Possession Schemas in Persian

The present study aims to investigate the nominal and the predicative possession schemas in Persian with a cognitive approach. Schemas are abstractions from which the grammatical constructions develop. To this end, Heine's (1997) cognitive approach to the study of the Possession Schemas is considered as the theoretical framework by the authors. The results of the study show that the Action, the Location, the Companion, the Goal and the Source Schemas are used in Persian to encode the predicative possession. Moreover, the Location, the Companion, the Additive, the Genitive, the Source, the Linking and the Topic Schemas encode the nominal possession in Persian. A unique feature of Persian, which is not documented in Heine's cognitive approach, is the use of the Linking Schema to encode the nominal possession. This issue is introduced in this research for the first time. Furthermore, Persian uses the Source Schema to express the predicative possession.