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Light''verbs are taking over: Complex verbs in Persian

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... The semantic and syntactic contribution of the elements of CPs has continuously been the center of attention in Persian literature, which has given rise to some controversy. With respect to the semantic contribution of the components of the CP, Mohammad and Karimi (1992) suggest that in CPs, only PVs bear the semantics of the combination, and the LV is empty semantically, and only appears as a grammatical marker. To prove this claim, they consider CPs with identical PVs and different LVs; they argue that the alternation of LVs does not affect the meaning of the combination. ...
... Karimi Doostan (1997), examined the list of 279 simple lexical verbs collected by Khanlari (1973) and claims that the number of simplex verbs used in modern and standard 80 Persian hardly reaches 150. In another study conducted by Mohammad and Karimi (1992), the number of simplex verbs used in standard Persian is said to be 115. 'There is sexual discrimination in this country.' ...
... As mentioned before these LVs can have several meanings and in each semantic category, one of them may be activated. Karimi & Mohammad (1992) suggest that LVs in Persian have no semantic value. ...
Thesis
The purpose of this dissertation is twofold : 1) to investigate the semantic and syntactic behavior of Persian simplex verbs vs. CPs in spatial events with respect to Talmy’s typology of satellite-framed and verb-framed languages ; and 2) to analyze the semantic systematicity in the formation of CPs based on a constructional approach and explain their certain behaviors, namely, their productivity, causativity, duration, and syntactic behavior of their PVs through the meaning of the construction.In the first part of the analysis, we discuss the behaviour of simplex verbs vs. CPs in spatial events. Our analysis is based on an extensive corpus. CPs express manner and other semantic information frequently while a high frequency of simplex verbs appears as neutral constructions without expressing any specific information. The syntactic distribution of CPs follow the ‘economy of language’ rule since all the semantic information is encoded in the construction itself; on the other hand, simplex verbs require dependent clauses to express manner in the majority of cases. Furthermore, CPs encode both motion and location events while simplex verbs are mostly intransitive and refer to locative events. The above-mentioned shortcomings of simplex verbs have led to the replacement of these verbs by CPs over time. In the second part of our analysis, we deal with the semantic features of CPs in spatial events in the light of Construction Grammar theory and corpus-based approaches. Following Goldberg we consider CPs constructions in their own right. Kardan, ‘do’ ; dādan, ‘give’; zadan, ‘hit’; and bordan, ‘take’, are the LVs under the study in this thesis. These LVs found to be among the most frequent ones with the most PVs in common in our corpus. Firstly, we identified the semantic extensions of each LV. This categorization reveals a certain degree of semantic productivity and generalization between each LV and the type of PVs with which it can co-occur. In other words, each LV combines with a specific type of PVs. Even metaphorical extensions have a certain degree of productivity and speakers can generalize about them. We also argue that CPs in spatial events are a family of resultative constructions. Certain behaviors of CPs, namely, their causativity, and the duration of the activity, are explained based on their semantics, and it is shown that the whole construction is responsible for such behaviors. The comparison between combinations that have different LVs but identical PVs reveals certain semantic and syntactic differences, which is evidence for the existing systematicity in the formation of CPs. Through a collostructional analysis we discuss the degree of attraction of each LV with respect to the semantic categories.
... Determining the syntactic and semantic contributions of these two components lies at the center of the investigation of compound verbs (also known as complex verbs or light verb constructions). In the literature on these constructions in Persian, it has been suggested that light verbs are semantically empty and it is the preverbal nominal element that lends its arguments to the complex verb (Mohammad and Karimi 1992). Others have argued that light verbs contribute aspectual information but not argument structure (Karimi-Doostan 1997). ...
... ( Following an analysis by Grimshaw and Mester (1988) for Japanese suru, Mohammad and Karimi (1992) argue that Persian light verbs are semantically empty. According to this analysis, known as the Argument Transfer Hypothesis, the entire semantic content of the compound verb comes from the nominal element. ...
... A similar distinction is present in the pair in (4) where (4b) is usually used in literary or journalistic prose. Mohammad and Karimi (1992) propose that the preverbal nominal element in these examples lends its arguments to the empty light verb, which is then turned into a theta-marker. ...
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This article investigates the syntactic and semantic properties of complex predicates in Persian in order to isolate the individual contributions of the verbal components. The event structure of causative alternation and unergative verbs is determined, based on a decomposition of the verbal construction into primitive syntactic elements consisting of lexical roots and functional heads, with the latter projecting all arguments of the verbal construction. An analysis is provided whereby the argument structure is not projected from the lexicon but is formed compositionally by the conjunction of the primitive components of the complex predicate in syntax. The dual behaviour of Persian complex predicates as lexical and syntactic elements, which has been attested in Persian literature on light verb constructions, follows naturally from the analysis proposed since there is no strict division between the level of word formation and the component manipulating phrasal constructs.
... Apart from this the separation of a complex predicate by arguments and adjuncts seems to be possible, as the following Persian data indicates (see also Vahedi-Langrudi 1996 : 26) : (13) (a) guš be man ne-mi-kon-e (Mohammad & Karimi 1992 : 197) ear to me NEG-PROG-does-3SG ' She/he does not listen to me. ' (ear do=listen) (b) guš dige ne-mi-kon-e (Mohammad & Karimi 1992 : 198) ear no.more NEG-PROG-do-3SG ' She/he does not listen anymore. ...
... Apart from this the separation of a complex predicate by arguments and adjuncts seems to be possible, as the following Persian data indicates (see also Vahedi-Langrudi 1996 : 26) : (13) (a) guš be man ne-mi-kon-e (Mohammad & Karimi 1992 : 197) ear to me NEG-PROG-does-3SG ' She/he does not listen to me. ' (ear do=listen) (b) guš dige ne-mi-kon-e (Mohammad & Karimi 1992 : 198) ear no.more NEG-PROG-do-3SG ' She/he does not listen anymore. ' ...
... The examples in (13) – repeated here as (41) – pose a serious problem for Goldberg's analysis, since her construction would state that guš 'ear ' and nemi-kon-e 'NEG-PROG-do-3SG ' are adjacent. (41) (a) guš be man ne-mi-kon-e (Mohammad & Karimi 1992 : 197) ear to me NEG-IPFV-do-3SG 'She/he does not listen to me. ' (ear do=listen) (b) guš dige ne-mi-kon-e (Mohammad & Karimi 1992 : 198) ear no.more NEG-PROG-do-3SG 'She/he does not listen anymore.' ...
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Persian complex predicates pose an interesting challenge for theoretical linguistics since they have both word-like and phrase-like properties. For example, they can feed derivational processes, but they are also separable by the future auxiliary or the negation prefix. Various proposals have been made in the literature to capture the nature of Persian complex predicates, among them analyses that treat them as purely phrasal or purely lexical combinations. Mixed analyses that analyze them as words by default and as phrases in the non-default case have also been suggested. In this paper, I show that theories that rely exclusively on the classification of patterns in inheritance hierarchies cannot account for the facts in an insightful way unless they are augmented by transformations or some similar device. I then show that a lexical account together with appropriate grammar rules and an argument composition analysis of the future auxiliary has none of the shortcomings that classification-based analyses have and that it can account for both the phrasal and the word-like properties of Persian complex predicates.
... The number of compound verbs is much larger than simple verbs. According to Mohammad and Karimi (1992), the maximum number of simple verbs in today's Persian is 115, while Dabir-Moghaddam (1997) registered 2500-3000 compound verbs. Some other researchers such as Megerdoomian (2002) listed even more compound verbs. ...
... In the other processes, however, there is a metaphorical extension and/or semantic bleaching of the verbal constituent of the compound, that is, the meaning of the whole compound cannot be considered to be the summation of its units. While some scholars, such as Mohammad and Karimi (1992), have suggested that the verbal elements are semantically empty, others like Vahedi-Langrudi (1996), Karimi-Doostan (1997), and Barjeste (1998) have stated that the light verbs contribute the aspectual meaning of the compound verbs but the argument structure of the compound verb is not based on the semantic content of the light verb. On the other hand, the thematic structure of the whole verb is the outcome of the semantic content of both the verbal and non-verbal element . ...
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This paper discusses some linguistic issues in developing the Persian WordNet of verbs with a special focus on Persian compound verbs. It begins with describing different types of compounding mechanisms in verbs and the grammatical structure and semantic properties of each type. It then continues with discussing the lexical and conceptual relations between compound verbs in the Persian WordNet and, finally, talks about the way that properties are used in the semi-automatic extraction of compound verbs and their relations from dictionaries and text corpora.
... Several studies have been done to determine the syntactic and semantic roles of the nonverbal element and the light verb. Mohammad and Karimi (1992) argue that the light verb 13 This issue differentiates constructions like maen xosh-aem amaed (I my-pleasure came or pleasure came to me) which have been considered as compounds by a number of linguists. The fact that the verbal element in these constructions never bears agreement morphology differentiates them from compound verbs. ...
... Traditionally, complex verbs have been considered as a lexical unit since these compounds undergo nominalization and adjectival formation, bear a single stress, and cannot be separated by interveners such as PP's. However, other linguists have argued that compound verbs are visible to syntactic and morphological processes since the two components can be intervened by negation and inflectional affixes, auxiliaries, modals, and emphatic elements (Mohammad and Karimi 1992, Megerdoomian 2001. In addition, certain (but not all) non-verbal elements can be limitedly modified, gapped , or relativized. ...
... In the representation of the predicative structure, the structure of the semantic annotation may overlap to structure of the syntactic annotation. In Persian, most of the predicates in this language are complex predicates and comprise an ever expanding segment of the verbal system (Mohammad & Karimi, 1992). It has been argued in the literature that the argument and event structures of Persian complex predicates, as well as syntactic properties such as control, cannot be simply derived from the lexical specifications of the nonverbal element or the light verb; therefore, suggesting that the syntactic and semantic properties of these elements must be determined post syntactically rather than in the lexicon (Karimi, 1997). ...
... In fact, the grammatical functions which specify only the functional-syntactic component allow for the description of syntactic functions which do not correspond with any semantic function, either because they have a void semantic content (e.g., the particle –râ or those involved in idiomatic construction) or because they have a different structure from any possible corresponding semantic relation (i.e., there is no semantic relation linking the same linked by the syntactic one). It's especially the case of complex predicates (compound verbs) in Persian in which the light verb and the nonverbal element are separately generated and combined in syntax, and become semantically fused at a different, later level (Mohammad & Karimi, 1992). On one hand, Persian complex predicates cannot be considered a lexical unit since its elements may be separated by a number of elements; on the other hand the meaning of the constructions cannot be obtained by translating each element separately. ...
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In this paper we present and justify methodological principles and syntactic criteria to design an annotation scheme for a Persian Treebank. The advantages of the proposed scheme for annotation of the Persian Treebank will be discussed. At the same time, we present the way that different types of linguistic knowledge (morphological, syntactic and semantic) are encoded in the structures of the schema. We will show how this scheme can account for many of the syntactic constructions that appear to be unique to the Persian language.
... • For this reason, some authors propose to assign nominal nonverbal elements and nonspecific direct objects the same structural position (Mohammad and Karimi 1992, Ghomeshi and Massam 1994, Farudi 2005). ...
... (2) a. NVE = Direct object b. NVE = Direct object (Mohammad and Karimi 1992) (Folli et al. 2005) ...
... from the verb regardless of the analysis. the higher position of definite/specific/presupposed direct objects compared to that of indefinite direct objects has received a good deal of attention in recent work. Diesing (1992) states that presupposed direct objects appear to be structurally higher than true indefinites, citing Turkish as an example. Mohammad and Karimi (1992) cite Mahajan (1990) for Hindi, and Koopman and Sportiche (1991) for Dutch, as languages in which direct objects behave differently depending on their speci- ficity/definiteness. Moorcroft (1995) discusses this phenomenon in Icelandic and German. Interestingly, the appearance of definite, specific, or presupposed direct objects in a high ...
... Examples are given below. While Karimi translates these adverbials as topics, they also delimit the 26 It should be pointed out that the base-generation of direct objects in two different positions has been proposed by Mohammad and Karimi (1992) for Persian. They have indefinite objects base-generated as sister to the verb and the DP+rci in [SPEC, VP]. ...
Article
In this paper the Persian morpheme -râ is examined. The examination sheds light on a number of current issues in the theory of case such as whether multiple case marking is an instance of case assigned by a functional head to more than one specifier, and what kinds of semantic properties case can correlate with. The morpheme -râ is of great interest in that (a) it appears to be a case marker, yet can appear more than once in the same clause, and (b) it appears to be a definiteness marker yet can cooccur with indefinite marking. It is argued that -râ case-marks noun phrases that are adjoined to VP. Syntactically such adjunction is free; however, it is claimed that all such noun phrases must be thematically licensed. Thematic licensing occurs either when the noun phrase is construed as the direct object (via theta-role assignment) or when the noun phrase is construed as a topic (via coindexation with a thetamarked element). Semantically, it is argued that -râ marks noun phrases that satisfy a number of different properties all correlating with high transitivity, such as definiteness, animacy or topic-hood. Especially with respect to the latter, the syntactic and semantic functions of -râ converge.
... While Persian possesses an open class of nouns and adjectives, verbs form a closed class: there are only around 115 simplex verbs in the language (Khanlari 1973;Mohammad and Karimi 1992), and new members cannot be freely added to the category. To compensate for its relatively small inventory of verbs, Persian makes heavy use of complex predicates, also known as light verb constructions and compound verbs. ...
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Persian possesses a number of stative complex predicates with dâshtan ‘to have’ that express certain kinds of mental state. I propose that these possessive experiencer complex predicates be given a formal semantic treatment involving possession of a portion of an abstract quality by an individual, as in the analysis of property concept lexemes due to Francez and Koontz-Garboden (Language 91(3):533–563, 2015; Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 34:93–106, 2016; Semantics and morphosyntactic variation: Qualities and the grammar of property concepts, Oxford University Press, 2017). Augmented with an analysis of prepositional phrases introducing the target of the mental state and an approach to gradability in terms of measure functions (Wellwood in Measuring predicates, PhD dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, 2014), the analysis explains various properties of possessive experiencer complex predicates, including the behavior of target phrases, the ability of the non-verbal element to be modified by a range of adjectives, the direct participation of the non-verbal element in comparative constructions, and the ability of degree expressions to modify both the non-verbal element and the VP containing the complex predicate. Theoretically, the analysis ties transitive mental state expressions to the grammar and semantics of property concept sentences, which are expressed via possessive morphosyntax cross-linguistically, and connects with syntactic proposals that independently argue for a universal underlyingly possessive morphosyntax for mental state predicates (Noonan in Case and syntactic geometry, PhD dissertation, McGill University, 1992; Hale and Keyser in Prolegomenon to a theory of argument structure, MIT Press, 2002). The work here also motivates modifications to Francez and Koontz-Garboden’s original proposal, and opens new questions in the original empirical domain of the analysis of possessive predicating strategies for the expression of property concept sentences.
... Light verb constructions are very productive in some languages, e.g. Persian, Urdu, and Japanese (Karimi, 1997;Miyagawa, 1989;Matsumoto, 1996;Miyamoto, 2000;Mohammad & Karimi, 1992). Whereas, they are considered to be semiproductive constructions in French, Italian, Spanish and English (Wierzbicka, 1982;Alba-Salas, 2002;Kearns, 2002). ...
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The article discusses the problem of light verb constructions in contemporary English on the basis of novels ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ by J.K. Rowling. We (the authors) state that most of light verb constructions denote either semelfactive or multiplicative meanings within the framework of Smith’s (1997) theory of aspect in which five situation types, namely states, activities, achievements, accomplishments, and semelfactives are distinguished. The aspectual meaning of a light verb construction is concentrated in its nominal component which can be proved by the existence of for, with-phrases like for a better look, where the verbal component is omitted. The singular of the deverbal noun indicates a semelfactive meaning, whereas the plural form expresses a multiplicative one. The verbal component in such constructions may be represented by ‘light’ verbs such as take, have, make, do, give or ‘heavy’ verbs like cast, draw, shoot etc. The qualitative characteristics of light verb constructions can be intensified by prepositive and postpositive modifiers such as quick, short, sharp etc. On the basis of novels ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ by J.K. Rowling 97 and 115 light verb constructions have been singled out and analyzed respectively. The results of the research contribute to the study of verbal plurality in English.
... In studying Persian LVCs, various aspects including syntactic properties, separability/non-separability, event structure, productivity, and semantic characteristics of LVCs have been investigated by researchers (e.g. Barjasteh, 1983;Dabir-Moghaddam, 1997;Folli et al., 2005;Haji-Abdolhosseini, 2000;Karimi, 1997;Karimi-Doostan, 1997Megerdoomian, 2001;Mohammad and Karimi, 1992;Vahedi-Langrudi, 1996;Tabaian, 1979). Of these major themes, the topic of productivity (making new LVCs by adjoining a new NV to an already existing LV) continues to be of special interest for researchers. ...
Article
One of the challenging problems in the domain of Persian light verb constructions (LVCs) is to discover and classify a light verb (LV)'s multiple senses. This is important since productive use of LVs in Persian that leads to formation of novel LVCs can be explained in reference to these established LV senses. On the other hand, identification of LVCs in the first place is another problem which is a complex task given that not only no objective criterion exists for their identification but also the constituent elements of some LVCs can be split by interposing linguistic units that makes their identification difficult. This paper addresses these two issues using corpus methodology. To identify LVCs, the LV xordan with two unrelated meanings ‘to eat/collide’ was chosen for analysis and the corresponding LVCs were extracted from a sampled 50-million-word corpus based on a measure of collocational associations. The extracted LVCs consisted of frequent compositional and idiomatic noun-verb (N-V) patterns found in the corpus. Corpus examinations revealed that frequent compositional N-V sequences have constructional meanings and need to be recognized as LVCs. Finally, to discover the LV senses, 700 concordance lines of the extracted LVCs were studied and classified based on a behavioral profile analysis of their corpus usage patterns. According to the results of behavioral profile analysis, two constructional senses EAT and COLLIDE are coexistent under xordan each subsuming their own semantically-related LVCs. The findings while supporting the overall constructionist assumptions on polysemy network of LV senses necessitate a reconsideration of constructionhood criteria in Persian LVCs alongside the process of identification and classification of senses.
... The errors in the data (around 13,000 words) were classified and indicated that our learners did have problems with closed-class words. But, more analysis of the data showed that the learners had an extra problem arising from the extensive use of 'light' verbs in Persian, i.e. constructions using a common support verb (something like 'make' or 'do') and a bare nounwhere English would use a specific lexical item (Butt and Geuder, 1999;Butt and Geuder, 2001;Butt, 2002;Grimshaw and Mester, 1988;Karimi-Doostan, 1998;Mohammad and Karimi, 1992). ...
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This paper attempts to describe how an intelligent feedback generator (IFG) is designed, and implemented to help learners of Persian. Keeping this goal in mind to design the system effectively, a collection of information is initially gathered to find what areas are most difficult for such learners. By employing two natural language processing engines for Persian and English, a feedback generator has been created. The framework meets expectations by comparing logical structures originated from English and Persian sentences. Anomaly detection is done via comparing these logical structures. With a few adjustments, the system can also be used with Persian learners of English since it can parse input from both languages.
... Persian compound verbs have been studied by different researchers either Iranian or non-Iranian around the world such as Windfuhr (1979), Rubinchik (1971), Samiian (1983), and Mohammad and Karimi (1992). In this study the term 'compound verb' or 'compound construction' is used interchangeably and compound verb refers to "a verb whose morphological structure is not simple but consists of a non-verbal constituent, such as a noun, adjective, past participle, prepositional phrase, or adverb, and a verbal constituent" (Dabir-Moghaddam, 1997, p. 25). ...
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This study pursues an explanation for Persian-English codeswitching in terms of language typological differences. In particular, it aims to show how English verbs occur in Persian structure and identify possible constraints, which occur between Persian and English verbal system. A mixed method design is chosen for the study and data collection includes tape-recordings of spontaneous conversations involving 12 Persian-English bilingual speakers. All bilingual complementiser phrases are transcribed, and all the classified English verbs are analysed to show how they occur in the bilingual, Persian-English complementiser phrases. The findings of the study reveal that the lack of congruity between the verbal system of Persian and English causes some constraints on the insertion of the English verbs. First, in all English elements in the findings of this study, there is noexample that shows English verb occurs as a single unit in the Persian structure. Second, no single case in the findings of this study shows a combination of a Persian verbal morpheme and an English bare infinitive verb. Third, there is no example in the entire corpus that shows the combination of English verb and Persian negation element. Thus, the occurrence of Persian-English bilingual compound verbs is the result of the mentioned constraints between these two languages.
... The linguists and language engineers confront serious problems in the analysis of Persian CPR in Lexicalist frameworks and need to claim that Persian CPRs are instances of idioms, receiving a separate entry in the lexicon complete with their syntactic structure (Karimi, 2005). Persian CPR cannot be considered a lexical unit since its nonverbal (NV) element and light verb (LV) may be separated by a number of elements (Karimi, 1992). In Folli et al. (2005), it is argued that the conflicting properties of Persian CPR can be easily accommodated in a non-Lexicalist theory such as distributed morphology, where all interpretation occurs post-syntactically and employing Keyser's (1993, 2002) model, the provided structures of this model translate naturally to Persian CPR. ...
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Morphological and syntactic annotation of multi-token units confront several problems due to the concatenating nature of Persian script and so its orthographic variation. In the present paper, by the analysis of the different collocation types of the tokens, the compositional, non-compositional and semi-compositional constructions are described and then, in order to explain these constructions, the static and dynamic multi-token units will be introduced for the non-generative and generative structures of the verbs, infinitives, prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, adjectives and nouns. Defining the multi-token unit templates for these categories is one of the important results of this research. The findings can be input to the Persian Treebank generator systems. Also, the machine translation systems using the rule-based methods to parse the texts can utilize the results in text segmentation and parsing.
... Along with many other languages Persian employs a large number of complex predicates (henceforth CPr) which consist of a light verb and a non-verbal part. The vast number of complex predicates is due to the high productivity of their formation in Persian -it has been reported that only 115 of the verbs in this language are simple verbs (Mohammad and Karimi 1992). * I am grateful to Parvaneh Danesh, Arsalan Kahnemuyipour, and Razieh Mehdi Beyraghdar for their native speaker judgments. ...
Article
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In this paper, I propose a syntax-based analysis of Persian complex pred-icates (a predicate consisting of a preverb and a light verb). I adopt the framework of the verbal First Phase Syntax developed by Ramchand (2008). I use complex predicates with the light verb zaedaen 'hit' to illustrate how this approach sheds light on some widely discussed issues in the literature. The problem I mainly focus on is the syntactic status of noun preverbs. In general, noun preverbs exhibit properties typically ascribed to direct ob-jects (Samvelian 2001; 2004), while at the same time being distinct from real arguments of the verb (Megerdoomian 2006). I suggest that noun pre-verbs can occupy more than one position in the verbal phrase and show how this analysis captures their dual nature, as well as some other syntactic and semantic peculiarities.
... [13], raising constructions, embedded complements [16], the categorical status of so called Persian class 2 prepositions [13], etc. In Addition, the structural handling of word order variation means stating well-formedness constraints on structures involving many tracefiller dependencies, which has proved tedious. ...
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In this paper we present and justify methodological principles and syntactic criteria to design an annotation scheme for a Persian Treebank. The main approaches to the annotation of Treebanks are presented in order to account for taken decisions. After examining these approaches, and taking into account the syntactic characteristics of Persian, the most appropriate one will be selected and its advantages for annotation of the Persian Treebank will be discussed. At the same time we present the way that different types of linguistic knowledge (morphological, syntactic and semantic) are encoded in the structures of the proposed schema. We will show how this scheme can provide a useful interface between syntax and semantic.
... Prepositional phrase + LV be donya amaedaen (to world come) 'to be born' aez beyn raeftaen (from between go) 'to vanish' aez beyn bordaen (from between take) 'to destroy' be xun kešidaen (to blood pull) 'to kill, to massacre' be yad daštaen (to remembrance have) 'to remember' Khanlari (1986, p.395-8) provides a list of all Persian simple verbs currently in usage in the dialect of Persian spoken in Iran. The list contains 279 verbs, yet Mohammad and Karimi (1992) have reported that only 115 verbs are used as simple verbs in modern colloquial and standard Persian. In fact, the majority of simple verbs in Persian have been replaced by light verb constructions as shown in (5). ...
... Data fromBashiri (1981),Barjasteh (1998),Mohammad and Karimi (1992),Ghomeshi (1996), Dabir-Moghaddam (1997), Karimi (1997), Karimi-Doostan (1997), Vahedi-Langrudi (1996), Megerdoomian (2002), Kahnemuyipour (2004), Folli, Harley and Karimi (forthcoming), among others. ...
... Persian LVCs have attracted a number of researchers (Mohammad and Karimi, 1992;Vahedi-Langrudi, 1996;Karimi-Doostan, 1997). Most recently, Megerdoomian (2001) and Folli et al. (2003) have mainly focused on event structure and aspectual properties of Persian LVCs; in Megerdoomian (2001) the LVs while in Folli et al. (2003) the VNs play an important role in determining the aspectual properties of LVCs. ...
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In this paper, we focus on a group of the Kurdish, Korean and Persian Light Verb Constructions (LVCs); consisting of a semantically light verb (LV) and a verbal noun (VN). It is argued that the LVs, capable of case marking and hosting verbal features, in combination with T function either as nominative and accusative case markers or only as nominative case markers. It is shown that the arguments of VNs can be structurally licensed via T and LV whose case assigning roles are not thematically restricted. Although these LVs as the most thematically bleached natural verbs seem very similar to v in the Minimalist Program, the way they are analyzed in this work indicates that the LVs can not support the notion of v(P) as a head above VP in a clause.
... A Persian CPr cannot be considered a lexical unit since its NV element and LV may be separated by a number of elements, including (a) negative and inflectional affixes, (b) the auxiliary verb for future tense, and (c) emphatic elements (Mohammad and Karimi 1992). ...
Article
In this paper we analyse the interdependence of Persian nonverbal (NV) elements and the light verb (LV) in determining the syntactic properties, the event structure, and the alternation possibilities of the entire complex predicate (CP). We argue that these properties provide strong evidence for a constructionalist approach to such phenomena, like that of Hale and Keyser (1993, 2002), and that the combination of compositionality and syntactic independence effects observed in these constructions, are difficult, if not impossible, to deal with in a projectionist approach.
... Along with many other languages Persian employs a large number of complex predicates (henceforth CPr) which consist of a light verb and a nonverbal part. The vast number of complex predicates is due to the high productivity of their formation in Persian — it has been reported that only 115 of the verbs in this language are simple verbs (Mohammad and Karimi 1992). Light verbs is a popular term used to refer to a class of verbs with bleached semantics that combine with a non-verbal element to build one predicate. ...
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In this paper, I propose a syntax-based analysis of Persian complex predicates (a predicate consisting of a so called preverb and a light verb). I adopt the framework of the verbal First Phase Syntax developed by Ramchand (2008). I use complex predicates with the light verb zædæn `hit' to illustrate how this approach sheds light on some widely discussed issues in the literature. The problem I mainly focus on is the syntactic status of noun preverbs. In general, noun preverbs exhibit properties typically ascribed to direct objects (Samvelian 2001; 2004), while at the same time being distinct from real arguments of the verb (Megerdoomian 2006). I suggest that noun preverbs can occupy more than one position in the verbal phrase and show how this analysis captures their dual nature, as well as some other syntactic and semantic peculiarities.
... One way of avoiding the need to argue that the CP as a whole is listed in the lexicon is to argue that the apparently noncompositional semantics is actually speci ed solely in either the host or the light verb. Mohammad and Karimi (1992) argue that the entire semantic content comes from the nominal element, and that the verbal element is semantically empty. The evidence given to support this claim is the existence of a few cases wherein varying the verb does not result in a noticable change in meaning. ...
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This paper offers an account in which the Persian CP is treated as a construction represented in the lexicon. It is argued that its expression as a simple word or as a phrasal entity is determined by the interaction of a set typologically natural ranked constraints. An outcome of this analysis is that the categorial status of the CP can be viewed as a simple verb by default. V0 status is motivated by the CPs lexical properties. It entails that the host and light verb be unseparated and that they may undergo derivational processes. The V0 status is a default in the sense that it can be overridden if and only if there is a competing higher ranked constraint.
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Large computational lexicons are central NLP resources. Swedish FrameNet++ aims to be a versatile full-scale lexical resource for NLP containing many kinds of linguistic information. Although focused on Swedish, this ongoing effort, which includes building a new Swedish framenet and recycling existing lexicons, has offered valuable insights into general aspects of lexical-resource building for NLP, which are discussed in this book: computational and linguistic problems of lexical semantics and lexical typology, the nature of lexical items (words and multiword expressions), achieving interoperability among heterogeneous lexical content, NLP methods for extending and interlinking existing lexicons, and deploying the new resource in practical NLP applications. This book is targeted at everyone with an interest in lexicography, computational lexicography, lexical typology, lexical semantics, linguistics, computational linguistics and related fields. We believe it should be of particular interest to those who are or have been involved in language resource creation, development and evaluation.
Article
Nowadays, wordnets are extensively used as a major resource in natural language processing and information retrieval tasks. Therefore, the accuracy of wordnets has a direct influence on the performance of the involved applications. This paper presents a fully-automated method for extending a previously developed Persian wordnet to cover more comprehensive and accurate verbal entries. At first, by using a bilingual dictionary, some Persian verbs are linked to Princeton WordNet synsets. A feature set related to the semantic behavior of compound verbs as the majority of Persian verbs is proposed. This feature set is employed in a supervised classification system to select the proper links for inclusion in the wordnet. We also benefit from a pre-existing Persian wordnet, FarsNet, and a similarity-based method to produce a training set. This is the largest automatically developed Persian wordnet with more than 27,000 words, 28,000 PWN synsets and 67,000 word-sense pairs that substantially outperforms the previous Persian wordnet with about 16,000 words, 22,000 PWN synsets and 38,000 word-sense pairs.
Article
The study of Ellipsis has been of special interest to scholars of linguistics. One reason for this interest is the fact that the meaning of a sentence with ellipsis cannot purely be based on its antecedent. Elliptical constructions in the literature are categorised according to their syntactic structures. This article intends to discuss ellipsis in Persian Complex predicate constructions in which parts of the verbal construction along with some of its arguments are elided. We will argue that ellipsis resolution in such constructions is licensed due to the logical form of such verbal constructions and the relationship that holds amongst parallel elements in the source and the target sentence. Finally, we will propose that distinguishing between primary and secondary occurrences of anaphoric expressions in the logical form can account for the correct and grammatical reading of intended anaphoric expressions in elliptical sites.
Chapter
Prepositions contribute to the schematic meanings in Persian complex predicates. Based on the Concept Structuring System (Talmy 2000), we argue that since the light verb and preverbal noun belong to different subsystems, they fulfill distinctive conceptual dimensions of the semantic representation. The preverbal noun, belonging to the open class system provides the content meaning, while the light verb, belonging to the closed class system, determines the schematic meanings of complex predicates. Analyzing some Persian data, we see (a) how the light verb and preposition are so well connected to each other and to the noun by their configuration (b) how they provide different schematic meanings for different complex predicates and (c) how the same noun can combine with a different light verb and a preposition to elicit a different meaning for the complex predicate.
Article
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This descriptive-analytic research describes the morphosyntax of pronominal enclitics in Mazinani Dialect spoken near Sabzevar. These enclitics are located immediately adjacent to the verb and despite Standard Persian, they encliticize to Imperative and Negative Morphemes, Past Verbal Stem, Perfect Present Aspectual Morpheme, Direct Object, Indirect Object, and Adverb of Location. Moreover, in addition to playing the role of Accusative and Genitive Cases, these elements play different syntactic roles such as Dative, Benefactive Dative, Ablative, and Instrumental Cases without any overt morphological case-assigner. Based on VP-shell Hypothesis, the structural case assigning to the clitic arguments was investigated in double object constructions. It was concluded that, historically, the domain of cliticization has been decreased from IP to VP in favor of Ezafe constructions in Mazinani Dialect. Key words: clitic system, pronominal enclitics, host, case, Mazinani Dialect
Article
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We investigate the distribution of argument ellipsis in Persian in the context of the recent debate concerning the derivation of null arguments. Using sloppy/quantificational interpretations of elided arguments, we show that Persian exhibits subject-object elliptical asymmetries. We develop various arguments against the Verb-Stranding VP-ellipsis analysis of the subject-object asymmetry. We argue instead that the asymmetry in question is captured by the anti-agreement theory (Saito 2007). Our analysis predicts that the logical subject in Persian should be able to permit argument ellipsis when it is not in the position associated with φ-feature agreement. We show that this prediction is indeed borne out in several syntactic constructions whose inanimate plural subjects do not enter into an agreement relation with any functional head such as T. We also briefly explore one significant consequence of our analysis for the proper treatment of the so-called differential object marker –'râ 'and conclude that this marker is the default morphological case in the technical sense of Marantz (1991).
Article
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Some studies of complex predicates suggest that light verbs are bleached semantically and are unable to bear the role of an autonomous predicate (Jespersen, 1965; Cattell, 1984; Grimshaw & Mester, 1988). Although it is accepted that the semantic content of light verbs is deficient, we address the issue that such a claim ignores the semantic relation between light verbs and the corresponding main verbs. The claim in this paper is that light verbs preserve the force-dynamic schemata of the corresponding main verbs totally systematically but the concept area is transferred from physical to abstractpsychological domain. Indeed, it is claimed that, although light verbs do not have totally predictable meaning, their contribution to the meaning of the predicate is completely systematic and to some extent clear. The present study focuses on two light verbs “ KARDAN” (to do) and “ DASHTAN” (to have) to indicate somewhat this systematization.
Article
The present paper was an attempt to inquire into the morpho-syntactic features of light verb construction in Azeri-Turkish/Persian intra-sentential code-switching, employing the matrix language frame model. The analysis of data obtained from the interactions between bilingual teachers (n = 4) and students (n = 100) and from the conversation of 8 other bilingual teachers in a primary school revealed that Persian finite verbs do not participate in Azeri-Turkish morpho-syntactic frame simply because such verbs are[+ thematic role assigner] and carry more syntactic baggage. Persian preverbal elements, however, appeared to combine with Turkish light verbs showing more resistance to the syntactic frame of Azeri-Turkish in causative structures. Activation of embedded language preverbal element at predicate- argument level not only indicates the matrix language being far from the sole source for the grammatical shaping but also falsifies the independence of syntax from lexicon.
Article
Adjacency condition is one of the syntactic constraints on case assignment in many languages such as English, Dutch, Turkish and Hindi. Many linguists studied adjacency condition in some languages and some of them including Chomsky (1981) and Stowell (1981) confirmed the role of this condition in generative grammar and some linguists including Johnson (1991) rejected it in generative grammar. Opponents of this hypothesis believe that adjacency condition can be replaced by projection principle and binary branching condition. In this research, we try to investigate the role of adjacency condition in Persian. Data analysis indicates that assigning structural case to subject by inflection head and also assigning structural case to definite direct object by verb are not subject to adjacency condition. In fact, the position of definite direct object and inflection head is in the specifier of inner verb phrase core and at the end of sentence, respectively which they are not adjacent to each other. However, assigning structural case to noun phrase by preposition and also assigning structural case to indefinite direct object by verb are subject to adjacency constraints. Therefore, there is a direct relationship between adjacency condition and specificity.
Chapter
Word Order and Scrambling introduces readers to recent research into the linguistic phenomenon called scrambling and is a valuable contribution to the fields of theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistics, and applied linguistics. • Introduces readers to recent research into the linguistic phenomenon called scrambling, or free word order. • Explores major issues including factors responsible for word order variations, how scrambled constructions are processed, and whether variations are available in early child language development and in second language acquisition. • Discusses a number of typologically diverse languages including Hindi, Japanese, and Navajo. • Provides enlightening information on different aspects of word order variation and the consequences for our understanding of the nature of human language.
Article
This study investigates compound verb processing in second language speakers (L2) of Persian. Forty-six near-native L2 speakers of Persian were tested to examine the processing of transparent (non-idiomatic) and opaque (idiomatic) compound verbs, under masked priming paradigm. The results revealed a significant nominal priming effect in the opaque condition, and a numerically stronger nominal priming effect in the transparent condition. There was also an increase in the processing load on the parser when the target was an opaque compound. The results of this study seem to be compatible with the dual access or dual route hypothesis, yet with the version that assumes the two routes are activated in parallel rather than the version that assumes high frequency words are represented lexically but low frequency words are decomposed.
Article
Persian Light Verb Constructions (LVCs), consisting of a light verb and a preverb, fall into two groups: separable and inseparable. The nominal preverbs in the former, unlike those in the latter, can function as direct object DP argument, can be modified by an adjective, and can be relativized, scrambled and focused on by Wh-interrogatives. In this paper, it is argued that the (in)separability of LVCs cannot necessarily be an indication of the fact that LVCs are formed at two levels of representation. It is shown that (in)separability of LVCs follows from the semantic and morphosyntactic properties of preverbs and light verbs in the language.
Article
This paper investigates the syntax of a class of complex predicates in Persian that are commonly referred to as Impersonal complex predicates (CPrs). Impersonal CPrs are psychological predicates that consist of a psychological state NP and an unaccusative verbal element. These CPrs are distinguished from canonical CPrs in two important respects. On the one hand, the typical subject-verb agreement, instantiated as nominative affixes on the verbal element of a CPr, is missing from Impersonal CPrs. On the other, predicates participating in Impersonal CPrs, as opposed to those in canonical CPrs, fail to undergo nominalization. To account for these peculiar characteristics, I propose a possessor-raising style derivation of the syntactic structure for Impersonal CPrs in which the experiencer subject DP enters the derivation as the possessor of the psychological state NP within the CPr. The possessor experiencer raises to the specifier of an applicative head where it gets case-licensed, and, then to the specifier of TP to satisfy EPP. The proposed structure will capture the subject-verb agreement restriction and the failure to undergo nominalization in Impersonal CPrs in Persian. Thus analyzed, the syntax of Impersonal complex predicates in Persian receives a natural account, without recourse to ad hoc stipulations.
Article
The paper examines syntax and semantics of complex predicates in Ossetian, an Iranian language spoken in the Central Caucasus. Ossetian, being a language where complex predicates participate in the causative-inchoative alternation, offers us an opportunity to investigate a case where the alternation is blocked by telicizing prefixes if the non-verbal component is not eventive. To account for this effect, an analysis is developed in which eventive and non-eventive non-verbal components are integrated into the event structure in considerably different ways. Eventivity/non-eventivity determines different attachment options for telicizing prefixes, hence constrains the spell-out of the whole structure in different ways. As a consequence of this, for one class of complex predicates, but not for the other, both causative and inchoative prefixed configurations can be spelled out by the same set of lexical items, and the alternation obtains.
Article
The objective of this study was to determine the relation between the chronic consumption of a high-fat diet (HFD) and antioxidants on long-term potentiation (LTP) in dentate gyrus (DG) of the adult rat hippocampus in vivo. Forty adult male Wistar rats were randomly assigned into five groups (N=6-8): control group consumed an ordinary diet; HFD group received HFD only; ANO group received HFD plus antioxidants; RHFD group received a restricted HFD (30% less fat than the HFD group); RANO group received restricted HFD plus antioxidants. Following 6 months of controlled diets in each experimental group, the rats were anesthetized with intraperitoneal injection of ketamine and xylazin (100 and 2.5mg/kg, respectively), and placed into a stereotaxic apparatus for surgery, electrode implantation and field potential recording. The population spike (PS) amplitude and slope of excitatory post synaptic potentials (EPSP) were measured in DG area of adult rats in response to stimulation applied to the perforant pathway (PP) by 400Hz tetanization. The results showed that HFD decreased EPSP slope and PS amplitude with respect to the control group, whereas antioxidants increased these parameters compared to the control group. It was suggested that chronic HFD consumption can impair hippocampal LTP in the granular cells of the DG, and antioxidant supplementation reverses the impairment of synaptic plasticity induced in DG.
Article
In English, auxiliaries form a cohesive category. Unlike main verbs, they raise to T. In Danish, it is not as obvious that auxiliaries form such a unied category. In root clauses, all verbal elements can raise to T (and then onto C), while in embedded clauses they always stay in situ. This makes telling where a given element sits in the extended verbal projection a challenging task. We examine a verbal element in Danish gre that shows up when the verb phrase has been topicalized, elided, or pronominalized. Even though, from surface appearance, gre might appear to be of category T or v, it is located, we argue, right in the middle. It is an auxiliary. But, unlike other auxiliaries, gre is defective because it only subcategorizes for vPs that are pronominal.
Article
The structure of clauses and noun phrases show striking similarities, as we know from Lees 1963 and much subsequent work. I explore whether v — a verbal functional head that introduces the external argument — has a nominal counterpart, by looking at two deverbal nominalizers in Northern Paiute. These nominalizers, -di -and -na, show an unusual asymme-try. Nominalizations created with -di -describe subject event participants, while those created with -na describe nonsubject event participants. I propose that both nominalizers are overt realizations of n, a nominal functional head that also introduces the possessor in possessive descriptions. My account derives the complementary functions of the two Northern Paiute nominalizers, and it provides a new perspective on the structure of gerunds in English.
Article
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The nature of preverbal nominals and their relation to the verb have been the focus of much debate in languages with a productive complex predication process. For Persian, certain analyses have argued that the bare nominals in complex predicate constructions are distinct from bare objects, while others have treated the two types of bare nominals uniformly. This paper argues that the two categories of preverbal nouns cannot receive the same analysis since they display distinct syntactic and semantic behavior: the preverbal nominals, unlike the bare object nouns, cannot be questioned, are modified differently, have different interpretations, give rise to distinct case-assignment contexts, and can co-occur with a non-specific object. The distinct properties of the two nominal categories are captured by positing distinct structural positions for these nouns. Non-specific bare nouns are internal arguments of the thematic verb, while the nominal element of the complex predicate construction is part of the verbal domain with which it combines through a process of conflation, as defined in Hale and Keyser (2002), to form a single predicate.
Article
  In this paper, I introduce a novel ellipsis construction from Farsi, v-stranding VPE, in which part of a complex predicate goes missing, leaving behind the light verb. Under an analysis of complex predicates where the light verb is the overt realization of v, this type of ellipsis can be construed as deletion of the complement of v. I give evidence that this phenomenon patterns with English verb phrase ellipsis (VPE) in a number of important respects. The same licensing conditions that must be satisfied in English VPE, including an inflectional checking requirement and an antecedence condition, must also be satisfied in Farsi v-stranding VPE.
Article
This paper examines the stress system of Persian with particular attention to phrasal stress. Contrary to the long-held belief that Persian stress assignment is sensitive to lexical category, it is argued that the word-final stress rule applies to all verbs, as well as nouns and adjectives. Working in a Phrasal Phonology framework, I show that the superficial uniformity of stress placement in nouns and the variability in verbs follows from an appropriate understanding of the different syntax of these categories along with mapping to prosodic structure. Several complex constructions are also examined and it is shown that their unusual behavior with respect to stress can be explained in a straightforward manner through the prosodic hierarchy if their syntactic structures are taken into account and different edge settings are allowed at different levels of the prosodic hierarchy.
Article
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