Different Kinds of Focus in Persian

Document Type : .

Author

Abstract

Focus, a pragmatic phenomenon, in Persian is in a close relation with prosody, syntax, semantics, and to some extent morphology. Since Persian is a scrambling language (Karimi 1999, 2003), different word orders accompanied by sentence stress, couls signal different foci. At the same time different markers structures, like clefts, are also going hand in hand with prosody to indicate focus of the sentence. Even a focus marker morpheme like KE marks the foci with prosody. This paper briefly introduces two kinds of foci in Persian, Broad Focus and Narrow Focus. These two different types of foci have different prosodic, semantic, syntactic and pragmatic features that are outlined in the paper.

 
Birner,B and Sh.Mahootian .1996. “ Functional constructions in inversion in English and Farsi”, Language Science, Vol 18,pp: 127-136.
Browning, M. and E. Karimi. 1994. “Scrambling to object position in Persian”, in N. Crover H. van Riemsdijk (eds), Studies on Scrambling, Mouton de Gruyter,Pp:61- 100.
Choi, Hye-Won .1996. Optimizing Scrambling in Context: Scrambling and Information tructure. Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University.
Choi,Hye-Won .1997. “ Information Structure, Phrase structure and their Interface”, In : M. Butt and T.H.King (eds) Proceedings of theLFG97 Conference, CSLI.
Cinque, G. 1993. “ A null theory of phrase and compound stress”, Linguistic Inquiry 24: 239-298.
Cowles, H.W. 2003. Processing information structure: evidence from comprehension and roduction. Ph. D. Dissertation. University of California. San Diego.
Dabir Moghaddam, M. 2001. “ Word order typology of Iranian languages”, The Journal of Humanities, vol. 8, no.2, pp: 17-22.
Dayal,V. 1994. “Binding facts in Hindi and the scrambling phenomenon. In Butt et al (eds) , 237-262.
Dayal, V. 1999. “Bare NPs. Reference to kinds and Incorporation”, Proceedings of SALT LX.
Dayal, V. 2003. “ Bare nominals : non –specific and contrastive reading under scrambling. In Karimi (ed). Word Order and Scrambling. Blackwell.
Ghomeishi,J. 1996. Projection and Inflection: a study of Persian phrase structure. Toronto: University of Toronto dissertation.
Ghomeshi, J. 1997. “ Vp-topics in Persian”, Lingua, 102: 133-167.
Godjevac, S. 2000. Intonation, Word Order, and Focus in Serbo-Croatian, Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University.
Hockey ,B.Ann .1998. The interpretation and realization of focus: an experimental Investigation of focus in English and Hungarian. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
Ishihara,S. 2000. “ Stress, Focus and Scrambling in Japanese”, in MIT Working Papers in Linguistics, 39: 142-175.
Karimi,S. 1990. “Obliqueness , specificity and discourse functions: Ra in Persian” Linguistic Analysis,20:139-191.
Karimi,S. 1997. “Complex verbs in Persian”,Lexicology,3,1:274-316.
Karimi,S. 1999. “Is scrambling as strange as we think it is?”, MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 33: 159-190.
Karimi,S. 2001a. ‘Word order and scrambling’, a talk presented in workshop at Persian linguistics, Allame Tabataba’i University.
Karimi, S. .2001b. “Persian complex DPs: how mysterious are they?”, Canadian Journal Of Linguistics, 46(1/2): 63-96.
Karimi, S. 2003. “ Object positions and scrambling in Persian”, in Karimi (ed). Word Order and Scrambling. Blackwell.
Kiss,Katalin Ė. 1998. “ Identificational focus versus information focus”, Language; 74:245-273.
Miyagawa,S. 1997. “ Against optional scrambling”, Linguistic Inquiry,28:1-25.
Nikolaeva, Irina .2001. “ Secondary topic as a relation in information structure”, Linguistics,39-1, 1-49.
Reinhart ,Tanya .1996. “ Interface economy: focus and markedness”, In: The Role of Economy Principle in Linguistic Theory, C.Wilder et al (eds), Berlin: Akademic Verlag.
Reinhart, Tanya and Ad Neeleman .1997. “Scrambling and PF interface”, in W.Cobler and M.Butt (eds) Projection from the Lexicon, CSLI, Stanford.
Sekerina, I. 1997. The syntax and processing of scrambling in Russian. Ph.D. dissertation, The city University of New York.
Szendori, Kriszta .2001. Focus and the Syntax- Phonology Interface, Ph.D. Dissertation, University College London.
Vallduvi, Enric .1990. The Information Component. Ph.D Dissertation. University of Pennsylvania.
Vallduvi, E. and E. Engdahl .1996. “The linguistic realization of information packaging”, Linguistics 34: 459-519.
Vallduvi, E. and M. Vilkuna .1998. “ On rheme and Kontrast”, in Culicover P. and L. McNally (eds), The Limits of Syntax. New York: Academic Press, 79-108.
 
اسلامی ،محرم و محمود بی‌جن‌خان .1381. " نظام آهنگ زبان فارسی"، مجله زبانشناسی، سال17، شماره 2، صص 36-62 .
اسلامی، محرم .1382. " نحو و واج‌شناسی: یک وجه مشترک"، پژوهشهای زبانشناسی 1 (ویژه جشن‌نامه دکتر علی‌اشرف صادقی)، انتشارات هرمس، تهران. صص 171-176.
دبیرمقدم، محمد .1369. " پیرامون را در زبان فارسی" ، مجله زبانشناسی، سال5،شماره1، صص 2_60.
دبیرمقدم، محمد .1378. زبانشناسی نظری: پیدایش و تکوین دستور زایشی، تهران: سخن.
راسخ‌مهند، محمد .1382. قلب‌نحوی در زبان فارسی، پایان‌نامه دوره دکترای زبانشناسی همگانی، دانشگاه‌علامه‌طباطبایی.