An Analysis of Persian Compound Nouns as Constructions (original) (raw)
Persian noun-noun nominal compounds: metonymy and conceptual blending
ONOMAZEIN, 2023
The current study seeks to clarify various ways in which metonymy can affect the meaning of Persian noun-noun nominal compounds. An analysis of 280 endo-and exocentric Persian noun-noun nominal compounds reveals that as far as the role of metonymy in the construction of meaning is concerned, this cognitive mechanism can affect the meaning of Persian nominal compounds in four ways as follows: a) metonymical modifier, b) metonymical head, c) metonymical head and modifier, and d) metonymic nominal compounds as a whole. While the pattern of metonymical modifier only affects the meaning of endocentric compounds, the other three patterns function in the meaning of exocentric compounds. This study substantiates Brdar and Brdar-Szabo's (2013) and Brdar's (2017) assertion that metonymy may either act upon the constituents of the compound, i.e., before compounding (the first, second, and third pattern), or the compound as a whole, i.e., after the combination of constituents (the fourth pattern). It is also argued that the metonymical relationship between head and modifier cannot be regarded as a pattern. If such an argument was plausible, non-figurative endocentric compounds would also be metonymical and compounding would basically require the functioning of metonymy.
Noun Phrase or Compound Noun? An Investigation of N + A and N + N Boundary Cases in Persian
Theory and Practice in Language Studies
The present study seeks to investigate the demarcation between noun phrases (NPs) and compound nouns (CNs) in Persian at the syntax-morphology interface. This objective is accomplished through the examination of two most complex nominal patterns, viz. N + A, N + N, with special focus on boundary cases, i.e. the intermediate constructs which possess some properties of both NPs and CNs simultaneously and thus demonstrate contradictory reactions to the various NP-CN demarcation criteria. The results indicate that boundary cases ensue from partial syntactic erosion of NPs through pure lexicalization, whereby NPs turn into CNs without center-switching or category change. This study also shows that almost all boundary cases have no potential for syntactic modification of their elements. It is further demonstrated that N + A and N + N boundary cases are endocentric, head-initial constructs with optional or obligatory internal inflection as well as Ezafe. Syntactic modifiability is also int...
Facta Universitatis Series Linguistics and Literature, 2022
Persian compound words, which are classified into two categories as primary and secondary compounds (Shaghaghi, 2008), are typically examined in the Construction Morphology proposed by Booij (2010; 2016; 2018). Within the framework of the theory, this study has attempted to explore the constructional schemas of the Persian compound words made of the present stem aefkaen (CAST). To this end, 60 compound words have been collected from numerous sources such as Persian linguistic corpora, Persian grammar books, Persian monolingual dictionaries as well as some Persian reliable websites. Comparing the structure of the compounds made by it, taking the meaning of each compound into account and drawing the constructional schemas, we indicate that these compounds are given eight different semantic categories. Additionally, the constructional schema revealed that the semantic interpretation of these compounds may be allocated a continuum with the most semantically transparent compounds and the metaphorical or idiomatic meaning. Indeed, through the theory of Construction Morphology, the semantic distinctions of the compounds made of aefkaen (CAST) could be well specified.
On Persian Language and Linguistics
Iranian Studies, 2010
This special issue is a product of the seventh biennial conference of the International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS) that was held from 31 July to 3 August 2008, in Toronto, Canada. The first drafts of most of the articles published in this special issue were presented at the conference. The articles focus on different aspects of Persian language and linguistics: from lexicography and sociolinguistics to theoretical and applied linguistics. Before we turn to a brief review of the content of this issue, we express our appreciation to many individuals. First and foremost, we are grateful to the authors of the articles. We are thankful to the organizers, students and volunteers of the seventh biennial meeting of ISIS for their support and encouragement. We are also indebted to Dr. Homa Katouzian, the editor-in-chief of the journal Iranian Studies, for providing us the opportunity to have a special issue on Persian language and linguistics in Iranian Studies for the first time. In the first article, Mohammad Reza Bateni discusses the challenges of collocations and idioms in natural languages for second language learners, lexicographers and translators. Bateni starts his discussion with the definition of a collocation. A collocation is a sequence of words which co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. Collocations impose constraints on how words can be used together and they have two features: non-substitutability and non-modifiability. By presenting more than fifteen patterns of English collocations, Bateni shows various kinds of the constraints in collocations. For example, the adjectives white or live lost their real meaning when they collocate with nouns such as white wine and live music. Furthermore, in Persian, the adjectives (pahn) and (ariz) are usually considered synonyms but they cannot be used interchangeably. For example, we use (damaˆq-e pahn) but we can NOT use (damaˆq-e ariz). In the case of idioms, Bateni shows that in addition to two common features of collocations, i.e., nonsubstitutability and non-modifiability, idioms have a non-compositionality feature too. Non-compositionality refers to the fact that the meaning of an
Alzahra University, 2024
In the present study, we attempted to specify the constructional schemas relevant to the compounds made by the present stem ‘sāz’ in Persian within the framework of the construction morphology (Booij, 2010). To this end, 150 compounds were brought together from numerous sources, such as the Persian Corpus of Bijankhan, Persian novels as well as some Persian websites. Having collected the data, we tabulated and categorized them on the basis of the preverbal elements. Afterwards, a comparison was made, as a result of which it was indicated that there can be a general constructional schema inside which 5 sub-schemas can be placed. Certainly, the broad schema denotes the construction by which a noun (preverbal element) is combined with the verbal element (present stem sāz) to create an adjective that implies the agent of an action, namely the agent of building or making an object. However, there were two exceptions among the whole dataset: a compound in spite of resembling the other compounds regarding its construction denotes the semantic role of patient: dastsāz (handmade), referring to an object which is made by hands as well as the compound ʤāsāz (embedded object), whereas in other compounds, the stem means the agent that builds, creates or makes. Consequently, as might be expected, two broad constructional schemas have been obtained: one relevant to the agents and the other relevant to patients.
Bare nouns in Persian: Interpretation, Grammar and Prosody
2014
This thesis explores the variable behavior of bare nouns in Persian. Bare singular nouns realize different grammatical functions, including subject, object and indirect object. They receive different interpretations, including generic, definite and existential readings. However, the task of understanding the reasons for, and limits on, this variation cannot be achieved without understanding a number of pivotal features of Persian sentential architecture, including Information Structure, prosody, word order, and the functions of various morphological markers in Persian. After a brief introduction, chapters 2-3 deal with bare noun objects, firstly comparing them with nominals marked with indefinite morpheme -i suffixed to the noun, and the determiner yek. A bare noun object differs from morphologically marked nominals as it shows properties associated with noun incorporation in the literature (chapter 2). Of particular interest are the discourse properties of these ‘quasi-incorporated...
Predicative multi-word expressions in Persian
2020
Persian, like many other Asian languages, licenses the use of bare nouns in object position. Such sequences are often treated as multiword expressions (compound verbs/light verb constructions, and pseudo-incorporation constructions). In the paper, I argue against a uniform treatment of all ‘bare noun + verb’ sequences in contemporary Persian. The paper presents criteria which allow to distinguish light verb constructions from other superficially similarly looking predicational construction types.
Analysis and Explanation of Semantic Relations in Exocentric Compounds in Modern Persian
Critical Studies in Texts and Programs of Human Sciences, 2012
Compounding is one of the subjects which have been always under research in the history of linguistic studies from different aspects. In the area of semantics of compounds, due to the principle of semantic compositionality that unites the meaning of components of a compound to reach out a compositional meaning we find endocentric compounds with a semantic head. On the other hand, there are plentiful of compounds in a language, they have no semantic head and consequently no compositionality. Therefore we find the referent of the compound out of it and it should be listed in lexicon and to be memorized. Exocentric compounds with no clear semantic head and no compositionality have opaque meaning. Based on the claims of CARIN theory which has a cognitive approach, we could explain why a compound is transparent or opaque in meaning is due to existence or lack of a semantic relation. My paper aims at recognizing all possible relations in compound nouns of Modern Persian (Farsi) and studying different semantic groups (endocentric, exocentric, copulative and appositional compounds) from this aspect. The interpretation of a compound and access to it as a whole or its constituent's separately and its retrieval in the mental lexicon of speakers is heavily affected by the very relation and indeed the selection of this relation by speaker from several relations that might be activated at the same time. This area is the focus of research by cognitive linguists like C. Gagne and others and CARIN theory (competition among relations in nominals). We find compound nouns in four groups semantically i.e. if a noun compound has a semantic head it is endocentric if we see a compound with two semantic heads it is an apposition. On the other hand when the compound has no semantic head it is an exocentric and coordinate compound. In these kinds of compound nouns the compound as a whole is not a kind of semantic head. Headless compounds do not contain an element that functions as the semantic head which is modified by the non-head element for example football and greenhouse. As Katamba remarks semantically an endocentric compound indicates a sub-grouping within the class of entities that head denotes. For example a schoolboy is a kind of boy (morphology, 305). Due to having semantic head, endocentric compounds are transparent in meaning. By other words endocentric compounds are compositional in meaning and we could reach out their meaning even when we encounter them for the first time. Endocentric compounds are non-compositional; their meanings are not predictable and should be learned and memorized and they are opaque in meaning. Many linguists consider a transparent compound to have decompositionality but still it is not the case. We find compounds which are morphologically decomposable and they are still opaque in meaning. In my research I tried to reconcile "The principle of semantic compositionality "which is syntax based principle and CARIN theory to explain the reason behind semantic transparency and opacity. The Principle of Semantic Compositionality is the principle that the meaning of an expression is a function of, and only of, the meanings of its parts together with the method by
Exaptation from Arabic syntax to Persian lexical morphology
Online Proceedings of the Sixth Mediterranean Morphology Meeting, 2008
Explains the origin, rationale, and distribution of the word endings –at and –eh (-ah) which are alternate forms of the same distinctive ending in grammatically feminine Arabic words adopted into Persian (e.g., nuqta ‘point’, turbat ‘tomb’). This striking feature was long taken for granted by users of Persian, Turkish, Urdu, etc., and appears not to have been subjected to a successful rationale until the present work (see below under Further References, esp. 1991 book). The study provides examples of the forms incorporated into the langages of the central Islamic sprachbund and their role in derivational morphology..
The Oxford Handbook of Persian Linguistics, 2018
This chapter is devoted to three specific features of Persian syntax, namely, the Ezafe construction, differential object marking with the enclitic râ, and complex predicates, which have received a great deal of attention for more than thirty years. Each of these phenomena involves language-specific challenging facts which need to be accurately described and accounted for. At the same time, each constitutes a topic of cross-linguistic investigation for which the Persian data can be of crucial interest. The chapter is divided into three sections. Each section provides an overview of empirical facts and the way various theoretical studies have tried to account for them. While it was impossible to do justice to all influential studies because of the impressive amount of work on each topic, the article is nevertheless intended to be as exhaustive as possible and to maintain the balance between different theoretical approaches.