Coordination in Grammatical Phrases from Different Categories: Cognitive Grammar Perspective

In this study we have investigated the coordination of constructions from different grammatical categories, with a Cognitive Grammar approach. Haspelmath (2007: 1) and Langacker (2009:349) have argued that common category membership in not the only criterion for coordination of two grammatical groups. They have both given some exaples where different grammatical categories have made well-formed coordinative constructions and they have considered meaning as the key factor for two grammatical categories to coordinate. There are also similar examples in Persian. The studies which have investigated coordinative constructions in Persian are mostly carried out in Generative Grammar framework and none of them are devoted to investigation of this specific problem. So, since Cognitive Grammar is a meaning-based theory and investigates the language with all aspects of it, adopting it can render new and different results. According to the researches done on English language, it was expected for Cognitive Grammar to manage to describe this type of coordinative constructions, using the meaning-based definitions for grammatical categories and the schemas offered for each of them. Investigating 200 coordinative constructions gathered from major Iranian newspapers, showed that that all the grammatical categories belonging to atemporal relations, and also having compatible trajectors can act as the coordinands of a coordinative construction. In conclusion, we can say that in Persian, propositional and adjective phrases, and also propositional and adverbial phrases, dispite belonging to different grammatical categories can appear as the coordinands of a coordinative construction.