Rouhollah Yaghoubi; Ferdows Aghagolzadeh; Aliyeh Kord Zafaranlu Kambuziya
Abstract
The present research describes and analyzes the Grammatical Metaphors of modality in the listening module of the TOEFL official books. The present descriptive study used a qualitative content analysis approach, and data were collected via documentary method. In this regard, three official TOEFL iBT books, ...
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The present research describes and analyzes the Grammatical Metaphors of modality in the listening module of the TOEFL official books. The present descriptive study used a qualitative content analysis approach, and data were collected via documentary method. In this regard, three official TOEFL iBT books, printed and endorsed by ETS, including a total of fourteen tests were selected: The official guide to the TOEFL test (2017), and Official TOEFL iBT (Vol.1, and Vol.2). In the listening module of each test, there are six texts in the form of conversation and lecture. First, each clause of the texts was separately examined. Then, modality metaphors were compared and analyzed in terms of type and frequency. In total, 31 conversation texts and 53 lecture texts were analyzed. Finally, a total number of 264 modality grammatical metaphors were identified. The results indicated that: 1- Modality metaphors entail a higher frequency in lecture texts than the texts of conversations, 2- The frequency of explicit subjective metaphors has a higher frequency than explicit objective metaphors. Therefore, all types of modality grammatical metaphor were found in the TOEFL texts. Considering this concept and teaching it to language learners can help them have a better comprehension and production of scientific texts..
Morteza Dastlan
Abstract
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, ...
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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.
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.
