential coordinated wh-questions and split ones,coordinator and is related to first coordinate or second.Results show that commonality part of structure satisfying linguistic economy,ellipsis of identical constituent in one of conjuncts and multi dominance in WH-multiple questions and also ATB in sequential coordinated group suggests biclausality of these structures.Data studying indicates that in Persian,there isn’t swiping.It also shows that coordinator forms same construct both in coordinated WH-questions and split ones and coordinator and belongs to second clause.

This paper studies the errors produced by Azari-Turkish/Persian bilinguals using the inflectional morphemes of Persian verb, on the basis of 4-M model. The data were collected from 50 primary bilingual students’ writings in Meshkinshahr villages. The inflectional morphemes of Persian verb were classified in two types: early system morphemes (negative, causative, imperative and passive morphemes) and late outside system morphemes (person/number, tense, aspect, subjunctive morphemes) according to 4-M model. The data Analysis indicates the late outside system morphemes of Persian verb are acquired harder and later than its early system morphemes by bilingual students. It seems there is a relation between different morpheme nature and their acquisition order. Late outside system morphemes are activated later in the production process as required by the grammatical frame of the target language. While early system morphemes are indirectly elected at the same time that content morphemes are directly elected by the speaker’s intentions. The results match Wei (2000) explanation of different morpheme acquisition order based on 4-M model. This paper studies the errors produced by Azerbaijani /Persian bilinguals using the inflectional morphemes of Persian verb, on the basis of 4-M model. The data were collected from 50 primary bilingual students’ writings in Meshkinshahr villages. 50 subjects were native speakers of Azerbaijani but they had learned Persian (language of instruction) as a second language.The inflectional morphemes of Persian verb were classified in two types: early system morphemes (negative, causative, imperative and passive morphemes) and late outside system morphemes (person/number, tense, aspect, subjunctive morphemes) according to 4-M model. The 4-M model specifies four types of morphemes: content morphemes, early system morphemes, and two  types  of late system morphemes. The model further subcategorizes late system morphemes into two types: bridges and outsiders. Early system morphemes are activated at the lemma level together with their content morpheme heads for their maximal projection. Unlike content morphemes and early system morphemes, late system morphemes depend on other types of information for their activation, and this information is only available at the level of the formulator, where language specific morphosyntactic patterns must be realized. Information about all types of morphemes is present in lemmas, information about content morphemes and early system morphemes is salient at the conceptual level, and information about late system morphemes becomes salient at the positional level of the formulator.The data analyzing indicates the late outside system morphemes of Persian verb are acquired harder and later than its early system morphemes by bilingual students. The differences across abstract lexical entries in the mental lexicon cause different degrees of difficulty in acquiring different types of morphemes. The descriptive statistics of the data showed that not all morphemes are produced with equal accuracy. Learner errors with the late system morphemes (person/number) are more frequent than other system morphemes. Both third and 4th grade learners had almost no difficulty in acquiring some early system morphemes (such as negative, causative, imperative and passive morphemes), but they had serious difficulty inaccurately producing the late system morphemes. So the late outside system morphemes of Persian (person/number) are acquired with more difficulty and later in comparison to early system morphemes. It seems there is a relation between different morpheme nature and their acquisition order. Late outside system morphemes are activated later in the production process as required by the grammatical frame of the target language. While early system morphemes are indirectly elected at the same time that content morphemes are directly elected by the speaker’s intentions. So it is the sources of morphemes that can effectively explain why certain learner errors are more frequent and common than others and thus determine the order of second language morpheme accuracy/frequency acquisition. This paper results match Wei (2000) explanation of different morpheme acquisition order based on 4-M model. Wei (2000) concluded that Interlanguage data from early adult Chinese and Japanese learners of Englishas a second language indicate an implicational hierarchy of morpheme acquisition: content morphemes areacquired before any system morphemes, and early system morphemes are acquired before late systemmorphemes

This paper attempted to study the writing tasks of Persian writing textbooks used at primary schools (4th, 5th and 6th grades). The main tool of the research is a taxonomy designed within writing continuum and in accordance to the writing tasks of Persian writing textbooks. The research method of this paper is descriptive-analytic. At first the writing tasks of Persian writing textbooks were accounted and they were classified according to the proposed taxonomy. The data has been analyzed by using (SPSS 20). Results from the codification of 386 tasks showed that the distribution of the items in the taxonomy is not the same. The majority of writing tasks in the writing textbooks (70, 46 %) has been allocated to controlled writing emphasizing on improving the language knowledge and basic lower-level writing skills. It shows that the product-approach is the dominant approach in Persian writing textbooks used at primary schools (4th, 5th and 6th grades). So the textbook designers should pay attention the balance between basic skills and higher-level ones in writing skill. In addition, a significant difference was found between writing tasks of the textbooks in their inclusion of different levels of the taxonomy. It can also be said that as the students proceed to higher grades and their language knowledge and background knowledge develop, the level of writing task designing gets higher. Extended Abstract: Writing is a way to produce the language which comes from our thought. Nunan (2003) claimed that learning to write fluently and expressively is the most difficult of four language skills for all students.For this reason, there should be appropriate materials, which cater for the students needs. This paper attempted to study the writing tasks of Persian writing textbooks used at primary schools (4th, 5th and 6th grades). The main tool of the research is a taxonomy designed within the framework of previous researchers (Juriah, 2015; Hartanti, 2011; Dickson, 2001; Verghase, 1989& …) and in accordance to the writing tasks of Persian writing textbooks. According to Hyland (2003), since the development of the writing as a distinctive area of scholarship, two major approaches have been introduced: product-oriented approach and process-oriented approach. Product approach sees writing as being primarily about linguistic knowledge. This approach may include the skills of getting the grammar right, having a range of vocabulary, punctuating meaningfully, using the conventions of layout correctly, e.g. in letters, spelling accurately, using a range of sentence structures.The process approach stresses the composing processes of planning, drafting, and revising.The major aim of the process approach is to train writers how to generate ideas for writing,plan  these  ideas, draft and redraft in order to produce a final written paper that is likely to communicate their own ideas.  Various studies (Verghase, 1989; Dickson, 2001; Hartanti, 2011 &… ) stress the three stages in teaching writing skill: a) controlled writing b) guided writing c) free writing.The controlled writing  emphasizesaccuracy rather than fluency. It focuses on the structural aspect of the language and neglects its communicative aspect. The guided writing concerns with the organization of the material which is given. (Verghase, 1989). Dickson (2001) introduces some prompts to be used  by the teacher or the textbook in guided writing such as pictures, proverbs, short stories and so on. These activities facilitate the act of writing for the students. Free writing means that the students write without any interference, and are encouraged to emphasize content and fluency first.When adopting this method, one should not feel concerned with grammar, punctuation, spelling or style. While free-writing the writer should not reread what s/he has already written. Rather, if stuck on what to write next, just continue to write anything that comes to mind or rewrite the last word until another idea comes to mind. According to Raimes’s (1983) study, for controlled writing students need the following components of writing: syntax, grammar, mechanics, and word choice. In contrast, free writing requires all of Raimes’s components of writing: syntax, grammar, mechanics, word choice, organization, content, the writer’s process, audience, and purpose. The research method of this paper is descriptive-analytic. At first the writing tasks of Persian writing textbooks were accounted and they were classified according to the proposed taxonomy. The data has been analyzed by using (SPSS 20). Results from the codification of 386 tasks showed that the distribution of the items in the taxonomy is not the same. The majority of writing tasks in the writing textbooks (70, 46 %) has been allocated to controlled writing emphasizing on improving the language knowledge and basic lower-level writing activities. It shows that the product-approach is the dominant approach in Persian writing textbooks used at primary schools (4th, 5th and 6th grades). In addition, a significant difference was found between writing tasks of the textbooks in their inclusion of different levels of the taxonomy. It can also be said that as the students proceed to higher grades and their language knowledge and background knowledge develop, the level of writing task designing gets higher. The textbook designers should pay attention the balance between basic activities and higher-level ones in writing skill. However, it is dangerous to rely on any single group of writing activities, because each of the three kinds of writing activities has its own function and plays an important role in developing students’ writing abilities. Not only grammatical learning for understanding language functions and usage but also activities such as guided writing incorporated into free composition will encourage students to write their own thoughts. Therefore, writing instruction should aim to develop students’ practical communication abilities by proactively increasing the opportunities for free writing. However, because the analyzed textbooks included so few guided writing tasks and so many controlled writing tasks, it is better to be included enough guided writing tasks serving as a bridge to greater ability in free writing. The findings of this study can be used both by the textbook designers and teachers.

This paper attempted to study the case markers of Persian noun in Azerbaijani speakers’ speech on the basis of the 4-M model. Based on the understanding that in bilingual speech, one of the languages is normally dominant over the other, Myers-Scotton (1993, 1997) formulated the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model, in which she classified morphemes in complementizer phrases (CP) into two kinds: content morphemes, such as nouns and verbs, and system morphemes, such as inflections and most function words. A major difference between content morphemes and system morphemes is that most content morphemes either assign or receive thematic roles, while system morphemes do not. The contact languages play different roles. The language with the dominant role, that is the one that is used for the system morphemes, is called the matrix language (ML). The embedded language (EL) is the language from which content morphemes are inserted into the ML. The MLF model claims that in mixed ML+ EL constituents, only the ML is used to build the frame. That is, the ML determines the morpho-syntax of ML+EL constituents. Modified versions of the model have appeared since then (Myers-Scotton, 1997; Myers-Scotton, 2002; etc.), and the definitions of some of the terms of the MLF model have been elaborated on or revised. By extending the MLF model, a new morpheme categorization model called the 4-M model has been proposed (Myers-Scotton, 2002, 2006; Myers-Scotton & Jake, 2000). There are four categories of morphemes in the 4-M model, i.e. content morphemes and three types of system morphemes. This model is a refined version of the content vs. system morpheme opposition and explains how different morphemes are accessed in different ways in speech production. The heart of the 4-M model is the fact that system morphemes are activated at two different abstract levels. They are classified as early and late. Furthermore, late system morphemes are in turn divided into two types: bridges and outsiders. Early system morphemes are activated at the lemma level together with their content morpheme heads for their maximal projection. Levelt defines “lemma” as the “nonphonological part of an item’s lexical information.” He also states, “lemmas are the driving force behind the speaker’s construction of the surface structure. It is in the lemmas of the mental lexicon that conceptual information is linked to grammatical function” (1989, p. 162). Unlike content morphemes and early system morphemes, late system morphemes depend on other types of information for their activation, and this information is only available at the level of the formulator, where language specific morpho-syntactic patterns must be realized. Information about all types of morphemes is present in lemmas, information about content morphemes and early system morphemes is salient at the conceptual level, and information about late system morphemes becomes salient at the positional level of the formulator. The model has been tested in many language contact situations with positive results. In some studies of language contact phenomena, these different system morpheme types have been shown to play different roles in language production. For example, in second language acquisition, early system morphemes are acquired first, and late system morphemes are more difficult to acquire. Of those few system morphemes occurring in mixed constituents in codeswitching, early system morphemes are most likely to appear in the EL (Myers-Scotton & Jake, 2000). However, while no paper has focused explicitly on Persian- Azerbaijani contact using the 4-M model; this paper attempts to do so. The research method of this study is descriptive-analytic. First, on the descriptive level, it characterizes the case markers of Persian noun in terms of their entries in the mental lexicon (i.e., lemmas). Evidence indicates that morpheme appearance order in receptive language would not be explained without characterization of morphemes themselves, and such a characterization depends on the formalization of a connection between the underlying abstract lexical entries in the mental lexicon and surface realizations. Second, the study goes beyond describing the nature of different types of morphemes to investigating the morpheme appearance order in receptive language. The data were collected from Azerbaijani resources and its speakers in Ardabil province. The case markers of Persian noun were classified into three types on the basis of 4-M: content morphemes (adposition), early system morphemes (vocative articles) and late bridge system morphemes (genitive marker). The data analyzing indicates some Persian vocative articles have been borrowed by Azerbaijani while some adpositions appear as code-switched elements in bilinguals’ speech and genitive marker lies between them. It seems there is a relation between different morphemes nature and their order of entrance into other language. Unlike system morphemes, content morphemes assigning theta roles are rarely borrowed by other languages. Early system morphemes are borrowed more easily than late system morphemes. Late system morphemes are activated later in the production process as required by the grammatical frame of the matrix language, while early system morphemes are indirectly elected at the same time that content morphemes are directly elected by the speaker’s intentions. This paper’s findings indicate the 4-M model efficiency in explaining the order of morphemes appearance (as borrowed or code-switched) in receptive language.

The aim of this research is to study the effect of Persian language on Azerbaijani compound verb construction. Data were collected from Azerbaijani resources and the interactions of 30 speakers of this language in Ardabil province (Ardabil, Meshkin Shahr and their surrounding regions). Native Azerbaijani compound verbs plus those borrowed from Persian were extracted from the collected data and their frequency was determined. The research method is descriptive-analytic, because at first the data were classified in the framework of the verb accommodation strategies in the borrowed language and they were analyzed according to the common approaches in language contact literature. Results show that no Persian finite verb has entered Azerbaijani language. Azerbaijani language uses two strategies to accommodate Persian finite verbs. The light verb construction and indirect insertion are two important strategies that Azerbaijani speakers use to accommodate Persian verbs. The frequency of light verb construction (Persian non-verbal element + Azerbaijani light verb) in the speakers’ speech is very high in comparison to indirect insertion strategy (Persian noun or adjective + Azerbaijani verb making affixes) and Azerbaijani native compound verbs. In spite of some previous studies considering Azerbaijani compound verbs as patterns borrowed from Persian, this research finding shows that light verb construction is not a new pattern in Azerbaijani and this construction exists in the language itself. Azerbaijani speakers use the extending strategy to increase the frequency of this construction matching that of Persian. Borrowed Persian non-verbal element causes Azerbaijani speakers to choose among alternative verb making constructions (Persian non-verbal element + Azerbaijani light verb and Persian noun or adjective + Azerbaijani verb making affixes) the one corresponding to Persian construction. This change resulting in Azerbaijani progressive convergence to Persian is a natural consequence of language contact.

The aim of this research is to study syntactic changes in the compound sentences of Azerbaijani because of its contact with Persian. Data collected from Azerbaijani resources and its speakers (30 people) in Ardabil province. Data analyzing shows that borrowed constituents cause Azerbaijani speakers to choose among alternative structures one corresponding to Persian structure (right branching complement clause, analytic causative clause, post head relative clause and dependent clause with conjunction in initial position). The syntactic structures created are not alien to Azerbaijani. Azerbaijani speakers use strategies such as narrowing and extending to increase the frequency of some structures matching those of Persian. The syntactic changes are employed to achieve non-syntactic goal (but rather pragmatic in nature) and they result in Azerbaijani progressive convergence to Persian.

The aim of this research is to study Persian discourse markers in Azerbaijani speakers’ speech. Data was collected from Azerbaijani speakers’ conversations over 18 hours in Ardabil. Investigating data shows that Persian discourse markers," xob, be hǝr hal, yǝni, vǝli, belǝxǝre, ǝslǝn, vaqeǝn, kolǝn, vallah, mǝsǝlǝn, xolase, be xatere, ǝlbǝte, be qoli, ǝma˒ dǝrhalike˒bǝd˒ ҫön˒ dǝqiqǝn˒ dǝrvaqe are used in Azerbaijani conversations. They take place in different positions in a sentence with various discourse functions. The reasons of these substitutions are multifunctionality, lack of equivalents and simplicity of Persian discourse markers. Data analysis based on linguistic and non-linguistic criteria of borrowing/code-switching differentiation shows that the majority of Persian discourse markers have been borrowed by Azerbaijani and some of them appear as code-switched elements in bilinguals’ speech. The findings are in line with Myers-Scotton’s view describing borrowing/code-switching continuum as a mechanism for accomplishment of borrowing process.

This paper attempted to study the post-reading questions of Persian textbooks used at primary schools (4th, 5th and 6th grades) in terms of Barrett’s taxonomy. The research method was descriptive-analytic. At first, the post-reading questions of the textbooks were counted (394) and they were classified into 5 levels and 27 sub-categories of Barrett’s taxonomy. Then, the distribution of questions at different levels of the reading taxonomy was explored. Results from the codification of the 394 questions showed that the questions were not evenly distributed among the five levels of the taxonomy. The majority of the questions were of the recall type. High frequency of recall questions in the 4th</sup>, 5th</sup>, and 6th</sup> grade books showed that majority of the questions (64.10%) dealt with lowest level of reading skill. In addition, a significant difference was found between the post-reading questions of the textbooks in their inclusion of different levels of reading skill. That is, as the students proceeded to higher grades and their cognition and language competence developed, the level of questions became higher. The findings of this study can be used as a guide to textbook designers (in writing questions) and teachers (in answering questions) to modify their materials and practice to achieve the teaching-learning objectives of the reading skill. Extended Abstract</strong> This paper attempted to study the post-reading questions of Persian textbooks used at primary schools (4th</sup>, 5th</sup> and 6th</sup> grades) in terms of Barrett taxonomy. It is crucial to investigate what kind of cognitive skills are expected to be used in the post-reading questions of the present textbooks. Barrett’s taxonomy categorizes  reading  comprehension   skills  into  five  levels  of  comprehension. They are  presented  in  the  hierarchy  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  level  of  reading including literal, reorganization, inference, evaluation, and appreciation. The Barrett’s taxonomy was originally designed to assist classroom teachers in developing comprehension questions and test questions for reading. It is especially useful for classroom questioning in other content areas as well. The first two categories, literal comprehension and reorganization, deal with the facts as presented directly in the books the students have read, and thus result in closed questions that have a single correct response. Literal comprehension focuses on ideas and information which are explicitly stated in the selection.  Purposes for reading and teacher’s questions designed to elicit responses at this level may range from simple to complex. Reorganization requires the student to analyze, synthesize, and organize ideas or information clearly stated in the passage. The remaining categories will always involve the student’s own background of experience. As a result, it is possible to have as many different, but correct, responses as there are students present, since each brings to school a different background of home, family, friends, and learning. These categories therefore lead to the development of open-ended questions. Inferential comprehension is stimulated by purposes for reading and teachers’ questions which demand thinking and imagination that go beyond the printed page. Personal experience is interpreted to include formal learning experiences, as well as those things which the reader has personally experienced in a first hand situation. Prior knowledge, regardless of where this knowledge came from, is an integral part of inference. The crucial factor distinguishing inference questions from recognition and recall questions is that their answers are not explicitly stated but must be inferred. Purposes for reading and teacher’s questions, in evaluation, require responses by the student which indicate that he or she has made an evaluative judgment by comparing ideas presented in the selection with external criteria provided by the teacher, other authorities, or other written sources, or with internal criteria provided by the reader’s experiences, knowledge, or values. Evaluation deals with judgment and focuses on qualities of accuracy, acceptability, desirability, worth, or probability of occurrence. Appreciation involves all the previously cited cognitive dimensions of reading, for it deals with the psychological and aesthetic impact of the selection on the reader. Appreciation calls for the student to be emotionally and aesthetically sensitive to the work and to have a reaction to the worth of its psychological and artistic elements. Appreciation includes both the knowledge of and the emotional response to literary techniques, forms, styles, and structures. The research method of this paper was descriptive-analytic. At first the post-reading questions of the textbooks were counted and they were classified according to Barrett’s taxonomy. Then the data were analyzed considering their distribution at different levels of the reading taxonomy. Results from the codification of questions showed that the majority of the items concentrated on the first level of Barrett’s taxonomy which is referred to as the lower level of reading skill. In addition, a significant difference was found between the post-reading questions of the textbooks in their inclusion of different levels of reading skill. That is, as the students proceeded to higher grades and their cognition and language competence developed, the level of questions became higher. The findings of this study can be used as a guide to textbook designers and teachers to modify their materials and practice to achieve the teaching-learning objectives of the reading skill. Therefore, it is important for teachers to realize that they should carefully analyze the questions in a textbook and evaluate for themselves whether or not they deem the questions to be adequate or appropriate for their students, and not just to blindly accept and use the questions given in textbooks. If the questions in textbooks are not adequate, teachers need to prepare other questions by themselves. To promote  student  cognitive  skills,  it  is  necessary  to  build teacher’s  competence  for  making  appropriate  cognitive questions. A  mixture  of  questions  at  various  levels  of  the taxonomy  might  result  in  effective learning  at  higher and  lower levels of thinking skills. The  advantage  of  having  textbooks  with  mixed  questions (questions at all levels) is  that low ability students perform better on knowledge recall questions and high ability  students  perform  better  on  inference, evaluation, and appreciation  level questions.

This paper attempted to classify Persian inflectional morphemes, using 4-M (4-morpheme) model. It is a base production model. In this model According to their access in speech production morphemes divided into one content morpheme and three systematic morphemes. Considering Persian language behavior and evidences and according to the 4-m model, negative, causative, imperative and passive morphemes of verb plus plural forms of noun, comparative and superlative suffixes of adjective and adverb s comparative morpheme belongs to systematic morphemes because these structures add conceptual information to their core (verb, noun, adjective and adverb) and indirectly selected by the core. But structures which show properties like person/number, tense, aspect, subjunctive mood of verb get into outer, late, systematic morphemes required by the grammatical frame of the language and they are co-indexed with other constituents in the sentence.  Morpheme classification in 4-M has been done according to their being activated in different speech production levels. This classification can be used in explaining different linguistic area (such as the order of morphemes in language acquiring or learning).

Some linguistic forms may become polysemous through language changes and lose their core meaning. Sometimes these forms may stay as relics in different constructions and their core meaning is not understandable without historical studies. In Persian language, “var / bar” means “side, beside”. “var / bar” has been varah- in Avestan language, and "war" in Middle Persian, which used to mean "chest". In Dari Persian (prose and poetry in the Islamic era), meaning of "bar" has changed to "embrace, side, beside, in somebody’s presence" and also "front" through broadening and metonymy. Today, “var / bar” is used to construct words such as “barobazu” (shoulders and arm), baroru (face)" and phrases such “dar bar dâštan” (include), and although it is morphologically distinguishable for Persian speakers, it is semantically opaque. These compounds and syntactic structures are in primary stages of lexicalization in Persian. In “vare dele kasi nešastan” (being with someone), “var” is a preposition and its grammaticalization process is in intermediate stage.

This study aimed to explore the use of noun dependent morphemes in Azerbaijani-Persian bilinguals’ writing samples based on 4-M model. 80 writing samples were collected from primary students (males and females) who studied at rural schools of Meshkin-Shahr Township. The research method was descriptive-analytic. Following the 4-M model, the noun dependent morphemes of Persian language were classified into three categories i. e. early system morphemes (plural morphemes, quantifiers and …), late bridge system morphemes (genitive marker and conjunction “ke”), and late outside system morphemes (accusative marker). Descriptive statistics of correctly used morphemes showed that in comparison to early system morphemes, late outside system morphemes were acquired later and with more difficulty. It seems that there is a relation between the nature of different morphemes (activation of morphemes at the abstract levels of speech production) and their acquisition order. Late outside system morphemes draw on L2 morpho-syntactic system and are activated at later stages of speech production process. The selection of early system morphemes occurs indirectly at lexico-conceptual level and is simultaneous with the direct selection of content morphemes. The findings confirmed the efficiency of4-M model in explaining the order of acquisition of L2 morphemes. Expanded Abstract:  The aim of this paper is to study the use of noun dependent morphemes of Persian in Azerbaijani-Persian bilinguals’ writing based on 4-M model. The 4-M model specifies four types of morphemes: content morphemes, early system morphemes, and two  types  of late  system morphemes. The model further subcategorizes late system morphemes into two types: bridges and outsiders. Early system morphemes are activated at the lemma level together with their content morpheme heads for their maximal projection. Unlike content morphemes and early system morphemes, late system morphemes depend on other types of information for their activation, and this information is only available at the level of the formulator, where language specific morpho-syntactic patterns must be realized. Information about all types of morphemes is present in lemmas, information about content morphemes and early system morphemes is salient at the conceptual level, and information about late system morphemes becomes salient at the positional level of the formulator. Levelt defines “lemma” as the non-phonological part of an item’s lexical information. It is in the lemmas of the mental lexicon that conceptual information is linked to grammatical function” (1989, p.162). lemmas are abstract entries in the mental lexicon that contain information about the three subsystems of lexical structure: lexical-conceptual structure” conflating universally-available semantic and pragmatic information, “predicate-argument structure” specifying the properties of verbs in terms of their subcategorization frames, how many arguments they may take, and what thematic role each argument receives, and “morphological realization patterns” spelling out surface devices for word order, agreement, tense/aspect marking. The data were collected from 80 primary students’ writings (40 fourth grade students’ writings and 40 fifth grade students’ writings) in Meshkin-Shahr villages. 80 subjects were native speakers of Azerbaijani but they had learned Persian (language of instruction) as a second language. The present study offers some concrete evidence for the 4-M model from data dealing with second language morpheme accuracy/frequency acquisition. The research method was descriptive-analytic. First, on the descriptive level, the noun dependent morphemes of Persian were characterized in terms of their entries in the mental lexicon (i.e., lemmas). Evidence indicates that morpheme acquisition order would not be explained without the characterization of morphemes themselves, and such a characterization depends on the formalization of a connection between the underlying abstract lexical entries in the mental lexicon and surface realizations. Second, the study went beyond describing the nature of different types of morphemes to investigating the relative accessibility of morphemes in second language production. So the noun dependent morphemes of Persian were classified into: early system morphemes (plural morpheme, quantifiers and …), late bridge system morphemes (genitive marker and conjunction “ke”), and late outside system morphemes (accusative marker) according to 4-M model. This study was based on the assumption that the theoretical constructs of the distinction between content and system morphemes and the distinction between conceptually activated and non-conceptually activated lexemes best capture the generalizations of morpheme accuracy/frequency acquisition. The 4-M model captures these distinctions in claiming that not all such elements are accessed in the same way. The differences across abstract lexical entries in the mental lexicon cause different degrees of difficulty in acquiring different types of morphemes. The descriptive statistics of the data showed that not all morphemes are produced with equal accuracy. Learner errors with the late system morphemes (accusative marker) are more frequent than other system morphemes. Both 4th and 5th grade learners had almost no difficulty in acquiring some early system morphemes (such as vocative particle), but they had serious difficulty inaccurately producing the late system morphemes. So the late outside system morphemes of Persian (accusative marker) are acquired with more difficulty and later in comparison to early system morphemes. It seems there is a relation between the nature of different morphemes and their acquisition order. Second language acquisition processes and developmental patterns can be best explained and predicted in terms of the nature of different types of morphemes being acquired. Directly-elected morphemes (content morphemes) are acquired first and they add more lexical specifications, resulting in the projection of indirectly-elected morphemes (early system morphemes). So the differential projection of morphemes decides the acquisition order. Late outside system morphemes draw on L2 morpho-syntactic system and are activated later in the production process. Early system morphemes are indirectly selected at the same time that content morphemes are directly selected. It is the nature of morphemes that can effectively explain why certain learner errors are more frequent and common than others and thus determine the order of second language morpheme accuracy/acquisition. The findings indicate that 4-M model is efficient in explaining the order of acquisition of L2 morphemes.

This paper attempts to explore Turkish/Persian intrasentential code-switching employing the matrix language frame model (MLF), due to its high explanatory power in intrasentential code-switching, and null theory, which focuses on the role of the head in determining the phrase structure configuration of its complements in code-switching. The data were collected from a primary school by tape-recording and note-taking of interaction taking place between the bilingual teachers (n = 12) and students (n = 100). The data analysis provided evidence to claim that Turkish and Persian were taken as matrix language (ML) and embedded language (EL), respectively because Turkish language constitutes the grammatical configuration of mixed sentences and all system morphemes in such sentences also belong to Turkish. But Persian quantifier phrases in Turkish morpho-syntactic frame were incompatible with MLF model prediction as EL islands. Examining the data according to null theory also challenges the role of the head in determining the phrase structure configuration of its complements in code-switching. As it became clear from the data collected, both the high frequency of words and their conceptual significance in the bilingual mind can be taken as determining factors in selecting one of the two different grammatical structures of the languages involved in code-switched phrases and dependent clauses.