The International Journal of Humanities

Perspective is one of the factors involved in the diversification of schema. The viewpoint from which one looks at a scene somehow affects the process of semantic representation of that scene. Every sentence has its special schema drawn upon the scene in question, and adopting different points of view towards the same event will result in the speakers’ choosing different linguistic structures to express the event. Therefore, perspective is one of the most salient structure-formation processes that has received much attention from cognitive linguists. Cognitivists interested in linguistic impacts of perspective, following Langacker (), have laid their study on the assumption that the relative status and the angle of vision influence what language is used in describing certain situations. However, the question in this regard is whether or not the two parameters meet the adequacy required both for describing and for explaining different scenes linguistically. The answer seems to be that the specific perspective taken by the speaker is itself very much based on some further elements as animacy, dynamicity, size, and speaker. Present article is therefore written in order to question the problem of perspective, and the elements that are likely to bear upon its linguistic representation in Persian. Furthermore, it will also be taken into question if, according to what cognitive linguists argue for, there is such a universal cognitional framework common to all the human beings. For this purpose, a body of Persian written and spoken data, gathered from narrative dialogues and everyday talks, is to be examined inductively. Although this is an unprecedented study on some fundamental cognitive-semantic issues, the results would pretty hopefully apply in much more detailed semantic analyses of sentence perspective as well.

According to the Iranian law, the International Conventions should be passed by Iranian Parliament (Majlis) and then confirmed by the Guardian Council for ensuring that they are constitutional and in conformity with Islamic rules. The Montreal Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air is a significant advance over the Warsaw system. In this article, we discuss whether the new changes made in Montreal Convention are in compliance with the Iranian laws as well as Islamic regulations. Some important issues for developing countries are introduced with a view to determine the legal aspects for Iran to ratify the Montreal Convention. By examining the Warsaw Convention, that Iran has been acceded to, and the Montreal Convention, we conclude that the new issues of the Montreal Convention are in compliance with Iranian and Islamic rules and regulations. Keywords: Montreal Convention; Warsaw System; Liability; Bodily Injury; Fifth Jurisdiction

“Naive imagination is like a dark glass that prevent the shining lights entering the heart, but when is ripe enough become a clear glass that points those lights.” (Ghazali, the Niche of Lights, P.73) Iranian philosopher and educator, Abu Hamid Ghazali (1058-1111 A.D.) is the author of more than seventy books and essays on philosophy, education, mysticism, ethics, jurisprudence and dialectical theology. Throughout his works, one can easily observe that among the tools of acquiring knowledge (i.e., the senses, the imagination, and the intellect), imagination has become subject of special attention due to its capacity in recalling, analyzing, and synthesizing pre-acquired images, concepts and meanings and creating new and noble ones. Because of his unequivocal attention to imagination, instead of intellect, and the great impact imaginative thinking has had on Islamic philosophy of his times, some critics have maintained that “Islam has turned against science in twelfth century.” This article consists of two parts. The first part deals about Ghazali’s perspective the place of imaginative faculty among the other faculties; the external faculties (i.e. the senses), the internal faculties (i.e. common-sense, imagery, memory, estimation), and the intellect and hence; it is observed that the faculty of imagination itself is a part of the internal faculties and links the external faculties with the intellect as well as comprehensive and continuous interaction with other internal faculties. Upon defining imagination, tasks and types associated with it, its priority and superiority over the intellect, the relationship between (1) the internal senses and the imagination and (2) the imagination and the intellect are addressed. In the second part, the authors follow the practical implications of such imaginative thought in Ghazali’s teaching approach. To do so, and because of the comparative analysis pursued in the article (i.e., comparing Ghazali with contemporary western educational thinker Kieran Egan) about children’s education, we concentrated on the “mythic understanding” that Egan has proposed for these ages and then, contrasted it with Ghazali’s works. The results show that as Egan, but not in such a complete and detailed form, Ghazali considered the elements of play, story, binary opposites, rhyme, rhythm, images, gossip, mystery, and metaphor in his approach. But there are no clear and sufficient evidence for other elements (i.e., joke and humor) in Ghazali’s teaching approach.

Darabgird is one of the ancient cities in Fars province. According to Iranian mythology, Darab Shah (Dariush, the Great) found the city in the Achaemenid period. But, due to the fact that 1.21% of total ceramics gathered from the city belongs to the Parthian era, we can accept that the city remained in use since Parthian period to the Islamic era. Data analysis shows that the city had a strong and intensive settlement during Sasanians, After the Arab conquest and the collapse of Pars province, some changes occurred in the function of urban spaces. Accordingly, the main settlement shifted to the north of the city. Apparently, the southern half of the city was abandoned in Islamic era. Finally, according to some other early Islamic cities, apparently in this period, the main settlement of the city shifted to outside of Sasanian city (in this case, north of the Sasanian fortifications) and we should survey this area to discover available evidences of this period. Unfortunately, this area is presently being used for agricultural purposes.

Although the Iranian plateau has witnessed Paleolithic researches since the early twenty century, still little is known about the Paleolithic of Iran. There are several reasons for this situation and lack of scholarly enthusiasm on the part of Iranian archaeologists seems to be the most imperative one. Concerning the history of Paleolithic surveys and excavations conducted in Iran, three distinct phases are recognizable. First, from the beginning of the twenty century to the 1980 when numerous field missions were executed in this region all by western institutes, second phase observes a twenty years gap in the Paleolithic studies hence; only few surveys could be performed in this period, and the third phase starts with the reopening of the Iranian fields to the non-Iranian researchers, which led to the survey and excavation of handful of new Paleolithic sites. This article reviews Paleolithic researches conducted in Iran since the beginning of twenty century to the present time.

The first season of survey at Qeshm, carried out during the winter of 2006, resulted in the identification of nine sites from the Parthian and Sasanian periods. The surface pottery from these sites suggests their trade and cultural relations with contemporary sites in the southern Persian Gulf and other areas. For instance, the Parthian and Sasanian glazed types in Qeshm Island are closely related materials found from Khuzestan as well as northern and southern coasts of the Persian Gulf, including ed-Dur, Suhar, Kush, Failaka and Qalat Bahrain. Parthian painted ware reveals close similarities to monochrome and bichrome painted pottery of southeastern Iran, Oman coasts and the southern Persian Gulf, specifically ed-Dur, Suhar, Kush and Tel-i-Abrak. The so-called Indian Red Polished Ware is the other diagnostic type widespread in the northern and southern coasts of the Persian Gulf from the middle Parthian up to the early Islamic period. The material was being widely produced in the Indian region (Gujarat) and Indus, and exported to different places around the Persian Gulf. The Coarse Black Ware (ceramic noir epaise) with decorative raised bands recorded in Qeshm compares with coarse-black material from the southern Persian Gulf, also occurring at sites such as ed-Dur and Abu Dhabi Islands. Plain, common Parthian and Sasanian pottery from Qeshm shows parallels with known materials of this period in the northern and southern Persian Gulf.

Second-language (L2) acquisition is generally thought to be constrained by maturational factors that circumscribe a critical period for native-like attainment. Consistent with the maturational view are age effects among learners who begin L2 acquisition prior to, but not after, closure of the putative critical period. Some studies indicate that native-like acquisition of a second language by learners after critical period rarely happens. Some subsequent studies do not support the critical period account of L2 acquisition constraints, however. Accordingly, this study was undertaken to investigate the impacts of maturational constraints on native-like attainment of second language accent, pronunciation, and intonation by Iranians who spent some years in English-speaking countries. The performance of 120 Iranian late and early arrivals was evaluated using a 6 point semantic differential scale. Descriptive and inferential statistics (independent sample t-test and ANOVA) were run (p≤ .05) to analyze the data. In keeping with other researchers, the results of the study indicate that L2 native-like attainment is constrained by the age of language learners. The results also indicate that late language learners who lived in an English-speaking country acquired near native-like proficiency whereas the late language learners who lived just in Iran were not able to acquire near native-like pronunciation. We also found modest evidence of native-like attainment among late learners.

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize the Integrated Brand Engagement (IBE) with inductive approach based on data collected through interviews at Iran Khodro, Saipa, Bahman Group, Kerman Motor and Pars Khodro (during 2008-2010). The interviewees are Iranian automobile brand experts. Applying the grounded theory (GT), we could theorize the process in shaping IBE with the aim of proposing an integrated picture of brand engagement as a third paradigm. Bearing in mind the strategic role of the proposed topic in companies’ survival, we got into introducing brand for recognizing the engagement factors and then created the integrated brand engagement which let automobile industries’ owners foresee and determine better. In this theory, "Brand Equity" is the central phenomenon whereas “Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) " is the causal condition. The central phenomenon is expressed in a set of actions and interactions, which is referred as “Customer Engagement". On the other hand, the Integrated Brand Communication (IBC) (as context conditions) and Shareholders Engagement elements (as intervening conditions) stabilize and expand the concept of engagement in the proposed model. The main consequence of this phenomenon is “Brand Engagement” leading to increase the long-term loyalty of customers, staffs and shareholders. These conditions lead all people who directly and/or indirectly involve with brand to advocate the brand because they have sense of belongingness and engagement to the brand even if they do not buy that product.