Ava Imani
I am an assistant professor of Linguistics at Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran. My interests include Phonetics, Sociolinguistics, Linguistic Typology, Cognitive Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, Discourse Analysis, and Construction Morphology.
Phone: (081) 38381601-10
Address: Department of General Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran
Phone: (081) 38381601-10
Address: Department of General Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran
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and how they correlate with “speech style” and “gender” in children's
spontaneous speech and storytelling style. For this purpose, 20 normal Persianspeaking children aged 4-5 years (10 boys and 10 girls) were recorded in two
speech styles. In doing so, 60 interrogative sentences uttered by the children in
the two styles were selected randomly for acoustic analysis. The analysis was
performed using PRAAT version 6.1.38 based on "Rise/Fall/Connection
Model (RFC)" (Taylor, 1995 & 2009). Three acoustic parameters of “pitch,”
“duration,” and “intensity” were considered. In order to check dependability of
the data and correlation between “intonation pattern,” "speech style,” and
“gender,” the data were statistically analyzed through t-test. The statistical
analysis was carried out using SPSS version 21. Our results showed that
“speech style” influenced the intonation pattern in speech of girls and boys.
Besides, values of the three acoustic parameters in children's storytelling was
significantly different from those in their spontaneous speech (p < 0.05).
However, the speakers’ intonation pattern was not influenced by their gender.
Moreover, it was found that the mean score of pitch amplitude, duration,
intensity, vowel stretching, and number of pauses was significantly higher for
girls than for boys. However, the overall speech tempo was significantly faster
for boys. The study concluded that girls were better storytellers than boys from
phonetic point of view.
governing the construction of these compounds based on Construction Morphology
(Booij, 2010). To this end, all compounds consisting of “head” as their first
constituent were collected from different Persian and English sources. Our data
consist of 300 compound words collected from Comprehensive Sokhan Dictionary,
Zansoo Dictionary, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Online MerriomWebster, Collins, and Cambridge Dictionaries. Then the collected compounds were
semantically categorized and their similarities and differences were examined. The
findings showed that the polysemy in these compounds could be explained not at the
level of words, but at the level of abstract constructions and constructional schemas
in both languages. Therefore, it was considered as a type of constructional
polysemy. Moreover, it was found that although there were similar constructional
schemas and subschemas for "head-compounds” in both languages, the semantic
variations and the number of subschemas in Persian were more than that of English.
This difference indicated that the schematic hierarchy of the construction [Head-X]
in Persian was more semantically complex and more extended compared to English
This study aims to address the following questions: 1) What schemas and morpho-syntactic mechanisms do Persian and English employ to express the superlative comparison notion? 2) Do all constructive components of superlative comparison in Persian and English require obligatory or optional formal expression? 3) To what extent can Stassen's typological classification (1985) and Heine's cognitive approach (1997) explain the superlative comparative constructions in these two languages? 4) How similar or different are the dedicated grammaticalized constructions employed by Persian and English to express the superlative comparison notion?
languages, through which a core meaning of “smallness” and other
connotative meanings are added to a linguistic form. The present
research aims to conduct a typological investigation of the different
strategies of diminution in the Luri variety of Khorramabad. To this
end, based on the views Schneider (2003) and Štekauer et al. (2012),
the semantic and pragmatic functions of these diminutive elements were
analyzed. Besides by looking at different ways of diminution in the
languages of the world, the appropriate language typology for these
elements was identified and some differences and similarities of Luri
variety with Persian language were enumerated. The research method
was descriptive-analytic and the data were collected through interviews
and conversations with native speakers of this variety as well as
exploring spoken and written texts. The results showed that in addition
to the syntactic and semantic diminution strategies, Luri Khorramabadi
variety had the four diminutive suffixes "-ula", "-ila", "-ak", " –ča ",
two prefixes "tila-", "kola-" and three morphological strategies
including “compounding”, “double diminution” and “repetition” were
also used. Furthermore, it was found that the "animacy hierarchy"
affected not only the diminutive elements joining various bases, but also
the meaning construction of the resulting words, such as “smallness”,
“similarity”, “accompaniment”, “relation”, as well as other implicit and
pragmatic meanings such as “affection”, “contempt”, and “sympathy”.
In other words, it was revealed that the “animacy hierarchy” was in
parallel with the continuum of various diminution strategies employed
in Luri.
and how they correlate with “speech style” and “gender” in children's
spontaneous speech and storytelling style. For this purpose, 20 normal Persianspeaking children aged 4-5 years (10 boys and 10 girls) were recorded in two
speech styles. In doing so, 60 interrogative sentences uttered by the children in
the two styles were selected randomly for acoustic analysis. The analysis was
performed using PRAAT version 6.1.38 based on "Rise/Fall/Connection
Model (RFC)" (Taylor, 1995 & 2009). Three acoustic parameters of “pitch,”
“duration,” and “intensity” were considered. In order to check dependability of
the data and correlation between “intonation pattern,” "speech style,” and
“gender,” the data were statistically analyzed through t-test. The statistical
analysis was carried out using SPSS version 21. Our results showed that
“speech style” influenced the intonation pattern in speech of girls and boys.
Besides, values of the three acoustic parameters in children's storytelling was
significantly different from those in their spontaneous speech (p < 0.05).
However, the speakers’ intonation pattern was not influenced by their gender.
Moreover, it was found that the mean score of pitch amplitude, duration,
intensity, vowel stretching, and number of pauses was significantly higher for
girls than for boys. However, the overall speech tempo was significantly faster
for boys. The study concluded that girls were better storytellers than boys from
phonetic point of view.
and how they correlate with “speech style” and “gender” in children's
spontaneous speech and storytelling style. For this purpose, 20 normal Persianspeaking children aged 4-5 years (10 boys and 10 girls) were recorded in two
speech styles. In doing so, 60 interrogative sentences uttered by the children in
the two styles were selected randomly for acoustic analysis. The analysis was
performed using PRAAT version 6.1.38 based on "Rise/Fall/Connection
Model (RFC)" (Taylor, 1995 & 2009). Three acoustic parameters of “pitch,”
“duration,” and “intensity” were considered. In order to check dependability of
the data and correlation between “intonation pattern,” "speech style,” and
“gender,” the data were statistically analyzed through t-test. The statistical
analysis was carried out using SPSS version 21. Our results showed that
“speech style” influenced the intonation pattern in speech of girls and boys.
Besides, values of the three acoustic parameters in children's storytelling was
significantly different from those in their spontaneous speech (p < 0.05).
However, the speakers’ intonation pattern was not influenced by their gender.
Moreover, it was found that the mean score of pitch amplitude, duration,
intensity, vowel stretching, and number of pauses was significantly higher for
girls than for boys. However, the overall speech tempo was significantly faster
for boys. The study concluded that girls were better storytellers than boys from
phonetic point of view.
governing the construction of these compounds based on Construction Morphology
(Booij, 2010). To this end, all compounds consisting of “head” as their first
constituent were collected from different Persian and English sources. Our data
consist of 300 compound words collected from Comprehensive Sokhan Dictionary,
Zansoo Dictionary, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Online MerriomWebster, Collins, and Cambridge Dictionaries. Then the collected compounds were
semantically categorized and their similarities and differences were examined. The
findings showed that the polysemy in these compounds could be explained not at the
level of words, but at the level of abstract constructions and constructional schemas
in both languages. Therefore, it was considered as a type of constructional
polysemy. Moreover, it was found that although there were similar constructional
schemas and subschemas for "head-compounds” in both languages, the semantic
variations and the number of subschemas in Persian were more than that of English.
This difference indicated that the schematic hierarchy of the construction [Head-X]
in Persian was more semantically complex and more extended compared to English
This study aims to address the following questions: 1) What schemas and morpho-syntactic mechanisms do Persian and English employ to express the superlative comparison notion? 2) Do all constructive components of superlative comparison in Persian and English require obligatory or optional formal expression? 3) To what extent can Stassen's typological classification (1985) and Heine's cognitive approach (1997) explain the superlative comparative constructions in these two languages? 4) How similar or different are the dedicated grammaticalized constructions employed by Persian and English to express the superlative comparison notion?
languages, through which a core meaning of “smallness” and other
connotative meanings are added to a linguistic form. The present
research aims to conduct a typological investigation of the different
strategies of diminution in the Luri variety of Khorramabad. To this
end, based on the views Schneider (2003) and Štekauer et al. (2012),
the semantic and pragmatic functions of these diminutive elements were
analyzed. Besides by looking at different ways of diminution in the
languages of the world, the appropriate language typology for these
elements was identified and some differences and similarities of Luri
variety with Persian language were enumerated. The research method
was descriptive-analytic and the data were collected through interviews
and conversations with native speakers of this variety as well as
exploring spoken and written texts. The results showed that in addition
to the syntactic and semantic diminution strategies, Luri Khorramabadi
variety had the four diminutive suffixes "-ula", "-ila", "-ak", " –ča ",
two prefixes "tila-", "kola-" and three morphological strategies
including “compounding”, “double diminution” and “repetition” were
also used. Furthermore, it was found that the "animacy hierarchy"
affected not only the diminutive elements joining various bases, but also
the meaning construction of the resulting words, such as “smallness”,
“similarity”, “accompaniment”, “relation”, as well as other implicit and
pragmatic meanings such as “affection”, “contempt”, and “sympathy”.
In other words, it was revealed that the “animacy hierarchy” was in
parallel with the continuum of various diminution strategies employed
in Luri.
and how they correlate with “speech style” and “gender” in children's
spontaneous speech and storytelling style. For this purpose, 20 normal Persianspeaking children aged 4-5 years (10 boys and 10 girls) were recorded in two
speech styles. In doing so, 60 interrogative sentences uttered by the children in
the two styles were selected randomly for acoustic analysis. The analysis was
performed using PRAAT version 6.1.38 based on "Rise/Fall/Connection
Model (RFC)" (Taylor, 1995 & 2009). Three acoustic parameters of “pitch,”
“duration,” and “intensity” were considered. In order to check dependability of
the data and correlation between “intonation pattern,” "speech style,” and
“gender,” the data were statistically analyzed through t-test. The statistical
analysis was carried out using SPSS version 21. Our results showed that
“speech style” influenced the intonation pattern in speech of girls and boys.
Besides, values of the three acoustic parameters in children's storytelling was
significantly different from those in their spontaneous speech (p < 0.05).
However, the speakers’ intonation pattern was not influenced by their gender.
Moreover, it was found that the mean score of pitch amplitude, duration,
intensity, vowel stretching, and number of pauses was significantly higher for
girls than for boys. However, the overall speech tempo was significantly faster
for boys. The study concluded that girls were better storytellers than boys from
phonetic point of view.
added to a linguistic form. The diminutive suffix –æk in Persian plays an active role in word-formation and is worthy of
consideration. This study aims to provide a morpho-semantic and pragmatic analysis of –æk. The theoretical
frameworkemployed is based on Jurafsky (1996) and Lakoff’s Radial category (1987). The data consists of 212 words ending
in –æk which have been collected in two ways: 1) Through a comprehensive search of Dehkhoda Dictionary (1998), and 2) On
the authors’ native intuition and interviews with some native speakers. The following are the findings of the study: 1) The
concepts “child” and “small” are prototypical in words ending in –æk, and can be considered the core meanings. Other
meanings, such as “similarity”, “a small type of”, “relating to”, “place name”, “type of disease”, “affection”, “body jerks”,
“disdain”, “plant name”, “mockery”, “bird/insect name”, “agent”, and “sympathy” are extensions of the core meanings
through the use of metaphor, inference, or generalization. 2) The suffix –æk is derivational and its input and output are
mostly nominal; however, in some occasions, adjectives and verb stems can be inputs to word-formation processes involving
–æk. 3) Jurafsky’s framework accounts for Persian data to a great extent. Nevertheless, some of the suggested concepts in
his network are not applicable to Persian, and there are concepts in Persian that have not been included in his proposed
semantic network, and thus his framework needs to be slightly modified.
added to a linguistic form. The diminutive suffix –æk in Persian plays an active role in word-formation and is worthy of
consideration. This study aims to provide a morpho-semantic and pragmatic analysis of –æk. The theoretical
frameworkemployed is based on Jurafsky (1996) and Lakoff’s Radial category (1987). The data consists of 212 words ending
in –æk which have been collected in two ways: 1) Through a comprehensive search of Dehkhoda Dictionary (1998), and 2) On
the authors’ native intuition and interviews with some native speakers. The following are the findings of the study: 1) The
concepts “child” and “small” are prototypical in words ending in –æk, and can be considered the core meanings. Other
meanings, such as “similarity”, “a small type of”, “relating to”, “place name”, “type of disease”, “affection”, “body jerks”,
“disdain”, “plant name”, “mockery”, “bird/insect name”, “agent”, and “sympathy” are extensions of the core meanings
through the use of metaphor, inference, or generalization. 2) The suffix –æk is derivational and its input and output are
mostly nominal; however, in some occasions, adjectives and verb stems can be inputs to word-formation processes involving
–æk. 3) Jurafsky’s framework accounts for Persian data to a great extent. Nevertheless, some of the suggested concepts in
his network are not applicable to Persian, and there are concepts in Persian that have not been included in his proposed
semantic network, and thus his framework needs to be slightly modified.
[cheshm-X] (compounds of three frequent body parts “head”, “heart” and “eye”) and to investigate their
semantic variations, the most general schemas and subschemas in Persian employing the Construction
Morphology approach (Booij, 2010). To this end, a collection of 294 compounds were collected from
differentPersian Dictionariesand Google. The results reveal that two general constructional schemas and
several subschemas make up the hierarchical construction of [sar-X] and one general constructional schema
and three subschemas form [del-X], while for the “eye” compounds no subschema is formed. It means that
the polysemy we are dealing with here is not at the word level but it is at the construction level and the
meaning contribution of the mentioned compounds lies within the constructions on the one hand, and the
meaning of the constituents, operation of conceptual metaphor (metonymy) and encyclopedic knowledge
on the other. Finally, postulating a paradigmatic nature of word-formation and positing the concept of
construction as a basis for argument, CM can account for our data andnecessitate reevaluation of the
demarcation between derivation and compounding at least in compounds of body parts in Persian.