نشریه علم زبان
پیاپی 19 (بهار و تابستان 1403)

Persian uses coordination as a primary strategy for constructing complex syntactic structures. This research compares coordination in two varieties of Persian: formal written and informal colloquial. There are different types of coordinators which are a subgroup of conjunctions in Persian including monosyndetic, bisyndetic and multisyndetics the latter has not been previously mentioned in research. Surprisingly, the null coordinator is the most frequent one in both formal written and informal colloquial Persian. Statistical analysis showed that /bâ/ “with”, a preposition with meanings ranging from instrumentality to companionship, also functions as a coordinator in both formal and informal Persian. This positions Persian among “With-languages”, contrasting with “And-languages” in typological studies.

Based on Lakoff and Johnson’s cognitive framework, metaphor is considered is a key way humans perceive concepts in the universe. The aim of the present research was to study the effects of animal names on native Turkish speakers and the implicational meanings of the words. Turkish speakers derive metaphoric meanings by comparing humans and surrounding events to these entities. Based on interviews with 30 native speakers, 93 words were collected, 22 of which were common and reflected Turkish cultural views. First, the implicational meanings of these 22 words were extracted and listed in a table alongside each animal’s name. Then for each word, the explanation was given according to some examples and poems from Turkish reference books. In addition, the study examined the subjects of gender, frequency, and percentage in these metaphors. The results indicated that animal names influence the speech of native Turkish speakers, who use these metaphoric words daily in appropriate contexts.

Simile understanding requires two distinct pragmatic skills: understanding the intended similarity and deriving a scalar implicature (e.g., “Nina is like a rabbit” normally implies that “Nina is not a rabbit”). However, the second skill has not been studied yet by Iranian researchers. The aim of the present study was to investigate the ability of mono-lingual Persian-speaking children aged 3 to 7 years old and adults in understanding scalar implicature. To this aim, 50 Persian-speaking children, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 years old were selected through a semi-random method and were compared with 10 adults. The groups were investigated and compared in the first experiment which was a form of similarity judgment task and in the second experiment, which was in a form of a game. In the first experiment, subjects should understand “x is like a y” as an expression of similarity. In the second experiment, the subjects received metaphors (“Nina is a rabbit”) and similes (“Nina is like a rabbit) as clues to select one of three images (a rabbit, a girl, or a rabbit-looking girl). The results showed that 3-year-old children could understand the implicature “x is not a y”, whereas 5 years old children performed like adults. The results showed that children from early childhood were able to understand and derive scalar implicature, and the literal meaning of simile and metaphor decreased with increasing age.

The present study aims to analyze the verb “bastan” (to close) using cognitive semantics. The meanings of “bastan” have been collected using library method, extracted from dictionaries including Sokhan, Dehkhoda, Sadri Afshar's Persian Dictionary, Persian Spoken Variety, and the Etymological Dictionary of the Persian Language. This data was used for comparative analysis. In this research, a qualitative research method has been used to describe the meanings and to determine if there is a relationship among them using the image schema theory in cognitive semantics, specifically the models proposed by Evans and Greene, Evans and Evans. The analysis of the schematic meanings of the verb “bastan” showed that out of 26 meanings, 11 are force schemas, indicating an obstacle of a physical or abstract nature, and 18 are link(age) schemas, either physical or abstract. In one case, in addition to the mentioned schema, a splitting schema was considered. Etymological considerations show that the verb “bastan” originates from a single root in its current form: -band in ancient Persian, bandh (badhnāti) in Sanskrit, and -band in Avesta. This matter does not allow the existence of two different unrelated schema, because the connection between meanings will be lost. This research argues that associative schemas show the relationship between the various meanings of the polysemic verb “bastan”.

Effective written communication is a crucial skill in both virtual and non-virtual contexts. Developing proficient writing skills requires consistent training and constructive feedback. While previous research has examined the impact of teacher feedback on language learners, the efficacy of peer correction technique, a form of corrective feedback, on reducing writing errors among non-Iranian Persian learners has not been extensively studied. To address this research gap, this study investigates the effectiveness of peer correction techniques on the Persian writing skills of 47 male and female Persian learners from diverse nationalities. Non-random purposeful sampling was used to select participants, who were then divided into two groups, each consisting of four separate classes. Prior to implementing the peer correction technique, both groups completed a pre-test. The experimental group underwent six sessions of peer feedback technique implementation, after which a post-test was conducted. Analysis of the participants' writing errors showed that despite some limitations, the peer correction technique had a positive effect on enhancing the Persian writing skills of the non-Iranian learners in the experimental group, leading to a reduction in their writing errors. The findings suggest that peer correction techniques can be an effective means of improving writing skills among non-Iranian Persian learners. This study contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the potential benefits of peer correction techniques and informing pedagogical approaches aimed at enhancing writing skills among non-Iranian Persian learners. Furthermore, the study's results suggest that peer correction provided in a classroom setting can positively impact the writing proficiency of both foreign learners with different native languages and more proficient language learners in the experimental group.

This paper analyzes Surah al-Muzammil via Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). The study mainly aims to investigate the mechanisms related to the representation of the modality, to specify the process types, and finally, to find the types of thematic structure. In terms of interpersonal metafunction, the theme is the dominant aspect in most of the clauses of Surah al-Muzammil; this result shows that most of the verses have a realistic aspect and description of facts, and also God wants to make his words firm by using more of this mood, delivering and creating a sense of confidence in the audience as well. Moreover, the present tense is the dominant tense in Surah al-Muzammil. Since the scope of the present tense is vast and can include all tenses, the speaker has used chiefly present tense verbs in the surah. Examining the polarity of clauses indicates a high percentage of positive polarity compared to negative polarity, and this predominance of positive polarity, along with the predominance of theme, increases the speaker’s confidence. In addition, based on the ideational metafunction, the material process has the highest frequency in the surah. The high frequency of the material process is due to the objectiveness of the word in the text of the surah- the more objective the speech, the more influential the text. As to the textual metafunction, most of the clauses’ thematic structure is unmarked, indicating that the speaker tries to use the same typical mechanism in everyday language to construct information structure.

The categorization and syntactic structure of the infinitive have been subjects of debate, with differing views considering it either as a noun or a verb. This research aims to explore the characteristics of Persian infinitives and propose a hierarchy for their projection within the framework of Distributed Morphology. By considering the infinitive's dual nominal-verbal behavior and its potential role as an adjective, this study seeks to provide a comprehensive explanation of the Persian infinitive. In addition to reviewing relevant literature, it is observed that the behavior of the Persian infinitive differs from that of the infinitive in languages such as English. While it shares some similarities with the English gerund, it is important to note that the Persian infinitive has distinct properties. Consequently, the nature of the Persian infinitive and its derivation differ from those of the English infinitive and gerund. The study also highlights the use of wh-words in infinitive structures and the ability of (negative) infinitives to permit the presence of polarity items within their structure. Furthermore, the infinitive can function not only as a noun or a verb but also as an adjective. Based on these observations, a hierarchy of infinitive projection is proposed. Additionally, the research suggests the position of infinitive affix insertion, providing evidence that contradicts initial assumptions regarding the insertion point of the Persian infinitive affix.

The interface between morphology and syntax has been a disputed issue among linguists. The main goal of this research is to investigate the interface between morphology and syntax and represent the existence of interaction between these two structural modules of language. Therefore, we have studied two productive word formation processes in the language of science. One of them is the result of the module of morphology, but we can assign a syntactic substructure to it. The other one is itself a syntactic entity, but it shows some morphological behaviors. These two processes are respectively noun incorporation and the formation of syntactic phrases. For this purpose, 500 terms from the first dictionary of a collection of terms approved by the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, and 500 terms from the sixteenth dictionary of a collection of terms have been chosen randomly and studied in this research. The main framework of this research is the interactional approach. We have also utilized additional tools from other theoretical approaches, such as constructional schemas in construction morphology. The research conducted in this essay depicts the definitions of incorporating nouns, in the dictionaries, to confirm their syntactic structure. On the other hand, losing some syntactic markers in syntactic phrases demonstrates the lexicalization of these structures. This study showed that incorporating nouns had a greater diversity of constructional schemas than syntactic phrases. However, the productivity of syntactic phrases was higher in comparison to incorporating nouns. Furthermore, the usage of syntactic phrases had increased in the ten-year period. As a result, the overall trend was ascending.

The strategy of conversational repair is one of the most important pragmatic skills, which includes requesting clarification and responding to the request for clarification. In this cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study, the conversational repair skills of 15 children with cochlear implants were compared with 15 language age-matched hearing children TOLD-P:3. The aforementioned skills of subjects were evaluated in the dyadic interactions of the children with cochlear implants and unfamiliar hearing children. For this purpose, the children's conversations were transcribed and coded. The results showed a significant difference between the average number of requests for clarification in the group of children with cochlear implants, and hearing children matched in terms of language age (p < 0.05), but the average number of strategies of responding to the request for clarification in children with cochlear implants was not significantly different from that of the hearing children. Also, children with cochlear implants used the skill of requesting clarification more than the hearing children matched based on the language age, which can indicate that the skill of requesting clarification takes longer to develop, and hearing children, considering their chronological age, are probably not mature enough in their use of this skill. Another possibility could be that children with normal hearing, despite having the same language age as children with cochlear implants, still have more and better access to auditory information due to having normal hearing, and therefore, do not need as many requests of clarification as children with cochlear implants.