مجله جستار های زبانی
سال دهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 49، فروردین و اردیبهشت 1398)

The dialect of Tonekaboni differs from the dialects of the speakers in the East of Mazandaran and the West of Guilan where the native speakers of the three regions use Persian to communicate. During the implementation of a part of a research project and in order to find the reason for the lack of mutual understanding between the speakers of the east and west of Mazandaran and the difference between their dialects which both are taken into account as Mazandarani (Tabari) language, the author has concluded that the most important factor is the difference between the construction of their verbs due to the unusual stem in Tonekaboni verbs. The aim of this paper is to describe the verb stem and analyze its different structure in Tonekaboni dialect. In this research, a fieldwork for data gathering was applied through a targeted interview with 10 native speakers to obtain the different paradigms of verbs. The current study showed that verbs stems in this dialect were based on "aspect", while in most languages, like Iranian language family, the stems of verb are based on its tense (commonly present and past), to which inflectional affixes – including aspect of the verb – are attached. This study on one hand, introduces the distinctive feature of aspect -based stems in Tonekaboni, the most widely-used dialect of one of the Caspian language group, which is in decline; and on the other hand it may be useful for dialectology, typology and sociolinguistic studies.

In the framework of Greimas semiotic theory and the notions like actantial model, axiological system and deep structure-meaning, the current research tries to analyze Moses and Samiri’s narrative. By adopting a descriptive –analytical approach, this study seeks to investigate the underlying structure of this narrative in order to explore the dominant discursive systems. This approach help better understand the discursive system of Quran. The results showed that the core element of this narrative is based on action and state which proves the guidance discourse and negates the idolatry discourse. Moreover, the analyzes showed that the process of attaching people to an object of value is initially formed with a prescriptive discourse, then this prescriptive discourse leads to the formation of state in actor and ultimately to the competence and people's attachment to the guidance discourse. Thus, in the stative system, the decadence of meaning begins in actor which then changes into action and discontinuity from object of value. According to dominant discursive systems, this meaning generation process acts in two paradoxical way.

Semiotics of the human environment is better known to us. The human environment is the world in which we live and we need to adapt to it. This article tries to scrutinize the conditions and the human environment in women's sports activities. Questions that are posed include: What is the body-language in women's sports, and how the interaction of the biological and cultural system creates and develops a discourse in society? Are signs of the body linguistic and make sense? What role do cultural requirements and implications play? Our hypothesis is that one cannot never rely on cultural requirements and advance decision-making discourse by judging, but it is necessary that these questions be able to persuade the public. Therefore, the first set of biological factors and its extension to the set of cultural factors of the semiotic environment are evoked, then we approach the role of sportive, cultural discourses and even pro-enunciations. In this article, we will try to better understand the semiotic nature of the action, the actors, the roles and the functions, as well as object of the value or the exercise of the object. But the great attention should be paid to sensory and axiological affairs whose absence can lead to a theatrical scene in women's sport. We will therefore shed light on the layer of the power and the need for legal support and the media in sport.

Since there is no special reading and writing book for the Persian children with autism and also their cognitive and linguistic abilities are different, the investigation of the effective factors on their reading skill is an important step for evaluating and modifying their using pedagogical books. In the other hand, Persian language has a different orthography and grapheme–phoneme correspondence from other languages (English, Italian...), so the effect of phonological awareness in it΄s reading is also different. Therefore, it’s necessary to identify the correlation between phonological awareness and reading in Persian children with autism. In this research, 26 children with autism and 30 normal Persian children living in Tehran were participated. Two tests (phonological awareness and reading) were performed and the results were analyzed by statistical tests. Results showed that in the group with autism, there is a meaningful correlation between word reading and phoneme combination and same first Phoneme recognition, and between non word reading and alliteration, phoneme segmentation, first and final phoneme deletion. In control group, there is a significant correlation between word reading (and non-word reading) and the onset and rhyme awareness, phonemic awareness, alliteration, same first phonemes, first phoneme and middle phoneme deletion. Also, there is a significant difference between the children with autism and control group in all subtests except for the syllable segmentation (0.075) and phoneme combination (0.163). Therefore, the degree of skill and correlation in the children with autism is different from the normal children and this should be noticed seriously in teaching reading.

1- IntroductionThere are semantically different words and structures in Persian that are identical in pronunciation except for the place of stress. These pairs which are called stress oppositions are of two types; the first type includes a lexical stress opposition between two lexical entries called a stress minimal pair. The second type is either the result of some phonological processes or the interaction among morphological, syntactic and phonetic factors at post-lexical level. One or both sides of these stress oppositions are syntactic phrases. There are many stress oppositions in Persian; however only five of which are stress minimal pairs. Being a minimal pair is not the sole analyzable feature in these stress oppositions. There are other features which merit further consideration. The objectives of this research were to introduce and discuss features of stress minimal pairs, to introduce and classify the whole possible stress oppositions in Persian according to their lexical/ syntactic categories, and to figure out whether stress shift caused semantic changes or it was the effect or consequence of different elements in stress oppositions.  2- Theoretical frameworkPhrase Structure Grammar (Chomsky, 1957) is the theoretical framework which was used in this research to classif post- lexical structures. In this theoretical framework the structure of constituents is specified using phrase structure rules:S       → VP NPNP    → {Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN}VP    → V NP (PP) (Adv)  3- MethodologyThis research aimed at introducing different lexical and post-lexical stress oppositions in Persian. To this end, structures other than lexical entries were classified into noun/verb phrases using Phrase Structure Grammar. Accordingly, various stress oppositions might include two lexical entries, a lexical entry and a noun/verb phrase, two noun phrases, two verb phrases, a noun phrase and a verb phrase, as well as emphatic stress. It is noteworthy that the phonetic representation (PR) rather than the underlying representation (UR) was used to specify stress oppositions. Finally, the morphemes of stress oppositions where compared in order to specify the main reason of their semantic (or grammatical) difference. 4- Results & discussionAlthough Persian is so rich in terms of having stress oppositions, it only has five stress minimal pairs. The necessary condition that must be there for a stress opposition to be considered a stress minimal pair is that both its members must be lexical entries.  Hence, a post-lexical stress opposition of which one member is the result of a phonological change, or one member or both members are a syntactic phrase is not considered a stress minimal pair. Lexical stress or being a stress minimal pair is not the only criterion to evaluate stress oppositions. Stress shift is regarded the main reason for meaning change if there is no other distinctive factor at work, that is, we can say stress shift has caused meaning change when both members of a stress opposition consist of identical morphemes, or one of the members is not the result of a phonological process. Otherwise, stress itself is the consequence of different morphemes or application of a phonological process. Accordingly, the findings of this research are in contrast with the studies in the literature which regarded the stress opposition between a word and a phrase as a minimal pair, or posited that the meaning difference between two unlelated words of a stress minimal pair is due to stress shift. 5- Conclusions & suggestions The significance of this paper is that it is the first research to address lexical and post-lexical stress oppositions in Persian and to discuss how they were created. Moreover, this paper was an attempt to reduce the uncertainty in regard to the nature and identity of stress oppositions through introducing and classifying them and using the titles “lexical and post-lexical stress oppositions” to designate them.      A future research suggestion could be investigating lexical and post-lexical stress oppositions in other languages.

Fricatives not only differ in their acoustic structures from one language to another, but also they vary considerably from individual to individual. Acoustic correlates of fricatives are sensitive to the shape and size of the resonance cavity in front of the oral constriction. It is therefore conceivable that any physical change in the length and place of constriction during production of fricatives may alter the resultant acoustic signals. This research attempts to explore potential speaker-specific acoustic parameters of voiceless fricatives in Persian based on experimental phonetics. Therefore, acoustic parameters of center of gravity and fricative duration are investigated for each voiceless fricative in Persian. This research aims to discover whether voiceless fricatives and selected acoustic parameters are able to discriminate between speakers in Persian and whether these fricatives and acoustic parameters are of assistance in segregating speakers in Persian. According to the aforementioned considerations, the following questions are presented in this paper: Do the selected acoustic parameters (center of gravity and duration) of voiceless fricatives have capacity to differentiate speakers in Persian? Which acoustic parameters and which voiceless fricatives discriminate Persian speakers the best? Furthermore, we will compare the results of the present study to the findings of previous studies to see in what way Persian has been similar or different from other investigated languages. In order to analyze between- and within speaker variability of voiceless fricatives, 24 Persian speakers (12 male, 12 female) on two separate occasions were recorded in the sound proof booth at phonetics laboratory of Alzahra University. Non-contemporaneous recording of speech material allows us to measure the degree of within-speaker variability across each speaker. The speech material consists of a read passage which contains 54 Persian sentences including relevant voiceless fricatives Speech tokens were acoustically measured with PRAAT version 5.2.34 and statistical analyses were carried out with SPSS version 21 and R version 3.3.3.Results and Results of this study indicated that for female speakers, center of gravity of /S/ and s/  have the best performance in showing between-speaker variability. For male speakers, center of gravity of /s/ is the most highly discriminant acoustic parameters across speakers. Moreover, fricative duration was not reported as a promising acoustic parameter. Center of gravity is directly linked to the size and length of the vocal tract. The longer is the length of the vocal tract, the higher is the center of gravity and vice versa. This indicates that anatomical differences between speaker’s vocal tract influence the acoustic properties of fricatives and ultimately make them distinctive. In the future studies, additional parametric potential speaker-specific features will be examined in order to determine a set of well-established discriminant parameters for voiceless fricatives in Persian.

When a text is comprehended in a familiar context and enjoys a coherent whole, it is called a discourse. Reading a discourse is owed to linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic cognition. As a narrative, an autobiography has its textual world. Its reality is a result of the method used for linguistic coding. Through the linguistic relativity on the part of the author, the self and the world are actively constructed. Through an analysis of linguistic domain in autobiography, for denotative meaning and connotative meanings, the author’s worldview is known. The subject in autobiography is moving from one experience to another. It is placed on a continuum of language, adopting multiple positions arisen from connotative utterances. Performance of this self has become a postmodern norm. We should ask about the relation between language and reality in autobiography, and about aspects of cultural identity of the self-represented. This article attempts to say that in our reading of a postmodern subject in the center of autobiography, in view of language as a medium for expression, and meta-language as a language to explain the language used to represent the self, how the multiple “self” & “others” arisen from such texts could be realized in language and participate in various discourses.

Research showed that in some languages, speakers accent new referents and deaccent given referents. The research also indicated that the pitch accent type used to mark accessible referents is like that used to accent given referents. The goal of the present study was to investigate the different pitch accent patterns used to mark different information status (new, given, accessible and identifiable) in the narrative discourse of the monolingual Persian- speaking adults. Moreover, since no research has been done on the intonational patterns of accessible and identifiable referents in Persian, pitch accent and intonational pattern of these referents were also investigated. To these aims, 10 monolingual Persian-speaking adults were encouraged to narrate stories based on 8 picture stories in which information status of referents were carefully controlled. The stories were labeled to determine whether they included target words, full NP, pronouns. The subjects’ pitch accent patterns were identified using Praat software. Findings of the study revealed that the most frequent accent types used to mark new, given and accessible referents were  L+(H*) H+(L*) and H*+L respectively. It was also found out that there was no specific accent type to mark identifiable referents in Persian. Based on the results, it could be suggested that there was a specific relationship between information status and pitch accent types in the subjects’ narrative discourse.

Semiotics of discourse aims to explore the underlying structure of meaning production. In generative process of discourse, the most superficial layer has a close relationship to the most profound layer. Space, that has recently get considerable attention in literary studies is one of the discursive figurative elements which results in the meaning in the underneath layers. As a result, the space converts into a sensible element.Silence is the absence of any verbal element so that it is a sign of something. But this absent element has been manifested in discourse by structural and textual elements and it is present in text background. Silence as an indicative element is received by relating to its antithetic element, the sound. In addition, the silence makes sense whether it is a sign of something or an effect of a being which is postponed in a discursive context.Mahmoud Dowlat-Abadi Iranian contemporary realistic author, is also one of the regional literature storyteller and based on this, space plays the crucial role in his works. In spite of the special place in his novels, silence appeals as a present and significance-producer element in his books. In Dowlat-Abaadi’s literary works, particularly in mentioned novels, imprisonment or stopping the converses, which is caused by thrill, phobia, respecting others, suffering, inability of talking or believing the power of unsaid words produces the silence. This matter connects the Dowlat-Abaadi’s text to a clear silence.  This research, while expressing the procedure of silence formation in Kelidar and missing -Solouch, seeks the presence and emergence of silence by the aspects of tensive and spatial semiotics in some of the spatial structures. In fact, considering the space not even as a referring element, it takes part in producing the meaning. This research is up to answer this fundamental question that how the space, that is a tangible and apparent element of converse, could produce the meaning at the deepest layers of the discourse and also could produce the silence in the present novels. On this basis, the study of sensorial orders of discourse, auditory sphere and also its relation with silence formation are not avoidable. Discourse structures have followed the generative process principle and fearful black room which have been portrayed in the simulative layer of two mentioned novels, which are indicatives of deterioration and death away from the only referential function in a more profound level controlling the asphyxiation existed in contemporary age of these two novels and in the most cavernous layers.

Rouzbahan Baghli is one of the major figures of 6th century who has his own particular mystic language. His language shows a set of particular features like abstractness. The present article has taken into account the semiotic square theoretical framework in order to analyze his language as well as to yield a better understanding of his mystic experience. Accordingly, having taken into consideration his mystic language, the properties of his language will be analyzed in the light of semiotic square. This study reveals that among the current oppositions like contradiction, contrast and entailment, Rouzbahan’s language incline towards contrast. This is due to the fact that Rouzbehan generally speaks about major existential categories, which are completely contradictory in two poles. Thus, whenever he talks about his experiences, he sometimes intermingles the binary oppositions in a complex meta-term. As a result, he sometimes collects these binary categories and puts them together to create a "compound" term. Sometimes he rejects both categories and creates a "neutral" frequency, and sometimes a "positive indicator" by deleting both. Other meta-terms like neutral, complex, positive deixis, and nameless are the dominant indicators of his abstract language.

In order to become a fully competent speaker of a language one needs to acquire the phonology, develop a lexicon, learn how to inflect verbs and noun phrases, or learn how to build sentences. However, in order to be able to communicate smoothly and efficiently with other speakers, individuals also have to learn how to organize the information they want to convey in such a way that the message will be well understood by their interlocutors. One of the most important aspects of information structure is information status, which is, the marking of discourse referents as new or given. Most studies of information status marking have mostly concentrated on morpho-syntactic means, in particular the use of definite and indefinite noun phrases. Considerably less research has been concerned with the realization of intonational means. Research suggests that there may be a direct mapping between information status and certain types of pitch accents. The research also indicated that the pitch accent type used to mark accessible referents is like that used to accent given referents. The goal of the present study was to investigate the different pitch accent patterns used to mark different information status (new, given, accessible and identifiable) in the narrative discourse of the monolingual Persian- speaking adults. Moreover, since no research has been done on the intonational patterns of accessible and identifiable referents in Persian, pitch accent and intonational pattern of these referents were also investigated. To these aims, 10 monolingual Persian-speaking adults were encouraged to narrate stories based on 8 picture stories in which information status of referents were carefully controlled. The stories were labeled to determine whether they included target words, full NP, pronouns. The subjects’ pitch accent patterns were identified using Praat software. Findings of the study revealed that the most frequent accent types used to mark new, given and accessible referents were  L+(H*) H+(L*) and H*+L respectively. It was also found out that there was no specific accent type to mark identifiable referents in Persian. Based on the results, it could be suggested that there was a specific relationship between information status and pitch accent types in the subjects’ narrative discourse.