A corpus-based analysis of locative alternation in Persian based on Croft's causal approach

This article aims to analyze Locative Alternation (LA) in Persian based on Croft's (2012) causal approach, Givón's (2001) methodology to calculate topicality and Hamshahri Corpus 2 (AleAhmad et. al., 2009). Croft explains argument realization based on verb's event structure, and that structure is represented through causal chain which, itself, reflects force dynamic relations. The data includes 1112 cases of LA constructions in their natural linguistic context. The relevant results are as follows: the factor involved in LA, that is, choosing between locatum-as object construction and location-as-object construction, is determining the affected element and not the holistic/partitive reading; the affected element is identified with regard to the concept of topicality; topicality is linked to objective construal as opposed to subjective construal.