Systematic Light Verbalization in Persian Language

There is a group of verbs which lost part of their semantic content in the course of the Persian language history, namely, the so-called ‘light verbs’. They are combined with a preverbal element such as a noun, an adjective or a prepositional phrase, forming light verb constructions to express both predicate stative and dynamic events. The study of these constructions has been one of the challenging issues in modern linguistics. Light verb constructions are so frequent in Persian verbal system enhancing its importance for more serious investigations. The present study attempts to answer an important question related to these constructions on the basis of Distributed Morphology (Halle & Marantz, 1993; Marantz, 2013). The questions include why certain Persian verbs, not all verbs, are formed by this construction, whether such a phenomenon is random or systematic? These questions were not addressed by previous researchers despite their importance. We argue that under-specification and subset principle of Distributed Morphology are at work in the process of Persian light verbalization and finally on the basis of these two, we conclude that their selection is systematic rather than being random. Certain semantic evidences were provided to substantiate this argument; firstly we show the status of the Persian Light verbs in accordance with Levin (1993) classification, then we apply a method based on Lesk (1986) algorithm and finally we propose a new classification for light verbs in Persian in which the verbs are classified into statives and eventives; then the eventive verbs are classified into change of state, change of possession, change of place and performatives. All these evidences demonstrate the fact that it is the particular semantic nature of these verbs that predispose them to light verbalization.