Volume 6, Issue 4 (2015)                   LRR 2015, 6(4): 275-305 | Back to browse issues page

XML Persian Abstract Print


Download citation:
BibTeX | RIS | EndNote | Medlars | ProCite | Reference Manager | RefWorks
Send citation to:

Mazinani A, Sharifi S. Pronominal Clitic System in the Course of Persian History and the Causes of its Change. LRR 2015; 6 (4) :275-305
URL: http://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article-14-10743-en.html
1- Ph.D. Candidate in General Linguistics, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
2- Associate Professor of Linguistics, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Abstract:   (5375 Views)
"Syntactic change should not arise, unless it can be shown to be caused"(Longobardi, 2001:278). Historically placed in second position of the clause, Persian Pronominal Clitics behave differently today and appear in three different structural-typological patterns: a) preposition + clitic assigned oblique case; b) nominal + clitic assigned genitive case; and c) immediate adjacency of a transitive verb assigned accusative case. Aiming to discover the causes of Persian's achievement to this trio of patterns, this study was conducted in the framework of Generative Grammar. The diachronic analysis shows that a sequence of some factors has been involved in changing Persian’s historical second position Clitic System: firstly, some morphological changes and the speaker’s attempt to remove the ambiguities have paved the ground for other structural changes to happen. Secondly, after particular morphological feedings, patterns a & b have been established as a result of analogical generalization of pre-existing linguistic structures. Pattern c has gradually come to existence by frequently reanalyzing the position of clitics in the sentence. This pattern can be a part of the grammaticalization process of Persian clitics that has been accelerated by morphological changes and Reanalysis. As a final step, linguistic contact to Arabic was recognized as an accelerating factor in applying this trio of patterns in Persian Standard Language.
Full-Text [PDF 379 kb]   (4076 Downloads)    
Article Type: Research Paper | Subject: Linguistics
Published: 2015/09/23

Add your comments about this article : Your username or Email:
CAPTCHA

Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.