Sahand Elhami Khorasani; Kourosh Safavi
Abstract
This article studies the spatial interpretation of the left-right and front-back axes in Persian in the theoretical framework of Levinson (2003) and Danziger (2010). On the horizontal plane, there are three main Frames of Reference. Of these three, the Absolute FoR is not used routinely in Persian. The ...
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This article studies the spatial interpretation of the left-right and front-back axes in Persian in the theoretical framework of Levinson (2003) and Danziger (2010). On the horizontal plane, there are three main Frames of Reference. Of these three, the Absolute FoR is not used routinely in Persian. The other two, the Relative and Intrinsic FoRs, can potentially be the interpretation of the two main axes of the horizontal plane. In order to obtain real data from the native speakers, the “Ball & Chair” game (Bohnemeyer, 2008) was used. Data analysis shows that in all the cases where the speaker’s description caused misunderstanding for the listener, the speaker’s intended interpretation has been relative, while the listener has understood them intrinsically. For the left-right axis, whenever the speaker has considered “[az negah-e] ma” redundant and has had it decreased from the sentence and used phrases such as “chap/rast-e sandali”, there has been a possibility of misunderstanding for the listener. However, when they have used it even in its decreased form of “chap/rast-e ma” the listener has well understood the intended relative meaning. According to the data, in Persian the absolute dominant usage of left and right is relative and only in special cases are they used intrinsically. The front-back axis is also used in the relative sense but with small dominance over intrinsic.
Golnaz Modarresi Ghavami; Sahand Elhami Khorasani
Abstract
Similarity avoidance- as a perceptual factor- is the basis of the phonotactics of a variety of languages. Stop consonants are considered to be ideal candidates for deletion as they have intrinsically weak perceptual cues, especially in final position. The present research study sought to explore the ...
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Similarity avoidance- as a perceptual factor- is the basis of the phonotactics of a variety of languages. Stop consonants are considered to be ideal candidates for deletion as they have intrinsically weak perceptual cues, especially in final position. The present research study sought to explore the relationship between the probability of final stop deletion in consonantal clusters and the degree of similarity between such stops and the other member of the cluster in Persian. To do so, all final consonantal clusters were analyzed considering the degree of similarity in voicing, place, and manner of articulation between the two consonants of the cluster. Data analysis demonstrated that the chance for the deletion of final stops increases as the similarity between the stop and the previous consonant in the cluster increases and that all three parameters of voicing, place, and manner are important in this regard. Patterns of final stop deletion in final clusters of Persian were analyzed using a perception-based approach within Optimality Theory framework, where markedness constraints rule out outputs that are perceptually weak and faithfulness constraints prevent any change in a perceptually strong input. Keywords: Stop consonant deletion, Consonant clusters, Optimality Theory, Similarity avoidance, Persian phonotactics.
