Cover not available
Article published In:
International Journal of Language and Culture
Vol. 7:2 (2020) ► pp.302–321

Cultural conceptualizations of haghighat/vagheyat (‘truth’/‘reality’) in Persian

 | Monash University
This article examines the cultural conceptualizations of haghighat/vagheyat (‘truth’/‘reality’) expressions in Persian as these are fundamental concepts in life, religion, as well as culture and are used in many commonly used everyday expressions. Therefore, it is important to understand what these expressions really mean and how they compare with equivalent concepts in other languages. To that end, this study investigates haghighat/vagheyat expressions that instantiate cultural conceptualizations in Persian. This is the first attempt at employing the analytical tools of Cultural Linguistics (Sharifian 2011, 2017b) to exclusively focus on exploring such cultural conceptualizations. In order to study naturally instigated expressions, the researcher makes use of multiple sources including an open-ended questionnaire, dictionaries, online sources, and focus group interviews. The study further draws on the author’s intuition as a native speaker and analyzes have been cross-checked by a number of Persian native speakers and experts. Analysis of the data concerns the significant conceptualizations of haghighat/vagheyat expressions, indicating that haghighat/vagheyat functions as the main conceptual basis for many manifestations of truth/reality in Persian. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that a number of sociocultural factors such as religion, history, and literature have a role in shaping the cultural conceptualizations of haghighat/vagheyat expressions in Persian.
Keywords: Haghighat , Vagheyat , Cultural Linguistics, cultural conceptualizations, truth, reality
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The etymology of haghighat/vagheyat in Persian
  • 3.Research design, method, and sources of data
  • 4.Cultural Linguistics
  • 5. Haghighat/vagheyat and their most frequent conceptualizations
  • 6.Categories of haghighat/vagheyat
    • 6.1 Hagh/haghighat
    • 6.2 Vagheyat
    • 6.3 Rasti
  • 7.Metaphors of hagh/haghighat
    • 7.1 Hagh/haghighat as edible
    • 7.2 Hagh/haghighat as property
    • 7.3 Hagh/haghighat as an Object
  • 8.Schema of hagh/haghighat
  • 9.Conceptualizations of hagh/haghighat in Persian literature
    • 9.1Molana
    • 9.2Hafez
    • 9.3Sa’di
  • 10.Sufism and mysticism
  • 11.Concluding remarks
  • References
Published online: 8 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.19008.nos
References (46)
References
Alptekin, C. (2002). Towards intercultural communicative competence in ELT. ELT Journal, 56(1), 57–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bhaskar, R. A. (2002). Reflections on meta-reality: A philosophy for the present. New Delhi: Sage. ISBN 0-7619-9691-5.Google Scholar
Bowlin, J. R., & Stromberg, P. G. (1997). Representation and reality in the study of culture. American Anthropologist, 99(1), 123–134. Retrieved from [URL]
Brown, A. (1994). The advancement of learning. Educational Researcher, 23(8), 4–12. Retrieved from DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bygate, M. (2005). Applied linguistics: A pragmatic discipline, a generic discipline? Applied Linguistics, 26(4), 568–581. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chittick, W. C. (1989). Sufi path of knowledge. Albany: State University of New York.Google Scholar
Chiurazzi, G. (2011). Truth is more than reality. Gadamer’s transformational concept of truth. Research in Phenomenology, 411(2011), 60–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Choudhury, M. A. (2016). Absolute reality in the Qur’an. Palgrave series in Islamic theology, law, and history. Springer Nature: New York. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Condit, T. (2003). Truth and reality. Archaeology Ireland, 17(4), 3. Retrieved from [URL]
Cook, D. (2015, May 04). Mysticism in Sufi Islam. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 9 Nov. 2020, from [URL]. DOI logo
David, M. (2002). The correspondence theory of truth. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), the Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (pp. 1–35). Stanford University: Stanford. Retrieved from [URL]
Davidson, D. (1984). True to the Facts. In D. Davidson (Ed.), Inquiries into truth and interpretation (pp. 37–54). Oxford, England: Oxford University.Google Scholar
Dayyan, A., Davatgari, H., & Farjami, F. (2015). Language, culture and cultural conceptualization. Indian Journal of Fundamental and Applied Life Sciences, 5(1), 3632–3638.Google Scholar
Eleftheriotis, D. (2017). Art, truth and reality. Cavafy and cultural studies: A personal perspective. Journal of Greek Media and Culture, 3(2), 273–277. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gaby, A. (2008). Gut feelings: locating emotion, life force and intellect in the Thaayorre body. In F. Sharifian, R. Dirven, N. Yu, & S. Niemeier (Eds.), Body, culture and language: conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages (pp. 27–44). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Gadamer, H. ([1982] 1983). Reason in the age of science. Translated by Frederik G. Lawrence. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
([1960] 2006). Truth and method. Translated by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Hercus, L. A. (1994). A grammar of the Arabana-Wangkangurru language lake eyre basin, South Australia pacific linguistics series C-128. Australian National University: Canberra.Google Scholar
Hestir, B. E. (2016). Plato on the metaphysical foundation of meaning and truth. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
James, W. (1981). Pragmatism. The meaning of truth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Jiang, W. (2000). The relationship between culture and language. ELT Journal, 45(4), 328–332. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kant, I. ([1781] 2003). Critique of pure reason. Translated by Norman Kemp Smith. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Orthondy (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (pp. 202–251). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
MacKenzie, I. (2012). English as a lingua franca in Europe: Bilingualism and multicompetence. International Journal of Multilingualism, 9(1), 83–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mayer, E. A. (2011). Gut feelings: The emerging biology of gut-brain communication. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 121, 453–466. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Motahhari, M. (1977). Ensan dar Ghoran [Human being in the Qur’an]. In Majmoe asar Ostad Motahari [Complete Works of Mortaza Motahhari] (Vol. 61, pp. 1–58). Tehran: Sadra Publication.Google Scholar
Nakkeeran, N. (2010). Knowledge, truth, and social reality: An introductory note on qualitative research. Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 35(3), 379–382. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Palmer, G. B. (1996). Toward a theory of cultural linguistics. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Rabinow, P. (1986). Representations are social facts. In J. Clifford & G. E. Marcus (Eds.) Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography (pp. 234–261). Berkeley: University of California Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Risager, K. (2007). Language and culture pedagogy: From a national to a transnational paradigm. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schaff, P. ([1867] 1968). History of the Christian church (Vol 31; 5th Ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.Google Scholar
Sharifian, F. (2003). On cultural conceptualizations. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 3(3), 187–207. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2011). Cultural conceptualizations and language: Theoretical framework and applications. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013). Cultural conceptualizations in learning English as an L2: Examples from Persian-speaker learners. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 1(1), 90–116.Google Scholar
(2015). Cultural linguistics. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 437–492). London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
(Ed.) (2017a). Advances in cultural linguistics. London/New York/Singapore: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(Ed.) (2017b). Cultural linguistics. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sharifian, F., Dirven, R., Yu, N., & Neiemier, S. (Eds.) (2008). Culture, body, and language: Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages. Berlin/New York: de Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sharifian, F., & Palmer, G. B. (Eds.) (2007). Applied cultural linguistics: Implications for second language learning and intercultural communication. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sia, S. (2015). Images, reality and truth: Some philosophical considerations. New Blackfriars, 96(1063): 295–310. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Simpson, D. I. (2007). Truth, truthfulness and philosophy in Plato and Nietzsche. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 15(2), 339–360. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weiss, P. (1980). Truth and reality. The Review of Metaphysics, 34(1), 57–69. Retrieved from [URL]
Wilken, R. L. (2003). The spirit of early Christian thought: Seeking the face of god. New Haven, CT: YUP.Google Scholar
Xu, Zh. (2014). A cultural linguistics approach to Asian Englishes. Asian Englishes, 16(2), 173–179. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yu, N. (2008). The Chinese heart as the central faculty of cognition. In F. Sharifian, R. Dirven, N. Yu & S. Niemeier (Eds.), Culture, body, and language: Conceptualizations of heart and other internal body organs across languages and cultures (pp. 373–394). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2009). From body to meaning in culture. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Afrooz, Rafiee & Ad Foolen
2024. Emotion Representation in Reporting Crime: A Comparison Between Iranian and Dutch News Texts. In The Handbook of Cultural Linguistics [Springer Handbooks in Languages and Linguistics, ], ► pp. 407 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.