The Functions of Emphatic Devices in Contemporary Arabic and Their Equivalents in Persian: Focusing on the Translations of Al-Ayyam (The Days) by Taha Husain and an Introduction to Arab Poetics by Adonis

Language is a symbolic system for communication. In order for the messages to be conveyed successfully between the interlocutors, it is sometimes necessary to be accompanied by certain signs so that the recipient of the message receives what was exactly meant by the addresser. This process in Arabic and Persian is known as “Emphasizing or the Emphasis” which based on the six functions proposed by Jakobson for verbal communication are mainly manifested in conative and referential functions. This study, using an inductive-inferential research design within a linguistic approach, tried to investigate the functions of the emphatic devices as tools, function words and style in the contemporary Arabic language while finding their Persian equivalents. To this end, it focused on two books of “The Days” by Taha Husain and “An Introduction to Arab Poetics” by Adonis. These two are prominent contemporary writers and their prose is considered as standard prose by most literary critics. The findings revealed that the emphatic tools have lost their emphatic role in modern Arabic and are solely used for the sake of textual coherence; therefore, there is no equivalent for them in Persian. The emphatic role of some of these words such as “Ghad” have been fainted and just play a role in determining the type of the verb. Another group of them like “Emphatic N” is rarely used in modern texts. However, emphatic styles have still kept their emphatic role and their equivalents can be easily found in Persian.