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In:Argument Realisation in Complex Predicates and Complex Events: Verb-verb constructions at the syntax-semantic interface
Edited by Brian Nolan and Elke Diedrichsen
[Studies in Language Companion Series 180] 2017
► pp. 373–412

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Chapter 13
Nominal predication in Persian

A functional characterization

 | Allameh Tabataba’i University
Published online: 26 January 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.180.13sae
Abstract
The present study explores the nominal complex predicates (CPs) in Persian, one of the oldest Indo-European languages with 2500 years of written history (Khanlari 1979), where a noun fuses with the impoverished form of the verb referred to as ‘light verb’ (Cattell 1984). The framework adopted is Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) theory (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997; Van Valin 2005, 2010). Following Saeedi (2009a), the paper analyzes these nominal CPs or nuclear junctures (NJs) (in RRG’s term) with regard to their argument structure. The findings indicate that the nominal constituent being of concrete, abstract, action, and process type plays an important role in determining the Aktionsart type of the juncture.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Aktionsart types tests
    • 2.1Daštæn ‘have’
    • 2.2kærdæn ‘do’
    • 2.3 šodæn ‘become’
    • 2.4 dadæn ‘give’
    • 2.5 zædæn ‘hit/strike’
    • 2.6 didæn ‘see’
    • 2.7 gereftæn ‘take’
    • 2.8 yaftæn ‘find’
    • 2.9 kešidæn ‘pull’
    • 2.10 xordæn ‘eat’
    • 2.11 amædæn ‘come’
    • 2.12 ræftæn ‘go’
    • 2.13 aværdæn ‘bring’
    • 2.14 bæxšidæn ‘give/forgive’
    • 2.15 bordæn ‘take/carry’
    • 2.16 gozaštæn ‘put’
  • 3.Role of the nominal element in Aktionsart type
  • 4.Nominal element semantics
  • 5.Logical structure
  • 6.Summary
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (24)
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