Language & Media
Masumeh Poloie; Mohamad Ahmadkhani; Seyed Mehdi Samaei
Abstract
The present study investigates the use of Argot language vocabulary in two gender groups. The Argot language is a collection of words and phrases that certain groups use to keep secrets inside their group against others. This sociolinguistics study describes the functional differences of the vocabulary ...
Read More
The present study investigates the use of Argot language vocabulary in two gender groups. The Argot language is a collection of words and phrases that certain groups use to keep secrets inside their group against others. This sociolinguistics study describes the functional differences of the vocabulary of this language in two groups of males and females. Data were randomly collected through 60 face-to-face interviews. This research applied a descriptive and a case study method. The purpose of this research is to answer the question whether there is a significant difference between the lexical frequency and the expected occurence. To test the hypothesis, males respondents have used the most secret words in the interviewees, using Chi-square non-parametric tedst. The dependent variable in this study is the frequency of Argot vocabulary and independent gender variable is gender. It seems that gender plays an important role in the frequency of certain words; nevertheless, the results showed that there is no significant difference between the two gender variables and the use of the Argot vocabulary; however, the tendency of females to use argot vocabulary is less than men.
Language & Media
Mala Vasegh; MEHDI PURMOHAMMAD
Abstract
Children’s and adolescent literature plays an important role in socializing the audience and reflects the conditions of society, beliefs, traditions and opinions that shape readers' mentality and perception of the various phenomena on which they are based. One of the most important aspects of socializing ...
Read More
Children’s and adolescent literature plays an important role in socializing the audience and reflects the conditions of society, beliefs, traditions and opinions that shape readers' mentality and perception of the various phenomena on which they are based. One of the most important aspects of socializing is the formation of concept of gender identity in the children's mentality, which stabilizes in adolescence. The fictional literature as the most socially used genre can be the best source to present the image that Iranian children and adolence literature have about the concept of gender. Children get acquainted to the new world through the book and gain new and different experiences. The present study investigates the status and role of women, men and gender stereotypes in child literature. A total number of 200 Persian fiction books were analyzed. The results show that a gender-based discrimination was found in the books awarded as the top best-selling books by Iran Center for the Intellectual Development of Children and Younh Adult for a decade from 1385 to 1395. In these books, the number of male characters and names was almost twice as much as female characters. The main female characters of the text were seen more often. This article investigates the stereotypes of children's picture books which play a role in shaping gender identity.
Language Contact and Conflict
Manijeh Mirmukri; gholam hosein karimi doostan; yadgar karimi; vahid gholami
Abstract
The present writing is a report of an empirical study to measure the level of mutual intelligibility between Mahabadi variety from West Azarbayjan and Badrei one from Ilam Province based on linguistic and non-linguistic criteria and receptive multilingualism approach. For this purpose, two types of tests, ...
Read More
The present writing is a report of an empirical study to measure the level of mutual intelligibility between Mahabadi variety from West Azarbayjan and Badrei one from Ilam Province based on linguistic and non-linguistic criteria and receptive multilingualism approach. For this purpose, two types of tests, that is, function tests and opinion tests were used. We used targeted sampling to exclude subjects who had previous language contact. Test materials which were translated into the most common language in both varieties, were recorded. Subjects wrote the meaning or translation of presented auditory items in Persian. Findings showed that intelligibility between two varieties was not symmetric and although the attitude of Badrei speakers was more positive compared to the other variety, the scores of Mahabadi speakers in function tests were higher. This finding contradicts the result of the previous studies conducted by Maurud (1976) and Delsing and Akesson (2005) who claimed that there was a positive correlation between positive attitude and intelligibility. Moreover, the findings showed that among the eleven lexical features emphasized by Gooskens et al. (2008) as factors affecting intelligibility, phonetic distance and lexical etymology influence intelligibility more than other factors in these varieties.
Language & Media
Maryam Tafaroji Yeganeh; Zahra Ansari
Abstract
Language is the most important device for communication, but one coded form of it is used to restrict communication. The Coded Language of Jaberi is one of the most unknown languages in Iran that was originally developed by the people of Jaber village (of Badre County, Ilam Province). This language is ...
Read More
Language is the most important device for communication, but one coded form of it is used to restrict communication. The Coded Language of Jaberi is one of the most unknown languages in Iran that was originally developed by the people of Jaber village (of Badre County, Ilam Province). This language is known as žêrzuwanaki in the local dialect. The purpose of this research was to study the linguistic characteristics of the coded language of Jaberi. The data were collected through field research based on the researchers’ linguistic aptitude and interviews with native speakers of this language. The results indicated that the phonemes, syntax and grammar of the coded language of Jaberi is similar to the standard language of the region, but lexically it is completely different. The inventors of this language were also Jaberi’s prayer writers who traveled to different areas in the past to pray for people, and they needed a coded language to keep their secrets hidden from others. Results show that the creators of coded languages including the coded language of Jaberi are usually business owners who have invented such languages to protect their business secrets.
Language & Media
Mahnaz Talebi Dastenaee; Mandana Nourbakhsh; Hamideh Poshtvan
Abstract
In recent years, numerous studies have been done on the impact of different speech styles on the changes of prosodic elements. Sociophonetics examines the combination of techniques, elements, and theoretical frameworks in phonology and sociology. The present study, within the framework of sociophonetics ...
Read More
In recent years, numerous studies have been done on the impact of different speech styles on the changes of prosodic elements. Sociophonetics examines the combination of techniques, elements, and theoretical frameworks in phonology and sociology. The present study, within the framework of sociophonetics studies, examines the effect of context on the fundamental frequency, intensity and duration of identical word pairs and paragraphs in two different religious and nonreligious contexts using PRAAT software version 5.4.17. For this purpose, ten female participants with an average age of 29 years were asked to read 8 paragraphs (4 paragraphs with religious context and 4 paragraphs with non-religious context).Each paragraph contains one of the target research names (Fatemeh, Mohammad, Abbas, and Hossein). The purpose is to study the difference between the average fundamental frequency (Hz), duration (ms), and intensity (dB) in the same words but in both religious and non-religious contexts. The results show that the difference between the duration of identical word pairs in the two religious and non-religious contexts is statistically significant, meaning that the duration of the words in the religious context was longer.
Language & Media
Ameneh Masnabadi; Behzad Rahbar; mohammad reza oroji
Abstract
Studying prison language and its common words and expressions is of significance from sociological, psychological, linguistic and criminological points of view. In the present research, we aim to investigate the morphological aspect of language of prison and analyze the most important word-creation processes ...
Read More
Studying prison language and its common words and expressions is of significance from sociological, psychological, linguistic and criminological points of view. In the present research, we aim to investigate the morphological aspect of language of prison and analyze the most important word-creation processes in this language based on Booij’s (2007) differentiation between word-formation and word-creation processes. The data collection methods were objective observation and interviews with the prisoners. The data consisted of 615 terms common in male prisoners’ language and 496 terms common in female prisoners’ language (1111 in total), a total of 167 of which are results of word creation processes. The total number of interviewed prisoners was 70, 20 of whom were female from a prison in Rey, Iran, and 50 male prisoners from the Rajaei Shahr, Ghezel Hesar, Fashafuyeh, and Great Tehran prisons. The research findings suggested eight word creation processes in prison language: (1) metaphorical extension, (2) coinage, (3) reduplication, (4) shortening, (5) lexical borrowing, (6) clipping, (7) blending, and (8) abbreviation. After assessing the relationship between the application of these processes and the gender variable, it was found that there was a significant relationship between the two, and the gender factor affects the use of these processes among male and female prisoners.
Discourse Analysis
Fateme Foroughan Geransaye; Amirsaeid Moloodi; Alireza Khormaee
Abstract
Sexism in language is a well-known discourse in linguistics. In sexist language, the choice of particular linguistic variations leads to gender bias in favor of one gender and against the other. Sexism has been widely researched through the corpus-based methods in international studies but it has not ...
Read More
Sexism in language is a well-known discourse in linguistics. In sexist language, the choice of particular linguistic variations leads to gender bias in favor of one gender and against the other. Sexism has been widely researched through the corpus-based methods in international studies but it has not been investigated by analytical corpus processes in Iranian contexts. This study discusses sexism in Persian language word formation in Hamshahri Corpus version 2 based on Baker’s (2006, 2010, 2017) corpus-based approach. To this end, the words formed by the morphemes man and woman were selected as the representative words in each gender category and the frequency and concordance were explored using Antconc. The data were then examined by first assigning semantic values to the corpus and then running statistical tests. The results showed the existence of sexism in the word formation of the Contemporary Written Persian Language; it seems that the morpheme man is used more frequently than woman in forming words in Persian Language. Moreover, the findings showed that positive characters are represented by the morpheme man and negative characters are represented by the morpheme woman. This study can reveal parts of Iranian’s viewpoints of sexism in order to stop such a social problem.
Language & Media
Sohrab Azarparand
Abstract
As a consequence of the digital revolution, the growing of mass media, and the phenomenon of globalization, our contemporary world has been changing from various perspectives. Because of these changes, human society has been facing various new challenges. Due to close relations between society and language, ...
Read More
As a consequence of the digital revolution, the growing of mass media, and the phenomenon of globalization, our contemporary world has been changing from various perspectives. Because of these changes, human society has been facing various new challenges. Due to close relations between society and language, social changes have always been a cause of various changes in language, and have had a significant influence on the traditional structure of many languages. Current research looks into the linguistic changes in contemporary Persian in connection with politeness elements by using Brown and Levinson's politeness theory through field work. 200 professors, students of previous generation, in the 29-69 age range, and 200 current undergraduate students at the University of Tehran, in the 18-25 age range, were a target of our questionnaire for the Survey. The forms of addressing/naming in four types of linguistic performances at the University of Tehran have been investigated in this research. The results of the investigation showed clearly that in comparison with the past, positive politeness has been growing gradually, and has been passing negative politeness in students' language strategies at the University of Tehran.
Language Policies
Maryam Farnia; Safoora Barati
Abstract
Over the last decade, the fields of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics have witnessed a growing interest in research on linguistic landscape. In this connection, numerous studies have investigated language and linguistic signs as used in the living environment. This study was an attempt to explore ...
Read More
Over the last decade, the fields of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics have witnessed a growing interest in research on linguistic landscape. In this connection, numerous studies have investigated language and linguistic signs as used in the living environment. This study was an attempt to explore shop owners' attitudes towards naming their businesses in two areas of high and low social class in Esfahan. To this end, the data were collected from 100 shop owners by means of a questionnaire in the form of likert and a structured interview. The questionnaire was adopted and modified from Hussein, Nofal and Mansour’s (2015) study. It was employed to elicit factors governing the choice of names for businesses in the two areas of high and low socioeconomic status in Esfahan. Owners' attitude towards naming their shops as influenced by language, religion, location and social status has been investigated.The findings showed that there are statistically significant differences between the low and high socioeconomic status groups with regard to the criteria for naming businesses.
Language and Culture
Bahman Zandi; Belghis Rovsan; Maryam Amirykhah
Abstract
This socio-onomastics research compares naming Tehran traditional cafés (qahveh khaneh) and coffee shops from a multiple identities perspective. Using a descriptive analytic method, this applied study examined around 232 traditional cafés and 296 coffee shops in Tehran. The results display ...
Read More
This socio-onomastics research compares naming Tehran traditional cafés (qahveh khaneh) and coffee shops from a multiple identities perspective. Using a descriptive analytic method, this applied study examined around 232 traditional cafés and 296 coffee shops in Tehran. The results display that the individual's identity plays a strikingly more significant role in naming traditional cafes than coffee shops. Moreover, from the perspective of gender identity, the use of masculine name characters is more prevalent in traditional cafés than coffee shops, while there exists no significant gender distinction in naming coffee shops. The role of ethnic identity was almost similar yet noticeable in the two places. On the other hand, while traditional cafes opt for national and religious names, the coffee shops use national names more frequently. Also, the results indicate a significant use of international identity in naming coffee shops.
Language & Media
H. Zolfaghari; B. Bagheri
Volume 1, Issue 2 , April 2017, , Pages 17-27
Abstract
Written popular literature of Iran, in addition to its literary and artistic dimensions, is rich in sociological information. In these texts, along with multiple linguistic clichés such as idioms, allusions, curses, oaths, etc., there are lots of proverbs which familiarize us with people’s ...
Read More
Written popular literature of Iran, in addition to its literary and artistic dimensions, is rich in sociological information. In these texts, along with multiple linguistic clichés such as idioms, allusions, curses, oaths, etc., there are lots of proverbs which familiarize us with people’s ideas and beliefs, values and anti-values, ethical principles, agility customs, the role of women in the society, religious issues, etc., while making them sweet, attractive and popular. The objective of the present descriptive-analytic research is to study 500 proverbs extracted from among 30 verse and prose heroic legends written between the 6th century AH and the end of the Qajarid period, in the general framework of sociology of literature, in order to provide a sociolinguistic perspective. Data analysis indicates that the proverbs could be classified into four general categories including world and chance, social issues, politics and governance, and ethical advices. Besides, there are sometimes traces of patriarchal and opposing thoughts against women.
Language and Culture
R. Mirzaee; N. Davari Ardakani
Volume 1, Issue 2 , April 2017, , Pages 28-36
Abstract
Taboos, as a class of linguistic tools, reveal the users' personal emotions and feelings as well as sociolinguistic attitudes of the society. The objectives of the present study were to classify common taboo words used in Shoushtar city, Iran, and to examine the effect of social variables of age, gender, ...
Read More
Taboos, as a class of linguistic tools, reveal the users' personal emotions and feelings as well as sociolinguistic attitudes of the society. The objectives of the present study were to classify common taboo words used in Shoushtar city, Iran, and to examine the effect of social variables of age, gender, ethnicity and education on its usage. The present descriptive-analytic research was carried out by direct observation and a questionnaire. From among 160 examinees, 140 answered the questions completely and their answers were analyzed by means of statistic tests. The study indicates that both women and men of Shoushtar use 4 classes of taboo words when they are angry or upset. The results indicate that from among the above-mentioned social variables, age and gender have a significant effect on the use of these words (P= 0.015); men use more taboo words than women and 15-19 year-old examinees use them more than the other age-groups. Moreover, the variables of ethnicity and education have no significant effect on the use of taboo words in Shoushtari language society (P= 0.89).
Language & Media
Sh. Sheikh Sang Tajan; A. Yousefi Garakooie
Volume 1, Issue 2 , April 2017, , Pages 46-63
Abstract
Applying address terms is considered as a kind of observing social politeness in the society and the speakers of each language use them regarding their particular ways. This article is an analytic-descriptive research which assesses address terms in the Persian and Gilaki languages and compares them ...
Read More
Applying address terms is considered as a kind of observing social politeness in the society and the speakers of each language use them regarding their particular ways. This article is an analytic-descriptive research which assesses address terms in the Persian and Gilaki languages and compares them with each other. Fifty Gilaki speakers and 50 Persian speakers, ranged between 25 to 40 years old, were selected as the samples of the study. Researchers tried to answer two questions: 1) What are the most frequently used address terms in Persian and Gilaki?, and 2) What is the difference between these terms in the two languages? The results reveal that Persian and Gilaki speakers are similar in applying the address terms of “nick names” and “kinship phrases”, however, after these two, the Persian ones use more “respectful titles” while the Gilaki ones apply more “titles” to call each other. Besides, address terms of “clipping”, “religious names” and “other names” are among the least frequently used phrases in Gilaki. Although there is no significant difference between applying the terms in the two languages, the existence of the above-mentioned differences indicate the cultural distinctions of the two sample societies.
Language & Media
S.A. Soltani; Z. Karami
Volume 1, Issue 1 , January 2017, , Pages 9-20
Abstract
Sociolinguistics is an interdisciplinary field that can provide a linguistic perspective of society and culture. One of the important domains of popular culture is popular songs which have not been seriously studied so far from a sociolinguistic viewpoint in Iran. The lyrics of these songs are reflections ...
Read More
Sociolinguistics is an interdisciplinary field that can provide a linguistic perspective of society and culture. One of the important domains of popular culture is popular songs which have not been seriously studied so far from a sociolinguistic viewpoint in Iran. The lyrics of these songs are reflections of the folklore in every society which makes their study worthwhile. Although such songs may have different themes but love has always been one of the key concepts and recurring themes in these songs. This study tries to find out how concept of love has been defined and reflected in the songs in the course of history. And more specifically, it tries to discover the chains of equivalence and the differences that are made along with them in these songs. To meet this end, from the perspective of Ernesto Lacalua and Chantal Mouffe’s post-structural discourse theory, specifically through their two concpets, ie chain of equivalence and chain of difference, it focuses on 16 Iranian love songs which were randomly chosen from among those songs performed by both male and female singers in between the years 1971 to 1979. The results show that the songs have availed from “the presence of nature”, “reference to the past”, “immortalization” and “the use of different fields of discursivity”, specially religious and political discourses, as a means of meaning fixation.
Language Contact and Conflict
J. Sabzalipour; R. Delgarm
Volume 1, Issue 1 , January 2017, , Pages 36-47
Abstract
From the viewpoint of sociology of language, one of the important linguistic phenomena in any given society is the formation of argots and their structural description. An argot is the language or the dialect of a social group whose members like the content of their speech remains secret for other groups, ...
Read More
From the viewpoint of sociology of language, one of the important linguistic phenomena in any given society is the formation of argots and their structural description. An argot is the language or the dialect of a social group whose members like the content of their speech remains secret for other groups, or, generally, for the majority of the people in their society. From some decades ago up to now, in some villages of Khalkhāl in Ardabil Province, a language known as Arrānaji or Qarqahdili has been commonly used by male workers who went to northern regions of Iran to do carpentry. The main questions of this study are: a) What kind of language is Qarqahdili? b) Which purpose was it created for?, and c) What are its structural characteristics? The data of this field study were gathered through interviews with middle-aged men of two villages called Karnaq and Lerd. The results indicate that Qarqahdili is an argot which is used to cover occupational secrets. From phonetic, morphological, and syntactic viewpoints Qarqahdili is similar to the Tāti language of the same areas but lexically there are some differences.Save for Tāti words which have gained secret meanings, some words from Azerbaijani Turkish are also present in Qarqahdili. Data analysis indicates that a great number of taboos and sex expressions are used in the workers’ speech apparently because they are all male and far away from their families.
Language & Media
M. Talebi Dastnabi; A. Khoshbakht Arani
Volume 1, Issue 1 , January 2017, , Pages 75-86
Abstract
Taboos make a part of people’s language in different regions and they are used under the effect of sociological factors. The aim of the present study is to examine and classify different types of linguistic taboos in Ārān and Bidgol dialect and to evaluate the difference of their usages regarding ...
Read More
Taboos make a part of people’s language in different regions and they are used under the effect of sociological factors. The aim of the present study is to examine and classify different types of linguistic taboos in Ārān and Bidgol dialect and to evaluate the difference of their usages regarding social variables of age and gender in single- and mixed-gender environments. The population of the study includes men and women living in Ārān and Bidgol and the sample consists of 180 people (90 men and90 women). Gender, age, marriage status, and education make the independent variables whose effect on the usage of the taboos is calculated separately in each environment. The results indicate that men use taboos more frequently than women, and similarly, single people use them more frequently than the married ones. Besides, the number of taboos decreases along with the increase of their age.
