Syntactic Layer in Some of Persian Lullabies: The Study of Sentence Structure

Lullabies are one type of songs which fall in the realm of popular literature. One of structural aspects of Lullabies are their syntactic properties. Current research has done by descriptive-analytic research method. The goal is examining of types of sentences in 93 lullabies based on be simple or compound and number of sentences parts. Chi-square test obtained using SPSS21 software, shows there is significant difference between frequencies of simple and compound sentences. That is, frequencies of simple sentences are more than compound sentences significantly. From number of sentence components, three components sentences and one component ones with 46% and 26% have the highest and lowest frequencies in lullabies respectively. Based on Chi-square test, in lullabies, three components sentences have been used more than one component ones significantly. High frequency of simple sentences is appropriate to the lullaby, because in this type of popular literature audiences of lullabies are children who are learning language and it is expected that are used syntactic structure with short and simple sentences and consisting of only one verb in order to processing and understanding them be possible for children. Also, high frequency of simple sentences is due to rhythmic characteristic of lullabies. So this property cause lullabies often told into simple and short three components sentences. Furthermore lullabies have of folk aspect and their speakers are mothers with low level literacy. In folk speech is tried to reduced speech complexity in order to be more fluid. So, in the examined lullabies there are short and simple three components sentences.