فصلنامه زبان شناسی اجتماعی
سال ششم شماره 1 (پیاپی 21، زمستان 1401)

The present research provides a cross-cultural study about hand and foot metonomy-based metaphors in Persian and English by means of a semantic analysis. The research method is exploratory and its data includes 32 conventional metaphorical expressions containing hand and foot body terms which are taken from the idioms of The Free Dictionary, and their Persian equivalents are extracted based on Farhang Moaser One-Volume Millennium English-Persian Dictionary (Haghshenas et al., 2002). The research objective is to explain the biological motivation of the metaphors on the basis of holistic medicine. The research findings show that a number of the metaphorical expressions related to hands and feet can be investigated based on their biological origin in the holistic medicine, and the others are schematic and symbolic and formed according to externally visible events and bodily functions. The results indicate that, regarding the same biological origin, we can see relatively similar metonymies, while cultural patterns have created different metaphors in both Persian and English.

Cartoons are media tools published in many newspapers, magazines, Internet news websites and even virtual networks on various fields and themes. They play an important role in expressing and mediating different political, social, economic and cultural concepts. Conceptual metaphor and blending, as cognitive processes and communicative-discursive tools, are frequently used in cartoons. These metaphors are often pictorial or verbal-pictorial. The present study investigated a sample of political cartoons published in Fars news agency based on the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), Multimodal Metaphor Theory (Forceville, 1994, 1996, 2009) and Conceptual Blending (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002). The aim of the study is to analyze the role and importance of conceptual metaphor and blending in political cartoons to determine how cognitive, communicative and discursive aspects of metaphors interact with each other in these cartoons. The results of the research show that the metaphor ‘JCPOA is a patient’ adopted from Hassan Rouhani’s speech may give rise to several conceptual mappings between the two conceptual spaces of ‘surgery room’ and ‘JCPOA agreement’ and the argumentative function of this metaphor may well justify Iran's decision to reduce its commitments under JCPOA.

The adressee’s social dominance as well as the age of the subjects are among the factors influencing the use of type and number of request strategies by the speakers of any language. The purpose of the present research is to study the effect of the adressee’s social dominance on the type and number of request strategies employed by adolescent and young female Balochi Sarhaddi speakers based on the components of Blum-Kalka, House and Kasper's (1989) Cross Cultural Speech Act Realization Project model. Research data were collected from 60 female subjects through discourse completion test and role play. In this regard, all request strategies employed were identified, coded, described and then analyzed by Chi-square test. The results showed there was not a significant relationship in the use of type and number of strategies in DCT and role play between the addressee´s social dominance and the age of the subjects (except when the interlocutors have equal status). Moreover, the most commonly used types of strategies were pronouns, hedged performatives, grounders, and politeness markers. Also, increasing the addressee's social dominance towards the speaker resulted in using more complicated strategies by the subjects. Furthermore, new strategies such as saying "Mashaalla", "swearing" and "complimenting" were used by the subjects. Therefore, the research findings contribute to the explanation of universal and specific cross cultural-linguistic strategies based on the research model.

Social and cultural changes have affected people's taste to naming their children. There is no doubt about the impact of media on public opinion. In Iran, many television series have influenced the process of naming children in Iranian families, and according to Civil Registry Officials, series such as Setayesh, Mukhtarnameh, Shahryar, and Narges have influenced the naming of children. The present article is an attempt to analyze the names of characters in leading IRIB television series of the national media in the 2000s and 2010s in two comedy and social genres with a descriptive-analytical approach. The names in this article are divided into five categories: national, religious, neutral Arabic, ethnic and transnational. Results shows that the use of religious and neutral Arabic names in social series is more than comedy series. Nevertheless, the tendency to select national names in both series is increasing. Moreover, different approaches were found in the choice of names between men and women.

This study aims to investigate Wittgenstein’s language games theory and its methodological implications in educational studies. This qualitative research utilized a conceptual analysis and inductive method to review the related literature. In this study, first, Wittgenstein's language games theory and the nature of its rules were studied. Then, a set of methods consistent with the nature of research and evaluation in the fields of education science was extracted. Among the methods extracted from the theory of language games were paying attention to the social context and overcoming the dominance of quantity in educational issues, limiting the scope of research and paying attention to the interwoven networks of affairs, emphasizing distinction in the analysis of educational issues, self-imposed exile, overcoming biases, how to learn, learning the experience of educational agents in the heart of the society and finally promoting a critical view and getting rid of the habit. In general, it can be concluded that it is impossible to speak of precise, constant, and uniform steps in the methodological discussion in the same way in all situations. It can also be concluded that Wittgenstein sought to solve the problems of philosophy and the true understanding of the world by understanding the language. New generation understanding of the world can be enhanced by introducing the nature of language and its functions.

In some tribes of Qashqai, apart from the Turkish language, there is also a conventional language. Qashqais call this language "Qoush Dili" (the language of birds) or "Ayiri Dil" (a language that others cannot understand). In this research, while introducing the coded language of Sarui clan of Qashqai, we investigate the word-making processes and some social and practical features of this language. The data were collected through field method, interview, and a questionnaire. The questionnaire was adopted from National Language Atlas Plan of Iran Permon (2006). Then, the data were analyzed according to the processes of word formation and the characteristics of Calvet’s (2009) secret language. The results were largely consistent with the proposed features of Calvet. The distinguishing feature of Ayiri Dil from Qashqai Turkish is its words. Vocabulary processes in this language include invention, borrowing, and synthesis. The results of the analysis largely agree with the characteristics proposed by Kalveh (2008). The distinguishing feature of Ayerri Dale from Qashqai Turkish is its words. Word formation processes in this language include invention, borrowing and combination. The arrangement of sentence elements as well as verbs, prepositions, and numbers is in accordance with Qashqai Turkish. The verbs in this language are made of a combination of conventional words and auxiliary verbs.

One of the differences between men and women is their language variety. Lakoff (1975) is one of those linguists who studied women's language. To Lakoff’s, media is one of the areas that women's language can be investigated. Instagram is one of the most popular media where many people including influencers promote their work. Sadaf Beauty is one of those influencers who shares beauty tutorial videos and beauty product review videos in her business page. In this research, her lect is analyzed based on Lakoff’s language and gender theory. Among Lakoff's gender-based language features, this business page uses lexical hedges to a greater extent and uses hyper-correct grammar to a lesser extent.