Persian Verb Inflectional Constructions Based on Construction Morphology

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Hazrat-e Masoumeh University, Qom, Iran.

Abstract

This research examines the Persian verb inflectional schemas based on Construction Morphology. It investigates the asymmetry between form and meaning in some Persian verb inflectional schemas and CM treatment of alternations in verb inflection. For this purpose, 130 verb roots were collected from the Zansou Persian Dictionary and some verbs were explained in a descriptive-analytical method. Based on the constructional approach, the inflectional properties of each verb are inherited from the upper general constructional schema using the default inheritance. These properties together with the verb stem are represented as a holistic unit in a systematic relationship with one semantic unit. By using constructional schemas of verb inflection, while having alternants and different degrees of motivation between form and meaning of verbs, it is possible to show the generalizations of the Persian verb inflection consistently. Summing up, instead of morphophonological rules, zero morph, and morphological phenomena, the theoretical device of construction and the separation of form and meaning of inflected verb are used and a generalized constructional analysis is presented. However, its challenge is that the grammatical analysis of the Persian verb inflection based on constructional schema becomes partly unconstrained.

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