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Article published In: Asia-Pacific Language Variation
Vol. 3:2 (2017) ► pp.130–159

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The future of ‘future’

A Persian perspective on grammaticalization of future marking

 | University of Tarbiat Modares | University of Montana
 | Syracuse University
Published online: 19 January 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/aplv.16011.gha
Abstract
Bybee, Joan L., Perkins Revere, D., & Pagliuca, William (1994). The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar claimed that grammatical-types like past and future have similar paths of development cross-linguistically. Following another line of research, Poplack, Shana (2011). Grammaticalization and linguistic Variation. In Bernd Heine & Heiko Narrog (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of grammaticalization (pp. 175–185). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, (2000). The grammaticalization of going to in (African American) English. Language Variation and Change, 111, 315–342. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar and Walker James, Poplack, Shana, & Torres Cacoullos, Rena (2004). Looking into the future in English and French. Paper presented at Sociolinguistic Symposium 15, Newcastle Upon Tyne. explored the grammaticalization of periphrastic ‘go-future’ in English, French, and Spanish from a variationist perspective and have come to the same conclusion. In this study we explore whether a new Persian future marker, MI_KHA: ‘want/will/going to’, which is gaining ground in this language, can be an instance of the grammatical-types mentioned above, and follows the same path of variation and change as that of English and French. Eight-hundred and one future-referring utterances were collected from natural conversations among Persian native speakers and subjected to variable rule analysis to discover the factors conditioning their use and variation. The findings suggest that the Persian MI_KHA: is not only conditioned by linguistic factors, it also most likely follows a path of development similar to English and French.
Abstract (Persian)
در سال ١٩٩٤ بایبی و همكارانش ادعا كردند كه دستوری شدگی در مقوله هایی مثل بیان زمان های گذشته و آینده در یك مسیر جهان شمول اتفاق می افتد. پاپلك (٢٠١١)، پاپلك و تگلیامونته (٢٠٠٠)، و والكر و همكاران نیز در سال ٢٠١٤ دستوری شدگی معادل های واژه 'go' (رفتن) برای بیان زمان اینده را در زبان های انگلیسی، فرانسه، و اسپانیایی از دیدگاهی وارش شناختی (Variationist) بررسی نموده و به نتایج مشابهی دست یافتند. سوالی كه در این مقاله بدان پرداخته میشود اینست كه آیا عبارت 'می+خواه' كه در زبان فارسی در حال گسترش میباشد نیز از همین ویژگی برخوردار بوده و مسیری مشابه را در دستوری شدگی طی میكند. تعداد ٨٠١ جمله كه به زمان آینده اشاره می کردند را از گفتار طبیعی جمع اوری شده از گویشوران زبان فارسی استخراج نموده و به منظور كشف و توصیف ویژگی های وارش شناختی و عوال تاثیر گذار بر ان، تحت تحلیل های وارش شناختی قرار دادیم. نتایج حاصله دلالت بر این داشت كه نه تنها عبارت ' می +خواه' به صورتی قاعده مند تحت تاثیر عوامل مختلف قرار دارد بلكه به احتمال زیاد در فرایند دستوری شدگی برای بیان آینده در زبان فارسی، در یك مسیر مشابه زبانهای انگلیسی و فرانسه حرکت می کند.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Future marking in Persian
    • 2.1Syntax of KHA:STAN (to want/will)
    • 2.2Why a desire verb and not a motion verb?
  • 3.The grammaticalization of periphrastic future in English and French
  • 4.Data and the variable context
    • 4.1Factor groups and factors
      • 4.1.1Animacy and grammatical person of the subject
      • 4.1.2Type of the clause
      • 4.1.3Temporal distance
      • 4.1.4Sentence polarity
      • 4.1.5Temporal adverbials
  • 5.Analysis and results
  • 6.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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