Possible Worlds of Conditional Construction in Contemporary Persian Language

Authors
S. A. baghaei 1
M. Naghzguy Kohan 2
1 PhD Candidate in General linguistics, Bu Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran.
2 Associate Professor of Public Linguistics, Bu Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran.
Abstract
Conditional sentence is a compound sentence consisting of two clauses: protasis and apodosis. The purpose of this paper is investigating the conditional sentences in contemporary Persian language based on the Declerck and Reed typology (2001). According to this semantic typology, possible world of protasis is divided in to two factual and theoretical classes. Theoretical possible world can be neutral or nonneutral and the nonneutral is divided in to four types: closed, open, tentative and counterfactual. In the present study, we try to examine these types with respect to the corpus of 286 conditional sentences extracted from ten contemporary story books and the frequency of occurrence of each one to be determined separately. The analysis of Persian conditional sentences shows that the Persian conditional construction is compatible with mentioned typology and open possible world has the highest occurrence frequency, and the neutral, closed, factual, tentative and counterfactual possible worlds respectively dedicated the highest frequency of the open possible world. The higher frequency of occurrence of the open possible world arises from the fact that in this possible world a probabilistic situation is considered and there is no certainty about its occurrence and this interpretation is most consistent with the operation of the conditional construction. This study also shows that in addition to the common conditional conjunctions such as “ agar, be shartike, vaella, vagarna, ...” other conjunctions are also used as conditional conjunctions like : “ valo, farzan, hamin ke, be mojarade inke, vaghti, cheo…che, hala ke, ta, ke ….” .

Keywords

Subjects

• Abdollahi-Guilani, M. & Subakir, Y. & Kim, H. (2012). “A Comparative Analysis of Conditional Clauses in English and Persian”. The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies. Vol 18(2). Pp: 83-93. [In Persian].
• Abolghasemi, M. (1996). A Short Historical Grammar of the Persian Language. Tehran: SAMT. [In Persian].
• Afghāni, A. M. (1999). Cousin Parvin. Tehran: Jāvidān Publication Organization. [In Persian].
• Ahmadzadeh, H. (2008). Chess with the Doomsday Machine. Tehran: Soore Mehr Publication. [In Persian].
• Alavi, B. (1985). Her Eyes. Tehran: Revolution & Literature publication. [In Persian].
• Âl-e-Ahmad Jalâl. (1967). The School Principal. Tehran: Parastu books publication. [In Persian].
• Athanasiadou, A. & Dirven, R. (1997). “Conditionality, Hypotheticality, Counterfactuality”. In A. Athanasiadou & R. Dirven (Eds.) On Conditionals again. Pp. 61-96. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publication.
• Behnoud, M. (2008). Khanoum. Tehran: Elmi publication. [In Persian].
• Comrie, B. (1986). “Conditionals: A typology”. In E. Traugott & A. Meulen & J. Reilly & C. Ferguson (Eds.) On Conditionals. Pp : 77-99. Cambrigde: Cambridge University Press.
• Čihiltan, A. H. (1979). Daxil Bar Panjerey-e Fulād. Tehran: Revāq Publication. [In Persian].
• Dabirmoghaddam, M. & Sedighifar, Z. (2013). [1391]. “Teaching Persian Conditional Sentences to Non-Persian Speakers: A Comparison Between Task-based and Structural Methods”, In Journal of Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages, Volume 1, Issue 2, (P.p. 32-59). [In Persian].
• Declerck, R. & Reed, S. (2001). Conditionals: A comprehensive Empirical Analysis. In E. C. Traugott & B. Kortmann (Eds.). Berlin. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Dowlatābādi, M. (1974). The Trip. Tehran: Golšāyi Publications. [In Persian].
• Fintel, K. V. (2011). “Conditionals”. In K. Heusinger & C. Maienborn & P. Portner (Eds.) Semantics: An International Handbook of Meaning, Vol 2. Berlin/ Boston: de Gruyter Mouton.
• Greenberg, J. H. (1963). “Some Universals of Grammar with Particular Reference to the Order of Meaningful Elements”. In J. H. Greenberg (Ed) Universals of Language. Pp: 73-113. Cambridge. Mass: MIT Press.
• Jamalzadeh, M. A. (1954). Dar Al-Majanin. Tehran: Marefat. [In Persian].
• Mahootian, Sh. (1999). [1378]. Persian: Descriptive Grammars. Translated by Samayi, M. Tehran: Markaz publications. [In Persian].
• Morādi Kermāni, H. (2006). You’re not Stranger Here. Tehran: Moin Publications. [In Persian].
• Murcia, C. M. & Freeman, L. D. (1999). The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course (2nd edition). New York: Heinle and Heinle.
• Najafi, A. (1995). “Usage of ke in colloquial Persian”, In Nama-I Farhangistan, volume 3, (P.p. 7-19). [In Persian].
• Natel-Khanlari, Parviz. (1977). Persian Language Grammar. Tehran: Babak Publication. [In Persian].
• Palmer, F. R. (2013). Modality and the English Modals. NewYork and London: Routledge.
• Salimi, E. A. (2015). “Differential Effects of Corrective Feedback on the EFL Learners’ Acquisition of Conditionals and Articles”, In Language Related Research.Volume 6 (5). (Pp. 235-259). [In Persian].
• Schachter, J. (1971). Presupposition and Counterfactual Conditional Sentences. Ph. D. Dissertation. University of California. Los Angeles.
• Shahri, J. (1969). Bitter Sugar. Tehran: Zahir ol eslam Publication. [In Persian].
• Traugott, E. C. ; Meulen, A. T. & Reilly, J. S. & Ferguson, C. A. (2009). On Conditionals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Vahidiyan Kamyar, T. (1985). [1364]. “Conditional sentences in Persian language”, In Linguistics. Volume 2. Issue 2. (Pp. 43-56). [In Persian].
Language Related Research
Volume 11, Issue 2 - Serial Number 56
May and June 2020
Pages 315-336