A Diachronic Study of Restrictive Relative Clause in Persian

This paper presents a diachronic investigation of restrictive relative clauses in Persian. On the basis of the theoretical frameworks of Grammaticalization and Discourse Grammmar, the paper analyzes how relative clauses as thetical elements were inserted paratactically as nonrestrictive relative clause by a relative marker, namely hya, in Old Persian. The purpose of this discourse process was to present some information about a nominal constituent in the main clause while the relative marker hya was accompanying it. In Middle Persian, the relativizer ī, as phonologically reduced form of hya, however, underwent some transitional ambiguity in which its prior function as a relativizer was gradually changed to a restrictive relative marker via grammaticalization. In late medieval texts and at the beginning of new Persian, ī relative clauses were transferred to the sentence grammar in the form of an embedded constituent. Furthermore, this study shows that beside the explanation of synchronic process of discourse organization, Discourse Grammar can also justify the diachronic changes of the category under the investigation.