Mohammad Dabirmoghaddam; Vida Shaghaghi; Mojtaba Monshizadeh; Hussein Piri
Abstract
Persian is a verb-final language; that is, its basic unmarked word order is SOV. Clauses in Persian, like other languages, have both the core- elements and non-core elements. The lack of the non-core elements or adjuncts in a clause does not make it ungrammatical but a speaker or writer use these elements ...
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Persian is a verb-final language; that is, its basic unmarked word order is SOV. Clauses in Persian, like other languages, have both the core- elements and non-core elements. The lack of the non-core elements or adjuncts in a clause does not make it ungrammatical but a speaker or writer use these elements to express his/her intentions. This study aims to investigate the post-verbal position of the non-core elements in colloquial Persian and the contributing factors in taking pre- and post-verbal positions of these elements. To this end, 893 leftward scrambled clauses were studied. The results show that only the non-core elements of location and destination take the post-verbal position, which is mainly the position of given information and non-focused part of a clause. Also, there are some contributing factors, so that non-core elements do not take the pre- and post-verbal positions accidentally. In addition, the core elements of a clause do not take the post verbal position.
Mahmood Jafari Dehaghi; Mojtaba Monshizadeh; Fahimeh Tasalibakhsh Kaseb
Abstract
Modal functions of the verb “residan” (to arrive) and the emergence of such modal characteristics are discussed from the perspective of grammaticalization in the present study. To achieve this goal, it was necessary to make a review on former studies on the subject of modality – more ...
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Modal functions of the verb “residan” (to arrive) and the emergence of such modal characteristics are discussed from the perspective of grammaticalization in the present study. To achieve this goal, it was necessary to make a review on former studies on the subject of modality – more specifically, grammaticalization of modality – in Persian, followed by a description of theoretical approaches toward the concepts of modality and grammaticalization. The authors gathered data from different periods of Persian language to study the diachronic changes the verb “rasidan” has faced since the early stages of Old Persian to Middle Persian, New Persian and recent usages in Modern Persian. Analysis of data showed that in some specific contexts in New Persian, the verb “residan” was grammaticalized to represent dynamic, deserving, and permissive modality after undergoing changes such as metaphorical extension. On the other hand, in recent usages in Modern Persian, “residan” has survived, through a different path, as a means to represent dynamic modality.
