A comparative dialectal description of Iranian Taleshi

This work presents a synchronic description of the Taleshi language spoken in northwest Iran. Its purpose is to provide a comparative study of the basic phonological, morphological and syntactic structure of three dialects spoken in Iran: Anbarani (northern), Asalemi (central) and Masali (southern). In addition, the sociolinguistic situation of the dialects is explored, along with some key elements of narrative discourse structure.To date only individual dialects of Iranian Taleshi have been described, mostly at the level of a grammatical sketch. This study, by comparing key representative speech varieties of each main dialect area, provides an overview of the whole dialect continuum, and is thereby able to show how the language changes from north to south. This variation has arisen partly as a result of language contact: the Taleshi language area is surrounded by other languages, including South Azerbaijani (Turkic), and Tati, Gilaki and Persian (all Western Iranian). Language shift to Persian is also occurring, and many Talesh no longer transmit their mother tongue to the next generation.The data for the study is drawn from fieldwork carried out in Iran during 2006 and 2007. This fieldwork included the elicitation of word and sentence lists, and the recording, transcription and translation of narrative texts in each dialect area. Further to these, a short film (The Pear Film) was used to elicit spontaneous narrative texts in nine locations along the dialect continuum; we therefore include some wider comment on other dialects of Iranian Taleshi.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

A comparative dialectal description of Iranian Taleshi

This work presents a synchronic description of the Taleshi language spoken in northwest Iran. Its purpose is to provide a comparative study of the basic phonological, morphological and syntactic structure of three dialects spoken in Iran: Anbarani (northern), Asalemi (central) and Masali (southern). In addition, the sociolinguistic situation of the dialects is explored, along with some key elements of narrative discourse structure.To date only individual dialects of Iranian Taleshi have been described, mostly at the level of a grammatical sketch. This study, by comparing key representative speech varieties of each main dialect area, provides an overview of the whole dialect continuum, and is thereby able to show how the language changes from north to south. This variation has arisen partly as a result of language contact: the Taleshi language area is surrounded by other languages, including South Azerbaijani (Turkic), and Tati, Gilaki and Persian (all Western Iranian). Language shift to Persian is also occurring, and many Talesh no longer transmit their mother tongue to the next generation.The data for the study is drawn from fieldwork carried out in Iran during 2006 and 2007. This fieldwork included the elicitation of word and sentence lists, and the recording, transcription and translation of narrative texts in each dialect area. Further to these, a short film (The Pear Film) was used to elicit spontaneous narrative texts in nine locations along the dialect continuum; we therefore include some wider comment on other dialects of Iranian Taleshi.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Why a folder lies in the basket although it is not lying: the semantics and use of German positional verbs with inanimate Figures

In this paper we will investigate the meaning and use of positional verbs in colloquial Standard German. Positional verbs are defined as those verbs which may appear in the basic construction that functions as an answer to a “where”-question, the so-called Basic Locative Construction (BLC). Within this class of verbs, we focus on those positionals which are used to describe the configuration of inanimate movable objects. We will demonstrate that German exhibits the characteristics of a positional (or “multiverb”) language, i.e., a language that uses a comparatively large set of verbs in the BLC. The ten positionals used most frequently in our data are stehen ‘stand’, liegen ‘lie’, hängen ‘hang’, lehnen ‘lean’, stecken ‘be in tight fit, be stuck’, klemmen ‘be stuck, be jammed’, kleben ‘stick by means of glue’, haften ‘adhere’, schwimmen ‘be afloat in liquid’, and schweben ‘be afloat’. We will identify the conditions under which the positional verbs are used and provide a semantic characterization for each of them, paying particular attention to alternative categorizations, fuzzy boundaries and prototype effects