مجله زبان شناسی گویش های ایرانی
سال چهارم شماره 2 (پیاپی 5، پاییز و زمستان 1398)

Kurdish is a widely spoken languages in four countries. This language has different dialects in some provinces of Iran such as Kurdistan, Ilam, Kermanshah, Hamedan, West Azerbaijan and Northern Khorasan. The two dialects of "Kormanji" and "Surani" are the most widely spoken ones in those provinces. "Dialects" are branches ramifying out of a single language but have phonetic, lexical and structural differences. The purpose of this research is to study some of the most frequent processes in the Kormanji dialect with regard to the "Moraic theory". The question of whether "compensatory lengthening" and "deletion" in this dialect and in the above theory are explainable is dealt with in this research. To answer this question, employing the field method, the data were collected through questionnaires answered by the native speakers and then the thesis and written sources were used. In the following, after describing the background of Moraic theory and its background, data analysis was performed through selected appropriate samples for each process and then their examination was done via the Moraic theory. In the end, it was concluded that theses processes are explainable in the framework of the Moraic theory.

The purpose of the present study is a typological analysis on word-order and agreement in Evazi dialect, one of the dialects in the south of Fars province. This dialect has shown interesting characteristics in agreement system and word-order which is different from standard Farsi but similar to some other dialects in Fars such as Larestani, Khonji, Bastaki, Bikhei and Gerashi. The research is theoretically based on Dryer (1992) and Dabirmoghadam (1392) in investigating and analyzing 22 typological components of word order in the dialect under investigation. Accordingly, the considered parameters are analyzed in the form of the above 22 word-order components and 3 agreement types which is exemplified in 61 dialect samples and further illustrated in 23 tables within the paper. The research results demonstrates that the agreement system in Evazi dialect reveals a proclitic agreement with the subject of transitive verbs, and suffixal agreement with transitive and intransitive verbs according to which, the subjects of both intransitive and transitive verbs are shown in suffixed forms on the verbs in its agreement system.

The present paper examines the semantic molecules of 35 animal names in Bushehr and 35 animal names in Shahrekord based on Hsieh's semantic-cognitive approach (2006). The research data was obtained from the responses of 100 Bushehri speakers and 100 Shehrekordi speakers and the study of written sources such as proverb books, poetry, stories and the like. In this research, frequently used animal names in the everyday speech of the two areas were extracted, then questions were asked in the form of a questionnaire from the native speakers of each region about the animals. By analyzing the data of the questionnaire, one or more semantic molecules were obtained for each animal. Then, for each semantic molecule, the corresponding basic metaphors were identified. Behavior and habit, appearance, intelligence, food and eating habits, usage, outstanding features, connotative meaning and contractual meaning are among the metaphors for classification of the semantic molecules of the animals. The results of the research show that the metaphor of habit and behavioral metaphor in the two regions has the highest frequency for describing the semantic molecules of the animals.

This study deals with lenition processes according to the theoretical framework of generative phonology to answer the following questions: How are lenition phonological processes applied in Iranian dialect? In other words, how do the data support the application of lenition processes in Iranian dialects? In which contexts do lenition processes apply in Iranian dialects? The synthetic model of phonological processes is investigated according to the phonological pattern of Persian; finally the most frequent lenition processes are selected. To see how these processes are applied in Persian as lenition, Standard Persian and nine dialects out of twenty five dialects which show these processes are selected. The data are gathered in a field study. Then, each of the lenition processes is probed on the Persian varieties to find the alternatives and underlying forms which are important to decide how the lenition processes are applied, and to find the positions in which lenition processes take place. The collected data support the lenition processes in Persian. The data show that the lenition processes tend to occur in postvocalic, intervocalic and final positions and the final position has the highest frequency. This supports Kenstowichz’s claim that the word final position is the typical position for lenition.

Bilingual Aphasia, as one of the challenging issues in psycholinguistics, has not been received the attention it deserves in Iran. Following the call for more reflection on bilingual aphasia in different languages, the present study seeks to investigate the manifestations of aphasia in the spontaneous speech of a bilingual Kurdish-Persian individual who was diagnosed with Broca's aphasia and to illuminate the recovery pattern of languages by scrutinizing the comparison between content and function word usage. To assess her linguistic competence, the standardized versions of the Bilingual Aphasia Test (Paradis, 1987) were administered. The results indicate non-parallel recovery of languages post-stroke, with L1 (Kurdish) less recovered than L2 (Persian). As far as the assessment of content words is concerned, they are used more than function words in both languages. In L1 (Kurdish) function words are used more than content words, while the opposite is found in L2 (Persian).

Behbahani belongs to the southwest Iranian languages the word order of which has rarely been studied from a typological viewpoint. This paper examines the typological status of word order in Behbahani based on Dryer’s 1992 paper on  twenty four word order criteria concerning VO versus OV typological language dichotomy in Eurasia, that is, Behbahani’s language area and all the language areas of the world. The results show that although Behbahani does have word order typological criteria of VO versus OV languages, it tends to have more of VO typological properties. Although Behbahani is similar to modern Persian in many of its word order criteria, it lacks a case marker for the direct object and independent auxiliaries for future tense as well as the progressive aspect. Based on the questionnaire method of data collection, the data description and analysis was done using the speakers' linguistic intuitions and linguistic criteria.

An investigation of the noun system in South Bashagardi reveals that the manifestation of its morpho-syntactic categories distinguishes this dialect from other Iranian dialects and languages. Accordingly, the present research tries to linguistically investigate and describe five nominal morpho-syntactic categories of this dialect including number, gender, definiteness, case, and possession. Accordingly, the research data were collected by fieldwork method and recording the free speech, filling questionnaires and interviewing seven male and five female middle-aged and illiterate/under-educated native speakers in the natural environment of language use. Research findings show that the manifestation of investigated nominal morpho-syntactic categories in Bashagardi has a fundamental similarity with the corresponding categories in standard reflecting their familial kinship. Moreover and as a result of having dialectal peculiarities, Bashagardi utilizes certain linguistic strategies to that aim, the most important of which are: using peculiar definite and indefinite markers, exploiting a split-ergative case-marking system and agent cilitics in the past tense system of transitive verbs, employing distinct object pronominal clitics for past and non-past tenses, and utilizing different verbal forms of “bit-en” “to have” (in all tenses) along with split-ergative structure to represent possession.

This paper, as a semiotic study with an interpretive analytical approach, has tried to classify the common allegorical or metaphorical signs in 750 selected Sechischti, in order to achieve a morphology. Sechischti lyrics are an important part of the literature and folklore of the Iranian Kurmanj nomads. A Sechischti has three hemistiches, each with eight syllables, with words derived from nature and everyday life based on individual experiences and ethnic memories of indigenous anonymous poets. A survey of common signs revealed that, the four main categories of signs represents or substitutes of human in the Kurmanj Sechischtis are as follows: 1. Signs taken from animals; 2. Signs taken from plants; 3. Signs taken from objects; 4. Signs taken from natural phenomena. Connotations of these signs has deep dependence on ethnic characteristics, socioeconomic conditions, lifestyles and historical experiences of Kurmanjs. Literary communication with Kurmanj Sechischti will be difficult without recognizing the significance of these signs and understanding their connotations.

The causative/anti-causative alternation has engendered theoretical interest within studies of argument structure at the syntax-semantic interface. The two prominanet appraoches to the syntax of the alternation, that is detransivitation and causation, do not posit distinct lexical entries for the alternation. In other words, these approaches build on the idea that one of the two alternants is derived from the other one. The purpose of this articl; however, is to show, based on Kurdish data, that there is not a derivational two-way relationship between the alternants in the alternation. Rather, it argues that both alternants are derived from a neutral single lexical entry. In so doing, evidence will be drawn from the existence of morphological variations on these alternations, verb selections and restrictions, and the contribution of prepositional phrase in relation to external argument. It will also be argued that agentivity and causativity are introduced to the structure as different projections, with the passive projecting a voice projection, while the anti-causative does not so.

One of the significant issues in morphology, generally and in word-formation processes, especially is productivity. Most researchers consider productivity as a gradient concept and define it in a continuum. The present research is about to answer three questions below: 1. what are the rankings of the studied prefixes in terms of productivity? 2. Which of the prefixes is category-preserving and which one is category-changing? 3. What is the prototypical input of each prefix? In order to answer the questions, first, 19 derivational prefixes of Persian were selected based on the works in which Persian derivational prefixes had been presented. Then, the data of the research were extracted from the 150 million words corpus of Hamshahri 2 by the AntConc software and after that they were transferred to Excel program to be tagged and analyzed based on Baayen's (2009) global productivity measure and Rosch's (1975, 1977, 1978) prototype theory. The results showed that /Gejr/ is the most and /bol/ is the least productive prefixes of Persian language. For answering the second and third questions, each prefix was studied independently by the chi-square statistical test in SPSS software and the category-changing or category-preserving features of each prefix were specified. Also, the prototypical lexical category of each prefix input were identified.

The aim of this paper is to take readers through the basic steps involved in building a corpus of language data for different purposes. This is done via gathering information about corpus construction from related sources. After a review of literature (regarding corpus construction and the use of corpus in different fields) , this article offers advice in a non-technical style to help the researchers to make sure that their corpus is well-designed and fit for the intended purpose. Key points to be considered in constructing any corpus (written or spoken language) include: Sampling, Size, Representativeness, Balance, General vs. Specialized corpus and Homogeneity. The steps involved in constructing a text corpus are: text selection, text normalization and different kinds of annotation. The steps to be followed in constructing a spoken language/speech-based corpus are: data gathering, transcription, representation, annotation and access. In this paper all the afore-mentioned steps have been explained with related details.

The cognitive view considers metaphor a verbal-conceptual device that humans employ to recognize and express the concepts in their environment. Based on this theory, humans make many concepts understandable through metaphors. The present study is a descriptive-analytical research that relies on a cognitive approach to investigate and compare “head and heart” conceptualizations in Shah Nameh, Ghazaliyat-e Shams and Nezami's Khosrow and Shirin. The study, more specifically, seeks to answer the following questions: (1) What are the primary concepts used by the afore-mentioned poets in this mode of conceptualization? (2) What are the cognitive mechanisms used in these literary works to distinguish their poetic language from ordinary, everyday language? The findings of the present study indicate that the head and the heart were conceptualized in most metaphors through more objective entities such as “humans”, “animals”, “plants”, “container metaphors” and “objects.” Furthermore, although the poets in some cases used similar metaphors in accordance with their literary traditions, linguistic conventions, and cultural roots, they drew on such cognitive mechanisms as extending, negating and combining, while deviating from some linguistic rules, to create innovative images and contribute to the distinction of their conceptualizations.