۱.
Generally speaking، lexical items that enter our minds through reading a text
commonly leave us with pictures، sounds، echoes، and feelings in the mind.
While the ability to produce images in the mind in the process of reading
appears to be vital for greater comprehension and recall of texts، research has
indicated that many poor readers seemingly do not visualize as they read. On
the contrary، those readers who do typically visualize achieve greater
comprehension and recall (see Tomlinson، 1997). In this study، in line with
Wittrock’s ‘generative learning theory’ (e.g.، 1992)، two fairly homogeneous
groups of EFL undergraduates (N=50)، after taking a reading comprehension
test to ensure that their reading comprehension differences are not significant،
were randomly assigned to attend a short-story course in two different
sections—one serving as the experimental and the other as the control group،
both studying the same short stories، and both being taught by the researcher as
their instructor of the course. The experimental group was instructed how to
form pictures in the mind—i.e.، how to visualize—before reading، while
reading، and after reading a short story، for example، by being requested to
draw pictures of the characters، scenes، or settings in the story as they perceived
them. The control group، however، did not receive any training with respect to
imagery production and was not told to practice visualization before، while، or
after reading the same texts as the experimental group did. The results of a
reading comprehension test on the short stories that had been discussed in both
indicated that the “visualizers” significantly outperformed the “non-visualizers”، i.e.، the control group، on both tests.
۲.
Among factors that might manipulate translators’ mind while producing a text
is the notion of ideology transmission through text or talk. Adopting Critical
Discourse Analysis (CDA) with particular emphasis on the framework of Van
Dijk (1999)، the present investigation is an attempt to shed light on the
relationship between language and ideology involved in translation in general،
and more specifically، to uncover the underlying ideological assumptions
invisible in the texts، both source text (ST) and target text (TT)، and
consequently ascertain whether or not translators’ ideologies are imposed in
their translations.
The corpus consists of the full text of two different Persian translations of
the book Media Control by Noam Chomsky، written in English. In a qualitative
phase، a detailed contrastive/comparative study at the micro-level in terms of
fore/back-grounding mechanisms including explanation of lexical items and
dominant grammatical metaphors (passive vs. active، nominalization vs. denominalization،
addition vs. omission، and modalization) was conducted to
examine، describe and subsequently interpret the patterns in the English source
text and its Persian translated versions. In order to make the research data
interpretations as objective as possible، having computed frequencies of
ideologically significant instances، and percentages، Chi-square formula was
applied to find out any difference between proportions of information
extracted from the target text concerning their fore/back-grounding and their
positions against the source text as well as to test the research null hypothesis،
which was consequently rejected.
The findings reveal that there are significant changes made by the two
translators، either intentionally or unintentionally، in their selection of lexical
items and syntactic structures in comparison to those in the source text. The
findings of the study also show that many distortions or transformations
between the original and the two translated versions were not only arbitrary،
but also ideologically encoded in the texts، with specific purposes and functions
۳.
For the Western Iranian languages the transition from the Old Iranian to the
Middle-Iranian period is characterised by – among other things – the loss of
word-final syllables. This loss had a far-reaching impact on the nominal and
verbal systems since it caused the loss of categories which had been expressed
by suffixes. The consequences include the emergence of the so-called ergative
system.
Although descriptions of the ergative construction in Balochi do exist، there
is no treatment yet which takes into account the material of the different
dialects. Furthermore، the ergative construction in Balochi has been compared
with data from Old Iranian، but not with data from Middle Iranian languages،
and the development from the Middle Iranian stage to the different types found
in present-day Balochi has also not yet been studied. The aim of this paper is
therefore to present the data from the Balochi dialects as far as they are known
today and to update، complete (and in some points، correct) previous
descriptions of the matter.
۴.
The purpose of this article is to determine the phonemic status of [h] and [ʔ] in
the Sistani dialect of Miyankangi. Auditory tests applied to the relevant data
show that [ʔ] occurs mainly in word-initial position، where it stands in free
variation with Ø. The only place where [h] is heard is in Arabic and Persian
loanwords، and only in the pronunciation of some speakers who are educated
and/or live in urban centres، where inhabitants are in closer touch with Persian
than in rural areas. The sound [h] also occurs in the pronunuciation of some
Arabic loanwords where it replaces the glottal plosive، particularly in word
medial، intervocalic position. The investigation shows that neither [ʔ] nor [h]
have phonemic status in the Sistani dialect of Miyankangi at present، but that
more intense contact with Persian may change this state in the future،
particularly for [h].
۵.
This article attempts to see، through the structural significances of poetic
language، the nature of the split between linguistic description and literary
interpretation. Rhythm is the most prominent means of relating form to
content in poetic language. The first account of this prominence is seen through
identifying its position in the two prosodic forms of metrical and non-metrical
poetry. Foregrounding has been seen as a significant feature in literary
creation. Following Bradford (1997) the analysis undertakes three stages of
analysis as ‘discovery procedures’، ‘naturalization’، and ‘judgment’ (renamed in
our work as ‘remarks’). The first level examines the degree of the tension
between the two patterns. In the second level، i.e. naturalization، the analysis
goes on turning the peculiar language of the poem into that of the ordinary،
which means making sense of a text. This translation of the poetic language has
been shown to be considerably rooted in elements of form in the classical verse،
and of content in modern free verse. The intervening type has thus been judged
to exist somewhere between the two. The third level، namely ‘remarks’
evaluates the degree of the poet’s success in managing the tension between the
two patterns.
۶.
The main West Iranian languages، i.e. Old Persian، Parthian، Middle Persian،
New Persian and – in some respects – Avestan، may be studied in a uniquely
continuous development stretching over close to 3 000 years. These languages
are not only the result of their genetic inter-relations but also of their cultural،
religious and political history. They may be labelled ‘high languages’
(‘Hochsprachen’)، in the sense that they are cultured and standardized and
used for a great number of purposes by people of various linguistic
backgrounds. This article presents an over-view of their development seen from
a specific perspective. The traditional Iranian walled-in garden، the pairi-daēzaof
the Avesta، is used as a metaphor for a high language in contrast to the free
vegetation of spontaneous human speech in social interaction. The latter is
here called ‘dialect’، a concept that includes both ‘geolect’ and ‘sociolect’. These
high language ‘gardens’ are thus viewed as a kind of cultural artefacts. Among
other things، this has implications for views on the dichotomy literacy/orality،
showing that writing is not language and that ‘orality’ belongs both to ‘high
language’ and ‘dialect’. It is furthermore argued that literacy and orality were
present in complementary distribution throughout the whole known history of
the Iranian cultural sphere.
