Object Agreement, a Syntactic Phenemenon in the Middle Persian

Articles in Press

Document Type : مقالات علمی پژوهشی

Authors
S. M. SADATI NOOSHABADI 1
N. . B. Sabouri 2
1 PhD. in Linguistics, Payam-e-Nour University, Tehran, Iran
2 Associate Professor of Linguistics, Payam-e-Nour University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
This paper deals with the object agreement phenomenon in the transcriptions written in Middle Persian language. This study is a descriptive study and is classified as a library research. The collected data from transcriptions in Middle Persian language namely as Ardā-Virāf-nāmeh, Bundahishn, Dānāk u Mainyo-ī Khard, Dēnkard Book 5, Rivāyat ī Ādurfarrōbay i Farrōkhzādān, and Vizidagiha-ye Zadesparam have been analyzed based on the theoretical background of Dalrymple and Nikolaeva (2011). The analysis of the collected data showed that in the Middle Persian Language in some cases the verb instead of the subject, agrees with the object of the sentence in number and person features. This phenomenon happens only when the sentence has the transitive verb in the past tense and there is no object agreement for transitive verbs inflected for other tenses. Moreover, the object agreement in the Middle Persian has no relation with the animacy and definiteness characteristics of the object. A comparison between the results of this research and the findings of the Dalrymple and Nikolaeva (2011) shows that object agreement is the Middle Persian is a syntactic phenomenon based on the tenses of the sentence that just occurred when the transitive verb was in the past tense. This phenomenon can show the diachronic changes of the Persian Language for the emergence of the ergative system in the Persian Language.

Keywords

Subjects

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Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 13 July 2025