جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « reference grammar » در نشریات گروه « ادبیات و زبان ها »

The verb "xɑstan" in Persian has a dual nature, so that it can be used both as an auxiliary verb and a lexical verb. " xɑstan " as a lexical verb indicates different meanings that are also expressed in the form of different structures. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to discuss the syntactic and semantic dimensions of this verb in different constructions. The authors believe that Role and Reference Grammar (RRG), with its approach to the study of complex constructions, is well capable of giving a comprehensive description of the constructions in question. In this command, complex constructions are explained based on the "Interclausal Relations Hierarchy ". The mentioned hierarchy consists of two syntactic and semantic continuities. In the syntactic dimension, juncture-nexus relations are considered and in the semantic continuum, the type of semantic relations based on the main predicate is discussed. In this regard, an attempt was made to describe the various uses of the verb " xɑstan " based on hierarchy, and from this approach, the assumptions of the RRG were tested based on research findings. Some findings suggest that the verb " xɑstan " semantically falls into the category of psych-action, jussive and propositional attitude predicates, and in the syntactic dimension it also appears in the form of core cosubordination and core subordination. It is worth mentioning that the data of the present study are taken from the corpus of Hamshahri 2.

In the present study Azeri Turkish noun phrase construction is investigated in the framework of Role and Reference Grammar and Van Valin's (2005) theoretical pattern. In this descriptive analytical study, the data was selected from written resources and by listening to the conversations of the Azeri-speaking inhabitants of eastern Azerbaijan and only sentences containing complex and compound nominal phrases were selected by purposive sampling.Data analyses revealed that complex nominal phrase consists of restrictive clauses, nonrestrictive clauses and nominal complements.Relationship in restrictive relative group is of subordinative type and the link is of nucleus type.Due to this point that nonrestrictive relative clauses don`t transfer essential information for recognizing noun to listener and haven`t semantically close relationship with nominal nucleus, relationship in this type of noun phrase is subordinative and the link is of nominal core type.Constructions that have nominal complement have a clause as an argument of nominal nucleus core.The type of relationship in this noun phrase is of subordinative type and the link is of nominal nucleus core type.Compound nominal phrase consists of conjunctive nominal phrases,endocentric,exocentric and appositive.And also, Studying of noun phrase construction based on Role and Reference Grammar,we can refer to points that are specific to this ....

In Role and Reference Grammar (RRG), based on stativity, telicity, and punctuality, verbs are classified into six classes named state, activity, achievement, accomplishment, semelfactive, and active-accomplishment. The predicates in these classes can take one, two, or three argument(s) according to the number of participants involved in an event as well as the argument structure of the verb. Three-place predicates need three distinct arguments and they exhibit some abstract or concrete transition or movement in their conceptual structure. The argument in three-place predicates, undergoing alternation, can appear in more than one syntactic format; that is to say, in unmarked structures, direct object is ‘râ’-marked and the indirect object is accompanied by a preposition. This is while in marked or alternate form, the preposition is deleted and the non-macrorole argument receives the role of direct object. In Persian, like many other languages, the frequency of three-place predicates, in comparison with one and two-place predicates, is low, but knowing their behavior is significant for better applying them in related contexts. Employing framework of RRG, this paper, aims to investigate alternation in three-place predicates of Aktionsart in Persian. The data are collected from various web sites, newspapers, books, and also daily conversations. Data analysis shows that state verbs do not undergo alternation; This is mainly because common characteristics of state verbs are their non-action nature and being low transitive or intransitive. Most verbs in this class need one or two argument(s) and low number of three-place predicates in this class, shows no alternation due to stativity and low transitivity. Motion active-accomplishment verbs, however, are more prone to alternation; concrete transition from an actor to a recipient is common among these verbs. Some three-place predicates in achievement class, have alternation; while alternation in accomplishment class, leads mostly to ungrammatical structure. Generally speaking, alternation in three-place predicates is the result of marked selection of the recipient, and is mostly observed in motion active-accomplishment verbs; the reason is non-stativity and high transitivity of this subclass in comparison to other verb classes.       

The present study studies control constructions in Persian language based on Role and Reference Grammar (RRG). In RRG, control constructions are discussed based on " theory of obligatory control ". This theory has semantic foundations and specifically evaluates the phenomenon of control based on the thematic relations of the arguments as well as the type of control predicates. In the present paper, we first categorized the types of control predicates based on " Interclausal semantic relations " in the RRG and in this command, we analyzed the types of control constructions based on psych-action, causative and jussive predicates. The findings confirm that the Persian language data are consistent with the theory of obligatory control and as a result, the explanatory adequacy of the theory can be confirmed. It is worth mentioning that the data of the present study are taken from the corpus of Hamshahri 2.

Phase predicates describe each of the beginning, continuation, or end phases of an event and are expressed in the form of verbs such as start, continue, end, and so on. In this regard, we call the structures in which there is a phasal predicates "phase construction" and discuss them. We believe that Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) with its approach to the analysis of complex constructions can be used as a theoretical framework for the present study. Based on this, we first analyze the syntactic and semantics aspects of phase constructions, then explain the interaction of the two levels of syntax and semantics. Finally, we will present the “constructional scheme” of phase constructions in Persian language. In the syntactic dimension, various types of "juncture-nexus" relations are considered, and in the semantics dimension, various properties of predicates will be the focus of discussion. Syntactic-semantic interaction in phase constructions will also be justified in the form of linking algorithms. It is worth mentioning that the data of the present study are taken from the corpus of Hamshahri 2.

Persian owns a flexible syntax and is thought to be a free word order language. In this paper, employing a Role and Reference Grammar framework, we argue that constituent reordering in preposing and left-dislocation constructions of the Persian left-periphery is the result of the interface between information-discourse structure, on the one hand, and a certain syntactic position in the layered structure of the clause, on the other: topical, focused, and contrastive constituents are hosted respectively by the left-detached position, pre-core slot, and kontrast position. Bear in mind that each position requires a certain discourse condition to be met. We also show that non-canonical constituent orders at the Persian left-periphery are not merely a rearrangement of syntactic units for pragmatic reasons, they are in effect ‘constituent ordering constructions’ in line with the notion of construction as proposed and defined in the RRG theory.

Aspect refers to “different ways of viewing the internal temporal constituency of a situation” (Comrie, 1976, p.3) and consists of lexical and grammatical types. Grammatical aspect is represented by inflection or some auxiliary verbs while lexical aspect is denoted by the inherent meaning of the verbs (Rezai, 2012). The aspectual classification of Vedler (1957), has been one of the most influential theories in lexical aspect studies (Tenny, 1987, p.29; Peck et al., 2013, p. 664; Kanijo, 2019, p.73). Vendler (1957) has classified verbs into four classes named states, activities, achievements, and accomplishments based on their stativity, duration, and telicity. Achievements describe the change of state that occurs instantaneously and creates a new situation (Pavey, 2010, p.97), they have inherent endpoint and are usually regarded as not being used progressively. Two sub-classes of achievements are “culminations” and “happenings”. Culminations need some time to occur, for example, to “reach a summit”, we have to walk a distance. Happenings lack this preparatory phase and occur instantly, for example, “explode” occurs in a very short time. In previous studies, Persian verbs have been classified to two classes, “achievement” verbs that occur in a short time and have endpoint and “durative” verbs that entails some time to occur (Jahan Panah Tehrani, 1984). Vahidiyan Kamyar (1992) added the third class, named “achievement-durative” verbs that occur in a short time but don’t end and extend through time. Abolhassani (2011) has also classified achievements to three sub-classes. Other studies have mostly investigated lexical or grammatical aspect in Persian or in a specific dialect (Daneshpazhouh et al., 2013; Abasi, 2015, Dastlan, 2018). The main objective of this study is to describe different readings of Persian achievements along with grammatical aspects in the framework of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG). For this purpose, achievement verbs, in two subdivisions named “culminations” and “happenings”, were selected in different contexts and their readings were analyzed in different grammatical aspects. Data have been collected from different Persian sites on the Internet and daily conversations.

This paper studies the interaction of achievement predicates with grammatical aspects based on Role and Reference Grammar. RRG has proven to be a very practical framework for the description of aspectual classes. It proposes a linear and layered conception of syntactic organization without placing any underlying forms or movement rules and posits only one level of syntactic representation that is mapped directly into the semantic representation (Van Valin & Lapolla, 1997, p.21).The semantic structure in RRG provides a clear system of lexical decomposition that is an Aktionsart-based method of representing the semantics of predicates and their arguments (Van Valin & Lapolla, 1997, p.91). A predicate is identified as a member of a particular classification depending on some grammatical tests that have been established for English and other languages. The semantic representation is linked to the syntactic structure by means of an algorithm and the semantic roles of arguments are correlated with macroroles. In RRG a sentence is composed of at least one clause and clause of at least one core. Within the clause core are the nuclear predicating element and its arguments. Adverbs modifying the nucleus are not core elements but are placed in positions preceding or following the nucleus called peripheries. In Role and Reference Grammar (Van Valin & Lapolla, 1997, p.91-92), verbs are divided to four basic classes, including states, activities, achievements and accomplishments as proposed by Vendler (1957). Based on some specific-language tests, each of these classes are distinguished from each other. States are homogenous and involve no action and no final point. Activities, despite states, represent actions and have continuous feature. Achievements occur in a moment and don’t have continuous feature. Accomplishments are change of state verbs but occur in a longer time in comparison with achievements. Among these classes, achievements are change of state verbs; the beginning and end of these verbs are so short that can be neglected. They have final point and since they are considered durationless, they can't be used with adverbs such as "vigorously" and "seriously".  Regarding the grammatical aspect, four main types can be distinguished; perfective, imperfective, perfect and prospective aspect. Perfective indicates a situation as a single whole, whereas the imperfective looks at the situation from inside and the focus is on the internal structure of the event (Smith, 1997, p.3). The perfect is retrospective which establishes a relation between an event at one time and a situation at an earlier time. In prospective aspect, the event is related to some subsequent situation, for example when some event is about to be done (Comrie, 1976, p.64). Based on this framework, different readings of Persian achievements are investigated in different grammatical aspects.Data have been selected from written and spoken resources, including web sites and daily conversations. As aspect is better specified in the context, each predicate has been considered in its actual use and the interaction of lexical and grammatical aspect has been identified.  

The data show that the culmination and happening predicates in Persian can occur with perfective aspect; since these verbs involve the final point, the occurrence of them with perfective aspect shows that the verb has reached its end and has finished.  As achievement predicates describe instantaneous changes from one state to another, the adage that achievements "lack progression" is well-known, but the presented data show that achievements in progressive forms can have five readings based on pragmatic context, including preliminary process reading, slow-motion (camera) reading, iterative reading, future progressive reading, and commentary reading (Gyarmathy, 2015). Culmination-achievements can occur on preliminary process reading that focus on the process before reaching the final phase of the verb. On slow-motion reading, an event described by the achievement predicate, which is regarded durationless, acts as a durative eventuality, that is, we "zoom in" to view it as an extended event. This reading is available to predicates which describe events that are not instantaneous, but take some small amount of time. The iterative reading is most natural with semelfactives. The future reading has prospective interpretation. The last reading or commentary reading, is available when the speaker is conveying the happenings to someone else; this reading is used when the exact timing of the utterance is not important. Achievement verbs in perfect aspect can represent some functions such as experiential, universal, hot news, and evidentiality. Achievement predicates in perfective, imperfective, and perfect aspect can represent some prospective interpretation depending on pragmatic context and existence of some temporal adverb denoting future time in the sentence.

Achievement verbs in perfective aspect denote change of states that occur instantaneously and reach  its endpoint. In culmination verbs, reaching  this endpoint entails some preparatory phase but in happening sub-class, this phase is not applied. Although achievements are regarded as lacking progressive, they can have five readings in imperfective aspect, depending on the context; they include preliminary process reading, slow-motion (camera) reading, iterative reading, future progressive reading, and commentary reading. Achievement verbs in perfect aspect can represent experiential, universal, evidentiality, and hot news functions. In prospective aspect, positive form of the sentence and some temporal adverbs are required to denote occurrence of the action in some future time.

Polarity is the opposition between positive and negative and Modality is the speaker’s judgment about the proposition and proposal. In fact, modality is the space between ‘yes’ and ‘no’. In this study, four main types of modality including “epistemic”, “evidential”, “deontic” and “dynamic” from Palmer's point of view, and three types of negation including “nuclear negation”, “core negation” and “clause/ sentence negation” based on Role and Reference Grammar of VanValin were introduced and then the relationship between them was investigated in the Persian. In order to determine the polarity of the nucleus, the presence or absence of a negative prefix, and to determine the polarity of the core, the relationship of the verb and its arguments has been considered. To detect the polarity of the sentence, two tests of “tag question” and “lie test” were used. Examination of the data showed that when the modality of the sentence is changed, the polarity of the sentence is changed as well. It seems that the combination of modality and polarity is a strategy for language users to be able to formulate the same propositional meanings in different ways according to different contexts, and thus follow different discourse purposes.

State verbs, with the characteristic of non-dynamicity, denote no action and usually describe internal feelings, possession and place. They lack internal structure, stages and end point. The present study, within the framework of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG), investigates the interaction of state verbs and different grammatical aspects in Persian to see whether the interaction of subdivisions of state verbs with the grammatical aspects is the same. The subdivisions of state verbs in the current paper include Existence, Cognition, Emotion, Possession and Perception verbs. Data are gathered from the Internet, books, newspapers and daily conversations. Considering data indicates that the behavior of these subdivisions with different grammatical aspects is not the same. In perfect aspect all these verbs can be used without limitation. Although in most cases the progressive form of state verbs is regarded impossible, in cases such as “waxing or waning situation, agentivity and temporary state”, some of them can be used in progressive form. State verbs in perfective aspect, show functions such as experiential, universal, evidentiality and hot news. Positive form of the sentence and temporal adverbs denoting to some future time, pave the way for some state verbs to be used in prospective aspect.

The term predicate refers to two concepts in the literature; in the traditional grammar (in dividing the sentence into two parts: the subject and the predicate) and the other in the discussion of predicate-argument relations. Recent linguists have used two terms, predicate and predicator, to avoid confusing these two terms, respectively, for the first and second definition. In Persian, the two terms “Gozɑɹe” and “mahmul” have made a clear distinction between the two concepts. The present study investigates the different types of predicators in Persian based on the role and reference grammar to consider the differences and similarities between the predicators in Persian. The consideration of the layered structure of clauses and phrases showed that the nominal predicator has the most similarity and the prepositional predicator has the least to the verbal predicator. Furthermore, the findings showed that we have to accept the adjective phrase contrary to the role and reference grammar because there are different types of adjectival modifiers which are necessary to consider according to the layered structure.

Direct objects are encoded via specific grammatical tools in Persian. Using random data mostly from colloquial Persian (and written Persian in case of need), the author first intend to introduce these tools. Employing the Layered Structure of the Clause and Focus Structure as defined in Role and Reference Grammar, the author proceeds to formally represent the tools via syntactic templates that contain information-structural properties of the direct object. We learn that the hypothesis regarding the direct object being a secondary topic marker in the spirit of ra-marking (Dabir-Moghaddam, 2006) needs to be discarded. Information-structurally, not only is the direct object qualified to be part of the pragmatic presupposition, hence serving as the topic of the sentence, it is also licensed to constitute a narrow focus by itself or to participate in predicate and sentence focus structures. This originates from the fact that -ra in Persian signals the identifiability of the object’s referent in the interlocutors’ discourse universe. It is also proposed that the bi-fold classification of a narrow focus into in-situ information focus and ex-situ contrastive focus does not only apply to the narrow focus in the spirit of Persian data. A predicate focus can be contrastive when a ra-marked object residing at the Pre-Core Slot is disjoined from the transitive predicate by an intervening subject. In actuality, this discontinuous predicate focus structure is ‘construed’ as a contrastive narrow focus.

This article, first, is concerned with the study of left-dislocation and its information-structural implications in Persian. Left-dislocation in Persian is syntactically manifested by the topical and contrastive left-dislocation constructions. The double external possession construction as an instantiation of the topical left-dislocation is characterized by the sequence of two external possessors in the left-periphery of the core. The contrastive left-dislocation construction is distinguished from the topical one via the focality and position of the left-dislocated element figuring inside the clause. Each construction has specific syntactic and information-structural properties that the layered structure of the clause in the present RRG, as the framework of this study, fails to account for. Incorporating the concepts of discourse saliency and contrast as explicit selection among alternatives into the information-structural lexicon in RRG, the author of the present study tries to extend the scope of the left-periphery in the theory so as to increase its typological adequacy.

The abundant use of prepositions in Persian has led the present study to choose the framework of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG), a structural-functional theory of grammar, in order to investigate the logical structure representations of some sentences containing the preposition ba meaning 'with'. This is to find out the semantic and structural motivations of this preposition assignment to Persian NPs. This article concludes that the preposition ba, is a basically locative preposition and a radial category with senses related to the central, primary maning of 'togetherness' and 'having'. As a consequence, it can be shown that one cannot be restricted solely to the primary preposition assignment rules stated in RRG, and must focus on the semantic motivations to represent the logical structure of the sentences containing prepositions, in a better way. In this way, we avoid the problems and issues in RRG primary logical structure representations. In addition, the analysis presented in this study is able to justify the various uses of the Preposition ba in Persian, such as adverbial, commutative, theme-marking and, instrumental ba.

The present research is a comparative study of the comprehension and production of passive verbs in Persian monolingual children with Turkish-Persian bilingual children. Given the fact that the usage of passive structures in Persian is more often in writing than in speaking and also having in mind that Turkish passive structures are completely different from the ones in Persian, we want to see if Turkish-Persian bilingual children who have grown up with their native language are able to comprehend and produce Persian passive structures.
Many researchers working abroad have tested the production and comprehension of passive sentences in children using pictures, puppet shows and films. In Iran, although some researches have been done on passive structures and bilingualism, the production and comprehension of passive sentences by bilingual and monolingual children has not been compared yet. Due to the large number of bilingual people in Iran and the importance of bilingualism in language programming, assessing the effect of bilingualism on using Persian passive structures is important. Theoretical framework of this research is Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) according to which, two kinds of passive structures including main passives and non-personal passives are recognized.
In this research, eighteen 5- to-7- year old Persian monolingual children (9 girls and 9 boys) and eighteen 5- to-7- year old Turkish-Persian bilingual children were monitored to see if they produce and comprehend Persian passive structures. These children were selected randomly from the schools of Tehran and Sarab. In order to assess children’s comprehension and production of passive sentences, pictorial tests were used. Independent variables in the experiment are multilingualism and age and dependent variables are the comprehension and production of passive sentences. To do the experiment, sentences were made using 16 Persian verbs including: eat, milk, cut, plant, break, wash, kill, cook, write, sew, draw, weave, build, dig, pick, and steal. Afterwards, pictorial cards were drawn showing the action represented by the verb. Tests were organized in 4 parts. The first three tests, analyzing the comprehension and production of main and non-personal passive sentences, are the ones introduced by Demuth (2013). The forth test, a production test, is Manetti's (2013).Analyzing the data using SPSS, version 19, we found out that both bilingual and monolingual children have the ability of comprehending and producing passive structures of Persian language. So, multilingualism and age do not have a significant effect on the comprehension and production of main and non-personal passive verbs. Also the results showed that children most often tend to generalize the voice structure they hear to newly given situations i.e. when they are questioned about a patient (3rd test), they may or may not produce a passive sentence but when they are presented with a model passive structure in one case, the children copy the structure they hear to new situations.

Adjectives are considered predicates of sentences and take features normally associated with verbs when used predicatively. Functional linguists divide predicate-functioning verbs into stative and non-stative predicates. The aim of this paper is to show through syntactic and semantic evidence that stativity/non-stativity is not limited to verbs; rather; they can be extended to adjectives as well. The questions which the present research aims to answer are: to what extent can the theory of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) be used as a framework to explain the syntactic and semantic features of stative and non-stative adjectives of Persian, and is the division of predicates into statives and non-statives specific to verbs, as Vendler believes, or can it be extended to other predicates including adjectives? Attempts have been made in this article to describe stative and non-stative adjectives through the analysis of the spoken and written data of Persian. Besides, various syntactic and semantic tests have been used for distinguishing stative adjectives from non-stative ones.
The theoretical framework within which the present research has been conducted is RRG, which is a functional theory developed by Van Valin in the 1980s in response to the question about the interface between form and meaning, or the interface of syntax, semantics and pragmatics in different languages. RRG claims that semantic and pragmatic considerations determine the linguistic forms. This theory posits three main representations: a representation of the syntactic structure of sentences, a semantic representation, and a representation of the information structure of the utterance. There is also a set of rules linking the syntactic and semantic representations to each other, and discourse-pragmatics plays a role in this linking. What makes RRG distinct from other formal approaches is that it tries to describe and analyze linguistic structures via reference to meaning and communicative role. The syntactic structure and the semantic structure are combined and the latter is regarded as the basic component. In the semantic structure, verbs are divided based on their type of action (Aktionsart) into states, achievements, accomplishments and activities.
Some adjectives such as big, tall, fat and red show permanent states, whereas some others such as careful, disciplined, shy and arrogant show temporary characteristics which are not under the control of their arguments, and which are interpreted in the contexts and circumstances where they appear. The researchers have used different syntactic and semantic tests including progressive use, imperative use, function in different tenses with different adverbials and so on, to distinguish stative adjectives from non-stative ones. The syntactic and semantic evidence shows that stative adjectives have a different behavior from non-stative ones, as the latter can be used in imperative function, progressive aspect, different tenses, to mention just a few, whereas the former type of adjectives cannot be used in this way. The analysis of the two types of adjectives also showed that there exists some overlap between them; that is, some adjectives have both stative and non-stative interpretations, depending on the contexts where they appear. For example, adjectives such as bozorg (big) and sangin (heavy) can denote both the physical properties of people and things, and the personality features of people. This is why we can divide adjectives into inherent and non-inherent ones, although some are used both inherently and non-inherently.
The syntactic and semantic tests used in this research revealed that semantic considerations do play a part in determining the linguistic forms, thereby confirming the RRG's main claim regarding the interface or association among different components of language including syntax, semantics and pragmatics. This study also showed that the stativity/non-stativity dichotomy is by no means limited to the verb category; rather, it can be extended to adjective predicates as well. Whether other types of predicates such as nouns and adverbs can also be classified as stative or non-stative can be good topics for future research. This study also showed that some adjectives could be interpreted as either stative or non-stative, depending on the linguistic and situational contexts where they appear. This finding confirms the RRG's claim as to the effective role of contextual or pragmatic features in determining the linguistic forms.

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.

In this paper, the Mukriyani’s layered structure of NPs (one of the Surani’s Kurdish dialects) has been examined according to Van Valin’s (2005) framework. In this framework, NPs consist of two projections: a constituent projection consisting of a Nucleus and a Core plus one or more Peripheries for each of them, and a grammatical projection consisting of operators. This research is a descriptive-analytic one in which the data have been extracted from the written sources of Mukriyani dialect, and also from the intuition of one of the researchers who is a native Mukriyani speaker. These data have been analyzed according to the mono-layered pattern of RRG and finally the proposed Mukriyani’s NPs pattern has been offered. Among the results of this research, we can refer to the independence of NPs’ structure from the linier order of their elements; however, the enclitics attached to the NUCN reflecting the number or definiteness are among the Core or NP operators. Another result of the research shows that in Mukriyani, the post-Nucleus adjectives make the Nucleus peripheries and the pre-Nucleus adjectives are among the Core operators.

Locative alternation is a type of multiple argument realization of three-argument transitive verbs involving variable syntactic expression of the arguments. The present paper is, then, an attempt to find an account for this kind of alternation in Persian placement verb based upon the theory of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) and tries to introduce an account involving semantic macro roles. Moreover, the roles of primary and secondary objects as well as of incorporation are examined.
Locative alternation in Persian as well as in English is realized in two variants: location variant and locatum one. To elaborate more, an example from Persian as well as its parallel structure in English comes below: (1) a.¬Kârgar-h⬬¬ mive¬¬¬ r⬠¬tuye¬ kâmiyun bâr
worker.PL.NOM hay-DO OBJ-marker PREP truck.OBL load.PAST-
zad-and
PL.3SG
'The workers loaded the hay into the truck.'
(DO: theme location variant~ straight construction)
b. ¬Kârgar-hâ kâmiyun r⬠mive¬ ¬ bâr¬ zad¬–¬and
Worker .PL.NOM ¬ truck.DO OBJ.marker hay.DO load.PAST-PL.3SG
'The workers loaded the trucks with hay.'
(DO: location locatum variant~ inverted construction
Comparing the Persian example with its English translation suggests that locative alternation in Persian is not usually the same as what we have in English. In English, one of the argument is realized immediately after verb and the other comes as an oblique. In the first sentence, the argument denoting a location is realized as an oblique and the argument denoting a moved entity as the direct object; the syntactic functions of the two arguments are the other way round in another variant: The argument bearing the thematic relation location appears as direct object, the moved entity as an oblique. It is generally assumed that the first construction is "straight" and the second is "inverted" (Kailuweit, 2008).
In Persian, however, the theme is followed by /râ/ in one variant and comes before the verb in the other one while the location is realized as oblique on one variant and followed by / râ/ in the other (Karimi Dustan, & Safari, 2011).
Theoretical Framework: Role and Reference Grammar is a functional theory relying on three underlying representation which provides a typological approach to linguistic description and greatly concerns with the interplay of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Following Dowty's representational scheme (1979), state and activity are two main classifications of verb from which the other verb classes are derived. Thus, the state verbs have solely bare predicates in their logical structure while activities, achievements and accomplishments add do', INGR and BECOME, respectively.
Semantic roles are examined in three levels in RRG: Verb-specific semantic roles like runner or speaker, thematic relations as agent or patient, and generalized semantic roles or semantic macro-roles that are actor and undergoer.
Some data involving the locative alternation in placement verb are gathered from TV programs, lectures, novels, daily conversations or any other sources providing authentic data in Persian; theses data are, then, analyzed based on RRG theoretical framework. Focusing on the aktionsart the verbal predicates presented, the logical structures of the relevant data are, therefore, provided and undergoers are chosen according to the positions the arguments have in the actor-undergoer hierarchy.
(1)Locative alternation is regarded as a marked undergoer choice in Role and Reference Grammar in which x in Pred' (x) is the marked choice of undergoer (Van Valin & Lapolla, 1997). Then, the logical structure reveals the location as the undergoer. For instance, the logical structure of the following sentence is α= [do'(kimiâ, ∅)] CAUSE [BECOME (β=be-loc' (divâr,rang))] in which Kimia is the actor and divâr is the undergoer.
(2) Kimiâ rang=râ be divâr pâšid-Ø
Kimia.PN paint=OM PREP wall spray.PST-3sg
Kimia sprayed the paint on the wall
Role and Reference Grammar is a functional, context-based theory; therefore, context plays a significant role in the logical structures of the sentences in this grammar. If the theme is a specific and referential argument, its logical structure is like (3) while when it is a non-referential or mass noun, incorporation gets involved and the logical structures turn into (4).
(3) α=[do'(kimiâ,∅)] CAUSE [BECOME (β=be-loc^' (divâr,rang))]
.rang pâšid (kimiyâ, divâr)
In such two-place argument, only one argument can be selected as the undergoer and that is " divâr". The bare noun before verb in inverted construction of locative alternation in Persian is realized in two forms depending on the relevant context. Such noun is either a secondary object and comes in core or it is realized as a non-referential noun in incorporating verb and is regarded as predicate which comes in nucleus layer. The logical structure of the marked/ inverted construction in locative alternation is as (3) with different argument realizations. Such structure has an entailment of holistic interpretation which can be banned depending on encyclopedic knowledge or the context involved. The claim by Kailuweit (2008) can, then, be modified into (3): Semantic effect of marked Undergoer choice: "If an argument is a marked choice for undergoer in a given LS, it is interpreted as a prototypical undergoer' i.e. as having at least one of the properties "causally affected", "change of state", "incremental/ extensional theme". " Kailuweit (2008:350) This can be solely realized if the encyclopedic knowledge or the context in which the sentence is uttered do not ban its realization.
The marked undergoer choice of location in inverted construction of locative alternation may enjoy a holistic interpretation in some particular context as having at least one of the properties "causally affected", "change of state", "incremental/ extensional theme".
Conclusions and Suggestions: Giving some examples of locative alternarion in Persian, the present study concluded that two arguments- theme and location- are competing to receive the macrorole of undergoer. Then, "marked-undergoer- choice-rule" is imposed to choose the location argument as undergoer in the inverted constructions; however, this is not working when incorporation is involved; in that case, there is only one core argument in the construction that is selected as undergoer.

This paper is concerned with the study of locative predicates in Persian within the Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) framework and two different analyses presented by Van Valin and LaPolla (1997) and also Boutin (2004). Providing a semantically based classification of mentioned predicates in Persian is one of the aims of this study. The other aim is testing the efficiency of the two analyses especially Boutin’s suggestion about locative predicates in Persian. Boutin (2004) argues there is discrepancy between semantic and syntactic valency of locative predicates within the RRG framework. Since, they have a semantic valency of two and a syntactic valency of one in a large number of languages. Hence, these predicates have been treated as exceptions in terms of valency correlation. He believes if the location (one of the arguments of locative predicates) is treated as a separate predicate, rather than referring expression, therefore these verbs are intransitive and not exceptions in terms of valency correlation. The findings of the present study revealed Boutin’s suggestion (2004) holds true in Persian locative states, achievements, accomplishments and active accomplishments but not activities.