Cover not available
Part of
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. 414–448

Chapter 14
Concept structuring in Persian PP-centric complex predicates

| Shahrood University of Technology, Iran
| Al-Zahra University, Iran

Prepositions contribute to the schematic meanings in Persian complex predicates. Based on the Concept Structuring System (Talmy 2000), we argue that since the light verb and preverbal noun belong to different subsystems, they fulfill distinctive conceptual dimensions of the semantic representation. The preverbal noun, belonging to the open class system provides the content meaning, while the light verb, belonging to the closed class system, determines the schematic meanings of complex predicates. Analyzing some Persian data, we see (a) how the light verb and preposition are so well connected to each other and to the noun by their configuration (b) how they provide different schematic meanings for different complex predicates and (c) how the same noun can combine with a different light verb and a preposition to elicit a different meaning for the complex predicate.

Keywords: concept structuring system, schematic systems, complex predicate, light verb, preposition
Article outline
  • 1.Complex Predicates
  • 2.The status of LV and NV in Persian CPs: A recap
  • 3.Concept Structuring System
    • 3.1Configurational system
    • 3.2Perspectival system
    • 3.3Attentional system
    • 3.4Force dynamics
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1be næzær amædæn /æz næzær gozærandæn/ dær næzær gereftæn / dær næzær daštæn
    • 4.2be donya amædæn / az donya ræftæn
    • 4.3be sugvari nešæstæn/ be nezaʔ bærxastæn
    • 4.4 dær xætær oftadæn/ be xætær oftadæn/ dær xætær ændaxtæn/ be xætær ændaxtæn
    • 4.5be dæst aværdæn/ be dæst amædæn/ be dæst gereftæn/ æz dæst dadæn/ æz dæst ræftæn
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 January 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.180.14moe
References (60)

References

Amberber, Mengistu, Baker, Brett & Harvey, Mark
2010 Complex Predicates: Cross-linguistic Perspectives on Event Structure. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barjasteh, Darab
1983 Morphology, Syntax and Semantics of Persian Compound Verbs: A Lexicalist Approach. PhD dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Butt, Miriam
1995 The Structure of Complex Predicates in Urdu. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
2010 The light verb jungle: Still hacking away. In Amberber et al. (eds), 48–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dabir-Moghaddam, Mohammad
1997 Compound verbs in Persian. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 27(2): 25–59.Google Scholar
Di Sciullo, Anna M. & Rosen, Sara T.
1990 Light and semi-light verb constructions. In Grammatical Relations: A Cross-Theoretical Perspective, Katarzyna Dziwirek, Patrick Farrell & Errapel Meijas-Bikandi (eds), 109–125. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
Evans, Vyvyan
2000 The Structure of Time: Language, Meaning and Temporal Cognition. PhD dissertation, Georgetown University.Google Scholar
Family, Neiloufar
2011 Verbal islands in Persian. Folia Linguistica 45(1): 1–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 Semantic Spaces of Persian Light Verbs: A Constructionist Account [Brill’s Studies in South and Southwest Asian Languages 6]. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Folli, Raffaella, Harley, Heidi & Karimi, Simin
2005 Determinants of event type in Persian complex predicates. Lingua 115: 1365–1401. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ghomeshi, Jila
1996 Projection and Inflection: A Study of Persian Phrase Structure. PhD dissertation, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Ghomeshi, Jila & Massam, Diane
1994 Lexical/syntactic relations without projections. Linguistic Analysis 23(3–4): 75–217.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele E.
1995 Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
2002 Words by default: The Persian complex predicate construction. In Mismatch: Form-Function Incongruity and the Architecture of Grammar, Elaine J. Francis & Laura A. Michaelis (eds), 84–112. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
Grimshaw, Jane & Mester, Armin
1988 Light Verbs and θ-Marking. Linguistic Inquiry 19(2): 205–232.Google Scholar
Haig, Geoffrey
2002 Noun-plus-verb complex predicates in Kurmanjî Kurdish: Argument sharing, argument incorporation, or what? STUF-Language Typology and Universals 55(1): 25–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hale, Ken & Keyser, Samuel J.
2002 Prolegomenon to a Theory of Argument Structure. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jackendoff, Ray
1983 Semantics and Cognition. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.Google Scholar
1990 Semantics Structures. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
1992 Language of the Mind. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Mark
1987 The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination and Reason. Chicago IL: Chicago University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Karimi, Simin
1997 Persian complex verbs: Idiomatic or compositional? Lexicology 3(1): 273–318.Google Scholar
2013 Complex Predicates. Special Issue of Lingua 135.Google Scholar
Karimi-Doostan, Gholamhossein
1997 Light Verb Constructions in Persian. PhD dissertation, Essex University,Google Scholar
2001 N + V complex predicates in Persian. In Structural Aspects of Semantically Complex Verbs, Nicole Dehe & Anja Wanner (eds), 277–292 Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
2005 Light verbs and structural case. Lingua 115: 1727–1756. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 Separability of light verb constructions in Persian. Studia Linguistica 65(1): 70–95. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Khanlari, Parviz
1973 Tarix-e Zæban-e Farsi (The history of Persian language). Tehran: Bonyad-e Færhæng.Google Scholar
Kim, Sun-Woong
1994 A study on the light verb construction in English and Korean. Language Research 30 (1): 137–159.Google Scholar
Korn, Agnes
2013 Looking for the middle way: Voice and transitivity in complex predicates in Iranian. In Karimi (ed.), 30–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George
1987 Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark
1999 Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. New York NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
2003 Metaphors We Live By. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Langacker, Ronald
1987 Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, Vol I. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
2008 Cognitive Grammar: A Basic Introduction. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matsumoto, Yo
1996 A syntactic account of light verb phenomena in Japanese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 5(2): 107–149. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Megerdoomian, Karine
2001 Event structure and complex predicates in Persian. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 46(1–2): 97–125. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2002 Beyond Words and Phrases: A Unified Theory of Predicate Composition. PhD dissertation, University of Southern California.Google Scholar
2009 Telicity in Persian complex predicates. Snippets 19: 15–16. [URL]
2012 The status of the nominal in Persian complex predicates. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 30(1): 179–216. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mohammad, Jan & Karimi, Simin
1992 Light verbs are taking over: Complex verbs in Persian. In Proceedings of The Western Conference on Linguistics (WECOL), Joel A. Nevis & Vida Samiian (eds), 195–212. Fresno CA: California State University.Google Scholar
Müller, Stefan
2010 Persian complex predicates and the limits of inheritance‐based analyses. Journal of Linguistics 46(2): 601–655. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nolan, Brian
2014 Complex predicates and light verb constructions in Modern Irish. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics (RESLA) 27(1): 140–167. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pantcheva, marina
2009 First phase syntax of Persian complex predicates: Argument structure and telicity. Journal of South Asian Linguistics 2(1): 51–70.Google Scholar
Ramchand, Gillian
2008 Verb Meaning and the Lexicon: A First Phase Syntax. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rezaei, Hadaegh
2014 A study of complex verb constructions in Persian. Talk at Concept Types and Frames in Language, Cognition, and Science. The University of Düsseldorf, Germany, August 25–27.Google Scholar
Saeedi-Talab, Zari
2009 Persian Light Verb Constructions: A Role and Reference Grammar Account. PhD dissertation, Trinity College Dublin.Google Scholar
Samvelian, Pollet
2001 Le statut syntaxique des objets nus en persan. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 96(1): 349–388. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012 Grammaire des Prédicats Complexes: Les Constructions Nom‐Verbe. Paris: Lavoisier.Google Scholar
Samvelian, Pollet & Faghiri, Pegah
2014 Semantics-Syntax Interface 1(1): 43–74. [URL]
Schultze-Berndt, Eva
2000 Simple and Complex Verbs in Jaminjung. PhD dissertation, University of Nijmegen.Google Scholar
Sweetser, Eve
1990 From Etymology to Pragmatics: Metaphorical and Cultural Aspects of Semantic Structure. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Talmy, Leonard
1976 Communicative aims and means- a synopsis. Working Papers on Language Universals 20. 153–185.Google Scholar
2000 Toward a Cognitive Semantics, Vol I. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Toosarvandani, Maziar
2009 Ellipsis in Farsi complex predicates. Syntax 12(1): 60–92. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Turner, Mark
1991 Reading Minds: The Study of English in the Age of Cognitive Science. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
1996 The Literary Mind. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Tyler, Andrea & Evans, Vyvyan
2003 The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Experience and Cognition. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vahedi-Langrudi, Mohammad
1996 The Syntax, Semantics and Argument Structure of Complex Predicates in Modern Farsi. PhD dissertation, University of Ottawa.Google Scholar
Whorf, Benjamin L.
1956 Languages and logic. In Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf, John B. Carroll (ed.), 233–245. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar