as the Origin of Syntax - Angelfire

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IRAJB ASHIRI
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BE'ASTHEORIGOINF
SYNTAX= A P ersianF r amework
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Be' as the Origin of Syntax
A PersianF ramework
MIDDLEE ASTERNL ANGUAGESA ND LINGUISTICS_ NUMBEF TWO
IRAJ BASHIRI
.TO
BEOA S THE ORIGIN
OF SYNTAX
A PersianF ramework
BIBLIOTHECA ISLAMICA
Minneapolis
1973
For My Parents
Copyright @ l97J by lraj Bashiri
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Mmty people haue eontributed to the making of this book.
Although r am grateful to aLL of them, to the indiuidlnls
mentioned beLou I on espeeialLy indebted.
I am indebted to Pz,ofessot Gernot L. llindfuhr most of aLL
as he initiated me in the field of Iranian Linguisties and
sp ent countT,e s s hotrv,s di s euss ing the oyeti eal j us ti fi cq,tions
uith me and" in the proeess, helped me bring rny disparate
concepts into foeus, f un aLso indebtedtoProfessonsRobbins
Burling, Peter FodaLe, Kenneth C. HiLL, Hq.rold V. King,
Kenneth L. Pike, Donq.Ld L. Stilo and PauL Thieme for my
orientation in the field of general Linguisties. Fu.rthez,-
more" f un gz,ateful to Professo.??s Robert L. Kyes, KennethA.
LuLher, Ervtest N. I'leCq.rus and Herbert H. Paper for reading
an earli,er dr.aft of this study and for their insightfuL com-
ments in their releuant fieLds, It is onLy faiz, to say not
aLL of them agz,ee uith rny uieus and f on the sole personre-
sponsibLe for the assertions in this book,
For adninistratiue assistanee I on grateful to Mts.Carolyn
J, Couan; mtd for publieation ass'Lstanee to the staff of
Bi.blLotheeq. Islqniea. The typi.ns of this book, in many forms,
has been done by my uife Carol. My debt to her and my daugh-
ter Mar.iqn is traely great.
The pubLication of this book is partiaLLy supported by the
Center for Near Eq.steryt qnd North Afriecn Studies of The
Uniuersi-ty of Miehigan. I uouLd Like to thank Dr,. Luthev, and
the remaining members of the Ereeutiue Corwnittee on Near
Eastern artd North Afz,iean Studies of that lJniuersitu fov,
their support.
PREFACE
This book, a revised version of my 19?2 University of
Michigan dissertation, suggests and describes the further
development of case grammar in the context of a general
theory of syntax. The linguistic material is taken from
Persian; however, the suggested framework is not con-
fined to Persian, but appears to be generally applicable.
The problem that elicited this framework was the inad-
equacy of verb-classification in the available theories of
syntax, and related to it the interrelationship of the cases.
Moreover, on the verbal side, so far there are suggested
only vague assumptions as to the correspondence between
case and the respective verb level. A furtlier, much rnore
crucial point, is the insufficiency of general semantic dif-
ferentiation between abstract and functional levels.
Following Fillrnorers suggestion for a hic'rarchy IFi1i-
more 1971], this framework posits and defines a hierarchy
of six basic cases. As a major development of that, the
nominal hierarchy is systematically correlatcd with a cor-
responding verb level hierarchy.
Chomsky was one of the first to suggest a semantic dif-
ferentiation between abstract and functional levels to ac-
count for the different surface regularities or irregulari-
ties for the verbs especi.ally be, seem, and have fChomsky
195?] . Developing this insight was necessary to disti.nguish
between not only two but three levels: functional, abstract
and tnrixedt, where abstract is confined to the verb rber,
while tmixedr includes verbs which operate on both ab-
stract and function levels. These levels can be looked at
X I ITO BEI AS THE ORIGIN OF SYNTAX
as interrelated by transformation processes, e. g.
Function : u sup-ra serd kard
he cooled the soup
rMixedr : sup sard Eod
the soup cooled
CONTBNTS
Abstract : sup sard aest
the soup is cool
This corresponds exactly to sentence t;,pes cited by Lakoff
I t-at<off igTo] .
John eooled the soup. Acknowledgements vii
The soup eooLed,
Preface ix
The soup is eooL, Table of Contents xi
List of Illustrations xiii
The most essential and innovative suggestion of this
framework, following insights of modern and medieval Chapter One: General Backg:
philosophers of language, is the derivation of sentences, f. i Introduction 3
tbet
not from #S#, but from the universal verb buda4 of L.2 Approaches to Persia
which the conceptualized linguistic primitives VBU (con- 1. 3 Sfale of the TheorY of
ceptualized verb) and NBU (conceptualized noun) are gen- 1.4 Hikmat Phi.losoPhYa n<
erated. The hierarchy of cases and verb leve1s generated F'ootnotcs 3lJ
through these primitives and the selected problem of the
so-called rcompound verbsr in Persian constitute the final Chapter Two: AssumPtions a
chapters of this work. Z. t tntroduction 43
2.2 Tine Neutral SYstem
2. 3 SummarY: Neutral SYs
2. 4 Feature SPecification
2.5 Restrictions on the FS
2.6 The Unified SYstem
2. ? SummarY of Rules
tr'ootnotes 7B
Chapter Three: ExPlanation
3.1 Introduction 81
3.2 The I{YPersYstem I
3. 3 Transformations witt
F'ootnotes 115
TIGIN OF SYNTAX
lormation processes, e. g.
tp-ra sard kaerd
he cooled the soup --)
sard 5od
the soup cooled
CONTENTS
serd ast
the soup is cool
f to sentence t;pes cited by Lakoff
p.
Acknowledgements vii
Preface ix
Table of Contents xi
List of Illustrations xiii
,d innovative suggestion of this
sights of modern and medieval
Chapter One: General Backgrounds
, is the derivation of sentences,
he universal verb budan rber of 1.1 Introduction 3
1.2 Approaches to Persian Syntax 5
lingui stic primitivGET-BU (c on-
U (conceptualized noun) are gen- 1.3 State of the Theory of SYntax 17
I.4 Hikmat Philosophy and Modern Linguistics 2'
f cases and verb levels generated
F'ootnotes 39
and the selected problern of the
)sr in Persian constitute the final
Chapter Two: Assumptions and Derivations
2.1 Introduction 43
2.2 The Neutral System 44
2. 3 Summary: Neutral System 54
2.4 Feature Specification System 55
2.5 Restrictions on the FSS 65
2.6 The Unified System 65
2. 7 Summary of Rules 75
Footnotes 7B
Chapter Three: Explanation with Exarnples
3.1 Introduction Bl
3.2 The IJypersystem 82
3.3 Transformations within the Hypersystem 111
Footnotes 115
Xii / ITO BE' AS THE ORIGIN OF SYNTAX
Chapter Four: Residual Problems
4.L Introduction 1I9
4.2 Sentences Across the Levels of the
H;,persystem L20
4.3 Clause Expansion L32
Footnotes I40
ILLUSTRATIONS
Chapter F ive: Theoretical Conclusions
5. t Introduction I42
5.2 Conclusions L43
Appendix A: Verb Compounding
A.1 Introduction I47 1 Syntactic Relations 37
4.2 Approaches to Cornpounding j.n Persian 14B 2 The budan Matrix 112
F-ootnotes 155 3 The Hypersystem Matrix
4 budel and the HYPersYste
Appendix B: Terminology 157 5 ffimary Matrix 114
6 Sentence TYPes I20
References 171
? Instances of Transformat
B F'unction Slot ldentitY Acr
A-1 Compounds AnalYzed in T
Relations 754