مهدی سبزواری

Some evidence from Persian supports the existence of constituents that show properties of affixoids or what might be referred to as semi-affixes. These constitutes can stand independently but, in combination with certain nouns, show a rather notable distribution and, in that context, behave like a derivational affix. In such contexts, there is a semantic change in the derived form when an affixoid is added to a base. Regarding the frequency of affixoids in Persian, it is observed that their usage is also very frequent in sentences and phrases as independent words. There are several affixoids attested in Persian but only a few will be discussed here as representative examples. It can be argued that affixoids hold an independent status in linguistic literature as a semi-category. In this paper, some affixoids from Persian will be discussed as they might be prefixoids or suffixoids. All examples are from spoken and written Persian.

Metonymy is one the most important literary devices in literature, and it has been widely studied with metaphor in literary studies and linguistics. Typically, metonymy has been regarded as a figurative meaning of a word versus its lexical meaning. However, it could be found that metonymy exists in every language for daily communication, and its usage is not limited to the literature. So, it plays an important role in any language which is mostly formed out of a reduction on syntagmatic paradigm. The widespread usage of metonymy enriches a language, and it adds to its coherence. In this paper, with a brief review of literature on metonymy studies, and the different issues for its definition, a new definition of genuine metonymy is suggested with a new term of prototype metonymy which has a kind of influence on the audience whether in literary usage or everyday language. Based on the hypothesis of this paper each reduction on the syntagmatic axis is not a metonymy unless it influences the audience in some way, and if it motivates a kind of affective response. Indeed the prototype metonym will be suggested as genuine, and a cline will be claimed to conclude the discussion.

Compound verbs are among the important linguistic categories in different languages which have been the subject of many studies from different aspects of syntactic, semantic, and cognitive researches. A compound verb can be said that is a verb formed from two (or even more) parts: a verb, and mostly a noun, or an adverb or a preposition. A compound verb functions as a single verb. It has two components one of which is a light verb , which carries inflections, and it contributes to some extent to the whole meaning. The other part is typically a noun which bears the most of the semantics of a compound. In this paper, the semantic features of idiomatic compound verbs of the spoken Farsi will be described and analyzed to reach out the possible explanation behind the semantic reading of those compound verbs in Farsi. From spoken Farsi in Tehran, 181 idiomatic compound verbs were selected based on our intuition and observations. This non-compositionality results in opacity, and it is not easy for Farsi learners to guess the meanings. A new non-compositional hypothesis will be proposed in this paper which explains the process of interpretation and reading of an idiomatic compound verb is essentially based on the non-verbal element of the compound and the figurative and idiomatic meaning is activated based on a marked collocation with a verb with which the non-verbal part has no semantic compositionality. This hypothesis is called Three-layered reading of idiomatic compounds.

Based upon diachronic-cognitive linguists, language structure is the product of our interaction with the world around us. The way we build discourse and develop linguistic categories can immediately be derived from the way we experience our environment and use that experience in specific communication. Thanks to recent works on the evolution of grammatical categories e.g auxiliaries, we now have a sizable knowledge of the main patterns of grammaticalization which allows for fairly reliable linguistic reconstructions and hypotheses on genetic evolution through main cognitive processes e.g semantic bleeching. Following the doctorines of cognitive semantics, the present proposal bears an attempt to discover and define which aspects of meaning of a lexical source are lost and which are preserved through grammaticalization. Analyzing a specific grammaticalized product, namely the auxiliary verb xâstan, the future marker, through the lexical xâstan ‘to want’ in Persian, we will suggest that the evolution of the target grammatical meaning, the future, through grammaticalization process occurs applying semantic bleaching by way of which the entire idiosyncratic semantic features are vanished but the image-schematic structure. This must mean that an image-schema is abstracted from the earlier lexical sense since it would be potentially much more immanent and pervasive than the fully fleshed-out lexical meaning.

In this paper the structure and the symmetric merge of a noun phrase in the matrix and dependent clauses of the object-object relative clause in Persian language was studied based on the notions of symmetric merge and multi dominance proposed by Citko (2011b) and the results of study by Riemsdijk (2006a). Different examples of relative clauses in Persian language were analyzed based on the notion of symmetric merge proposed by Citko (2011b). These analyses showed that the classification of relative clauses in Persian language into two groups of headed and free relative is not completely compatible with what has been proposed by Citko (2011b) since in Persian language if we use the wh-word as the head of free relative clause, it would contribute to making the sentence as a wh-question one which is against the findings of Citko (2011b) in English language. Moreover, the results of this research showed that the observed properties of the shared constituent between the matrix and dependent clauses of the object relative clause in Persian language namely as having the same case, syntactic function, and thematic roles proveed that this noun phrase is merged simultaneously between the two clauses and is a shared constituent between two lexical verb heads in the hierarchical structure of the sentence. This approach provides a clear and cost-free explanation for the characteristics of the shared element in the object relative clause in Persian language.

In this paper, numerical solution of linear Fuzzy Fredholm integral equations of the second kind is investigated, using CAS wavelets by applying Galerkin method. In order to illustrate the accuracy of the method, some numerical examples are presented. In comparison to the results obtained by applying the Legendre and Chebyshev wavelet method, our results, specifically in the case of integral equations with periodic functions, exhibit higher accuracy. Thus, applying CAS wavelets to these integral equations are recommended.

Semantic categories have a prototypical structure and consist of central and peripheral meanings. There are some peripheral and accidental meanings at the fuzzy borders of these categories; transient meanings which disappear in the course of time. Some of these meanings may occur in a different time and independent from previous occurrence(s) of the same meaning. Geeraerts (1997) calls this phenomenon “semantic polygenesis.” Semantic polygenesis, on one hand, characterizes prototypicality of meaning and, on the other hand, indicates its social aspect. In this paper we investigated semantic polygenesis in New Persian words’ meanings, from the 10th century (AD) until present.

For this research, we examined ten selected words, from the semantic domain of politics and governance, in 113 texts in poetry and prose, and recorded their meanings. Then we designated peripheral meanings and investigated them based on semantic polygenesis conditions. For the purpose of simplicity, we divided the whole period into 100-year intervals coinciding with Hijri centuries, except the last period after the Islamic Revolution of Iran which is 42 year long. The texts allocated to the periods based on their approximate time of writing.

In this research we investigated the meanings of the words āzād ʻfreeʼ, āzādi ʻfreedomʼ, edāre ʻinstitution, managementʼ, enghelāb ʻrevolutionʼ, hokūmat ʻgovernmentʼ, khāje ʻsir, masterʼ, dastūr ʻdecree, commandʼ, dowlat ʻstateʼ, rejim ʻregimeʼ, and siyāsat ʻpoliticsʼ, to find the effect of semantic polygenesis. Five words, āzād, enghelāb, khāje, dastūr, and siyāsat, have peripheral meanings whose reoccurrence can be instances of semantic polygenesis. In total, there have been nine meanings of these five words. Each of the first four words had two meanings, and the last one represented one meaning. These meanings have disappeared within a period, however, they have emerged after a considerable time (probably) independent of their first occurrence.

As a result of this research, we found out that nine meanings of five words could be considered as semantic polygenesis instances. The existence of semantic polygenesis means that in a prototypical semantic structure, one meaning can occur in two different periods in the borders of the category of the senses of a word independently. This phenomenon indicates the prototypical characteristic of lexical meaning and, in a micro level, designates fuzzy and instable borders of categories and the existence of peripheral and accidental meanings. Moreover, another aspect of semantic polygenesis reveals the social properties of meaning, as meaning does not exist in isolation or as a priori endowment in the minds of all speakers. The meaning is produced by speakers, or even a single speaker, and then it would be transferred to other speakers.

Features as the syntactic foundation of the sentence constituents have a special role in the syntactic operations and derivation of the sentence. Merge operation is responsible for combination of the constituents and derivation of the sentence. In the derivation of the sentence, the constituents are put to together based on the hierarchy of the projections but this question is raised that how the computational system of Language determines the order of merge for constituents and prevents the syntactic ill formed sentences. In this paper based on the proposed “Proper Inclusion Relation” which regulates the order of merge for constituents, the derivation of sentence in the Persian language is studied. Based on this proposed relation, the computational system of Language only uses the constituents for merge and move that their morphosyntactic features are in Proper Inclusion Relation with each other. The results of this paper show that based on the theoretical foundation of this relation and considering the morphosyntactic features of the constituents in the Numeration and workspace of the computational system, the order of merge and the derivation of sentence in Persian language can be explained. Moreover, this relation can explain the free order of the adjunct in Persian language well.

This paper will study the concept of American exceptionalism which defines America as an exception to the rest of the world has been depicted in different novels and media in two different American novels. The analysis based on the actantial Discourse which is a semiotic one could shed more light on this concept in the contemporary American literature .According to this concept, America is exceptional in life style and it can be considered as a role model politically, economically, artistically etc. for the rest of the world. Therefore America will be a symbol of free and prosperous life and democracy. This American exceptionalism could be followed in two novels: Terrorist (2006) by Updike and Expensive People (1972) by Oates. Although these two novels present American exceptionalism in two different perspectives, the basic concept can be traced in both novels. This paper will read two novels through semiotic analysis of the actantial Discourse in a broader concept in literature.

This article is studying Persian compound adjectives based on conceptual blending theory. The method of the research is descriptive-analytic and the data collection is corpus-based. The research data are 400 compound adjectives from language data base of Persian language (PDLB). The goal of the research is to determine the cognitive processes involving in forming Persian compound adjectives (metaphor, metonymy and metaphor-metonymy) and to determine the level of creativity of compounding processes according to Benczes classification and to determine the interaction between endocentric and exocentric compounds according to Benczes results (2006). The results show that in forming Persian compound adjectives, the frequency level of metaphor is the most. then  Next frequency level belongs to metaphor-metonymy while the frequency of metonymy is indeed the least. According to Benczes (2006), with the  stronger  metaphoric relations, the  creativity level and the abstractness of  meaning  indeed increase. The research results show that Persian speakers have more willing to use metaphoric meaning for producing and understanding compound adjectives. As with the level of creativity, the metaphor-metonymy process has the most frequency. Drawing from the fact that metaphor holds the most number of the frequency of the conceptual blending process, it can be concluded that Persian speakers have no problem with understanding metaphoric meanings and have more willing to understand metaphoric meanings. Creating meanings through metaphoric compounds simplifies perception of metaphoric concepts for us. This vast use of metaphor and metonymy shows the creativity and dynamism of language. The creativity level of metaphor-metonymy conceptual blending is more than others.Foucounier and Turner (2003) considered the mental blending spaces and conceptual blending theory with four-part patterns. In their opinion, mental spaces are small conceptual packages which are made through speaking and thinking and are used in special situations for perceiving events and verbs. These mental spaces  include  smaller elements. Each of these elements is formed based on cognitive framework and special meaning models. According to conceptual blending theory, four spaces are involved in forming meanings: 1- Input space which is the source domain, 2- Output space which is the target domain, 3- General space which includes an abstract and schematic structure and is common between all available spaces, even the blending space that chooses between available structure in input spaces, uses the a part of structural features of general space. 4- Blending space that is made  through the interjection of two input spaces on the fourth space.

In this section, all cognitive processes and dynamic cognitive processes of all data, are determined according to the conceptual belnding theory of Benczes (2006). According to the proposed cognitive concepts, we study all the meaning structures of compound adjectives that are metaphor ormetonymy and then we examined the relation between head and dependent components and their classifications. Table 1 below shows all the data analysis with an example of each analysis. Table 1: Cognitive analysis of compound adjectivesReference to PDF article As an example we point to an extended explanation of several data based on conceptual blending theory. Explanations are related to input, output, general space, and blending space with drawing diagram of four-part spaces which are related to them and creativity level of each process.For example, consider the adjectives like zaban basteh that refers to one with closed tongue and  pashne boland that refers to high-heeled shoe. These adjectives have blending meaning that are the results of interjections of the two components of that adjective on the blending spaces. On the basis of conceptual blending theory of Benczes (2006), each  adjectives can be classified within metaphor, metonymy, or blending. Following below, consider the cognitive analysis of the adjective zaban basteh: closed tongue.Zaban basteh ( closed tongue) is a compound adjective which describes an animal and consists of negative meaning with passion and emotional meaning. In the first input, there is a tongue, tongue is the symbol of speaking faculty. Second, input is an adjective, basteh means closed and related to everything that can moves but  is in prison and cannot move. In output space, only human being can talk and animal cannot talk. In blending space, tongue is a thing that can move,  but something made it closed and has not any proficiency. On the other hand,  it is not only tongue needed for speaking;  other parts of the mouth are also needed for speaking, so there is a component to whole relation between the two compound adjective components and this compound is acceptable and is used. The whole component refers to a creature who cannot use its tongue. "Reference to PDF article"Figure1: Blending space of adjective zabanbasteh:closed tongue) In terms of creativity level, we have the pattern below:  Do del(indesisive)  ˃   zaban basteh(closed tongue)  ˃   pashneh boland (high-heeled shoe)The creativity and abstractness level of do del (indesisive) are more than zaban basteh and the creativity level of zaban basteh is more than pashneh boland. There is no concrete and real relation between do and del and the main meaning of dodel is not the total meaning of each component that are so and del and we cannot achieve the main meaning from the the total meaning of each component. However, the relation between zaban(tongue) and basteh(closed) is less abstract and basteh(closed) is oppressed and refers to one who is unable to speak because of closed or basteh, as if this meaning is rather guessable from the total meaning of each component.Obviously, Persian speakers can understand the meaning of pashneh boland(high-heeled) because the abstract level between the two components of this compound word is less than the other two adjectives.Below is the table no. 2 that shows the conceptual blending processes of all the data:"Reference to PDF article"Figure 2- conceptual blending frequency   "Reference to PDF article" Figure 3- conceptual blending frequency   

As it has been observed, the frequency of metaphors is the highest, and after that, blending and finally metonymy. In this study, from the analysis of 400 compound adjectives in the Persian Language Data Base (PLDB)and the analysis of the conceptual blending processes used in each of these adjectives, we conclude that the frequency of occurrence of the metaphorical process with 50% in semantic construction of Persian compound adjectives were the most common. After that, blending was with 47%, and finally, metonymy with only 3%, were used in semantic constructions.Considering that the highest frequency used in the use of conceptual blending processes belongs to metaphor, we conclude that Persian speakers have no problem in understanding the metaphorical meaning of words and are more inclined to use metaphorical meanings to understand concepts. Creating meaning through metaphorical combinations makes it easier for us to understand abstract concepts. This extensive use of metaphors convey the creativity and dynamism of language. As we have said, according to Figures 11-1, the creativity of the metaphor-metonymy process was greatest. The stronger the metaphorical connection between the components of a compound, the more creative that compound is. The creativity level of cognitive processes is s   Pattern 1  In this research, we studied 400 adjectives from Persian language data base (PLDB). As we considered the frequency level of conceptual processes in the table 2, metaphor is the most common process and  blending and  metonymy illustrate less frequency, respectively. We can conclude that Persian speakers have no problem with understanding and using metaphor in their talkings and this shows the dynamism and creativity of language. Creating meanings through metaphoric compounds simplifies abstract concepts for us. The creativity levelof cognitive processes is shown with the pattern below: Metaphor-metonymy ˃ metaphor ˃    metonymy Pattern 1The  stronger the metaphoric relation between components of a compound word, the more creative  theyare.

In this paper the parasitic gap in Persian language is explained by using the explanations provided by two proposed approaches in the Minimalist Programme namely as “Sideward Movement” and “Symmetric Merge”. In “Sideward Movement” the parasitic gap is considered as a NP which after valuing its uninterpretable feature in the adjunct clause, moves to the main clause to value its uninterpretable feature again and then moves to the specifier of the CP. This explanation is problematic since the uninterpretable features are checked and deleted after being valued. In the “Symmetric Merge” approach the parasitic gap is considered as a shared NP between the adjunct and main clauses by having the same case feature in two clauses. This approach cannot explain the parasitic gap in Persian language since in some example the moved NP has two different case features. After reviewing other examples from the old, middle, and new Persian languages and finding that the parasitic gap has particular characteristics such a grammaticality of the sentence even when we have pronoun in the situation of the real gap, it is concluded that the Persian language is a language without parasitic gap.

Ambiguity is one of the most important issues in lexical semantics and linguistics, and it has been studied from different approaches so far. It has a very long tradition of research in the history of linguistic studies. However, this paper will open a new perspective in studying semantic lexical ambiguity based on analysis of some cases in Farsi language, and as a result a new cognitive- semantic hypothesis will be introduced and discussed. Studying ambiguity with a cognitive approach may have some theoretical advantages which are not limited to Farsi language, and it could be generalized to all languages.Lexical ambiguity could be found when a word or lexeme presents more than one meaning at the same time by which a language user cannot easily detect the actual meaning. There are also syntactic and pragmatic ambiguities, but this research is about the semantic lexical ambiguity. Some cases of lexical ambiguity are homonymy words that are pronounced, and spelled similar but they are different words with different meanings.In this paper, a new hypothesis will be introduced which deals with the semantic lexical ambiguity with a cognitive approach. This hypothesis will be called dual readings hypothesis of semantic lexical ambiguity.

 

Asymmetric merge of the sentence constituents enables the Phonetic Form of the language to put the merged constituents in proper order for pronunciation based on the “Linear Correspondence Order”. The existence of various constructions like across-the-board wh and wh-questions derived by the computational system of language and different methods for analyzing them proposed by various scholars, have led to reviewing the certainty of the asymmetric relation between the merged constituents. Chomsky (2001) proposes two kinds of merge: external merge and internal merge. External merge takes two disjoint syntactic objects and combines them to form one larger syntactic object. Internal merge, often referred to simply as Move, is an operation “responsible” for displacement in grammar. This intuition implies the possibility that syntactic objects can be pronounced and interpreted in different positions. Considering the characteristics of external and internal merge, Citko (2000, 2003, 2005) proposed the third kind of merge operation namely as Parallel merge. Parallel merge (symmetric merge) is like external merge in that it takes two distinct objects as its input. However, it is also like internal merge in that it combines one with a subpart of the other. The symmetric merge leads to multi-dominance structures in which a constituent is simultaneously dominated by more than one node. Multi-dominance structures have special characteristics and the computational system of language needs special mechanisms for handling them. Important questions which should be answered about these structures are how to linearize them and how the features of shared elements are checked.  The asymmetric relation among the constituents of sentence is necessary since only the asymmetric constituents have the prerequisites needed for the Phonetic Form of the language to pronounce the constituents according to the LCA (Kayne, 1994). Apparently, the symmetric constituents are not able to be pronounced since they violate the LCA but the studies of Wilder (1999b, 2008), Gračanin-Yüksek (2007) and Johnson (2007) on modifying the definition of c-command have paved the way to make the symmetric merged constituents compatible with the prerequisites for the Phonetic Form. The newly developed notion enables the PF to linearize the shared elements in situ. In this new definition, the LCA can ignore some of the orders which violate the LCA. Wilder (2008) proposed the notion of “full dominance” which enables the shared elements to be pronounced correctly. According to Wilder (2008:238-9):  a. X fully dominates α if and only if X dominates α and X does not share α. b. α is shared by X and Y if and only if (i) neither of X and Y dominates the other, and (ii) both X and Y dominate.  Moreover, the definition of c-command is modified relying on the full dominance as follows: a. X c-commands Y only if X does not fully dominate Y b. d(A) = the set of terminals fully dominated by A. (Wilder 2008:243) By this definition the shared elements, since they are not fully dominated by A, are not considered in d(A) and the PF has the correct order for pronunciation. The second property of the multi-dominance structures is about feature checking of the shared elements. The operation “Agree” in the Minimalist Programme is responsible for providing values to unvalued features. This operation is a one-to-one relationship between Probe and Goal in a c-command domain. In symmetric merge this relationship turns into a many-to-one relationship between Probes and Goals. In order to solve this issue, Hiraiwa (2005) explores the possibilities of single Probe valuing features on different Goals simultaneously in a process which he calls as “Multiple Agree”. His study suggested the opposite in which the Agree operation can take place between several Probes and a single Goal as schematized below: p < sub>uΦ>GuCase,Φ, GuCase,Φ  p < sub>uΦ, p < sub>uΦ>GuCase, Φ Hiraiwa (2005: 51)  Having this mechanism, the shared element in multi-dominance structures can have its unvalued features being valued by two Probes simultaneously. Any inconsistency between the obtained values may result in ungrammaticality of the derived sentence unless the morphological component will determine whether the result is possible or not.  For studying the possibility of existence of symmetric merge in deriving the sentences in the Persian language, the across-the-board wh and wh-questions are selected. Based on the evidences observed from the internal relations among the constituents of the across-the-board wh and wh-questions in Persian language such as existence of the same tense in two conjuncts, impossibility of voice mismatches of little verbs between two conjuncts, simultaneous movement of the noun phrase from two conjuncts, lack of multiple fronting of wh-elements, existence of the same case in both conjuncts for the shared noun phrase and impossibility of using of different arguments of predicates in two conjuncts, it is concluded that a noun phrase, little v, T, and C heads are shared between the two conjuncts.  Accepting the existence of shared elements between two conjuncts provides us with simple and comprehensive analysis for across-the-board wh and wh-questions in Persian. Moreover, analyses based on symmetric merge can also be used for studying other structures in Persian such as parasitic gap, right node raising, gapping, and wh-questions with conjoined wh-pronouns. In all the cited structures, we have shared element(s) the characteristics of which the symmetric merge approach can explain in a simple and convincing way.

When a form is more complex or more marked, the meaning will be more complex consequently. A sentence could be said to be marked if it does not follow the conventional or unmarked word order pattern of a language. Changing word order is done by the syntactic processes which make a sentence marked. The typical function of an unmarked sentence is to show focus on some elements. Markedness can be represented as binary or as a cline which begins with unmarked, and it ends in the most marked one .For markedness, what is mainly considered is that complex or marked form has more morphemes than the unmarked form. Moreover, the occurrence frequency of the unmarked form is much higher than its marked counterpart. Therefore there is a direct relation between the markedness of a form and its semantic variety and complexity. Different syntactic processes in a language can change an unmarked sentence to a marked one mostly to represent more focus on one of the elements of the sentence. Among others also we find that serial verb construction(SVC) is an unmarked sentence. Serial verb construction or verb serialization is defined as a string of verbs or verb phrases that are not separated by a connector and the verbs in this construction share the same grammatical information and sometimes the same arguments, and finally this construction describes a single event. This paper will analyze some samples of the unmarked sentences of the standard modern Persian which are the result of the syntactic processes and, it could be seen in topicalized, clefting, scrambled and SVC sentences among others. The main hypothesis of this paper is that the standard word order change of Persian sentences which are the result of the syntactic processes is related to the concept of markedness. A different type of markedness will be introduced in this paper. In Persian we mostly find this new recognized type of markedness which is movement markedness. Beside movement markedness, the formal markedness is also seen in the syntactic structures of Persian among others. Movement markedness is found in syntactic structures and specifically word order because movement is a key issue in syntax. The function of this markedness is to focus the moved element. Markedness is not a process but it is an abstract phenomenon which is revealed by syntactic movements but it is not a process by itself. When a syntactic process like passivization works in a language, the state of sentence changes from unmarked to marked. This formal markedness beside the distributional markedness are often at work when there is movement markedness in the structure. This paper will show that this type of markedness is very frequent in creating new syntactic structures. It is predictable that the movement markedness is a universal concept and it works in other languages too, since there is no language without syntax. The movement markedness shows how syntax with syntactic processes employs markedness to create diversity and different functions.

The subject of this research is: "The Analysis of the Lak Students' Language transfer in Learning and Using Persian". This subject expresses the subjects under study, variables, description of the situation; that is the the descriptive analysis of the data. In this research the variables are: language transfer, Laki language as the first language (L1), Persian language as the second language (L2), learning and the use of Persian language. In the present study the researcher is looking for causes and types of language transfer from L1 into L2 and vice versa.The researcher has observed the use of Persian by educated and common Lak speakers in different situations, and has decided to investigate this subject. The general purpose of the present study is to analyze interlanguage of Lak learners in acquiring and using Persian. The researcher intends to discover the elements that these learners transfer from their L1 into the L2 in the course of making their interlanguage. Interlanguage refers to the middle phases between L1 and L2. Learner language is oral or written language that is produced by leaners. The role of interlanguage is providing data to study L2 learning. The purpose of this research is to describe and explain language learners' competence and development, and its growth over time. Competence can be analyzed only through a kind of performance. Transfer is a term used in applied linguistics to refer to a process in foreign language learning whereby learners carry over what they already know about their first language to their performance in their new language. Crosslinguistic influence (CLI) or - the influence of a person’s knowledge of one language on that person’s knowledge or use of another language-is a phenomenon that has been of interest to laypeople and scholars alike since antiquity and most likely ever since language evolved. Transfer phenomena often came to signify sloppiness, narrow-mindedness, and lack of mental clarity and sound thinking. (Jarvis and Pavlenko, 2008:1-2). These views were challenged in the 1940s and 1950s (Fries1940, Weinreich1953, Lado1957). Discussions of language transfer moved to a scholarly footing, legitimizing it as an unavoidable feature of language learning and use and exploring it as a linguistic, psycholinguistic, and sociolinguistic phenomenon. Since the 1950s, a number of additional books have dealt extensively with transfer, including, in chronological order, Vildomec (1963), Gass and Selinker (1983), Kellerman and Sharwood Smith (1986), Ringbom (1987), Dechert and Raupach (1989), Gass and Selinker (1992), Sjoholm (1995), Jarvis (1998), Hufeisen, and Jessner (2001, 2003), Alonso (2002), Cenoz, Hufeisen, and Jessner (2003), Cook (2003), Arabski (2006), and Ringbom (2007). Language transfer affects all linguistic subsystems including pragmatics and rhetoric, semantics, syntax, morphology, phonology, phonetics, and orthography. Research on transfer, has had a discovery nature, and researchers have tended to follow a concatenative approach. According to Jarvis and Pavlenko (2008:4-8), the new era of research characterizes four features about language transfer: Jarvis and Pavlenko (2002) are among those who introduced bidirectional transfer. In the oral and written production of a user of L2, crosslinguistic influence can function in both directions simoltaniously, fromL1 to L2 and from L2 to L1. Bidirectionality refers to a two-way interaction between two linguistic systems of an L2 user. Bidirectional transfer enjoys a multicompetence framework that is a specific speaker-hearer with a unique linguistic system. Within this framework bidirectional crosslinguistic can be discussed and understood as a complex process which may affect not only additionally learned languages but also L1 competence. Conceptual transfer can be characterized as the hypothesis that certain instances of crosslinguistic influence in a person’s use of one language originate from the conceptual knowledge and patterns of thought that the person has acquired as a speaker of another language. Different researchers consider different causes for language transfer. Researchers like Corder (1983) are trying to explain transfer on the basis of communication. From this view point, transfer is either a performative phenomenon or a product of it. Ringbom (1992) also claimed that there is a relationship between transfer and learning. Transfer can occur as a result of differences and similarities between two languages. Major and Kim(1996) showed that Korean English learners lerned /z/ sound better than the similar sound /ʤ/.Some others believe that transfer works along with other causes. Sociolinguistics, markedness, prototypes, language distance, and factors of language development affect language transfer. In their revised position on transfer, Gass and Selinker (1993) state that it is not incompatible to think of L2 acquisition as being affected by two interrelated processes: first, the learner's build-up of a body of knowledge in which he or she tests hypotheses formed on the basis of the available L2 data and second, the learner's utilization of the knowledge of L1 and other languages known to him or her (Johnson and Johnson, 1999: 355). Learners, consciously or not, do not look for differences; they look for similarities wherever they can find them. In their search for ways of facilitating their learning task they make use of intralingual similarities, which are perceived from what they have already learned of the TL. He has shown that Swedish speakers learn many aspects of English vaster than those of Finish learners of English. He attributes these differences to the fact that Swedish and English are typologically closer. Speakers of Roman and Germanic languages have better understanding of English vocabulary than speakers of non-Indo-European languages.

In this research, taboo and euphemism are examined with a socio-cognitive perspective. The study is conducted on the structures of expressions in Persian and English and 15 pairs (30 items) of these terms are compared and contrasted. Social topics such as social variables, taboo and euphemism, cognitive subjects including schema applications, and metaphors are included in this investigation. The main purpose is to clarify the similarities and differences existing in the two languages. Data are analyzed analytically and descriptively. The results show that the terms that contain taboo, are converted to other terms that have a kind of euphemism, so they are euphemized in order to be accepted in the society. The data is part of the most commonly used idioms and proverbs used in Persian and English. We collected the data from the documentary, library, electronic sources like internet, and also used the related books in relation to the types of idioms and proverbs in two languages. The research hypothesis is that although in the surface structure and objective representation of the two-languages, speakers have differences in the use of taboo and euphemism, but in the underlying structure of the languages, there are very similar concepts based on cognitive-socio elements of language. These concepts are coded through metaphors in the minds of the speakers. In this study, we will answer the following question: Based on which schemas taboo and euphemism are formed in the minds of the speakers in these two languages? And what are social aspects of these two issues? Variables of style, gender, age, occupation, social class and power; as well as force, event, object and possession schemas have been mostly used in the structures of expressions. Sometimes people look at the subject from one point of view; sometimes this point of view involves several topics. Based on the subject in their mind, an expression that has the right schema is selected. The expressions in both languages have the same semantic underlying structure and subject, but in the surface structure, the objective representation and the structure of each item are different. In fact, every term has a kind of conceptual metaphor in its structure that forms a kind of connection between the underlying structure of that term in terms of its semantic and its surface structure, in terms of constituent words. Therefore, the concept and subject are the same, but the ways to deal with these concepts are different. As mentioned, most of the schemas used to create these terms are force (or power), event, object and possession schemas. Volumetric, motor and surface schemas are used at lower levels. Meanwhile, the types of application and structures used in taboo and euphemisms depend on the positioning of individuals based on the principles of politeness, which points to the link between social and cognitive foundations. In sum, the study of the collection of these elements, with a cognitive-socio approach, in relation to taboo and euphemisms, in English and Persian is a systematic and new study that we investigated in this research in details.

The interpretation of a compound and access to it as a whole or its constituents separately as well as its retrieval from mental lexicon of speakers is heavily affected by the type of relation exist between elements of a compound; several relations might be activated at the same time and the speaker actually select a specific relation from simultaneously activated ones. Considering the semantics of compounds, semantic compositionality unites the meanings of components to reach a compositional meaning; based on this principle, there exist endocentric compounds with semantic head; On the other hand, there are plentiful of compounds in language with no semantic head and consequently no compositionality. Therefore the referent of the compound is out of it and the compound should be listed in the lexicon and memorized. Exocentric compounds with no clear semantic head and no compositionality have opaque meaning. Based on the claims of CARIN theory which has a cognitive approach, we could explain the semantic aspect of a compound (to be transparent or opaque) in terms of the existence or lack of a semantic relation between the elements. This paper aims at recognizing all possible relations in endocentric compound nouns of Modern Persian (Farsi). The interpretation of a compound and access to it as a whole or its constituents separately as well as its retrieval from mental lexicon of speakers is heavily affected by the type of relation exist between elements of a compound; several relations might be activated at the same time and the speaker actually select a specific relation from simultaneously activated ones. This area has been the focus of many researches done by cognitive linguists like C. Gagne and others as well as CARIN (CARIN theory known as competition among relations in nominals). Compound nouns are semantically classified in four groups: 1. Endocentric: a noun compound with one semantic head, 2. Apposition: a noun compound with two semantic heads, 3. Exocentric: a noun compound with no semantic head and 4. Co-ordinate; in these kinds of compound nouns the compound as a whole is not a kind of semantic head. Headless compounds do not contain an element to function as the semantic head modified by the non-head element; “football” and “greenhouse” are examples of headless compounds. Semantically an endocentric compound indicates a sub-group within the class of entities that head denotes. For example, a “schoolboy” is a kind of boy. Due to their semantic head, endocentric compounds are transparent in meaning. In other words, endocentric compounds have compositional meaning and we could guess their meaning when we face them for the first time. Exocentric compounds are non–compositional; their meanings are not predictable and should be learned and memorized; they are actually opaque. Many linguists consider a transparent compound to be decompositional but it is not always the case; there exist some compounds which are morphologically decomposable and are still opaque in meaning. The Principle of Semantic Compositionality is that the meaning of an expression is a function of, and only of, the meanings of its parts together with the method by which those parts are combined. From the cognitive view, an endocentric compound has focal concept that is the same as the semantic head in the compound. When the compound has no semantic head (exocentric), it does not have a focal concept which is compatible with the semantic head of compound; by missing these two elements in two different levels (i.e. focal concept (cognitive level) and semantic head (semantic level)), in fact the noun compound violates “the principle of semantic compositionality. This violation causes the compound noun to be opaque in meaning. For example in “teapot” the focal concept is “a kind of pot” not “tea” and this focal concept, as a semantic head, defines the meaning of the compound as a whole; so it is transparent. According to CARIN, interpreting a combination involves identifying the relation between two concepts. The relations assumed by CARIN form a small set of highly generalized types, adopted from the linguistic typology of Levi (1978). The theory makes two basic claims: first, the relation is a bound representation with no independent existence; it is captured within the representation of the modifier, but not the representation of the head noun. Second, several relations become activated and compete for selection during comprehension. The modifier is primarily responsible for interpretation, more frequent relations for a given modifier receive higher activation than less frequent ones. The very semantic relation that CARIN theory recognizes as the key entity for interpretation is responsible for a compound being transparent or opaque. In endocentric compound, the relation between head and modifier creates the focal concept in the compound; in fact such semantic relation leads to interpretation of noun compound even if we face it for the first time. The presence or absence of semantic relation for a compound is the key explanation behind semantic transparency and opacity. A generalization could be extracted based on the analysis of data: Endocentric compounds have semantic head, semantic relation as well as focal concept; they satisfy the principle of semantic compositionality and finally they are semantically transparent. Exocentric compounds lack semantic head as well as semantic relation and there is no formation of focal concept; they violate the principle of semantic compositionality and finally they are semantically opaque. This paper studies head- initial and head-final endocentric compound nouns of Farsi regarding meaning, inference and conceptual combination.

In this paper we investigated the semantic change of the word “dowlat” in the history of Persian prose from the 4th century (Hijri) until now. Though seemingly the meaning of this word has not changed dramatically, but it has been used with 21 different meanings in the Persian texts we investigated. We made an attempt to explain the semantic change of Dowlat using the prototype theory, Geeraerts’ (1997) approach. The prototype theory explains the meaning changes of the word well, in terms of three of four prototype hypotheses. We found that some senses play central role in the process of meaning change and meaning changes take place in the margins of clusters, in relation to central senses; some senses are peripheral and more impermanent; and some senses root simultaneously from more than one conceptual cluster (hypothesis 2). We found some evidence which show that modulation in the boundaries could cause one sense to occur twice in the history of the word in question, and each time independent from the other one; that is to say semantic polygenesis (hypothesis 3). Finally we learnt that encyclopedic information has a significant role in conceptual development of the words (hypothesis 4).

Polysemy is one of the most important, and traditional area in the semantic and lexical relations studies. Polysemy is a lexeme or word which has several meanings which are all somehow related. Regarding distinctive features of the words which are seen as polysemy cases, the study of these concepts and meanings specifically, and lexical relations in general is in the focus of the two recent decades researches in the cognitive linguistics, and also for psycholinguistics. We could find a rather rich literature in the study of polysemy in the field of lexical semantic and also cognitive semantics. In the traditional lexical semantics, collocation and the adjacent words are very important to add to the meaning of a word. In cognitive semantics, different concepts of an expression is connected to a central or proto typical concept in a network like connections which represents the fact that one concept is central, and the rest are non-central or secondary but related somehow to this primary meaning or concept. Indeed, the metaphorical extensions have no place among the actual concepts of a word. Polysemy could not include the figurative meanings of a word. Polysemy typically is a matter of nonfigurative and lexical meaning. In Persian, it has been always a tendency toward semantics and the lexical relations surveys. This tendency reveals the subject as a demanding area. In this descriptive and analytic paper, the types of polysemy of Persian with a cognitive approach, and classification of Evan's study will be considered, and discussed with the examples to testify if this classification will also be applicable to Persian or not. Evans suggests that polysemy might be one of the three kinds of conceptual, lexical and inter-lexical. What is important in Evan's approach is the semantic components of a word which could be activated in the relevant contexts, and this activation may represents some kind of conceptual polysemy. What is traditionally considered as polysemy is mostly treated as lexical polysemy in Evan's study. Conceptual polysemy with regards to the features as size, color, shape etc. of a single concept, and different activations of these features proposes a new look at the polysemy. In lexical polysemy, one meaning is central or primary from which other meanings emerge in a radial manner. Most of the polysemy cases in a language could be found as a lexical polysemy in Evan's terms. Different categories in language including nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs represent polysemy. Inter-lexical polysemy includes the possible polysemy relations between two words with different usages. A cognitive approach as Evan's consider polysemy in a language is based on a primary or central concept, selection and activation of some features of a concept, the effect of context, mental and cognitive accessibility of the speakers to a definite cognitive pattern to come to a specific interpretation. A point worth to mention here is that regarding polysemy, a word might have a figurative or metaphorical meaning in a context which is not often mentioned among the meanings in a lexical entry. This meaning is totally context- based. Polysemy is not mainly related to a special context but it is the second or third or even more actual, and inherent meaning of a word and it could be found in a dictionary. Although context plays an important role for the selection of the right meaning, metaphorical meaning is a selection which is dependent on the paradigmatic relations due to some conceptual similarities. However, this metaphorical meaning is not part of the central meaning and as a result the polysemy. This paper, with the identification of these types of polysemy in Persian, is to analyze, and evaluates a semantic subject with a cognitive approach.With evidences presented in this paper from Persian ,Evan's approach is proved to be useful for and applicable to the polysemy analysis in Persian, and more it represents a different, and innovative method for studying polysemy

Compound words, their structures and meanings, are subject of recent linguistic studies. Compound words regarding their meanings and head existence are divided into endocentric, exocentric, Dvandva and reciprocal. Each of these groups can be divided into small groups. Endocentric words will become meaningful in their contrast to exocentric words. On the contrary, most exocentric compound words have metaphoric meanings, and can be used as Persian equivalents for foreign scientific words in the process of word formation. This article presents first a description of compound processes and then a description of exocentric compound process, and at last classifies the exocentric compound Persian words based on Bauer’s (2008) classification. It also attemepts to show that Persian exocentric compound words have the same domain as Bauer’s classification. Application of this classification can be useful for word formation and also for teaching Persian to non- Persian speakers.

The IEEE 802.15.4e standard was proposed to improve the reliability of data transmission at the MAC layer for low power and lossy networks such as wireless sensor networks. The possibility of using multiple non-overlapping channels decreases the probability of collision among cometiting nodes, which, in turn, results in improving the quality of service as well as reducing energy consumption. The TSCH mechanism permits scheduling each data transmission on a pair of channel/timeslot using frequency hopping. However, the standard does not specify how to allocate channel/timeslot for scheduling data transmissions .In this paper, we propose a channel/slot scheduling based on 802.15.4e-TSCH mechanism for wirless sensor networks. In our mechanism, each node determines its requirements in terms of channel/slots by receiving scheduling matrices from its neighbors and according to the traffic volume passing through it. In this mechanism, we allocate dedicated cells for the nodes in the vicinity of the sink and also for the congested nodes. This mitigates the funneling effect. The simulation results over OpenWSN emulator confirm the efficiency of our mechanism.

This study analyzes the structure and mechanism of derivational adverbs in standard Persian with a cognitive approach. Based on this approach historical changes and appearing new categories in a language originate in the mind and cognition of the speakers. The birth of an adverb in a language bears some cognitive mechanisms in the mind. The importance of an adverb is due to this fact that it is the sole category that can be an adverb by nature or to be an adjective with the function of adverb or it is a category-functional linguistic element. Therefore, a linguistic item can be always an adverb by nature or be derived from adjectives which are derivational adverb. In comparison to other categories of a language like noun, verb, adjective, proposition- which are basic and primary categories, an adverb can be said to be a secondary category since in most cases it is derived from adjectives by derivation. In a sentence, adverb is just a grammatical function which modifies the sentence or the verb. This research will study the cognitive process of derivational adverbs in Persian which are formed by adding the suffix “aneh” to a root.

Farsi course book, included in the curriculum for the high school students with the aim of acquiring language skills, consists of various educational materials on writing and structure. The researchers in the present study are of the belief that the Farsi course book is fraught with major pitfalls which must be dealt with. In addition to the pitfalls, many Farsi teachers are not equipped with the sufficient knowledge and education to teach linguistic skills. Furthermore, most of the points raised in the book are not put into practice, which is in direct contradictions to objectives of Ministry of Education. Contrary to the strongly-held belief that since Farsi is the formal language of the country and the media, students should not have any serious trouble in understanding and learning it, Farsi is one of the few courses which have experienced great educational failure. The present paper seeks to uncover the possible reasons behind students’ failure resulting from the contents of Farsi course book and its teaching methodology in an attempt to improve them.