Abstract: Formerly, the different linguistic approaches have studied the changes which have happened in the verbal part of Persian compound verbs, while; the study of such changes in Persian compound verbs with the same verbal part on the basis of cognitive morphology proposed by Hamavand, makes the theoretical framework of this research. These compound verbs can be analyzed according to two main theories in cognitive linguistics: category theory and conceptual metaphor theory. In this research the introduction of fundamental concepts of cognitive linguistics and more importantly, the explanation of the two mentioned theories come first. Then the Persian compound verbs with the same verbal part are classified and analyzed on the basis of proto-type category and periphery categories and are put on a continuum on the basis of the correspondence between the main semantic features of verbal and non-verbal parts. The conceptual metaphor theory is another theory according to which the Persian compound verbs with the same verbal part are assigned on the continuum, while the movement from one side of continuum to the other side increases the metaphorical extension and decreases the lexical meaning of these Persian compound verbs. In other words, there will be created a kind of correspondence among the two concrete and abstract conceptual domains.
INTRODUCTION
Dabir Moghadam (2005) believed that a compound verb is a kind of verb which does not have a simple morphological structure but it consists of a non-verbal part such as noun, adjective, prepositional phrase or adverb and a verbal part.
Alizadeh (2012), expresses that some linguists consider the verbal part of compound verbs meaningless and as a result this part has become grammaticalized. Another group believe that the verbal part may have gone under the semantic washing but it is not completely meaningless.
Mohammad and Karimi (1992) claim in their essay that according to the following examples although the noun elements are the same and the vebal elements different but the meaning of these compound verbs are identical:
| • | ezhâr kærdæn |
| • | ezhâr dâ |
| • | mæjbur kærdæn |
| • | mæjbur nemudæn |
Alizadeh (2012) believed that these verbs exist in Persian but they are limited. It is impossible to overgeneralize it to all of the Persian verbs.
Look at the following examples:
| • | æli ketâbæ |
| • | æli æz dustæ |
| • | mâdær æz |
| • | mâdær ketâbe â |
It seems that the verbal part has kept its lexical meaning in the above underlined compound verbs.
According to Karimi (1998), the verbal parts of compound verbs might lose some parts of their lexical meaning but they don’t lose this lexical meaning completely. In order to prove it, the following examples are considerable:
| • | tæhvil gereftæn |
| • | tæhvil dâdæn |
| • | bâlâ bordæn |
| • | bâlâ âværdæn |
According to Alizadeh (2012), in these compound verbs the trace of primary meaning of verbal parts can be felt to some extent but it has to be considered that this process is not a general rule and there exist some compound verbs with their verbal parts totally meaningless.
Look at the following examples:
| • | æz pele oftâdæm pâm pič xord |
| • | diruz zelzelei be qodræte hæ |
| • | væqti sor xordæm bæče hâ mæno dæst ændâxtænd |
| • | bâ dæstâne kučækæ |
Alizadeh (2012) believes that none of the above approaches is able to present the whole role of verbal parts of compound verbs. In other words, each approach expresses part of the fact related to verbal parts, thus a complete definition is needed that represents the role of verbal part in all of the compound verbs. Accordingly; the verbal part in compound verbs is grammaticalized through the time and gradually. If a continuum for grammaticalization process is considered and on the right of this continuum stand the lexical units and on the left side grammaticalized ones, then from right to left, the degree of grammaticalization increases. In order to make clear the grammaticalization of verbal parts in Persian compound verbs, a continuum is drawn for each four high frequency verbal parts in Persian compound verbs as follows:
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The theoretical framework of the following research is cognitive morphology proposed by Hamawand (2011). According to this approach the verbal part in compound verbs can be analyzed on the basis of two dominant theories in cognitive linguistics: categorization theory and conceptual metaphor theory. Cognitive morphology is one of the branches of cognitive linguistics which considers the cognitive aspects of morphology and word formation processes. First, in this research there is a brief introduction to cognitive linguistics, then by the use of cognitive morphology theories, the changes of the verbal part of Persian compound verbs are studied. The two dominant theories in cognitive linguistics, the category theory and the conceptual metaphor theory, play the main role in analyzing the mentioned changes.
COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS
Cognitive linguists study the relationship between humans' language, mind and sociological and physical experiences. One of their reasons for studying language comes from this assumption that language reflects the patterns of thought and the properties of human mind (Croft and Cruse, 2004). Dabir Moghadam (2004) considers formalism, functionalism and cognitivism as the three most dominant approaches in today linguistics.
According to Ungerer and Schmit (1996), cognitive linguistics is a kind of approach to language which has been based on speakers' experience of the outside world and the way they perceive and explain it. Cognitive linguistics emphasizes on language as a tool for organizing, computing and transferring information. A possible question that may arise here is that" what is the exact meaning of the word cognition in expression [cognitive linguistics]?" and "what is the difference between cognitive linguistics and other linguistic approaches?". Tiberghien (1989) describes cognition as follows: cognition is a phenomenon which is accessed through encoding and use of information by the central nervous system.
He defines cognitive sciences as well: cognitive sciences means the theoretical and experiential study of mechanisms of decoding, saving and use of information in natural and artificial systems which should take the responsibility of productive, reasoning and perceiving activities. Ungerer and Schmit (1996) believe that in cognitive linguistics, categorization on the basis of necessary and sufficient conditions is considered as unrealistic. The followers of this approach have accepted the proto-type theory. In addition, the difference between everyday and metaphorical language has been rejected here and metaphor isn't considered as a periphery part of language system, otherwise they believe that humans' language is a reflection of mental processes and is metaphorical generally. According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980), metaphor is something that all humans live by. In cognitive linguistics, language isn't an autonomous and independent part from the other cognitive abilities but it is always in interaction with them. Such perspective stands against the componential tradition of mind by Chomsky (Taylor, 2002).
CATEGORIZATION THEORY
The categorization concept has been mentioned by Rosch for the first time Hamawand (2008) and it means the classification of the outside phenomena by finding out the similarities from among the differences. This way all of the phenomena of the outside world are classified in clear and distinguished groups (Rasekh Mahand, 2010). Alizadeh (2012) writes on behalf of Hamawand (2011) categorization in morphological field means the mental classification of the different concepts of one lexical unit. So, category here is a network of different ,but related concepts of a lexical element. In each category there exists a proto-type and some periphery members derived from the proto-type and are considered in that special category on the basis of their distance from the proto-type. The proto-type is a lexical concept which consists of the main properties of a special category and is also the first concept which comes to mind as the example of that category. The other periphery members have related properties considered as the meaning extention of the mentioned proto-type.
Lakoff (1987), believes that proto-type theory has created a kind of correspondence and order in the study of word meanings and description of conceptual relations and meaning extention. Fillmore (1982), has analyzed the verb "climb" according to mentioned theory above:
| • | The boy climbed the tree |
| • | The locomotive climbed the mountainside |
| • | Prices are climbing day by day |
| • | The boy climbed down the tree and over the wall |
In sentence (a) the word climb means "going up by the use of hands"but in sentence (b) it has the metaphorical meaning of "using hands" which can be understood from the railway. In sentence (c) it has just the metaphorical meaning of "moving up", while in the last sentence this verb means "moving down".
Today, proto-type concept is the basis of so many cognitive theories. In this model some of the elements are considered as the best examples and the conceptual relations between words or meaning extentions are formed accordingly. The other linguistic structures except words are described by the help of such theory.
CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR THEORY
The conceptual metaphor theory is one of the oldest theories in cognitive linguistics approach. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) believe that metaphor is not only a literary element but it is an inseparable part of humans language and everyday thoughts. According to Lakoffian metaphorical approach, metaphor is a mapping relation between the elements of two domains: source domain and target domain. In other words, there happens a sort of coordination between one abstract concept and one concrete concept. It is clear that the basis of metaphorical expression is not only in the metaphorical value of one single unit but it mostly depends on more general coordination and mapping between two conceptual domains (Taylor, 2002). Lakoff and Johnson have expressed very interesting discussions on metaphor and its role in conceptual structures. Firstly, they criticize the classic definition of metaphor which considers everyday language without metaphor. Yokubson believes that metaphor is a linguistic process but cognitivists have gone beyond this and believe that metaphor acts beyond the level of language and is not restricted to language. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) believe that the standard conceptual system with which humans think and act is basically metaphorical. In another research (Lakoff, 2004) expresses that the place of metaphor is not generally in language but it has to be found out in the way of conceptualization of one mental domain according to the other mental domain.
THE CHANGES OF PERSIAN COMPOUND VERBS ON THE BASIS OF CATEGORIZATION THEORY
As mentioned before, one of the dominant theories in cognitive linguistics is categorization theory according to which the changes of verbal part in Persian compound verbs can be analyzed. Below, the compound verbs mentioned by Alizadeh (2012) are analyzed on the basis of this theory: The Persian verb "dâdæn", generally means physical transition of one object from one person into another. In the first continuum, the concept of physical transition for the verb "hedije dâdæn" is completely comprehensible. One of the semantic features of the verb "dâdæn" is physical transition from one person into another and in case of the word "hedije" which has the semantic feature [+ object], therefore, there exist a kind of correspondence between the semantic features of verbal part " dâdæn" and the noun "hedije". As a result, the verb "hedije dâdæn" is the proto-type in this category.
Now the distance of the other compound verbs from this proto-type and the way of their arrangement on the continuum are found out. In the verb "tæhvil dâdæn" the meaning of physical transition can be felt a little weaker than the previous verb and it can be considered a better exemplar to the proto-type "hedije dâdæn".Then, there stands the verb "pænd dâdæn" on this continuum. Next, the verb "mæze dâdæn" is put on this continuum which has lost its lexical meaning to some extent and at the end of the continuum, stands the verb "rox dâdæn" which has gained metaphorical meaning and there isn’t any correspondence between the semantic features of " rox" and " dâdæn". So in this classification on the basis of categorization theory, the compound verb "hedije dâdæn" is considered as the proto-type and the other compound verbs are considered as periphery members on the continuum. In case of the other compound verbs with verbal parts "xordæn","zædæn" and "gereftæn" the same explanations and continuums are proposed.
THE CHANGES OF PERSIAN COMPOUND VERBS ON THE BASIS OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR THEORY
As mentioned before, metaphor is the mapping relationship between the elements of two domains: source domain and target domain. In other words, mapping between one abstract concept and one concrete concept. Here, the changes of verbal part of Persian compound verbs are analyzed on the basis of conceptual metaphor theory:
Let’s consider the third continuum of Alizadeh (2012):
It is obviously clear that in compound verb "tæbl zædæn",
the verbal part "zædæn" means "to put a lot of force on something"
and there is also a kind of correspondence between the noun" tæbl" and
the verbal part "zædæn"but with moving from one side of continuum
to the other side, there exist other verbs that are impossible to comprehend
their meaning from the containing parts. In other words these compound verbs
have gained metaphorical meaning. In the mentioned continuum, the compound verb
"pænbe zædæn" has been arranged after "tæbl zædæn"
on the continuum and the meaning of "to put a lot of force on something" can
be felt. The next compound verb is "mo
CONCLUSION
| • | According to categorization theory, the Persian compound verbs with the same verbal part are classified into proto-type and peripheral members. They are arranged on the continuum on the basis of the changes of the verbal part. In other words, by moving from one side of the continuum to the other side, the members of the continuum become far away from the proto-type and they are organized all through it. The selection of one of the members as the proto-type is on the basis of the mapping between the semantic features of the noun and the verbal part of the compound verb |
| • | The Persian compound verbs with the same verbal part are analyzable according to the conceptual metaphor theory. In case of compound verbs far away from the proto-type, source and target domains are considered. So a kind of mapping between these two domains creates a metaphorical meaning for these Persian compound verbs. By moving from one side of the continuum to the other side, the mapping between the abstract concept and concrete concept increases, so these verbs lose their lexical meaning and gain metaphorical meaning more and more. Generally, the Persian compound verbs undergo the metaphorical extension process |