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Pronominal Complex Predicates in Colloquial Persian University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics Linguistics 2014 Pronominal Complex Predicates in Colloquial Persian Ghazaleh Kazeminejad University of Kentucky, [email protected] Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Kazeminejad, Ghazaleh, "Pronominal Complex Predicates in Colloquial Persian" (2014). Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics. 5. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/ltt_etds/5 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Linguistics at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless an embargo applies. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. Ghazaleh Kazeminejad, Student Dr. Gregory Stump, Major Professor Dr. Gregory Stump, Director of Graduate Studies PRONOMINAL COMPLEX PREDICATES IN COLLOQUIAL PERSIAN THESIS A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Ghazaleh Kazeminejad Lexington, Kentucky Co-Directors: Dr. Gregory Stump, Professor of Linguistics and Dr. Andrew Hippisley, Professor of Linguistics Lexington, Kentucky 2014 Copyright© Ghazaleh Kazeminejad 2014 ABSTRACT OF THESIS PRONOMINAL COMPLEX PREDICATES IN COLLOQUIAL PERSIAN Pronominal complex predicates in colloquial Persian are periphrastic constructions with an idiosyncratic syntactic pattern. They show a peculiar behavior compared to the regular agreement system in Persian, and they are the only construction in Persian which requires the obligatory presence of a pronominal enclitic. This work is an attempt to analyze this construction in order to find its function. For this purpose, a lexical semantic classification of them was proposed, which helped in presenting a new analysis. It was found out that this construction is used to express a particular diathesis in which the topic of the sentence (determined according to Givón’s topicality hierarchy) is an indirect participant. I proposed a hybrid dual-layer agreement system which includes a morphosyntactic and a semantic layer. The pronominal enclitic was analyzed as a phrasal affix and agreement marker by reference to Givón’s (1976) and Anderson’s (2005) arguments. The construction was analyzed to be an instance of the external possessor construction proposed by Haig (2008), which is observed in Iranian languages. The classification of the data clarified the mapping of semantics onto syntax. The proposed analysis could be added to and unified with the current analysis of Persian complex predicates (Bonami and Samvelian, 2009). KEYWORDS: Indirect Participation, Hybrid Agreement, External Possessor Construction, Iranian Linguistics, Syntax-Semantic Interface Ghazaleh Kazeminejad July 24, 2014 PRONOMINAL COMPLEX PREDICATES IN COLLOQUIAL PERSIAN By Ghazaleh Kazeminejad Dr. Gregory Stump Co-Director of Thesis Dr. Andrew Hippisley Co-Director of Thesis Gregory Stump Director of Graduate Studies July 24, 2014 DEDICATION To my parents, Fereshteh and Majid. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work could not have been carried out without the insights and advices of a number of people. As the chair of my committee, Dr. Gregory Stump provided instructive comments in every stage of this research, directing me to keep in the right track. His discerning recommendations, both in the broader perspective and in the details, helped in developing and enhancing the analysis proposed in this work. In addition, Dr. Andrew Hippisley taught me how to write a thesis and provided invaluable comments on the thesis. I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Pollet Samvelian, the third member of my thesis committee, for inspiring me all throughout this work. With her vast knowledge on Persian linguistics, complex predicates, and more generally Iranian linguistics, she provided priceless comments and observations which illuminated the less clear aspects of this work. I would also express my gratitude to Dr. Fabiola Henry for her fabulous suggestions which changed my perspective and led me to new ways. I also wish to thank Dr. Simin Karimi for her helpful comments on my work, and Sedigheh Moradi for having continuous intellectual dialogues about my work. In addition to the academic support mentioned above, I’m indebted to Mahnaz and Mehdi who supported me emotionally in the absence of my parents, Fereshteh and Majid Kazeminejad, who have always encouraged and supported me to pursue academic studies. I wish to thank my best friends, Mahnaz, Maryam and Neda, who warmed my heart with their love. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................................... iii List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................ vii List of Figures .......................................................................................................................................... viii List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1 - Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The issue .................................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Methodology ........................................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Outline of the thesis ................................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 2 - Literature Review ............................................................................................................. 9 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 9 2.2 Diachronic Studies ................................................................................................................. 10 2.3 Verbal Structure ..................................................................................................................... 11 2.4 Agreement/Clitic .................................................................................................................... 18 2.5 Subject/Topic ......................................................................................................................... 22 Chapter 3 – Theoretical Considerations ............................................................................................ 25 3.1 Valence Alternation ............................................................................................................... 26 3.1.1 Conversive ........................................................................................................................ 28 3.1.2 Anticausative .................................................................................................................... 29 3.2 Complex (-or Periphrastic-) Predicates .................................................................................. 30 3.3 Subject Agreement ................................................................................................................ 33 3.3.1 Topichood ......................................................................................................................... 35 3.3.2 Topic Agreement .............................................................................................................. 36 3.4 Pronominal Clitics vs. Morphological Affixes ......................................................................... 39 3.5 External Possession Construction .........................................................................................
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