Language Studies

Abstract Despite numerous foreign studies in clinical linguistics, few studies conducted in our country. However, development of it, not only can help to the examination of speech and language disorders, but it also can provide a basis for linguistic hypotheses and theories. Explaining this bidirectional approach in clinical linguistics we examined 6 children with specific language impairement, and besides showing the characteristic of these children, we used this clinical data for showing modularity in language.
We used narrative speech, language development and specific language impairment tests for diagnosis, and Independent t-test, Man Whitney and Wilcox tests for analyzing data. It is shown that the children with SLI perform much below their age-level with respect to grammatical properties (time agreement), but in pragmatic properties (reference) they don’t have meaningful differences.
This finding provide support for the hypothesis that grammar and pragmatics are two independent language component and the hypothesis that children with SLI are impaired in their grammer, but not in their (interface) pragmatics.
Result of this study showing that impairment in grammer beside good performance in pragmatic besides using linguistic in characterizing language disorders; provide support for using clinical data in linguistic theories such as modularity of language

Abstract The present thesis studies conceptual metaphors in a representative corpus of Persian texts. Exploiting the Persian Linguistic Database (PLDB), we sampled a corpus of contemporary written texts, based on their similarity to the colloquial language of the Persian speakers, and then tried to identify and extract the relevant conceptual metaphors. The sample corpus contains of 10 texts of contemporary Iranian writers, naming Hedayat, Jamalzadeh, Daneshvar, Aale -Ahmad….et al. Analyzing the corpus, the writer managed to extract nearly 2000 conceptual metaphors in the form of 600 name of the mappings. Then the conceptual metaphors classified according to the Lakoff and Johnson classification (1980) as ontological, structural and orientational, and a class of conceptual metaphors that Lakoff and turner (1989) presented as image metaphors.
As the next step we tried to determine the proportion of these classes comparing with each other. We concluded that the Persian speakers make use of ontological metaphors in their daily language, more than the other classes. Then we tried to determine which conceptual mappings and source domains are the most common ones in each class.
 Due to the corpus driven approach in the analysis of metaphors, considerable results obtained. For example it was observed that the abstract concepts as life, emotions or time are understood via some concrete domains as, objects, containers and personification. In addition, ideas about adopting a corpus driven approach in analyzing the conceptual metaphors, and extending the sampled corpus findings to large corpora were discussed.

Abstract Combining words appropriately in a target language is one of the most difficult tasks for foreign/second language learners. By contrast, native speakers have extensive knowledge about which words should be used together, and they can accurately form the combinations of diverse words. Such knowledge is one of the vital competencies of native speakers. These combinations of words are referred to as “collocation”.
The proper use of collocations is crucial to sound like a native speaker, yet it is not so easy for non-native speakers of a Target language. Therefore, they should be taught systematically. However, “it is largely unclear how and which collocations should be taught”. Errors in vocabulary use can be caused by the differences between learners’ L1 and target language.
It is helpful for learners to be aware of the causes of possible errors while learning collocations. This article has an attempt to introduce collocations which are likely to cause learners to make errors due to differences their L1 and target language.

Abstract The enchiridions, in reality, convey the ideology of its writer, but how are these ideologies are conveyed in the texts? The present research uncovers the answer to the question by the use of Critical Discourse Analysis. It presents a framework for describing the representation of social actions in Ale Ahmad short stories, attempting to illustrate five types of action dichotomy and their typical grammatical realizations. It then reveals the transformations which social actions can undergo in discourse, and finally it talks about  how did Ale Ahmad use  utilize them to conduct the text in the way that he want to convey his ideologies.

Abstract This article aims at studying and analyzing the methodology of research in four approaches in dialectology, namely dialect geography, social dialectology, perceptive dialectology, and corpus-based dialectology as traditional and modern approaches in the field. After a brief review of the principles of historical –comparative linguistics as the origin of dialectology as a field in linguistics, the literature, the goals, methods of data gathering, analysis, and presenting the results will be discussed. A descriptive and comparative method is used for studying each approach, and presenting a methodological model.  Dialectology which has been introduced partly as a response to some principal claims of historical-comparative linguistics, have undergone numerous changes regarding the methodology over the past century, mainly as a result of the developments in the technology of gathering, recording and analyzing the data, and also the interdisciplinary trends. While focus of traditional dialectology was on gathering and describing mainly the phonological and lexical features of non-mobile old rural male informants, social and perceptual dialectology focus on analyzing the effects of social factors and language attitudes on linguistic features and the perception of linguistic borders. Corpus-based dialectology is based on computational and statistical analyses. So, modern approaches focus on dialects of different communities in rural and urban areas, language attitudes, different linguistics features including grammatical and morpho-syntactic, corpus-based and cognitive analysis, quantitative and qualitative analysis using computer and statistics in gathering and analyzing the data.

Abstract Comparative Linguistics has two distinct approaches towards the study of languages; Typology and Generic. The aim of the former is to detect the universals, while the latter attempts to compile the history of languages.
Comparative linguist assumes one certain principle for all languages, which is the existence of similarities among them. These similarities are by no means accidental or borrowed. Thus it is assumed that these resemblances are indicators of a common source and the existing differences are the results of their development from a common original language. The comparative method enables us to reconstruct the principle features of the grammar and lexicon of the proto-language, which is a starting point to the historical description of the related languages. According to comparative linguistics, languages possess two dimensions; descriptive or linguistic and artistic-poetic. The linguistic dimension searches for a factor to transform a linguistic message to a work of art.
The comparison of the significant models in Indo-European languages makes it possible to reconstruct the languages to reach that common origin, and to define the verse poetry and the poetical prose, as a consistent tradition for communication among Indo-Europeans. Based on this comparison, it can be concluded that in traditional Indo-European societies, poetic language was the area of expertise of those who had poetic motivation, but in addition to the compose of poetry, had other duties such as priesthood, foretelling and eulogizing. The surviving terminologies in the branches of this language family, both in vocabulary and in the poets'' functional frame, are identical in west and east. Therefore, through these similarities not only can the social status of the poet be seen, but also the poetical terminology of the Indo-European family branches can be identified.
The following study attempts to reconstruct and describe the poetic language and its initial form according to the existing data, with an emphasis on the Indo-Iranian branch of the languages.

Abstract The main aim of this research is describing the functional structure of the medical compilation-texts and translation-texts in order to find a relationship between written and translation texts. The main question of the research considers of the difference between the processes distribution of the medical written and translation texts. Therefore, 2000 clauses of 4 medical written book and 2000 clauses of 4 medical translation books are selected and compared. Research data are analyzed according to the experiential metafunction of functional grammar and its six processes (material, relational, mental, existential, verbal, behavioural). After selecting the 4000 clauses accidentally, their processes are identified and recorded. Analyses show that in some of the time intervals there is a close relationship between the processes of compilation and translation texts; however there are evidences of the influence of the distribution of translation texts` processes on the compilation ones or vice versa.

Abstract The present epitaph is one of numerous epitaphs found in Kareroun region. Up to now, about seventeen epitaphs have found and deciphered. They not only prove the widespread presence of Zoroastrians in the first 3^rd and 4^thcenturies Hegira in this region but the continuation of authorship in form of book and inscriptions both in book Pahlavi script from the Sasanian period to the 4^th and 5^th centuries Hegira. The name of the deceased person in the epitaph is Mehr-būzīd, son of Meh-būzīd that died in the month of Abān (October/November).