نشریه علم زبان
پیاپی 12 (پاییز و زمستان 1399)

One of the main concepts in cognitive linguistics is that each unit of language has a semantic network. In this approach, morpheme, categories, and syntactic constructs all have a symbolic unit. In this sense, enclitics also have their own meanings that add meaning to the base of the host. As a result, the derivative is formed. An extension like the lexical categories provides a category that classifies all its meanings around a central meaning. /-ku/ is one of the most widely used enclitics in the Tangestan dialect which is connected to different bases with the category of nouns, adjectives, and infinities. The present article, in the context of cognitive semantics, explores the various concepts of the "-ku:" as an enclitic. The main objectives of this research are to show that the various meanings of the "-ku:" suffixes are not randomized and present its semantic network. The findings of this study revealed that the "-ku:" enclitic has a coherent network in which the various meanings of this enclitic extend around a prototypical meaning (i.e., definite meaning) in the form of a radial structure.

As the conceptual system of the human mind, based on which human thought and action is formed, is metaphorical in its essence and rooted in the conceptual system of language, metaphor is considered as a salient category in linguistic studies. The present study investigates the embodiment pattern of conceptual metaphors in the congenital blind in comparison with their vision counterparts from cognitive semantics perspective based on Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) conceptual metaphors. The present quantitative-qualitative study was comparatively done between two groups of blind people and their counterparts. A total of 48 male and female blind men and women with graduate and postgraduate education aged 18- 28 years were evaluated. The participants were asked to describe the 30 selected words based on Bitley and Peggy’s (1991) procedures. In so doing, the study initially investigated image schemas as the source domain in metaphorical mappings and then conceptual metaphors used by the participants. Results show that the blinds, due to lack of vision, use more lexical descriptions and far more image schemas than their counterparts. Moreover, postgraduate female blinds were reported as the most users of image schemas.

Polygrammaticalization is a type of multiple development where a single form develops distinct grammatical functions in different constructions. The verb ‘xāstan’ is an instance of this phenomenon which conceptualizes specific notions of tense, aspect and modality in modern Persian. Xāstan, as a lexical verb and with the meaning “to want something”, falls in “Volition” basic event schema. Since different parameters of grammaticalization are applied on the verb in the grammaticalization process, the verb xāstan transforms to a complex schema. As an auxiliary verb and in serial complex schema, xāstan conceptualizes the future tense. In the same complex schema but in different contexts, the verb expresses proximative and avertive aspects. When the verb xāstan falls in evaluative complex schema, it conceptualizes a new notion of modality in which the speaker requests addressee the permission of actualizing the verb by proposing a suggestion; as a result, it is called proposal modality. The main explanation of polygrammaticalization of the verb xāstan in Persian seems to be filling the functional gaps and satisfying the need of conceptualizing the grammatical functions not met by other grammatical forms.

The aim of the present study study is to describe and analyze the conceptual domains used in metaphors of Saadi’s Boostan based on conceptual blending theory as presented by Fauconnier and Turner (1998, 2002). This theory uses mental spaces to describe and analyze metaphors that are two input spaces: a generic space and a blended space. In this research the mental spaces of each metaphor in Saadi’s Boostan are described to determine which conceptual domains are involved in the construction of mental spaces in each metaphor. Then, the significance or non-significance of using these conceptual domains are measured using X2 test in SPSS. The results show that the conceptual domains used in the metaphors of Saadi’s Boostan can be grouped into 13 groups: (1) personification, (2) journey for the life concept, (3) using orientation for positive and negative entities, (4) natural phenomena, (5) animals, (6) tastes, (7) agriculture (8) body organs, (9) being containment by non-containers, (10) things, (11) actions, (12) human characters, and (13) locations. When constructing metaphors, these conceptual domains are embedded in an input space and together with the other input space intended by the poet, are projected into a blended space and make a metaphor. The results show that all the metaphors of Saadi’s Boostan can be described and analyzed based on conceptual domains in constructing the mental spaces suggested in conceptual blending theory.

Dialectometrics is a quantitative approach to measure the differences among varying dialects using statistical measurement on a large number of linguistic features in a dialectal area. A dialect atlas, as such, displays variations of language across a geographical area. The present study employs an aggregate data analysis method as well as RuG/L04 dialectometry and cartography software to provide a perspective of phonological and lexical variation in Guilan province, Iran. The statistical population of the study includes residents of five Talysh-speaking towns in Guilan province, i.e. Talysh, Rezvanshahr, Masal, Fuman and Shaft. In each town/area 10 villages with more than 100 Talysh-speaking households were selected. The selected participants were male and they were classified in three age groups including the teen, the middle-aged and the elderly. The data were collected using Leipzig and Swadesh language questionnaires which include 65 words and 7 sentences. The results indicate that Talysh speakers tend to behave similarly in phonetic and lexical items in some semantic fields whereas in some other fields differences surface. The age variable proves to be significant in using older local words and the younger subjects tend to use standard Persian. In sum, three general dialects are recognized in Talysh, and each dialect has its own phonetic and lexical variations.

The origin of language is veiled in mystery which has been running in many linguists’ minds. Having reviewed and criticized the presented theories in this regard, the current study introduces a new theory based on the interpretation and scientific analysis of the Holy Koran verses that is a combination of two previous theories. According to the religious rationale of this theory, gradual coinage of language and existence of the various language families are rejected. On the basis of the aforementioned theory, a language was received suddenly in two morphological and syntactic steps by Adam and Eve (peace be upon them); however, their children acquired languages gradually relying on their linguistic competence and inputs around them. Social and geographical factors resulted from people’s migration have led to the formation of different linguistic varieties. The present study concludes with introducing new exemplifications of the rhetoric and scientific aspects of the Koranic miracles

Today, advertising plays an important role in human life and many aspects of the society’s activities; as a result, texts written in this field are of the same importance. From the viewpoint of functional linguistics, especially Halliday and Hassan’s Cohesion Theory (1976), one of the main factors of meaningfulness and effectiveness of a text is cohesion which is divided into three categories: grammatical, lexical, and conjunctional. It is expected that advertising texts, which are written with the purpose of persuading the target audience, have strong cohesive relations. Since food products are among the most necessary needs for human, the advertising for these products is of main importance for food industry producers. Due to the importance of cohesive and effective advertising texts as well as the key role of cohesive relations in these texts, the present research aims to investigate grammatical cohesive devices, in a selection of Persian and English media advertising texts (50 sample texts for each). The results show that reference and ellipsis are the most frequent cohesive devices in both English and Persian texts. It was also found that while the roles of the two are almost the same in the Persian texts, the role of reference is much more prominent than that of ellipsis in the English texts.

Language learners are often expected to achieve an acceptable level in grammar, which is considered as the basis for all human languages. Teaching grammar was the main component of language teaching methods in the past. Even the communicative approach, the most widely-accepted teaching approach today, did not ignore teaching grammar. Although teaching grammar was viewed as unimportant and laid aside for a short period of time, researchers and authors later realized that without teaching grammar, language learning would be of poor quality; as a result, they referred back to teaching grammar. All these point to the fact that mastery over grammar could help the learners in better comprehending and producing language. The present study is an attempt to present a framework on the basis of Keck and Kim (2014) for evaluating Persian grammar teaching textbooks. The name “Kem” is coined in the present study and is composed of 28 likert-scale questions. The “Kem” framework is made up of two main parts: explanations and activities.

The first five verses of Surah Al-Alaq, due to the available news based on the connection of these verses with the beginning of the revelation of the Holy Quran and the revelation of the Holy Prophet in Hara Cave, has always been the focus of Muslim and non-Muslim Islamic-scholars. Most scholars consider these verses to be separated and unrelated to the other verses of this Surah. At first glance, the connection and cohesion between the words and phrases in the Qur’an’s Surahs may not be clear and there may not be clear message from it. The present study, based on Neal Robinson’s Communication Model, which is based on the repetition of words, analyzes the cohesion among the verses of Surah Al-Alaq and critiques of the content of the news about the revelation of the Holy Quran. By determining the parts of the Surah and investigating the relationship between sequential sections with the help of hooked words and also utilizing a Mirror Model (i.e., face to face), a connection between the first parts of Surah Al-Alaq (verses one to five) and other parts are established, and the cohesion among the verses of this Surah, which has been wisely devised, is proved. Also, the critique of the news in which the revelation of the verses of this Surah is assumed to be separated and the dating of Surah Al-Alaq shows that the first five verses of Surah Al-Alaq are completely related to other verses of this Surah.

Persian relative construction which can be followed by a demonstrative has Det N RC word order. Persian relative clause is a post-nominal subordinate clause that is the most common type in the world. The relative clause has a complex structure which can illustrate the relationship between typology and generative grammar and develop a set of generalization that describes formal grammatical structures. Through a general survey of relative construction, the present study attempts to present the types and patterns of Persian relative clauses through data-based and theory-oriented approaches. This language-internal study also aims to find the range of possibilities which consists of (a) different strategies for the configuration of relative structure (raising analysis: movement of relative head noun from the relativized site to the Spec, CP which is coindexed with trace left behind by movement, or base generated analysis: head noun base generated in the Spec, DP which is coindexed with pronoun inside the relative clause), (b) presence of head (headed or head incorporated (free) relatives), hierarchical position of head (externally/internally headed relatives), linear order of head and RC (head-initial/final relatives), types of head (generic, specific, definite or indefinite noun) in restrictive and non-restrictive relatives, (c) position of Det with respect to N and RC, (d) position of relativisation occurance (subject, object, object of preposition…), (e) presence or absence of resumptive pronoun, that is relative clause underlyingly contains a pronominal which may be filled by a gap, and (f) possibility of embedding relatives within DP.

Binary oppositions have long been helping humans to label what is going on around, and sometimes put them on the horns of a dilemma. Such a reflection can be traced in people’s cultures, and since language is an indispensable part of a culture, examining cultulings (culture + language) can help us understand the beliefs and values of a given society. The present study, therefore, utilizes Hymes’ (1967) SPEAKING model to qualitatively analyze “the Cultuling of Liminality.” To this end, 712 contexts and 317 utterances, in which binary oppositions had been used were chosen based on purposive sampling and by observing private/public, formal/informal dialogues from 115 female and 97 male speakers (15 to 74 years old), from different academic backgrounds, professions, and social status from Mashhad, Iran. The results indicated that Iranians use this cultuling for different purposes (e.g., showing uncertainty, avoiding direct remarks and misunderstandings, defending, shirking responsibilities, showing mental struggles, avoiding stress, observing formalities, and lack of knowledge) in different contexts. This cultuling can be used as an indicator of high ambiguity intolerance in Iranian culture, meaning that they do not like to be in limbo, and due to their collectivist nature, they use binary oppositions to express their suspense to directly/indirectly ask for help to make decisions and to be out of liminality.

The present study, utilizing a descriptive approach and quantitative analysis, analyzed questions in the political interviews in Iran and the United States in order to show what types of adversarial are used in the journalists’ questions and whether there are differences in the use of adversarial between Iranian and American journalists. To this end, the questions addressing the presidents in Iran (i.e. Presidents AhmadiNejad and Roohani) and presidents in the US (i.e. Presidents Obama and Trump), around 70 journalists (35 in each corpus) in political press conference, were randomly collected from 2012 to 2017. The data were then analyzed based Clayman et al.’s (2006) framework to examine how language is used to express adversarial questions. The findings showed that preface tilt was significantly used more in American corpus while other-referencing frames and global adversarial were significantly used more in Iranian corpus. Moreover, in the two corpora, negative questions were the least frequently used type of question and declarative questions was absent in American corpus.

The European renaissance, as the historians claim, is a scientific, cultural, artistic, literary, political, and economic “rebirth”. Their approach in defining renaissance is not flawless, and it reminds the famous quotation: “history is written by the victors” because such a definition of renaissance presents it as a separated historical period born independently in the course of history. It seems that the renaissance was the beginning of all changes and discoveries in the world where before, in the Middle Ages, there did not existed significant events worth mentioning. The present research is a response to this mistaken reading of the history of the renaissance in Europe. By focusing on the establishment and development of the Toledo translation movement, the present research tries to highlight the significant role of the translation movements in the construction of the renaissance and all its related important events and phenomena. Furthermore, the research depicts the evolution of scientific and cultural streams in the Moslem world and their gradual transference to Europe through translation movements. This article demonstrates that how multicultural, multilingual, and stable political conditions convert Toledo into the cradle of the Translation movement in which many scholars from different countries by their translations paved the way for the development of science in different fields for upcoming periods.

In the first part of the article, we looked at the distribution of nasals in Persian (: m & n) to determine how they are distributed in consonant clusters. The results suggest that there is a strong tendency among nasals to be complementarily distributed in the consonant clusters of etymologically Persian words. In the second part of the article, we asked, what are the distributional-phonological characteristics of loanwords in Persian? The results suggest that the distribution of phonological features of loanwords tends to be more dispersed and more balanced than the corresponding features in etymologically Persian words. However, if in the process of borrowing new words, a specific morphological structure of the donor language has been extensively borrowed by the recipient language, such distinctions have been weakening. Furthermore, we suggested that multiple donor languages and the randomness of the borrowing process are two reasons why phonological features of loanwords are more dispersed and more balanced. We also explained why the nC cluster is the most frequent nasal cluster in Persian. We suggested that the reason lies in the fact that n has an oral stop stricture, a property that has been ignored in the description of nasals, which makes it a proper candidate to co-occur with 16 obstruent consonants of Persian. Our data came from a lemmatized corpus-driven list of words, which contains 55000 words.