The Study of “Ke” in Relative Clauses: A Typological Approach

Document Type : مقالات علمی پژوهشی

Authors
A. Bazian 1
A. Golfam 2
H. Ameri 3
1 PhD student in Linguistics, Science and Research Unit, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 Associate professor of Linguistics,Dept. of Linguistics,School of Humanities,Tarbiat Modares University,Tehran,Iran.
3 Associate professor of Linguistics,Center for Persian Language & Literature Researches,Tarbiat Modares University,Tehran,Iran.
10.29252/LRR.14.4.11
Abstract
As a multifunctioning morpheme, “ke” is actively present in both systems of speech and writing. In addition to its wide usage as an “Indefinite Pronoun”, “Complementizer”, “Focus Marker” and etc., the Complementizer “ke” adapting to no change appears at the beginning of Relative Clauses and accepts several different roles. This research is an attempt to study the grammatical, semantical and pragmatival functions of "ke" in Persian Relative Clauses. To present a rather comprehensive analysis, it provides a corpus of natural occurring data in Persian. The grammatical, semantical and pragmatical functions of “ke” was thoroughly studied in Relative Clauses afterward. This descriptive-analytic research which is within typological approach based on Comrie’s (1989) typological framework is an attempt to find the right answers to the following questions: which grammatical, semantic and pragmatic roles does “ke” have in Persian Relative Clauses? Regarding the main hypothesis, “ke” plays all the grammatical roles a noun phrase can have such as “subject, object, etc”. Findings show that “ke” presents various semantic roles like “agent, patient, …” as well as a “Focus Marker” next to any constituent.



1. Introduction

Language typology, a dynamic branch in linguistics tries to achieve generalizations through comparison of different languages. Language Typology defines the patterns ruling the variations by studying varieties in languages. This approach aims to compare structures in languages and discover the systematic patterns of variations in them. Typology is both a theoretical approach and a way of understanding the entity of language. Comrie, a world known typologist, defines the language typology as a systematic study of variations among languages ( Comrie: 2001, 25).

Persian Relative Clauses describe a noun or a noun phrase and include: 1) a head noun with two roles both in relative and main clauses. 2) a relative clause 3) a reletiviser. Persian language benefits from both headed and headless (free) relative clauses. The head noun always exist out of the relative clause. The embedded relative clauses appear after the head noun. “Ke” as a reletiviser introduces the relative clause. Remaining unchanged for any cases, and it represents various grammatical and semantic functions. Moreover, “ke” acts as a “Focus Marker” and a “Question Pronoun”.

This descriptive-analytic project aims to study various grammatical, semantic and pragmatic aspects of “ke” in Persian relative clauses within the typological approach based on Comrie’s (1989) framework. Data has been collected from natural reccuring spoken and written Persian sentences and the examples have been validated by Persian native speakers. The main hypothesis is that “ke” plays several different grammatical and semantic roles within a typological approach.

The research tries to answer the following questions:

1) what grammatical roles does “ke” have in Persian relative clauses?

2) what semantic roles does “ke” have in Persian relative clauses?

3)what pragmatic roles does “ke” have in Persian relative clauses?

2. Literature Review

Some research has been done on Relative Clauses such as Kouhbanani (1396), Bahrami (1395), Mahmoodi (1393), Sheikholeslami ( 1387), etc. Looking into the reviews of literature, we find out that most of the studies have been done on “ke” as a reletiviser both in Persian restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses and the “ke” remains unchanged in different situations. In the present descriptive-analytic project the attempt is made to examine “ke” in different aspects and discover its grammatical, semantic and pragmatic roles in Persian relative clauses.



3. Methodology

This descriptive-analytic research has been done within the typological approach based on Comrie’s (1989) framework. To present an almost comprehensive description of morpheme “ke” a natural recurring data of written and spoken Persian examples have come under close scrutiny. In the first place, the natural recurring sentences of written and spoken forms were collected. Then, “ke” was carefully studied in relative clauses to discover its grammatical, semantic and pragmatic roles.



4. Results

The findings of this research show that Persian relative clauses are typically of two types: 1) headed, which is head-external and post nominal and 2) headless (free). The existence of “ke” is obligatory in the beginning of restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses. However, this reletiviser can be optionally omitted after the quantifier group in headless relative clauses. As long as the replacement of the head noun by the reletiviser “ke” in relative clauses, this morpheme can take several different grammatical, semantic and pragmatic roles. Studies in Persian have revealed that regarding this substitution “ke” in relative clauses represents the same grammatical roles as a noun phrase does in a main clause such as “subject, direct object, indirect object, genitive”. Moreover, “ke” shares various semantic roles like “agent, pati-ent, source,…”.

Furthermore, this multifunctional morpheme can be a “Focus Marker” by being directly placed after almost any constituent, no matter carrying old or new information.




Keywords

Subjects

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Language Related Research
Volume 14, Issue 4 - Serial Number 76
September and October 2023
Pages 343-372