Compound Sentences in Persian (An RRG-Based Analysis)

This paper undertakes to describe “Compound Sentences” in Modern Persian (Farsi) based on Functional Syntactic theory of “Role and Reference Grammar”. First، it describes the foundation of RRG theory which is presented in 1997 by Robert D. Van Valin Jr. and Randy J. Lapolla and extended later by Van Valin in his book “Exploring the Syntax-Semantics Interface” (2005). The RRG posits three nexus relations between clauses in “Compound Sentences” (Coordination، Co subordination، Subordination) rather than the two of “Traditional”، “Structural” and “Generative” Grammar. There are three primary levels of juncture، clausal، core and nuclear and there are three possible nexus relations among the units in the juncture. All three types of nexus are possible in all three forms of juncture and this yields nine juncture-nexus types in Universal Grammar. We described two relations (Coordination، Subordination) in Compound Sentences. There are two types in Coordination and nine types in Subordination. This paper concludes that the advantage of the RRG is simultaneous exploring of three levels of “Syntactic”، “Semantics” and “Pragmatics” description.