نشریه پژوهشهای زبانشناسی (Sep 2020)
Lexical Features of Verb Aspects in Laki Dialect of Darehshahr (Ilam)
Abstract
Abstract:Of the influential features in determining the type of lexical aspect are dynamicity, durativity, telicity, homogeneity and atomicity of the verb. This qualitative and descriptive-analytical research is based on the data obtained by participatory observation and unstructured and semi-structured interviews with Laki speakers in Darehshahr (Ilam). Based on aspectual approaches of Rostein (2004), Filip (2004: 2012), and Croft (2012), the present study attempts to examine the impacts of these semantic features in determining aspect types in the given dialect. It focuses on those semantic features contributing into determining the lexical aspect types in Laki. It shows that in Laki dialect of Darehshahr, like many Indo-European languages, the mentioned features are influential in determining the lexical aspect type and based on them the situation aspect can be determined. It also shows that in order to explain the factors influencing the situational aspect type, not only the verb and its arguments, but in some cases the semantic and even the pragmatic context should be considered. Keywords: lexical (situational) aspect, dynamicity, durativity, telicity, homogeneity, atomicity, Laki dialect of Darehshahr IntroductionOne essential category, along with other categories formulated in the verb (such as mood, transitivity, and tense), is aspect. Aspect is usually considered as the way of looking at the internal temporal events in terms of their inception, realization, unfolding, or completion. In aspectual studies, a distinction is often made between two major types of aspect; while grammatical aspect is usually expressed with a definite inflectional or periphrastic element in VP, in lexical approaches to the aspect, without any specific grammatical sign, verbs inherently unfold the intrinsic aspectual properties indicating the beginning, continuation, or completion of the events. In recent approaches to lexical (situational) aspect, the intrinsic features of the verbs are considered to have influential impacts in determining the lexical aspectual type. Of the influential features in determining the type of lexical aspect are dynamicity, durativity, telicity, homogeneity, and atomicity of the verb. As a result, the study of these features as influencing factors is regarded to be of paramount importance in the grammar of natural languages.Materials and MethodsDue to the nature of the present study, it has been designed to be a qualitative, descriptive-analytical research based on observation and interviews with Lak speakers and the review of existing text documents. The statistical population of the study includes Lak speakers of Darehshahr villages located in the south of Ilam, Iran. To reduce the effects of language contact, speakers have been selected from villages whose inhabitants often do not speak a language other than Laki. Also, efforts were made to select speakers from families who do not speak a language other than Laki at home. In order to be a comprehensive research, an attempt was made to select speakers from a wide range of literate and illiterate, old, middle-aged and young, and of both male and female genders in a purposeful sampling method. The data collection method was through participatory observation and sometimes unstructured and semi-structured interviews. In this study, after ensuring the linguistic corpus of the study, with thematic analysis, the types of situational (lexical) aspect between the data and the linguistic body mentioned in the studied dialect of the studied Laki dialect have been investigated. Then, according to Croft model (2012) as a comprehensive model in explaining aspectual verb classes, verbs were identified and examined based on the criteria and characteristics considered in the framework of the model. Discussion of Results and Conclusions To distinguish the aspectual verbs, distinguishing features and components such as dynamicity, homogeneity, telicity, and atomicity have been used. Based on aspectual approaches of Krifka (1998), Rothstein (2004), Filip (2004: 2012), and Croft (2012), the present study attempts to examine the impacts of these semantic features to determine the aspect types in the given dialect. It tries the answers to the following questions: To what extent can the mentioned factors help in determining the lexical aspect types in Laki, which is one of the Northwestern Iranian languages? Are the mentioned features intrinsic to the verb and the lexical level? Or should the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic factors be also considered in analyzing the situational aspect? This study shows that in the Laki dialect of Darehshahr, the semantic features of dynamicity, durativity, telicity, homogeneity, and atomicity of the verbs are among the most influential factors in determining the lexical aspect type of the verbs, and therefore, based on these elements the situation aspect system can be determined in the given dialect of Laki. Contrary to some views that consider telicity as an intrinsic feature of the verb, it was observed that in order to explain the factors influencing the situational aspect type, not only the verb and its arguments but in some cases the semantic and even the pragmatic context should be considered. This is in line with the findings of Dowty (1986), Krifka (1998), and Filip (2004, 2009, and 2012). This study also showed that in the mentioned dialect of Laki, like many other Iranian languages, perfect verbs have a telic property and imperfect ones have an atelic property, which is consistent with the findings of Filip (2009) and Borer (2013). It has also been observed that in Laki, as in many Indo-European languages (Comrie, 1976: 46), it is possible to create telic verbs from atelic ones using morphological rules. In addition, due to the unmarked nature of atelic verbs in Laki, it can be concluded that the demarcation of each atelic verb can be used as a basis for making a telic predicate, provided that the verb is combined with an appropriate incremental argument that characterizes the quantitative criterion (QC). This is consistent with the findings of Filip (1999).
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