نشریه زبان و زبان شناسی
پیاپی 24 (پاییز و زمستان 1395)

The present paper studies the stress pattern of Persian language at the word and syntactic phrase level and shows that in the framework of prosodic phonology lexical stress in Persian follows a consistent pattern. The lexical stress in Persian follows the phonological word stress rule (that is right-most), but in accounting for phrasal stress, reference to syntactic information and internal constituent structure of the syntactic constituent is inevitable. Head avoidance principle (Eslami 1379, 1384) clearly explains this issue. The present research therefore uses this principle for analyzing the data. This paper also examines the Optimality Theoretic (OT) grammar of phonological word, clitic group and phonological group’s prosodic pattern. In this regard, the research data are analyzed within the framework of Optimality Theory, and a grammar is presented benefitting from Optimality violable constraints.

Linguistic attitude, i.e. any type of feeling or sensation of an individual towards his or her own language and that of others, involves concepts such as culture, identity, and mechanisms such as language planning. In this study, considering the three parameters of linguistic difference, correctness, and pleasantness, the attitudes of Tabrizi citizens towards dialectal variation across East Azerbaijan province were evaluated. A researcher-made questionnaire with three maps of the province was presented to 384 citizens of Tabriz who speak Azeri Turkish as their first language. The participants marked their opinion towards linguistic differences with Tabrizi accent in a scale from 1 to 4. The correctness and pleasantness parameters were evaluated in a scale from 1 to 7. The statistical data shows that the proximity principle is a valid parameter, as the least differences with Tabrizi dialect were recorded in six adjacent cities. Secondly, most participants considered Tabrizi dialect as the most correct and most pleasant variety across the province. With the two exceptions of Meraghe and Bonab, other counties showed a positive correlation between correctness and pleasantness parameters. The group of females ranked Tabrizi higher in terms of correctness and pleasantness. The age group 26-45 recognized more difference between Tabrizi accent and those of other counties. The non-educated group showed more significant attention towards the pleasantness parameter. In addition to theoretical achievements in sociolinguistics and dialectology, the findings of the present study could support language planning projects and decision making in institutions such as local IRIB as well as centers for teaching Azeri Turkish.

This research aims at analyzing and comparing the development of grammatical cohesive devices (reference, conjunction, ellipsis and substitution) in Persian-speaking students’ written discourse at primary level (9 to 12 years old) according to logical meta-function introduced in Halliday and Matthiessen’s systemic functional grammar (2004), by using a descriptive analytical method. 45 students (boys) studying at primary school (4th, 5th and 6th grades) in 2014-15 were selected through random-sampling. Two written tests in the form of picture stories were administered for gathering data from their writings. Frequency, percentage and pattern of development of using grammatical cohesive devices were compared in seeking the answer to the question of how age affects the frequency and the variety of grammatical cohesive devices. The frequency of grammatical cohesive devices among the 4th, 5th and 6th grade students was 1285, 1866, 2198 respectively. So the use of grammatical cohesive devices proved to increase in higher grades. Based on the Kruskal–Wallis test, the differences were significant (p≤ 0/05). The distribution of different cohesive devices showed some changes as the grades moved higher. In addition, more sophisticated devices were noticed . Personal references were the most and comparative references were the least frequent devices in the category of reference. In conjunction, additive, adversative, spatio- temporal and causal- conditional conjunction were the most and the least frequent ones. In ellipsis and substitution, nominal phrase deletion was the most, and verb phrase deletion was the least frequent one. The percentage of different devices were as follows: reference (62%), conjunction (22%), ellipsis and substitution (16%).

This research aims at analyzing and comparing the development of grammatical cohesive devices (reference, conjunction, ellipsis and substitution) in Persian-speaking students’ written discourse at primary level (9 to 12 years old) according to logical meta-function introduced in Halliday and Matthiessen’s systemic functional grammar (2004), by using a descriptive analytical method. 45 students (boys) studying at primary school (4th, 5th and 6th grades) in 2014-15 were selected through random-sampling. Two written tests in the form of picture stories were administered for gathering data from their writings. Frequency, percentage and pattern of development of using grammatical cohesive devices were compared in seeking the answer to the question of how age affects the frequency and the variety of grammatical cohesive devices. The frequency of grammatical cohesive devices among the 4th, 5th and 6th grade students was 1285, 1866, 2198 respectively. So the use of grammatical cohesive devices proved to increase in higher grades. Based on the Kruskal–Wallis test, the differences were significant (p≤ 0/05). The distribution of different cohesive devices showed some changes as the grades moved higher. In addition, more sophisticated devices were noticed . Personal references were the most and comparative references were the least frequent devices in the category of reference. In conjunction, additive, adversative, spatio- temporal and causal- conditional conjunction were the most and the least frequent ones. In ellipsis and substitution, nominal phrase deletion was the most, and verb phrase deletion was the least frequent one. The percentage of different devices were as follows: reference (62%), conjunction (22%), ellipsis and substitution (16%).

The present article focuses on 6 private and monumental inscriptions in the Sasanian Pahlavi script and language in India. The Buddhist Kanheri Caves have been located at the suburbs of Mumbai. There exist six inscriptions in cursive Pahlavi script that date back to the 11th century A.D. (1009-1021 A.D.). These inscriptions have been written down by a number of Zoroastrian merchants who travelled to India and visited the caves. They are the earliest evidence proving the presence of Zoroastrian merchants in India. The earliest inscription belongs to 378 Yazdgirdi (1009 A.D.) and the second one belongs to the same year but has been written 45 days after the first one. Both inscriptions bear the same names. The third inscription dates back to 390 Yazdgirdi (1021 A.D.) bearing different names and the fourth one also belongs to 390 Yazdgirdi (1021 A.D.) and bears the name of a visitor. The fifth inscription is illegible and the last one bears the proper name “Ābān Āzargušnasb son of Farrox. It has been mentioned in the third inscription that the Zoroastrians (Behdīnān) have came from Iran.

In Baboli Variety of Mazandarani language, “ǰɑ” is a postposition encoding semantic roles of source, cause, comitative, and instrument, and has functionally the same meaning as “az” and “ba” in Persian. The aime of this study is to investigate archaic form of “ǰɑ” and its functions in Old and Middle periods of Iranian languages. Furthermore, it is determined that “ǰɑ” is derived from Sanskrit sačā and Avestan/Old Persian hača/hačā. Its equivalents in Sogdian, Middle Persian, and Parthian are respectively čan, az, and až. Based on the many instances presented in this article, it is concluded that the archaic forms of this adposition, similarly, encoded semantic roles of source, cause, comitative, and instrument in Old and Middle periods of Iranian languages. ǰɑ has retained these semantic roles in Baboli / Variety of Mazandarani language. The oldest form of ǰɑ in Sanskrit has encoded semantic role of comitative which means that this role is of an older origin.