pragmatic indefinite constructions in Modern Persian

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Authors

Department of Linguistics, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran.

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the pragmatic meanings of indefinite constructions in Modern Persian based on Construction Grammar. In Modern Persian, the pragmatic construction [(če) (Ɂajab)… [X]NPi=i] codifies three pragmatic meanings such as 'emphatic', 'appreciative', and 'diminutive'. Furthermore, the other indefinite constructions conveying pragmatic meanings in this era of Persian are as follows: [(ye) [X]seni]j encoding 'emphatic', [(ye) [X]NPi] conveying 'diminutive', [ye/yak[X]NPi=i] codifying 'appreciative', and [yak[X]APi] reflecting 'emphatic' meaning. Indefinite markers (=i, ye, and yak) in their pragmatic functions are stressed; In other words, in codifying the 'emphatic', 'appreciative', and 'diminutive' pragmatic meanings, they are more durative than their grammatical counterparts; in addition, it should be noted that in conveying 'emphatic' and 'appreciative' meanings, they are less durative than the 'diminutive' one and in the first two meanings a gradual increase in intensity and in the last meaning a gradual decrease in intensity can be observed. In order to investigate Modern Persian, a part of HAMBAM spoken Persian corpus, consisting of a 31-minute formal speech and several 40-minute informal interviews, and two books named Sir. Haji (Hedayat, 1951) and The Baboon whose Buffoon was Dead (Chubak, 2017) were selected as the corpus of the research. Phonetic analyzes of the "indefinite markers" existing in pragmatic indefinite constructions are provided using Praat 6.0.08 software.

Keywords

References

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Language and Linguistics
Volume 17, Issue 34
January 2023
Pages 61-86

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