Skip to main content
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Expanding the dative semantic map: the functions of the postposition =rā in the Tātic language group

  • ORCID logo EMAIL logo and ORCID logo
Published/Copyright: February 1, 2022
Folia Linguistica
From the journal Folia Linguistica Volume 56 Issue 1

Abstract

In Tātic, a modern Northwest Iranian language group, =rā is a polysemous postposition which has not evolved into an accusative marker, unlike what happened in Modern Persian. Tātic varieties, which include all Tāti, Tālyshi and Tātoid dialects spoken in northwest Iran, exploit the postposition =rā to mark many different case roles. This paper studies the various functions of the postposition =rā and its variants in this language group. The data for the study have been gathered through fieldwork and interviews with Tāti native speakers as well as through available descriptive grammars. Using the dative semantic-map approach, we show that the main functions that =rā marks in all Tātic dialects are ‘beneficiary’, ‘reason’ and ‘purpose’. We conclude that because some of the functions of =rā are not among the semantic roles in the conventional dative semantic map, this needs to be expanded in order to account for the polysemy patterns of =rā in the Tātic language group.

Keywords: beneficiary; dative; instrumental; semantic map; Tātic
Corresponding author: Mohammad Rasekh-Mahand, Department of Linguistics, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Donald Stilo, Geoffrey Haig, Silvia Luraghi, Jahandust Sabzalipur, and two anonymous reviewers, who offered comments and criticism on earlier versions of this paper.

Appendix

A list of all languages/varieties which were considered is provided here. The column ‘Questionnaire’ indicates whether the questionnaire was completed. The column ‘Sources’ lists the other sources that were consulted.

Language groupVarietyQuestionnaireSources
Southern TātiChāli–Yar-Shater (1969)
Southern TātiEsfarvariniYesYar-Shater (1969)
Southern TātiEshtehardiYesIzadifar (2016), Rasekh-Mahand and Izadifar (2018)
Southern TātiSagzAbadi–ĀleAhmad (1959)
Southern TātiTākestāniYesRahmaāni and Rahmaāni (2019), Tāheri (2009)
Southern TātiVafsiYesMirdehghan and Yusefi (2012), Stilo (2016)
Central TātiCharza–Yar-Shater (1990)
Central TātiAskestāni–Sabzalipour (2015)
Central TātiDəraviYesSabzalipour (2015)
Central TātiGilavāni–Sabzalipour (2015)
Central TātiHazārrudi–Izadifar (2016)
Central TātiKajali–Yar-Shater (1960), Sabzalipour (2015)
Central TātiKarəni–Izadifar (2016)
Central TātiKarnaqiYesYusefinežād and Sabzalipour (2017)
Central TātiLerdi–Sabzalipour (2015)
Central TātiŠāli–Sabzalipour (2015), Yar-Shater (1959)
Central TātiXoini–Yar-Shater (2002)
Northern TātiHarzani–Karang (1954), Sabzalipour (2013), Stilo (2018), Zoka (1958)
Northern TātiKalāsuri–Mowlāee (2017), Sabzalipour (2011a), Yar-Shater (2005)
Northern TātiKeringāni–Karang (1954), Yar-Shater (2007), Zoka (1953)
Southern TālyshiMāsāli–Āliyāni and Fāzeli (2016)
Central TālyshiAsālemi–Paul (2011), Rezāyati-Kishexāle (2007)
Northern TālyshiAnbarāni–Paul (2011)
RudbāriAnbuhi–Sabzalipour (2011b)
RudbāriJuboniYesAllizādeJuboni (2011)

References

ĀleAmhad, Jalāl . 1959. Tāt neshinhāye boluke Zahrā [Tat settlers of the Zahra districts]. Tehran: Amir Kabir.Search in Google Scholar

Āliani, Fereshteh & Firouz Fāzeli . 2016. Vižegihāye zabāni va mohtavāiye dobeytihāye āmiyāneye Tāleshiye Jonubi [The linguistic and content features of Southern Tālyshi colloquial couplets]. Persian Language and Iranian Dialects 1(2). 137–159.Search in Google Scholar

AlizādeJuboni, Ali . 2011. Noxostin farhange guyeshe Tātiye Rudbāre Zeytun [The first lexicon of the Tāti dialect of Rudbāre Zeytun]. Rasht: Farhange Ilia.Search in Google Scholar

Bossong, Georg . 1985. Empirische Universalienforschung: Differentielle Objektmarkierung in den neuiranischen Sprachen. Tübingen: Günter Narr.Search in Google Scholar

Croft, William . 1991. Syntactic categories and grammatical relations. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Cysouw, Michael . 2007. Building semantic maps: The case of person marking. In Bernhard, Wälchi & Matti, Miestamo (eds.), New challenges in typology, 225–248. Berlin: Mouton.10.1515/9783110198904.4.225Search in Google Scholar

Haspelmath, Martin . 2003. The geometry of grammatical meaning: Semantic maps and cross-linguistic comparison. In Michael Tomasello (ed.), The new psychology of Language, vol. 2, 211–242. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Search in Google Scholar

Izadifar, Raheleh . 2016. Nezāme entebāq dar zabāne Tāti [The alignment system in the Tāti language]. Rasht: Farhange Ilia.Search in Google Scholar

Karang, Abdolali . 1954. Tāti va Harzani, do lahje az zabāne bāstāne Āzarbāyjān [Tāti and Harzani, two varieties of the ancient language of Azerbaijan]. Tabriz: Ismail Vaezpour.Search in Google Scholar

Kent, Roland . 1953. Old Persian: Grammar, text, lexicon. New Haven: American Oriental Society.Search in Google Scholar

Luraghi, Silvia . 2001. Syncretism and the classification of semantic roles. Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 54(1). 35–51. https://doi.org/10.1524/stuf.2001.54.1.35.Search in Google Scholar

Luraghi, Silvia . 2016. The mapping of space onto the domain of benefaction and some unpredicted trends in semantic change. Linguistics 54(2). 339–379. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2016-0006.Search in Google Scholar

Michaelis, Susanne & Marcel Rosalie . 2000. Polysémie et cartes sémantiques: le relateur (av)ek en créole Seychellois. Études Creoles 23(2). 79–100.Search in Google Scholar

Mirdehghan, Mahinnāz & Saeedrezā Yusefi . 2012. Hālat va hālat namāyi dar Vafsi [Case and case marking in Vafsi]. Language Studies 3(5). 85–105.Search in Google Scholar

Mohammadirad, Masoud & Mohammad Rasekh-Mahand . 2018. Functions of the dative: An Iranian perspective. STUF 71(4). 539–575. https://doi.org/10.1515/stuf-2018-0021.Search in Google Scholar

Mowlāee, Changiz . 2017. Fe’l dar guyeshe Kalāsuri [The verb in the Kalāsuri dialect]. Persian Language and Iranian Dialects 1(2). 43–65.Search in Google Scholar

Narrog, Heiko . 2010. A diachronic dimension in maps of case functions. Linguistic Discovery 8(1). 233–254. https://doi.org/10.1349/ps1.1537-0852.a.352.Search in Google Scholar

Narrog, Heiko & Shinya Ito . 2007. Re-constructing semantic maps: The comitative-instrumental area. Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 60(4). 273–292. https://doi.org/10.1524/stuf.2007.60.4.273.Search in Google Scholar

Næss, Åshild . 2009. Varieties of dative. In Andrej Machukov & Andrew Spencer (eds.), The Oxford handbook of case, 572–580. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199206476.013.0039Search in Google Scholar

Newman, John . 1996. Give: A cognitive linguistic study. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110823714Search in Google Scholar

Palancar, E. L. . 2002. The origin of agent markers. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.10.1524/9783050081410Search in Google Scholar

Paul, Daniel . 2011. A comparative dialectal description of Iranian Tālyshi. Manchester: University of Manchester dissertation.Search in Google Scholar

Rahmāni, Javad & Abbas Rahmāni . 2019. Mokālemāte ruzmarreye Tātiye Tākestān [Daily conversations in Takestani Tati]. Tehran: Giva.Search in Google Scholar

Rasekh-Mahand, Mohammad & Raheleh Izadifar . 2018. Ditransitive constructions in Tāti. In Agnes Korn & Andrej Malchukov (eds.), Ditransitive constructions in a cross-linguistic perspective, 119–135. Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert.Search in Google Scholar

Rastorgueva, Vera Sergeevna, Aza Alimovna Kerimova, Akhmed Kerimovich Mamedzade, L. A. Pireiko & Džoy I. Edel’man . 2012. The Gilaki language. Uppsala: Uppsala University.Search in Google Scholar

Rezāyati-KisheXāle, Moharram . 2007. Zabāne Tāleshi, tosife guyeshe markazi [Tālyshi language, description of the central dialect]. Rasht: Farhange Ilia.Search in Google Scholar

Sabzalipour, Jahāndoost . 2011a. Pirāmune Tātiye Kalāsur [About Tāti of Kalāsur]. Journal of Persian Language and Literature 54(223). 89–113.Search in Google Scholar

Sabzalipour, Jahāndoost . 2011b. Zabāne Tāti, tosife guyeshe Tātiye Rudbār [Tāti language, a description of the Tāti dialect of Rudbār]. Rasht: Farhange Ilia.Search in Google Scholar

Sabzalipour, Jahāndoost . 2013. Nezāme hālat namāyi dar zabāne Harzani [The case marking system in the Harzani language]. In Mehrdād NaghzguyKohan (ed.), Nokhostin hamandishiye zabānhāye Irāni [The first seminar on Iranian languages], 109–137. Tehran: Neviseh Pārsi.Search in Google Scholar

Sabzalipour, Jahāndoost . 2015. Ganjineye guyeshhāye Irāni, Tātiye Khalkhāl [The treasure of Iranian languages: Tāti of Khalkhāl]. Tehran: Academy of Persian Language and Literature.Search in Google Scholar

Stassen, Leon . 2013. Predicative possession. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00206-6Search in Google Scholar

Stilo, Donald . 2009. Case in Iranian: From reduction and loss to innovation and renewal. In Andrej Machukov & Andrew Spencer (eds.), The Oxford handbook of case, 700–715. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199206476.013.0049Search in Google Scholar

Stilo, Donald . 2016. Hekāyathāye āmiyāneye Vafsi [Vafsi folk tales]. Translated by Mahinnaz Mirdehghan & SaeedReza Yusefi. Tehran: Avayekhavar.Search in Google Scholar

Stilo, Donald . 2018. The Caspian region and south Azerbaijan: Caspian and Tatic. In Geoffrey Haig & Geoffrey Khan (eds.), The languages and linguistics of Western Asia: An areal perspective, 659–824. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110421682-019Search in Google Scholar

Stolz, Thomas, Cornelia Stroh & Aina Urdze . 2006. On comitatives and related categories: A typological study with special focus on the languages of Europe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110197648Search in Google Scholar

Tāheri, Abbās . 2009. Barresiye guyeshe Tātiye Tākestān [A study of Tākestāni Tāti]. Tākestān: Sāl.Search in Google Scholar

Yar-Shater, Ehsan . 1959. The dialect of Shāhrud (Khalkhāl). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 22. 52–68. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0041977x00076126.Search in Google Scholar

Yar-Shater, Ehsan . 1960. The Tati dialect of Kajal. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 23. 275–286. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0041977x00149948.Search in Google Scholar

Yar-Shater, Ehsan . 1969. A grammar of Southern Tati dialects. The Hague: Mouton.Search in Google Scholar

Yar-Shater, Ehsan . 1970. The Tati dialects of Tarom. In Mary, Boyce & Ilya, Gershevitch (eds.), W.B. Henning memorial volume, 451–467. London: Lund Humphries.Search in Google Scholar

Yar-Shater, Ehsan . 1990. Čarza. In Encyclopædia Iranica, vol. V/1, 22–24. Online version: https://iranicaonline.org/articles/carza (accessed 25 November 2021).Search in Google Scholar

Yar-Shater, Ehsan . 2002. The Xoini dialect. Persica 18. 85–102. https://doi.org/10.2143/pers.18.0.494.Search in Google Scholar

Yar-Shater, Ehsan . 2005. The Tāti dialect of Kalāsur. In Dieter Weber (ed.), Languages of Iran: Past and present. Iranian studies in memoriam David Neil MacKenzie, 269–283. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Search in Google Scholar

Yar-Shater, Ehsan . 2007. The dialect of Karingān. In Maria Macuch, Mauro Maggi & Werner, Sundermann (eds.), Iranian languages and texts from Iran and Turan: Ronald E. Emmerick memorial volume, 443–463. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Search in Google Scholar

Yusefinežād, Ali & Jahandoost Sabzalipour . 2017. Farhange Tātiye Karnaqi [The lexicon of the Tāti of Karnaqi]. Rasht: Farhange Ilia.Search in Google Scholar

Zoka, Yahyā . 1953. Guyeshe Karingān [The dialect of Karingān]. Tehran: Sina Publications.Search in Google Scholar

Zoka, Yahyā . 1958. Guyeshe Galinqaye yā Harzandi [The dialect of Galinqaye or Harzandi]. Farhang-e Iran Zamin 5. 51–92.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2021-03-31
Accepted: 2021-12-10
Published Online: 2022-02-01
Published in Print: 2022-04-26

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Articles
  3. On the impact of clause order on pronoun resolution: evidence from Spanish
  4. Establishing a Sprachbund in the Western Lingnan region: conceptual and methodological issues
  5. Phonaesthemic alternations in Flemish dialects: a matter of language contact in the emergence of phonaesthesia?
  6. Phonotactic conditions and morphotactic transparency in Mirandese word formation
  7. Toward a functional typology of adpositions: theoretical implications
  8. Expanding the dative semantic map: the functions of the postposition =rā in the Tātic language group
  9. Intonation as a cue to epistemic stance in one type of insubordinate clauses
  10. Book Reviews
  11. Gordon Tucker, Guowen Huang, Lise Fontaine & Edward McDonald: Approaches to Systemic Functional Grammar: Convergence and divergence
  12. Christoph Rühlemann: Visual linguistics with R: A practical introduction to quantitative interactional linguistics
  13. Xinren Chen: Exploring identity work in Chinese communication
  14. Pietro Bortone: Language and nationality: Social inferences, cultural differences, and linguistic misconceptions
https://doi.org/10.1515/flin-2022-2007
Keywords for this article
beneficiary; dative; instrumental; semantic map; Tātic

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Articles
  3. On the impact of clause order on pronoun resolution: evidence from Spanish
  4. Establishing a Sprachbund in the Western Lingnan region: conceptual and methodological issues
  5. Phonaesthemic alternations in Flemish dialects: a matter of language contact in the emergence of phonaesthesia?
  6. Phonotactic conditions and morphotactic transparency in Mirandese word formation
  7. Toward a functional typology of adpositions: theoretical implications
  8. Expanding the dative semantic map: the functions of the postposition =rā in the Tātic language group
  9. Intonation as a cue to epistemic stance in one type of insubordinate clauses
  10. Book Reviews
  11. Gordon Tucker, Guowen Huang, Lise Fontaine & Edward McDonald: Approaches to Systemic Functional Grammar: Convergence and divergence
  12. Christoph Rühlemann: Visual linguistics with R: A practical introduction to quantitative interactional linguistics
  13. Xinren Chen: Exploring identity work in Chinese communication
  14. Pietro Bortone: Language and nationality: Social inferences, cultural differences, and linguistic misconceptions
Downloaded on 17.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/flin-2022-2007/html
Scroll to top button