Chapter 7. The meaning of the Persian object marker rā
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Masoud Jasbi
Abstract
The Persian object marker rā is called many things, among them: marker of specificity (Karimi 1990), definiteness (Mahootian 1997), secondary topics (Dabir-Moghaddam 1992), and presuppositions (Ghomeshi 1996). These accounts capture the core of what rā is, yet also include a lot of what rā is not. I report novel examples that show rā is not an (exclusive) marker of specific or definite referents. It is also not an (exclusive) marker of (secondary) topics. Instead, rā’s core contribution is something shared by all these accounts: old or presupposed information. I show that the information presupposed by rā is an existence implication. A marked object like sandali-ro (“chair”-rā) implies that there is one or more chairs in the conversational context. This account captures several novel observations on the distribution of rā such as its optional presence on proper names in some contexts. I provide a formal and compositional analysis of simple Persian sentences with definite and indefinite objects.
Abstract
The Persian object marker rā is called many things, among them: marker of specificity (Karimi 1990), definiteness (Mahootian 1997), secondary topics (Dabir-Moghaddam 1992), and presuppositions (Ghomeshi 1996). These accounts capture the core of what rā is, yet also include a lot of what rā is not. I report novel examples that show rā is not an (exclusive) marker of specific or definite referents. It is also not an (exclusive) marker of (secondary) topics. Instead, rā’s core contribution is something shared by all these accounts: old or presupposed information. I show that the information presupposed by rā is an existence implication. A marked object like sandali-ro (“chair”-rā) implies that there is one or more chairs in the conversational context. This account captures several novel observations on the distribution of rā such as its optional presence on proper names in some contexts. I provide a formal and compositional analysis of simple Persian sentences with definite and indefinite objects.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Chapter 1. Advances in Iranian linguistics 1
- Chapter 2. Syntactic and semantic constraints on pronoun and anaphor resolution in Persian 15
- Chapter 3. A multi-dimensional approach to classification of Iran’s languages 29
- Chapter 4. The additive particle in Persian 57
- Chapter 5. The pronoun-to-agreement cycle in Iranian 85
- Chapter 6. The suffix that makes Persian nouns unique 107
- Chapter 7. The meaning of the Persian object marker rā 119
- Chapter 8. Topic agreement, experiencer constructions, and the weight of clitics 137
- Chapter 9. Another look at Persian rā 155
- Chapter 10. The Ezafe construction revisited 173
- Chapter 11. Quantitative meter in Persian folk songs and pop lyrics 237
- Chapter 12. Stripping structures with negation in Persian 257
- Chapter 13. Oblique marking and adpositional constructions in Tat 275
- Author index 301
- Languages index 305
- Subject index 307
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Chapter 1. Advances in Iranian linguistics 1
- Chapter 2. Syntactic and semantic constraints on pronoun and anaphor resolution in Persian 15
- Chapter 3. A multi-dimensional approach to classification of Iran’s languages 29
- Chapter 4. The additive particle in Persian 57
- Chapter 5. The pronoun-to-agreement cycle in Iranian 85
- Chapter 6. The suffix that makes Persian nouns unique 107
- Chapter 7. The meaning of the Persian object marker rā 119
- Chapter 8. Topic agreement, experiencer constructions, and the weight of clitics 137
- Chapter 9. Another look at Persian rā 155
- Chapter 10. The Ezafe construction revisited 173
- Chapter 11. Quantitative meter in Persian folk songs and pop lyrics 237
- Chapter 12. Stripping structures with negation in Persian 257
- Chapter 13. Oblique marking and adpositional constructions in Tat 275
- Author index 301
- Languages index 305
- Subject index 307
