Papers by Narges Nematollahi
This paper deals with a newly formed verbal construction in Modern Persian, which uses the auxili... more This paper deals with a newly formed verbal construction in Modern Persian, which uses the auxiliary verb dāštan ʻto have’ together with the three imperfective forms of the main verb: present, past, and evidential. Both the auxiliary and the main verb appear as finite verbs, inflected for person and number, and taking the same mood. Examples (1)-(3) represent these three progressive constructions: (1) ādam-hā dār-and mi-āy-and person-PL have-3PL.IMPF.PRES. come-3PL.IMPF.PRES People are coming.
Diachronica: International Journal for Historical Linguistics, 2018
Modern Persian, also known as Farsi, has recently developed a periphrastic verbal construction to... more Modern Persian, also known as Farsi, has recently developed a periphrastic verbal construction to express the progressive and prospective aspects which uses the auxiliary dāštan(inf.)/dār- (pres. stem) ‘to have’. This construction was first reported in colloquial Persian by Zhukovskij (1888), and according to Windfuhr & Perry (2009:461), it has not “yet fully integrated into literary Persian”. This construction, in which both the auxiliary and the main verb get subject agreement, is syntactically limited in that it can be used only in the indicative mood and only in affirmative sentences.
Bybee et al.'s (1994:128) study of progressive in various language families shows no case of possessive HAVE functioning as the auxiliary verb of progressive constructions, and therefore, the source of this construction in Persian has been the topic of a few studied. In this paper, we evaluate one of the few proposals made in the literature for the source of this construction, namely, the one which proposes borrowing from Mazandarani, an Iranian language spoken on the northwest shores of the Caspian Sea, into Persian (Pistoso 1974 and Shokri 2015). In this proposal, it is hypothesized that the phonological similarity between the present stem of the progressive auxiliary in Mazandarani, i.e., [dær] ‘(locative) to be’, with the present stem of ‘to have’ in Persian, i.e., [dɑr], has led the bilinguals of Mazandarani and Persian to replicate the Mazandarani progressive construction, which originally involves the auxiliary ‘locative be’, as a new construction in Persian which involves the auxiliary ‘to have’. We put this hypothesis in the context of current theories of pattern replication, particularly the framework of ‘pivot-matching’, as described in Matras & Sakel (2007), and evaluate the hypothesis against some diachronic data from Mazandarani. We argue that both the social status of the two languages and Mazandarani’s diachronic data suggest an influence on the other direction, i.e., from Persian to Mazandarani, which means that the source of HAVE-progressives in Persian needs to be sought somewhere else.
Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Central Asian Languages and Linguistics (ConCALL) , 2015
Since its first mention in 1888, Modern Persian progressive construction with dāštan “to have” ha... more Since its first mention in 1888, Modern Persian progressive construction with dāštan “to have” has received little attention as far as its tense domain and source are concerned. Based on an analysis of 143 cases of present and past progressive tenses collected from several literary works between 1907 and 2010, this paper presents an account of the development of this newly formed yet ever-increasingly used construction in Modern Persian. Applying Vendler’s (1967) framework to classify the situations, this analysis shows that the progressive construction is used with achievement, accomplishment and activity situations, mostly denoting an imminent action in the case of achievements, and an ongoing action in the case of accomplishments and activities. Furthermore, in the light of the distinctive structure of this construction, which is identified as a Serial Verb Construction (SVC), the SVC with bar dāštan “to set off” is proposed as the source of the construction in question.
Conference Presentations by Narges Nematollahi
New Interdepartmental Conference on Linguistics Area Studies (NICOLAS 2018), 2018
In this abstract, I present novel data from Persian which bears on the interaction of modal flavo... more In this abstract, I present novel data from Persian which bears on the interaction of modal flavors and mood. More particularly, I examine the case of the necessity modal auxiliary bāyad ‘must’ in its epistemic and deontic readings, and discuss its mood selections. Persian, like French, makes morphological distinctions between perfective, imperfective and perfect aspects, but additionally, the finite complements to bāyad, in contrast to infinitival complements in French, feature mood distinctions, i.e., indicative/counterfactual vs. subjunctive. Therefore, the data in Persian informs us about the interaction of modal flavors not only with tense and aspect, but with mood as well.
Linguistic Society of America (LSA) 2018
PROPOSITIONAL PREDICATES can select indicative, counterfactual or subjunctive moods, depending on... more PROPOSITIONAL PREDICATES can select indicative, counterfactual or subjunctive moods, depending on the degree of certainty about the truth of the complement proposition held by the attitude holder.
Unlike the Persian mystical works, most notably Rumi’s Mathnavi in which the stories are narrated... more Unlike the Persian mystical works, most notably Rumi’s Mathnavi in which the stories are narrated in the service of conveying a spiritual message and are usually followed by some keys to their deeper meanings, the epical Shahnameh is silent for the most part on the possible symbolic readings of the stories therein. In preface to the Shahnameh, however, Ferdowsi invites the reader to understand symbolically (=بر رﺭهﻩ رﺭمز) the things that are not compatible with her wisdom (=خردﺩ), and thus leaves the task of contemplating the deeper meanings of the stories to the reader. In this study, we present a few medieval and pre-modern works that offer symbolic readings for the Shahnameh and examine their methods of interpretation and their motivations for offering mystical readings for an essentially epical work. The examined works are: the mystical readings of the stories of Jamshid, Bijan and Manijeh and occultation of Kaykhosrow in Elāhī Nāmeh(EN) by Attar (13th century AD), the story of Rostam and Esfandiar in Kadū Maṭbakh-i Qalandarī (KM) by Adham Khalkhalī (died ca. 1642 AD) and the story of Siyavash and Afrasiyab in Latīfe-ye Gheybīyeh(LG) by Muhammad Dārābī Shīrāzī (died ca. 1717 AD).
Regarding the methods of interpretation, most of the accounts read the stories allegorically by projecting the conflicts in the original story onto internal conflicts among man’s various faculties, e.g., KM makes the following parallels: Esfandiar=the carnal soul, Rostam=mind of a disciple (عقل سالک), Rostam’s arrows with no effect on Esfandiar=disciple’s thoughts and practices, etc. The conflict between Rostam and Esfandiar, therefore, represents the situation where the disciple is unable to save himself on his own; rather, he needs the help of a perfect master just as Rostam could only win with the help of Zal. In EN’s account of Jamshid and Kaykhosrow, the author uses the contrast between the rather different destinies of the two figures to convey the distinction between the literal meaning of the cup of Jamshid, i.e., mastering the world’s mysteries, and its real meaning, i.e., the heart of a realized mystic who can see the Truth.
Finally, we argue that in spite of Ferdowsi’s silence on the symbolic interpretations of the Shahnameh, medieval authors who considered Ferdowsi as a sage (حکﯿﻴم), do offer symbolic meanings for the stories to the extent that for some of them, reading the stories otherwise is not worth it, even though ‘they are as sweet as sugar’.
Sixth International Conference on Iranian Linguistics, June 23-26, 2015, Tbilisi, Georgia, 2015
Modern Persian, also known as Farsi, has recently developed a periphrastic verbal construction wi... more Modern Persian, also known as Farsi, has recently developed a periphrastic verbal construction with the auxiliary dāštan(inf.)/dār- (pres. stem) ‘have’ to express the progressive and prospective aspects. This construction was first reported in colloquial Persian in Zhukovskij (1888), and according to Windfuhr & Perry (2009:461), it has not “yet fully integrated into literary Persian”. Bybee et al.’s (1994:128) study of progressive in various language families shows no case of possessive HAVE as the auxiliary verb for progressive constructions, and therefore, the source of this construction in Persian has been the topic of a few studies. In this paper, we evaluate one of the proposals made in the literature for the source of this construction, namely, the one which proposes borrowing from Mazandarani, an Iranian language spoken on the northwest shores of the Caspian Sea, into Persian (Pistoso 1974 and Shokri 2015). In this proposal, it is hypothesized that the phonological similarity between the present stem of the progressive auxiliary in Mazandarani, i.e., [dær] ‘locative be’, and the present stem of ‘have’ in Persian, i.e., [dɑr], has led the bilinguals of Mazandarani and Persian to replicate the Mazandarani progressive construction, which involves the auxiliary LOCATIVE BE, in the form of a new construction in Persian which involves the auxiliary HAVE. We put this hypothesis in the context of current theories of pattern replication, particularly the framework of “pivot-matching”, as described in Matras & Sakel (2007), and evaluate the hypothesis against some diachronic data from Mazandarani. We argue that both the social status of the two languages and Mazandarani’s diachronic data suggest an influence on the other direction, i.e., from Persian to Mazandarani, which means that the source of HAVE-progressives in Persian needs to be sought somewhere else.
22nd Annual Central Eurasian Studies Conference
Indiana University, Bloomington
There is a vast body of literature on mood selection in complement clauses in Romance languages a... more There is a vast body of literature on mood selection in complement clauses in Romance languages and Greek (e.g., Farkas 1992, Villalta 2008, Siegel 2008, Giannakidou 2011), but there are relatively very few studies (Darzi & Kwak 2015) on mood selection in Modern Persian, which makes a three-way distinction between indicative, counterfactual and subjunctive moods. This study starts to fill this gap.
Inspired by Pesetsky's (1992) analysis of English infinitives, we first divide the complement clauses in Persian into propositional and non-propositional complements, and we show that while propositional complements can take indicative, counterfactual and subjunctive moods, non-propositional complements always take subjunctive. We then investigate the data in view of the existing approaches to mood
selection in other languages, and we show that Villalta’s analysis of Spanish subjunctive, in which predicates with a comparative semantics are predicted to select subjunctive, does not account for the Persian data, where such predicates can select all three moods. We then argue that Farkas, Giannakidou and Siegel’s analysis of mood selection in Romance languages and Greek, in which the notion of
commitment to the truth of the complement clause determines the mood, provide a better account for most of the Persian data. We modify their analysis in order to accommodate the counterfactual mood. Finally, based on Baglini & Francez’ (2015) semantics of MANAGE, we justify the selection of subjunctive mood in Persian by causative and implicative verbs.
Fourth International Conference on Iranian Linguistics
Uppsala, Sweden
06-18-2011
Talks by Narges Nematollahi
The Avestan language belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European languages, and is preser... more The Avestan language belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European languages, and is preserved in liturgical and devotional texts of Zoroastrianism written approximately 1200 – 600 B.C. Like many other ancient Indo-European languages such as ancient Greek and Sanskrit, Avestan also makes a distinction between the active and the middle voice by using two series of verbal endings in its present and past tense systems, e.g., paca-t̜ ‘s/he cooked’ vs. paca-ta ‘s/he
cooked (for her/himself)’. There exists also a group of verbs, called deponents, which always take middle endings, e.g., fravarai-te ‘s/he chooses’. In its first chapter, Kellens (1984), which to the
best of our knowledge constitutes the only study of Avestan middle verbs, classifies the middle voice attestations in five groups of reflexive, indirect reflexive, reciprocal, passive and dynamic. In this study, in view of the syntactically-based analysis of diathesis and voice in Kulikov (2011) and the cognitively-based analysis of the middle voice in Kemmer (1993), we provide an alternative categorization of Avestan middle verbs into five diatheses of reflexive, reciprocal, passive, anti-causative and anti-passive and the middle class of emotive speech actions. Comparing
Kellens’ account with our classification, we argue that the latter provides a more accurate account, particularly as far as Kellens’ class of dynamic verbs is concerned, and also it is able to justify some cases which are unaccounted for in Kellens’ study.
Chapter by Narges Nematollahi
In book: War and Religion: an encyclopedia of faith and conflict, Vol. I. Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Edi... more In book: War and Religion: an encyclopedia of faith and conflict, Vol. I. Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Editors: Jeffrey M. Shaw, Timothy J. Demy
In book: War and Religion: an encyclopedia of faith and conflict, Vol. III. Publisher: ABC-CLIO
E... more In book: War and Religion: an encyclopedia of faith and conflict, Vol. III. Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Editors: Jeffrey M. Shaw, Timothy J. Demy
ISBAN: 978-1610695169
Drafts by Narges Nematollahi
There is a vast body of literature on semantic analyses of mood selection in complement clauses i... more There is a vast body of literature on semantic analyses of mood selection in complement clauses in Romance and Balkan languages (Giorgi & Pianesi 1997, Farkas 2003, Schlenker 2005, Villalta 2008, Siegel 2008, Giannakidou 2011 among others). Portner (2018) classifies the approaches into two major categories: truth-based approaches, and comparison-based approaches. According to the former, indicative is selected when the matrix predicate implies the truth of the complement clause in a designated set of worlds. Subjunctive is selected elsewhere. Schlenker (2005), Siegel (2008), Giannakidou (2011) belong to this group. In the comparison-based approaches, on the other hand, subjunctive is selected when the matrix predicate involves an ordering semantics, and indicative is selected elsewhere. Giorgi & Pianesi (1997) and Villalta (2008) fall into this group. There are also some studies which combine the two insights, e.g., Farkas’s (2003) analysis of emotive factives in Romance languages. In spite of this vast body of literature, mood selection in complement clauses in Persian, also known as Farsi, an Indo-European language which makes a three-way distinction between indicative, subjunctive and counterfactual has not received much attention yet. This study aims to fill this gap.
Providing some semantic diagnostics, we divide the matrix predicates in Persian into propositional vs. non-propositional groups, and observe that while all three moods are available for the former group, the latter group only selects subjunctive. We argue that the mood selection in the propositional group is based on the truth of the complement proposition, while in the non-propositional group, subjunctive is selected as the default mood. We then put our generalization in the context of the existing approaches in both truth-based and comparison-based theories, and show that while Schlenker’s theory best captures the facts in Persian, none of the approaches can fully account for the data. We therefore refine Schlenker’s theory both in terms of modifying the conditions for the indicative mood and also adding the counterfactual mood to the framework, and thereby offer a formal account of the mood selection in complement clauses in Persian.
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Papers by Narges Nematollahi
Bybee et al.'s (1994:128) study of progressive in various language families shows no case of possessive HAVE functioning as the auxiliary verb of progressive constructions, and therefore, the source of this construction in Persian has been the topic of a few studied. In this paper, we evaluate one of the few proposals made in the literature for the source of this construction, namely, the one which proposes borrowing from Mazandarani, an Iranian language spoken on the northwest shores of the Caspian Sea, into Persian (Pistoso 1974 and Shokri 2015). In this proposal, it is hypothesized that the phonological similarity between the present stem of the progressive auxiliary in Mazandarani, i.e., [dær] ‘(locative) to be’, with the present stem of ‘to have’ in Persian, i.e., [dɑr], has led the bilinguals of Mazandarani and Persian to replicate the Mazandarani progressive construction, which originally involves the auxiliary ‘locative be’, as a new construction in Persian which involves the auxiliary ‘to have’. We put this hypothesis in the context of current theories of pattern replication, particularly the framework of ‘pivot-matching’, as described in Matras & Sakel (2007), and evaluate the hypothesis against some diachronic data from Mazandarani. We argue that both the social status of the two languages and Mazandarani’s diachronic data suggest an influence on the other direction, i.e., from Persian to Mazandarani, which means that the source of HAVE-progressives in Persian needs to be sought somewhere else.
Conference Presentations by Narges Nematollahi
Regarding the methods of interpretation, most of the accounts read the stories allegorically by projecting the conflicts in the original story onto internal conflicts among man’s various faculties, e.g., KM makes the following parallels: Esfandiar=the carnal soul, Rostam=mind of a disciple (عقل سالک), Rostam’s arrows with no effect on Esfandiar=disciple’s thoughts and practices, etc. The conflict between Rostam and Esfandiar, therefore, represents the situation where the disciple is unable to save himself on his own; rather, he needs the help of a perfect master just as Rostam could only win with the help of Zal. In EN’s account of Jamshid and Kaykhosrow, the author uses the contrast between the rather different destinies of the two figures to convey the distinction between the literal meaning of the cup of Jamshid, i.e., mastering the world’s mysteries, and its real meaning, i.e., the heart of a realized mystic who can see the Truth.
Finally, we argue that in spite of Ferdowsi’s silence on the symbolic interpretations of the Shahnameh, medieval authors who considered Ferdowsi as a sage (حکﯿﻴم), do offer symbolic meanings for the stories to the extent that for some of them, reading the stories otherwise is not worth it, even though ‘they are as sweet as sugar’.
Inspired by Pesetsky's (1992) analysis of English infinitives, we first divide the complement clauses in Persian into propositional and non-propositional complements, and we show that while propositional complements can take indicative, counterfactual and subjunctive moods, non-propositional complements always take subjunctive. We then investigate the data in view of the existing approaches to mood
selection in other languages, and we show that Villalta’s analysis of Spanish subjunctive, in which predicates with a comparative semantics are predicted to select subjunctive, does not account for the Persian data, where such predicates can select all three moods. We then argue that Farkas, Giannakidou and Siegel’s analysis of mood selection in Romance languages and Greek, in which the notion of
commitment to the truth of the complement clause determines the mood, provide a better account for most of the Persian data. We modify their analysis in order to accommodate the counterfactual mood. Finally, based on Baglini & Francez’ (2015) semantics of MANAGE, we justify the selection of subjunctive mood in Persian by causative and implicative verbs.
Talks by Narges Nematollahi
cooked (for her/himself)’. There exists also a group of verbs, called deponents, which always take middle endings, e.g., fravarai-te ‘s/he chooses’. In its first chapter, Kellens (1984), which to the
best of our knowledge constitutes the only study of Avestan middle verbs, classifies the middle voice attestations in five groups of reflexive, indirect reflexive, reciprocal, passive and dynamic. In this study, in view of the syntactically-based analysis of diathesis and voice in Kulikov (2011) and the cognitively-based analysis of the middle voice in Kemmer (1993), we provide an alternative categorization of Avestan middle verbs into five diatheses of reflexive, reciprocal, passive, anti-causative and anti-passive and the middle class of emotive speech actions. Comparing
Kellens’ account with our classification, we argue that the latter provides a more accurate account, particularly as far as Kellens’ class of dynamic verbs is concerned, and also it is able to justify some cases which are unaccounted for in Kellens’ study.
Chapter by Narges Nematollahi
Editors: Jeffrey M. Shaw, Timothy J. Demy
Editors: Jeffrey M. Shaw, Timothy J. Demy
ISBAN: 978-1610695169
Drafts by Narges Nematollahi
Providing some semantic diagnostics, we divide the matrix predicates in Persian into propositional vs. non-propositional groups, and observe that while all three moods are available for the former group, the latter group only selects subjunctive. We argue that the mood selection in the propositional group is based on the truth of the complement proposition, while in the non-propositional group, subjunctive is selected as the default mood. We then put our generalization in the context of the existing approaches in both truth-based and comparison-based theories, and show that while Schlenker’s theory best captures the facts in Persian, none of the approaches can fully account for the data. We therefore refine Schlenker’s theory both in terms of modifying the conditions for the indicative mood and also adding the counterfactual mood to the framework, and thereby offer a formal account of the mood selection in complement clauses in Persian.
Bybee et al.'s (1994:128) study of progressive in various language families shows no case of possessive HAVE functioning as the auxiliary verb of progressive constructions, and therefore, the source of this construction in Persian has been the topic of a few studied. In this paper, we evaluate one of the few proposals made in the literature for the source of this construction, namely, the one which proposes borrowing from Mazandarani, an Iranian language spoken on the northwest shores of the Caspian Sea, into Persian (Pistoso 1974 and Shokri 2015). In this proposal, it is hypothesized that the phonological similarity between the present stem of the progressive auxiliary in Mazandarani, i.e., [dær] ‘(locative) to be’, with the present stem of ‘to have’ in Persian, i.e., [dɑr], has led the bilinguals of Mazandarani and Persian to replicate the Mazandarani progressive construction, which originally involves the auxiliary ‘locative be’, as a new construction in Persian which involves the auxiliary ‘to have’. We put this hypothesis in the context of current theories of pattern replication, particularly the framework of ‘pivot-matching’, as described in Matras & Sakel (2007), and evaluate the hypothesis against some diachronic data from Mazandarani. We argue that both the social status of the two languages and Mazandarani’s diachronic data suggest an influence on the other direction, i.e., from Persian to Mazandarani, which means that the source of HAVE-progressives in Persian needs to be sought somewhere else.
Regarding the methods of interpretation, most of the accounts read the stories allegorically by projecting the conflicts in the original story onto internal conflicts among man’s various faculties, e.g., KM makes the following parallels: Esfandiar=the carnal soul, Rostam=mind of a disciple (عقل سالک), Rostam’s arrows with no effect on Esfandiar=disciple’s thoughts and practices, etc. The conflict between Rostam and Esfandiar, therefore, represents the situation where the disciple is unable to save himself on his own; rather, he needs the help of a perfect master just as Rostam could only win with the help of Zal. In EN’s account of Jamshid and Kaykhosrow, the author uses the contrast between the rather different destinies of the two figures to convey the distinction between the literal meaning of the cup of Jamshid, i.e., mastering the world’s mysteries, and its real meaning, i.e., the heart of a realized mystic who can see the Truth.
Finally, we argue that in spite of Ferdowsi’s silence on the symbolic interpretations of the Shahnameh, medieval authors who considered Ferdowsi as a sage (حکﯿﻴم), do offer symbolic meanings for the stories to the extent that for some of them, reading the stories otherwise is not worth it, even though ‘they are as sweet as sugar’.
Inspired by Pesetsky's (1992) analysis of English infinitives, we first divide the complement clauses in Persian into propositional and non-propositional complements, and we show that while propositional complements can take indicative, counterfactual and subjunctive moods, non-propositional complements always take subjunctive. We then investigate the data in view of the existing approaches to mood
selection in other languages, and we show that Villalta’s analysis of Spanish subjunctive, in which predicates with a comparative semantics are predicted to select subjunctive, does not account for the Persian data, where such predicates can select all three moods. We then argue that Farkas, Giannakidou and Siegel’s analysis of mood selection in Romance languages and Greek, in which the notion of
commitment to the truth of the complement clause determines the mood, provide a better account for most of the Persian data. We modify their analysis in order to accommodate the counterfactual mood. Finally, based on Baglini & Francez’ (2015) semantics of MANAGE, we justify the selection of subjunctive mood in Persian by causative and implicative verbs.
cooked (for her/himself)’. There exists also a group of verbs, called deponents, which always take middle endings, e.g., fravarai-te ‘s/he chooses’. In its first chapter, Kellens (1984), which to the
best of our knowledge constitutes the only study of Avestan middle verbs, classifies the middle voice attestations in five groups of reflexive, indirect reflexive, reciprocal, passive and dynamic. In this study, in view of the syntactically-based analysis of diathesis and voice in Kulikov (2011) and the cognitively-based analysis of the middle voice in Kemmer (1993), we provide an alternative categorization of Avestan middle verbs into five diatheses of reflexive, reciprocal, passive, anti-causative and anti-passive and the middle class of emotive speech actions. Comparing
Kellens’ account with our classification, we argue that the latter provides a more accurate account, particularly as far as Kellens’ class of dynamic verbs is concerned, and also it is able to justify some cases which are unaccounted for in Kellens’ study.
Editors: Jeffrey M. Shaw, Timothy J. Demy
Editors: Jeffrey M. Shaw, Timothy J. Demy
ISBAN: 978-1610695169
Providing some semantic diagnostics, we divide the matrix predicates in Persian into propositional vs. non-propositional groups, and observe that while all three moods are available for the former group, the latter group only selects subjunctive. We argue that the mood selection in the propositional group is based on the truth of the complement proposition, while in the non-propositional group, subjunctive is selected as the default mood. We then put our generalization in the context of the existing approaches in both truth-based and comparison-based theories, and show that while Schlenker’s theory best captures the facts in Persian, none of the approaches can fully account for the data. We therefore refine Schlenker’s theory both in terms of modifying the conditions for the indicative mood and also adding the counterfactual mood to the framework, and thereby offer a formal account of the mood selection in complement clauses in Persian.